to discuss it. You told me you left a long time ago, and I sensed that you had deliberately distanced yourself from it.’
‘I had. But when I went back for my mother’s funeral I remembered things about the place that I loved and missed. Gradually over the years I’ve grown to love it again. That’s why I bought a house there…the house we will stay in when you and Tia return with me. Does that reply satisfy your question?’
Touching the tips of his fingers to her cheek, Dante studied her intently. Anna fell silent, hardly knowing what to say. He’d admitted that he’d distanced himself from his homeland but he hadn’t said why. Would he ever trust her enough to disclose some of the secrets from his past? she wondered. But Lake Como was the other subject she needed to address.
‘It’s a big step for me to go with you to Italy. To tell you the truth, I feel a little vulnerable going there with you, Dante. I don’t know the language, and I know you won’t like this but I’m also wary of being pushed into something I’m not really ready for. Do you understand that?’
‘It is not my intention to push you into anything or to make you feel vulnerable,’ he replied thoughtfully. ‘I simply want us to have a holiday together, for us to get to know one another and for Tia to get to know me. When you are ready, and only when you are ready, will we talk about marriage.’
‘Do you mean it?’
He studied her gravely. ‘My word is my bond.’
‘I suppose I could do with a holiday. And, like you say…it will give you and Tia a chance to get to know each other a bit more.’
‘And as for not speaking the language…I will make it my personal mission to teach you,’ Dante promised. ‘I will have you speaking like a native Italian before you know it! Tia too.’
‘It’s getting dark.’ Nervously Anna glanced up at the swiftly fading evening light, evident through the room’s high windows. At the same time she heard the lilting song of a lone blackbird. For some reason it made her feel a little melancholy. ‘I ought to turn on the lamps.’
‘Don’t.’ The command in Dante’s tone gave her a jolt.
‘It’s gloomy…I’d like some light in here.’
‘You’re uncomfortable with the dark? There’s no need when I am right here beside you, Anna. I would never let anything or anyone hurt you.’
His heated glance was in earnest, she saw. Instantly a swarm of butterflies fluttered wildly inside her.
‘Yes, but I still want to… I still need some…some light.’
As she made to move, Dante slid his hand round to the back of her head, to bring her face slowly but inexorably towards his. The last thing she registered was his hot, languorous gaze before his mouth fell on hers to ravish it without restraint, his warm velvet tongue gliding and coiling sensually with hers, his breathing a grated rasp as the shadow of his beard scraped her chin.
A sea of honey lapped inside Anna. It was as though she’d been left languishing in a cold dark cave for five long years and now at last she was wildly, deliriously free again—free to breathe in pure heady oxygen and be deluged in light. The pleasure and joy that soared inside her was untrammelled as her hands pushed through the silky strands of Dante’s fair hair to anchor his head as he anchored hers, all the better for their lips to meld and sup as though their hunger would never be assuaged. Not in this lifetime…
‘No… Not—not here.’ She gulped down a shaky breath as his hands tugged at the zip fastener on her dress. ‘My bedroom.’
They didn’t let each other go as they entered the dim, cool enclave of Anna’s room. It seemed essential to keep touching, to keep holding on in case some nightmare schism should cut through their longing and keep them apart for ever.
With the heel of his Italian loafer Dante shut the door behind them. He shucked off his footwear just before falling onto the bed with her, somehow manoeuvring her on top of him as he kissed her senseless. The zipper on her linen dress was skilfully undone, the sleeves tugged urgently down over her shoulders. With dreamlike effort Anna helped Dante remove it completely, then she was astride his hard lean hips again, bending her head to give and receive drugging, passionate kisses that made her head spin and her heart gallop. Her long waving hair was a protective shield that kept the world from intruding as it drifted sensually over them both.
Cupping his face as she leant forward, Anna marvelled at the strong, chiselled contours, at the sublime slopes and plains that denoted his fascinating masculine features. But it was the vulnerable, naked look of utter longing in his eyes that undid her. Stilling in shock, she hardly registered breathing.
‘I thought perhaps I’d dreamt wanting you this much…but now I see that I didn’t. Or if I did the dream was just a tantalising glimpse of the incredible reality that is you, Anna.’
Finding no words that could adequately describe the force of what she was feeling, Anna began to slide the buttons through the buttonholes of his fine cotton shirt with trembling fingers. When the smooth, tanned musculature underneath, with its dusting of hair, was exposed to her, she pushed the material aside, sliding her hands over the flat male nipples and taut ribcage to explore him, to feel the throb of his heartbeat beneath her palm. She was thrilled to realise that it beat with desire for her. Lowering her head, she pressed her lips to Dante’s deliciously warm skin.
She was following the trail of silky dark blond hair towards his belly button when he made a low, husky sound, slid his hands beneath her hair and urged her eagerly upwards again. The next thing she knew he was helping remove the scrap of plain white silk that denoted her panties and sliding down his zipper.
When he placed himself at the soft moist centre of Anna’s core, easing his way inside her and then plunging upwards, she threw back her head with a whimper. The very notion of pleasure broke all its bounds. It hardly seemed an adequate description for the utterly consuming sensations that effervesced through her body. Not since she’d surrendered her innocence to Dante five years ago had such violent waves of ecstatic bliss been hers. This was the completeness she’d longed for—the deep connection her soul had ached to experience again. The one primal force that could drive away all melancholy and doubt.
The feeling brought it unerringly home to her why she had never wanted another man since that first time with him…why she had resigned herself to being alone for ever—because no man could possibly come close to making her feel what Dante made her feel.
Utterly losing himself in their wild, urgent coupling, Dante buried himself so deep inside her dizzying heat that he swore he would melt. Expertly opening the catch on her bra, he quickly discarded the garment to fill his palms with her perfect satin-tipped breasts, stroking his thumbs across the tender nipples. Gazing up into Anna’s lovely face he saw the stunning crown of burnished hair that rippled river-like down over her pale smooth skin and knew there wasn’t another woman in the world to match her for beauty and grace. Or who could crack the frozen ice round his heart.
He should have searched for her long before this… why hadn’t he? Unbelievable that he’d let his fear of rejection keep him from the one woman who’d selflessly given herself to him all that time ago when he was most in need.
With urgency and passion Dante’s fingers bit into the soft flesh of Anna’s svelte hips, holding her to him as if he could never let her go. A long soft moan followed by her ragged breathing feathered over him as she climaxed, and suddenly he couldn’t hold back the tide that lapped forcefully at the shores of his own longing, and had no choice but to let it completely sweep him away.
‘Come here.’ He helped her lie across his chest, then wrapped his arms around her. It was a new experience for him to hold a woman like this after making love. Not just to appease her, but simply for the sheer joy of being close—to sense the beat of her heart slowly but surely aligning with his. When they finally came to live together he would enjoy that pleasure every single day he realised. Weaving his fingers through her long flowing hair Dante kissed