Pushing away the regret which he’d buried so deep, he thought instead about what his grandfather had said, soon after he’d given him the tiara. That Willow was caring and thoughtful, and that he liked her. And Giovanni wouldn’t say something like that unless he meant it. His sister seemed to like her too—and Talia could be notoriously prickly with new people, after all the bad stuff which had happened in her life.
He realised that Natalia was waiting for an answer to a question he’d forgotten. Something about Willow, he thought—which was kind of appropriate because it was difficult to concentrate on anything other than a pair of grey eyes and a soft pair of lips he badly needed to kiss.
‘Yes, she is,’ he said slowly. ‘Very clever.’
A funny kind of silence descended as Willow’s cheeks grew pink.
‘Well, I think that’s everything,’ she said, brushing her hand down over the creases in her dress. ‘You look gorgeous, Natalia.’
‘Gorgeous,’ Dante agreed steadily. ‘And now I’d like to talk to you, Willow. That is, if Natalia has finished with you.’
‘Sure.’ Natalia gave a quick smile. ‘We’re all done here.’
In silence Dante followed Willow from Natalia’s room, and once he had closed the door, she turned to him, her eyes filled with question.
‘What is it?’ she asked. ‘Has something happened?’
But he shook his head. He didn’t want whispered explanations in the corridors of this great house, with Natalia suddenly emerging from the bedroom or Alma or another member of staff stumbling upon them. He badly wanted to kiss her, and once he’d started, he wasn’t sure that he’d be able to stop.
‘I need to talk to you,’ he said. ‘In private.’
The journey to their cottage seemed to take for ever, and Willow’s heart was pounding as she followed Dante through the grounds because she was aware that something about him was different. When he’d walked into the room and seen her and Natalia giggling together, there had been something in his eyes which had made her want to melt. He’d looked at her in a way which had made goose bumps whisper all over her skin and her heart start thumping with an urgent kind of hope. She’d seen a new tension in his body and hoped she hadn’t imagined the hunger she’d seen in his blue eyes, but even if it was true, she wasn’t sure she trusted it. Was he going to take her in his arms and run his hands over her body like he’d done before? Was he going to kiss her passionately—to the point where she was gasping with hunger and frustration—only to push her away again and add to that frustration?
In tense silence they walked down an avenue of tall trees, whose leaves were brushed with the first hints of gold, and when finally they reached the cottage, she turned to face him as he closed the door.
‘What is it?’ she questioned again. ‘Why are you acting like this?’
‘I’m not acting,’ he said unsteadily. ‘Up until now, maybe—but not any more. I’ve wanted you for so long and I’ve reached a point where I can’t go on like this any longer because it’s driving me insane. I’ve tried to resist you, but it seems I can’t resist any more. And now I’m through with trying. I want you, Willow. I want you so badly I can hardly breathe.’
Her heart was performing somersaults as she looked at him, scarcely able to believe what she was hearing. ‘You make it sound as if you’re doing something you don’t want to do.’
‘Oh, I want to do it, all right,’ he said simply. ‘I can’t remember ever wanting a woman as much as I do right now. Maybe because you’ve been off-limits for so long that it’s stirred my appetite until I can think of little else but you. I don’t know. All I know is that I don’t want to hurt you.’
‘Dante...’ she said.
‘No. Hear me out, because it’s important that you do.’ His gaze was very intense—his eyes like blue flames which burned right through her. ‘I’m afraid your innocence will make you read too much into this and so I’m flagging it up before that happens. To make sure it doesn’t happen. Because the act of sex can be deceptive, Willow. The words spoken during
intimacy can often mimic the words of love and it’s important you recognise that.’
She dug her teeth into her bottom lip. ‘And you’re afraid that if I have sex with you, I’ll fall hopelessly in love with you?’
His face became shuttered. ‘Will you?’
Willow wondered if it was arrogance which had made him ask that—or simply a remarkable honesty. She wondered if she should listen to the voice inside her head which was telling her to heed his warning. That maybe she was setting herself up for a hurt bigger than any she’d ever known.
But it wasn’t as easy as that. She wanted Dante in a way she’d never wanted anyone—a way she suspected she never would again. Even if she met someone else like him—which was doubtful—her fate was always going to be different from other women her age.
Because a normal life and marriage had never been on the cards for her and it never could.
But none of that was relevant now.
She wasn’t asking the impossible. She wasn’t demanding that he love her—all she needed to do was to keep her own emotions in check. She had to. Because anything else would frighten him away—instinct told her that. She gave a little shrug.
‘I’ll try my very hardest not to fall in love with you,’ she said lightly.
‘Good. Because there isn’t going to be some fairy-tale ending to this. This fake engagement of ours isn’t suddenly going to become real.’
‘I don’t care.’