heir senses were on a knife’s edge, and when he finally surged up into her with a few pounding thrusts they climaxed together.
Beth lay across Dante’s body in the aftermath, totally sated. She had been on top during their lovemaking—something she had never envisaged before—and as her head rested on his chest she found herself too languorous to move. Instead she listened to the heavy pounding of his heart gradually steady.
‘Beth?’
Dante said her name and she glanced up at him.
‘Sorry to disturb you.’ His strong hands clasped her by the waist and he lifted her as if she was as light as a feather and sat up, placing her flat on her back on the bed. ‘These damn candles are a fire risk. I can smell burning.’
‘So much for romantic gestures,’ Beth said, and burst out laughing.
Dante slid out of bed and snuffed out the candles. Beth watched him as he walked to the bathroom. Big and lithe and stunning from the rear, with long legs and firm, tight buttocks—not something she had ever really noticed in a man before, but now she found every inch of Dante fascinating.
They slipped on the robes the hotel had provided and Dante ordered room service. They shared an intimate dinner, and then went back to bed.
The next morning they took a flight to London and Beth fell asleep on the plane....
* * *
‘Not too bad, hmm...?’ Dante said, with a guiding hand on Beth’s back as they walked out of his mother’s home in Kensington. ‘My mother adores you. And when we finally tell her you are pregnant—if she hasn’t already guessed—she will worship at your feet. As for Harry—he made his feelings very clear.’
Beth chuckled. ‘Yes, he did.’ She had been dreading meeting Dante’s mother, Teresa—a lovely petite woman, with black hair and brown eyes—and her husband, Harry, but they were a delightful couple and had made her feel completely at ease. Harry was an older version of Tony, and Beth had not been able to help saying so—which had led to her admitting she had lived in the apartment beneath Tony until a few months ago. Dante had added smoothly that that was where Beth and he had met—at Tony’s barbecue.
‘So you are the angel girl who supplied my Tony and Mike with food and all kinds of help!’ Teresa had exclaimed, and from then on everything had been plain sailing.
Lunch had been a happy affair, and an eye-opener for Beth as Teresa had regaled her with stories of Dante as a child—much to his embarrassment.
Beth turned now as Teresa and Harry followed them out to say goodbye, with hugs all round and promises to return soon. They were finally about to leave when there was a screech of tyres and Tony arrived.
With a ‘Hi, Mum—Dad,’ he stopped in front of Beth. ‘I don’t believe it, Beth! You actually married Dante. What on earth possessed you when you could have had me?’ Grinning broadly, he gave her a big hug and a kiss on the cheek. Beth laughed.
‘Yes, she did marry me—so you can take your hands off her,’ Dante said with a smile that verged on triumphant as he slipped a proprietorial arm around her waist.
‘You’re a lucky devil, bro, and I’m not surprised you whisked Beth away and married her. I noticed you couldn’t take your eyes off her at the barbecue....’ Tony said. ‘Mind you, I’m not sure you deserve her—’
‘That’s enough, Tony,’ Dante cut in, and the tone of his voice brooked no argument.
‘Okay...congratulations. You do make a striking couple. So, where are you going for the honeymoon?’
‘Somewhere hot—the Caribbean or the Indian Ocean, as it will be December before I can free up any time. Beth can decide.’
‘I can decide?’ A honeymoon had never entered Beth’s head.
‘Yes—why not?’ Dante gave her a sexy smile. ‘I have been all over the place. You can have fun choosing somewhere you would really like to go.’
‘Is that wise, Dante?’ Tony queried. ‘Knowing Beth, it will be a surfers’ beach in Hawaii—hardly your scene!’ he quipped, then added, ‘Trust me, I still shudder at the thought of when she tried to teach Mike and I how to surf.’ He grimaced. ‘But wherever you go you’d better take good care of her, or you will have me to deal with.’
‘I intend to—and thanks.’
‘Thank you for that, Tony,’ Beth said with a grin. Tony was such a joker, and he enjoyed winding people up, but he was a truly lovable young man.
‘Now we really must get going,’ Dante commanded, and with final goodbyes all round Beth slid into the passenger seat of the Bentley and they left.
Dante concentrated on negotiating the city traffic, with a frown on his face that had little to do with his driving and everything to do with Beth. Seeing the easy interaction between Beth and his brother, and after spending time with her and getting to know her intimately, he could tell there had never been anything sexual about their relationship. Tony was an irrepressible flirt, like most twenty-three-year-old males, but Beth just laughed and ignored it. And Tony’s ready acceptance of their marriage confirmed he had never been serious about her....
Which made Dante question his own actions—not something he was prone to do—in threatening Beth with dire consequences unless she left Tony alone. He now knew a lot of what Beth had told him was the truth, but did it change anything? Her past was inescapable, and he would still have felt duty-bound to tell Tony why she was unsuitable as a wife, conveniently ignoring the fact that he had married her.
He cast a sidelong glance at Beth; she looked so relaxed, so beautiful, and she was carrying his child. Yesterday had been their wedding day and last night he had enjoyed the best sex of his life. He only had to look at Beth to want her, and he knew she felt the same. The past was the past and there was no point in dwelling on old mistakes, he told himself.