The Duke's Willful Wife (16 page)

At his secretary’s desk, she stopped and hesitated.  Maybe she didn’t need to know.  Maybe she could just wait in….no, she wouldn’t be able to sleep or think about anything else.  Ignoring the possibility wasn’t feasible.  She’d never been able to ignore secrets her whole life, and this definitely fell into one of those need-to-know categories.

“Is Dante available?” she asked as the secretary looked up with curiosity.  She was new, not the previous woman who had guarded Dante’s domain when she’d
lived in Rome
before.  This woman was a bit older, and much more stern.
  And what’s more, she sincerely didn’t appreciate a strange woman’s presence, asking if someone as important as her boss was available. 

“Do you have an appointment?” she asked, her eyes already communicating that she knew Dante didn’t have an appointment at this point in the day.  Or if he did, Sasha wouldn’t be that appointment. 

“No.  Could you just tell him that Sasha is here to see him?”

The woman’s lips pursed into a disapproving frown and she shook her head. 
“I’m sorry, but Mr. Fuitello is currently in a meeting and can’t be disturbed.  Can I make an appointment for you later?  Or perhaps I can have someone else help you?”

It was just her bad luck today that
Cristolo came out of his office at that moment and saw her. 
His face broke out into a wide grin and he tossed the papers he’d been reviewing onto the secretary’s desk, uncaring that she was not amused by his greeting of the unanticipated interloper. 
“Sasha?  I heard you were back and I thought I saw you last night, but….what I saw I knew couldn’t be you.”

Sasha accepted Cristolo’s hug and smiled up at him
.  “I have a feeling that you did see me last night.  We definitely saw you and Gloria.”

Cristolo’s entire being froze
and his smile fell away.  Sasha saw the concern immediately enter his eyes and she wished she could help him, but she had bigger problems to deal with at the moment.  He was definitely on his own now
.  “Tell me you weren’t with Dante,
”
he said with
gravity
.

She grimaced and nodded. 
“I was.  And he saw you as well.”

“I’m sorry for the old cliché, but am I interrupting something?” Dante asked from his office doorway.

Cristolo instantly dropped his arms from Sasha’s shoulders and stepped back.  “You’re not interrupting anything.  I have a meeting.”  Sasha’s heart felt sad that the previously jovial relationship Cristolo had with Dante was now demolished.  And all because Dante didn’t believe her. 

Well, and also because Cristolo was too stubborn to tell his older brother the truth. 

She turned to Dante and shook her head.  “Don’t go there,” she said softly.  She took several steps closer and stood before him.  “I came here to see you and Cristolo came out of his office.
  There was nothing more to that hug than a brotherly greeting.
”

He pulled her into his office, snapping to his secretary, “Cancel my next meeting,” he replied and slammed the door shut. 

Turning to Sasha, he growled, “Can you let him go?”

Sasha tried to figure out what she could say to get through him, to convince that he was the only man she had ever loved.  “Do you remember our first dinner together?” she asked softly and moved closer,
standing about an inch from him
. 

“Yes.  What of it?” he snapped. 

“We couldn’t keep our hands off of each other.
  From the moment you walked into my apartment, I knew I was in trouble.  And since I had sex with you before I even knew your name, that feeling was confirmed.
”

His hands went on his hips as he glared down at her.  The jealousy was definitely riding him hard. 
“That’s obviously changed.”

“No.  It hasn’t.  I was a virgin then and you have been the only man who has ever touched me like that.  You’re the only man who has made me feel like it’s worth the effort.”

“Until my brother came along and I wasn’t there to give that to you.”

She laughed softly and shook her head.  “Dante, you always gave that to me.  Every night, sometimes several times.  You’re energy for making love was exhausting.  So believe me when I say that there was nothing left for Cristolo.  Ever.  Nor did I ever even consider him filling that role.  You are the only man who can make me so crazy that I can’t think when you touch me.”

She could see in his eyes that he was wavering and she pressed on.  “There’s nothing I can do to prove that to you.  I can’t produce evidence
of something that didn’t happen.  You’re just going to have to look in your heart and find the truth.”

She felt his hands on her arms and thought she might have won.  But then he dropped them and moved away from her.  “Last night never should have happened.  I’m sorry I let things get out of control like that.”

Sasha sighed and looked away, wracking her brain for some other way to convince him.  “Please talk to Cristolo,” she finally said.  “He needs you in ways you can’t even understand.”

He ignored her plea and started sifting through the papers on his desk, acting as if he had already dismissed her from his mind. 
“Was there a reason you are here?”

Sasha’s mind traveled back to her initial reason and her heart rate increased once again.  Nodding, she faced him with her shoulders squared, braced for his answer.  “Last night….did you…” she licked her lips and took a deep breath.  Closing her eyes and just spitting out the question.  “Did you use a condom?”

When the silence continued, she opened her eyes and looked for him.  She found him by his desk, his hands frozen with papers
i
n both
fists
, but stopped midway. 

He dropped the papers and turned to face her, hands on his hips and just as braced as she was.  “I thought you were taking birth control pills.”

Her stomach dropped out of her body and she fell onto the sofa behind her.  “I had been.  But the past year….
it was….difficult.”

His strides at
e
up the distance between the two of them.  “What do you mean ‘difficult’?” he demanded.

She shrugged and her shoulders sagged in defeat.  “I mean…I haven’t been eating well, I’ve been painting a great deal.  I’ve almost filled up the old barn behind my cottage,” she joked as a distraction.  “And most days…well…I just forgot.”

She watched his hands clench and unclench by his sides.  “Are you saying that you’re pregnant?”

She shook her head.  “No!” she cried out.  “Good grief, I wouldn’t know that yet.  It just happened last night which I would have thought you’d remember.”

He ran a hand through his hair and sighed.  “I’m sorry.  This just threw me for a curve.  You’re right.”   He turned to face her.  “How likely is it that you might have conceived?”

She shrugged.  “I don’t know.  The reason I should be taking birth control is to regulate my periods,” she said, blushing because she still wasn’t used to this plain talk about private things. 

“How long has it been since you’ve taken your prescription?”

She bit her lip and looked up at him apologetically.  “I can’t remember the last time I took any.”

“
A
nd when was your last period?”

With her face flaming, she took a deep breath.  “It’s been a while.”
  She simply couldn’t understand how he could be so casual about subjects like this but it gave her a small measure of comfort that he could at least discuss the problem. 

“So it’s definitely a possibility that you conceived last
night
?
”

“Yes.”

He ran a hand over his face in frustration.  Pulling her into his arms, he held her tight, a gesture she hadn’t been expecting, but it was exactly what she needed at the moment. 
“
I’m sorry,” she whispered against his chest, her arms going around his waist an
d hugging
him back, loving the feeling of security she felt as he held her like this.   So many nights before they came back to Italy, he’d held her like this after making love and they would just talk about their days, sharing
little
things
and laughing about anything. 

After several minutes of standing there, enjoying his arms around her, she pulled back and sighed with regret that she had to leave. 
“I need to get back to the hospital.  I left Rennata mid story.”

“Aren’t you in the middle of a painting?” he asked, still holding her against him.

She felt his chin run against her hair and took a deep breath, loving the smell of him.  “I only paint in the mornings
and evenings.”

He pulled back slightly and looked down at her, a confused expression on his face. 
“My mother said you spent the whole day up in your studio,” he replied with a sigh and pulled her against him once again.  “More of her lies, I suppose.”

Sasha shuddered
, amazed at how they’d both let his family interfere I their relationship.  With a sigh, she
leaned against him.  “Please talk to Cristlolo.”

His hand tangle
d
in her hair for a moment, massaging her scalp and neck
.  “What’s so important about a conversation with Cristolo?  What can he possibly say that would change our lives?  You and I need to talk.”

“No.  You need to talk with him.”

He pulled out of her arms and walked over to his desk.  “I have a meeting.  Do I have your assurance that you’ll let me know if there are any issues that develop from last night?”

She watched him as the sadness crept into her body.  “Yes.  You’ll be the second to know.”

His eyes snapped back to hers.  “Are you saying Cristolo will be the first?  Is it possible that he might also be the father?”

Sasha became angry with that.  “Dante, don’t you dare insult me like that ever again.  Until you speak with your brother and have a conversation with him
just back off of those kinds of accusations!
”

With that, she spun around on her heel and walked out of his office, slamming the door behind her.  “That man is horrible!” she said to his secretary, almost amused by the horrified expression on her face.

She heard the door open and knew that Dante was watching her and a part of her wanted to be evil and go into Cristolo’s office.  But she didn’t want to push his buttons any more than he always did to himself. 
And she also wanted to get as far away from him as possible, which meant leaving the building completely.

She headed back to the hospital, but
Rennata
was sleeping peacefully. 

Needing some sort of outlet for her fury, she caught a cab back to the house and ran up to her studio, completely ignoring Riasa as she swept past. 

In her studio, she lost herself in the colors, letting all of her frustrations flow out with the colors.  She didn’t even notice the passing of the sun over the horizon and as darkness fell, she slapped on the lights
and continued.  About midnight, she curled up on the chair by one of the windows, wanting just a short break before she continued. 

But her body had something else in mind and, despite the fact that she hadn’t cleaned up her brushes or put her paints away, she fell asleep in the chair, letting the darkness and exhaustion soothe her into a deep sleep. 

That’s where Dante found her when he finally came home.  He was just going to check on her in her bed to make sure she was okay, something inside of him needing assurance that she was in his home and safe.  When he didn’t find her in the bed they’d shared the previous night, he immediately went up to her studio. 

With a sigh, he lifted her into his arms and carried her down the stairs.  He pulled her shoes off and started to tuck her under the covers, but she pulled his hand and stopped him with the simple, “Don’t leave me Dante.”  Since she was still half asleep, and she hadn’t called out for Cristolo, he gave in to the need to hold her in his arms.  He could be out of her bed by morning, he told himself.  She would probably never even know that he
had
slept with her. 

He pulled off his clothes and slid underneath the covers, pulling her against him and falling asleep with her curled up next to his body.

Sasha woke at some point in the night, wondering why she was still wearing her jeans.  When she realized that she was using Dante’s chest as her pillow, and half her body was draped over his, she ignored how uncomfortable she was in her jeans and simply enjoyed the luxury of having him next to her.  It had been so long since she’d slept this well and she wanted to savor the feeling. 

Chapter
6

“I have to fly to London.  Is there anything you need from your house?” Dante asked through the cell phone.  “I know you’ve been here longer than you’d anticipated.”

Sasha smiled, grateful for the small courtesy.  Surely it meant something that he cared enough to make the offer, didn’t it?