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‘No,’ I said. If anything, I was the one who had been abusive, I realised, as I remembered the many families who had taken me in. Hard-working, good people, who had only wanted to help me and whose help I had rejected.
‘Do you think it’s possible that she left you there not because she didn’t love you, but because she loved you very much? And she didn’t want to see you hurt again? Her lifestyle sounds as if it was very chaotic; maybe she was trying to protect you?’ Her voice was coaxing and gentle and devoid of criticism—but still I could hear the truth in it when she said, ‘You said she had a pimp who was violent. Isn’t it possible she thought she had to give you up to keep you safe?’
Something snapped open deep inside me at Edie’s comment. And suddenly all the memories I had kept locked away in my subconscious for years burst out.
‘Ti voglio bene assai.’
How often had my mother said those words to me? Not just that one time, but a hundred times. A thousand? How often had she hugged me and kissed me—tickled my belly and made me laugh? How often had she told me stories late at night, after the men had gone, to help me sleep? I could see her face clearly now in my mind’s eye, the way it had come to me in nightmares, but for the first time I realised how young she looked. She must have been a teenager when she had me. No more than her early twenties when she left me.
The soreness in my throat began to choke me.
‘Dio!’ I swore softly against Edie’s hair as I clung to her. ‘How could I not have seen this before?’ I said, but I knew why. Because I had been determined not to see it, not to trust, not to love, so I could protect myself at all costs. It’s why I had always rejected the truth about my mother, and why I had treated Edie so appallingly. ‘I have been blaming my selfishness and my cowardice on her when the person who is truly responsible is me.’
Edie grasped my cheeks and forced my gaze to meet hers, until she was staring me straight in the eyes. The love I saw there humbled me.
‘That’s rubbish, Dante,’ she said. And I almost laughed at the fierceness in her tone. ‘You’re a good man.’
No, I wasn’t. But if she believed it, it was enough. At this point, I really didn’t care if I deserved her or not. I would take anything I could get. Anything that she would give me and thank God for it always.
‘You were scared and, after what happened with your mum,’ she added, still fierce, still determined to see the best in me, ‘it makes sense you would push me away.’
‘Are you saying you forgive me, bella?’ I asked, ready to believe in miracles.
The torment of the last few minutes, the last few hours and days and weeks melted away as her lips curved into the sweet smile I had become addicted to.
Warmth spread through me. She was going to give me a second chance. I could see it in her eyes. Dio, but she was utterly adorable. What on earth had I done to deserve her? And what wouldn’t I do to keep her?
‘What do you think?’ she said as she wrapped her arms around my neck and lifted her lips to mine.
I didn’t need another invitation.
I grasped her hips and captured her mouth, thrusting my tongue deep, determined to claim her, to brand her as mine for all eternity.
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
DANTE’S MOUTH CRUSHED mine as hope and excitement and a deep welling tenderness blossomed inside my heart.
He’d come to me, he’d told me he loved me, he’d even told me about his mother—a subject I knew it was very difficult for him to discuss. We were equals. We had a chance now to make this something good and strong, solid and lasting. And I intended to grab that chance with both hands.
I sank into the kiss, need arrowing through me as the prominent outline of his erection pressed against my belly. Even through our clothing, the thick ridge felt powerful and potent. My sex softened, ready to receive it.
‘You will come back to work at The Inferno? And live with me at La Villa Paradis?’ he murmured as his lips caressed my neck and his hands cupped my bottom.
‘Yes, yes...’ Joy surged through me at his offer. I wanted to be with him more than anything in the world. And I loved the work I had been doing at the casino. ‘But...’ I tore myself away from him to look into his eyes ‘...you must promise never to freak out like that again when I’m working.’
‘Of course, I would never frea
k out at you, bella,’ he said instantly. A flush of heat—and stunned pleasure—spread up my torso and into my cheeks at his easy capitulation and the evidence that he respected me, professionally as well as personally. But then he added, ‘But Galanti is a dead man if he ever smiles at you like that again.’
‘Dante, that’s mad,’ I said, because I could see he wasn’t entirely joking. ‘You can’t kill Mr Galanti for smiling at me. It would be very bad for business.’
But, before I could argue further, he captured the pulse point in my collarbone with his lips and suckled strongly. Arousal shot through me as the liquid tug in my abdomen became a definite yank. And my mind blurred on my last coherent thought.
Welcome to The Inferno, indeed!
EPILOGUE
‘THAT WAS JOE. We’ve finalised the training course,’ I clicked off my smartphone and shouted to Dante above the hum of the helicopter blades as the big black bird came in to land on La Villa Paradis’s heliport. ‘By the end of this year we should have all the casino staff trained on how to stop the different systems I’ve uncovered,’ I added proudly, pleased with everything I’d achieved in my role as Allegri’s Head of Gaming Systems and Security.
