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How had they first met?
She thought of the grubby boy who had pulled out her first tooth when she hadn’t dared. Of how, as Beatrice would silently read, she would kneel on the bed and look through the window at a world that beckoned and know that Dante was out there.
The river, the woods, the hut, the cemetery... He was written on almost every page of her childhood, and he was in her teenage years, too—and now she was late twenties and back to the start...
Oh, gosh... She was playing the most dangerous game with her heart now, pretending to be his lover, a part of his life...
Lying up to her neck in the warm water filled with bubbles, she felt her body aching knowing he was near. Her breasts were loose in the water and it was nice, relaxing, and after a real cry it was nice to just lie there, floating in the scented water.
She stepped out and wrapped herself in a towel when she was done, her hair damp, only to find the bed had been turned back. It really was five-star luxury he lived in each day.
She slipped on the gold nightdress and climbed into the bed. The sheets felt like silk as her head rested on a pillow soft as feathers.
And then the door opened.
‘Buona notte.’
She lay there silent.
‘Alicia,’ he prompted, ‘don’t let’s go to sleep on a row.’
‘We’re not rowing.’
‘Then say goodnight.’
‘Buona notte,’she answered.
And there was a certain relief when he left the door a little ajar—just enough so she could hear him prepare for bed—for tonight she would be able to sink into the comfort of having another close.
And even in the dark, even when she was angry, it appeared Dante could still make her smile. Because the little bell above the bed rang, just once.
Of course she ignored it.
And she ignored, too, the temptation to reach up and pull her own rope, to have him lie next to her, to be held in his arms again...the place she felt safe.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
ALICIAAWOKETOthe sounds of the harbour rather than the city, and lay there not really ready to get out of bed.
She knew her eyes were probably puffy from crying, but she would just blame it on a terrible night’s sleep, she decided.
Except, with Dante close she had slept beautifully.
How shall we say we met?
Alicia stoked her own ire by recalling his answer. It was far safer to remain cross.
She had a feeling that today would be more difficult than even she could anticipate, for she would meet his family and watch him walk away from them. And then, when he had finished with them, his destruct button would turn to her.
Dante would walk alone again.
As he always had.
There was a knock on her door, but it would seem that here in Ortigia they did not await a response, for Dante came in holding a cup and saucer and wearing nothing but a towel, his face as unshaven as it had been on the morning when he had lain in the hotel bed and roughly kissed her.
‘It would seem I am the maid this morning,’ Dante drawled.
Alicia refused to smile.
