that she was naked beneath the gown, her breasts felt full and heavy, aware of the lust that danced inappropriately in the air between them. The prison gates were parting further and she was terrified to step out. ‘Goodnight,’ she croaked, and climbed the stairs, almost tipping the tray and only able to breathe when she heard the door slam.
Tea forgotten, she lay on the bed, frantic and unsettled. So much for the Ice Queen! She was burning for him in a way she had never known until she’d met Dante.
Mia had thought for a long time that there was something wrong with her, something missing in her make-up, for she’d had little to no interest in sex. Even back at school she would listen in on her peers, quietly bemused by their obsessive talking about boys and the things they did that to Mia sounded filthy. Her mother’s awkward talk about the facts of life had left Mia revolted. The fact of Mia’s life: it was something she didn’t want! There was no reason she could find. There had been no trauma, nothing she could pin it to. Just for her, those feelings simply did not exist. Mia had tried to ignite the absent fire and had been on a couple of dates, but had found she couldn’t even tolerate kisses, and tongues positively revolted her. She couldn’t bear to consider anything else.
And while this marriage had given her a unique chance to heal from the appalling disaster that had befallen her family, the deeper truth was that it had given her a chance to hide from something she perhaps ought to address.
A no-sex marriage had felt like a blessing when she and Rafael had agreed to it.
Yet the ink had barely dried on the contract when she had found out that though those feelings might be buried deep, they were there after all.
Mia had been just a few days into the pretend position of Rafael’s PA, and the carefully engineered rumours had just started to fly, when Dante Romano had walked in. A mere moment with him had helped her understand all she had been missing, for with just a look she found herself reacting in a way she never had before.
His dark eyes had transfixed her, the deep growl of his voice had elicited a shiver low in her stomach, and even his scent, as it reached her, went straight to form a perfect memory. When Dante had asked who she was, his voice and his presence had alerted, startled and awoken her. So much so that she had half expected him to snap his fingers like a genie right before her scalding face.
Three wishes?
You.
You.
You.
Except she had been there to execute a business arrangement—one to which even Angela had agreed. She was to marry Rafael.
Yet so violent had been her reaction to Dante that Mia had considered backing out. Of course, that was impossible, for the first instalment had long since been spent.
And so she had cut that moment down to size and decided—a decade too late perhaps—that it was no more than the equivalent of a teenage crush.
Except, despite her constant quashing, it grew and it developed and it hit her in waves of rolling fire that she did not know how to put out.
For right now, as she thought of Dante and the looks they had shared this night, she wanted to close her eyes and imagine his mouth on hers. Right now, she wished Dante were there in his suite on the second floor or, even better, in Suite al Limone with her... She moaned in frustration, actually fighting not to touch herself and think of him, for on so many levels it would be...
Wrong.
Wrong.
Wrong.
He loathes you, she reminded herself.
There was just tomorrow to get through and she could go back to being Mia Hamilton, instead of a For Display Purposes Only wife, and do everything she could to pick up the threads of her life.
And she would never have to lay eyes on Dante Romano again.
CHAPTER FOUR
THE SKY WAS tinged pink and threatening snow for the day of the funeral as Mia rode Massimo back to the house, carefully avoiding the lake.
Massimo was Rafael’s horse, and she had taken over riding him when Rafael had grown too weak to do so. He was a beautiful black Murgese stallion, an Italian breed that Rafael had adored. Despite his size, Massimo was a polite and obedient horse.
And today he was sad.
‘They know when something is