Italy's Most Scandalous Virgin - Carol Marinelli Page 0,41

of thinking last night. ‘I am sure that when you married my father, you wanted your little Romano baby to ensure endless wealth, and when my father was ill and could not...’ He blew out a breath as he couldn’t both drive and allow his mind to go there at the same time.

‘And my Plan B?’ Mia asked, curious as to how his mind worked.

‘Contest the will.’

‘I didn’t, though.’

‘Because there’s no need to if you’re carrying my baby.’

‘If?’ She gave a small mirthless laugh. ‘How did you get to be so suspicious?’

‘Because everyone lies.’ Dante shrugged. ‘My perfect family is a nest of liars.’

Mia swallowed because she, perhaps even more than Dante, knew he spoke the truth.

‘I think my mother had a long-running affair,’ he said, taking the curves in the road with skill, but Mia found she was holding her breath, not just at his driving but as he inched towards the truth.

‘Dante, can you please slow down?’

He glanced at the dashboard and then over at her and though he was within the limit, when he saw her pale features he slowed down the car but not the conversation. ‘Perhaps my father decided it was his turn to cheat...’ He blew out an angry breath. ‘And then you came along, dear Mia. Except he was too ill to give you a baby and permanent access to his fortune, and so to Plan B.’

‘But I didn’t contest the will,’ Mia pointed out.

‘No, you saw a chance for a Plan C.’

‘Which was?’

‘A last roll of the dice with me.’

‘Oh, please! Are you saying I set out to seduce you that night? Poor Dante...’ She scoffed.

‘I never said I was a victim,’ Dante countered. ‘We were both more than willing. I’m just saying you saw a chance and you took it—or rather,’ he added with a jaded edge, ‘you didn’t take your pills.’

‘If you think that,’ Mia said, ‘then you don’t know me.’

His temper was building. His theory, now voiced, was growing in momentum as they neared Luctano, where she had lived as his father’s wife for two years.

Two damned years!

He ground the gears in place of his jaw and Mia felt not just his tension but her own and she again asked him to slow down.

‘I am within the speed limit!’

But all the same he slowed right down, taking the bends like a tourist when he knew these roads like the back of his hand.

Mia stopped pressing her foot on an imaginary break and looked out at the colour-drenched view. The splash of poppy fields in the distance, the tall cypress trees and the sights that had been her home for two years. She had honestly thought she would never see Luctano again, but there was no time to enjoy the now familiar scenery spread before her, for the enormity of them being exposed was starting to hit. She was nervous about facing Sylvia and the staff, and about her brother’s reaction too, and panic was building, though she tried to keep it from her voice as she broke the strained silence. ‘Dante, can you do anything to stop the photos being released?’

‘They’re already out,’ Dante said.

‘How do you know?’

‘Because from the buzzing in my pocket I might be forgiven for thinking I picked up your vibrator by mistake instead of my phone.’

‘You’re disgusting!’ Mia spluttered, appalled that he would say such a thing, but Dante was unabashed.

‘No,’ Dante shot back, ‘that title belongs to you.’ Their shameful night would be on stage now for the world to see, and he was furious with himself for his weakness for Mia and the awful feeling that the woman who fascinated him and who he had come to adore might have played him. ‘It took two years for you to get a Romano between your legs. You must have needed something to help you along in the interim.’

‘Absolutely not!’ Her cheeks were on fire, her hands bunched, stunned he would talk about such things. Such things she had never done, except for Dante it seemed to be a given that she had.

‘Was just thinking of the millions enough of a turn-on then?’ he asked.

‘Excuse me!’ Mia spluttered. ‘I didn’t know such feelings existed until you!’ She was embarrassed even to discuss it. ‘And,’ Mia added, ‘it was significantly longer than two years. I was a virgin when we slept together, if you remember rightly.’

Oh, Dante remembered very well indeed.

And he was trying not to do exactly that.

But was Mia saying he’d been not