Italy's Most Scandalous Virgin - Carol Marinelli Page 0,53

with every tutor in my school, but I will not let you speak about her like that again in my presence. You might feel that disparaging her is part of the act, but to me that was unnecessary and cruel...’ He took a breath to calm himself for there was more he needed to know. ‘And what do you mean, a sob story?’ It was just so unlike the Mia he knew.

‘She told him how her parents had just been killed...’ Dante frowned. From the way Mia had carried herself, as awful as it was, he had assumed it had happened years ago, but his curiosity turned to horror as his mother spoke on. ‘She told him that her brother had spinal injuries and had had no travel insurance...’

‘Her brother has spinal injuries?’

‘Yes, she had just got him back to the UK from the States. Your father said he would speak to her manager and say that she should keep her job, but Mia admitted she could not do it any more. She could not hold down a job. She was having nightmares after being trapped in the car with their bodies...’

Dante went cold. ‘Mia was in the accident that killed her parents?’ The mere glimpse Mia had been trapped in a car with her family appalled him.

He thought of her standing in the yard, pleading with him not to leave her alone, and it made him glance out to the black night sky. He stood abruptly.

‘Where are you going?’ Angela asked.

‘To Luctano,’ Dante said. ‘To Mia.’

CHAPTER TWELVE

IT WAS A hellish flight back to Luctano and though the pilot dodged the storm cells it was very turbulent.

But it was not the rain or the heavy clouds that had his stomach lurching, it was his own self-castigation. His own impatience and assumptions. He had assumed her brother had not come to the funeral because Mia had secrets she didn’t want shared. Just as he had decided her marriage to his father had been for selfish gain.

Mia was right, Dante realised. He did not know her.

But he wanted to.

He did not really know the depth of his feelings for her, just that he had to get back to Luctano and make sure she was okay.

The rain was torrential and falling sideways as he dashed from the chopper to the house and he ran through it, calling out her name.

‘Mia!’

There was no sign of her, except that all the lights were on, and he marched up the stairs. ‘Mia.’ He came to her bedroom door and knocked loudly. ‘It’s me, Dante. Can I come in?’

‘Give me a moment...’ came her hoarse reply, but Dante did not have a moment in him left to give and opened the door to the Suite al Limone, and what he saw hollowed him.

Mia, always in control, always so together and composed, was sitting on the floor, bedraggled and wet in her coral robe and hugging her knees, her face bleached white as she looked up at him. A drape was billowing and there were tears streaming from her eyes as she shouted at him to get out. Dante knew this was a private side to Mia that she would prefer no one saw, yet as he witnessed pure terror, he wanted no secrets between them.

Secrets had caused enough damage; secrets were what had brought them to this point.

‘God, Mia.’ He was appalled at what he had done. ‘I’m sorry.’

‘Get out,’ she screeched.

But Dante refused to leave her. ‘It’s okay, Mia.’

‘It’s not okay,’ she shouted, and yelled accusingly, ‘You left me here and you sent away all the staff...’ Her voice was rising, the terrible panic that had floored her when she’d stepped out of the shower was now tinged with relief that he was back, but also loaded with anger. ‘How could you leave me here?’ she shouted. ‘How dared you bring me here just to leave me alone?’

Finally she felt it was safe to be angry.

Dante was across the room in seconds, stunned and horrified to see the pent-up woman finally unleash.

She was ranting about ghosts, about graves, about her brother, and the bastard who had brought her to a house where she didn’t want to be, and had then left her all alone.

Dante crouched on the floor and he took her damp, shaking body in his arms. ‘You’re okay now, you are safe,’ he told her over and over.

‘But I’m not.’

‘You are.’ And he sounded so convincing that she almost believed him.

‘I’m going mad,’ she