Page 184 of Anti-Heroes in Love Duet

“I can’t.Mi dispiace,” I murmured against her forehead. “I don’t exactly know yet how I’m going to pull it off, but I will. I promise you that.”

Her heavy sigh feathered against my neck. I felt her lips there when she finally spoke. “I thought about it a little while ago. If there could be love without trust. And I decided there could be. I loved Daniel, but I didn’t trust him. I haven’t trusted anyone in so long… not even my family.” She tipped her head back, her hair cascading over my arms around her back, her eyes as depthless as the sky above us. “But I trust you. So, yes, Dante. Whatever it is, I trust you, and I believe you when you tell me you’re going to give me a dream one day. I haven’t had one of those in so long, and I’m happy to wait a little longer for it.”

I’d never been a lucky man, but standing there with Elena in my arms in the only place that had ever really felt like home even with enemies all around us, I felt like a fucking god.

“I’m taking you out.”

I was lying in the sun beside Tore’s lap pool on a chaise lounge that felt like a cloud. In my haste to catch Dante’s plane, I hadn’t packed a bathing suit, but when I mentioned that fact to Dante, he’d disappeared for a few hours and returned with armfuls of shopping bags.

“I got bored so the lady picked out some of it,” he admitted as I rifled through the Valentino, Versace, Intimissimi, Prada, and Dolce & Gabanna branded bags. “But I got you three swimsuits Iheartilyapprove of.”

I was wearing one now, a tiny red number that hardly covered my small breasts, let alone my groin and buttocks. Normally, I never would have something like that, but the way Dante’s eyes heated like lit coals made me feel like a goddess in it.

I was reminded of that as I opened my eyes, shading them with one hand so I could squint into the descending sunlight at Dante standing near the foot of the lounge chair.

“Oh?” I asked, raising my foot to run my toes along his inner thigh. “I wouldn’t mind staying in.”

He growled slightly as he caught my foot, lifting it higher to place a kiss on my arch. “As tempting as that is, I realized we haven’t been on a proper date yet. I want to take you out. Woo you properly.”

“I followed you to Italy,” I noted dryly. “I would say you’ve done a serviceable job of wooing me already.”

“No,lottatrice,” he murmured as he sat on the edge of the chair near my hip and leaned forward to cage me in with his muscular arms. His breath on my face smelled of lemons and mint. “I am going to take you to the most beautiful place in the south, water you with the finest wine and the best food you’ve ever tasted, praise you until you feel likeregina mia,and then I am going to bring you back home and fuck you to within an inch of your sanity,capisci?”

I blinked at him, the heat of his words surpassing that of the sun on my skin. “Well, I have a very busy schedule today, but I suppose I can make time for you.”

“Sei cosi bella,” he said, almost to himself as he traced a single finger from my ankle up to the inside of my groin. “Should I tell you how I plan to fuck you later, or do you like the suspense?”

I shivered. “Surprise me.”

His smile was wolfish, teeth glinting in the light. “Va bene, bella mia. I have meetings until six thirty, but I will meet you in the foyer at seven o’clock.”

“It’s a date,” I agreed, feeling like some teenager about to go to prom.

We didn’t have such a thing at our school in Naples, and if we had, I’d never been the type of girl to attend parties, but I didn’t care.

This was so much better.

I prepared myself in the same way, spending hours soaking in a deep tub overlooking the lemon trees to the green hills beyond, shaving every inch of my body before slathering it in lotion, then doing my hair and makeup impeccably.

I wore a dress Dante had bought me because I knew instinctively, he had bought it with this date in mind. The white fabric was nearly sheer, my nipples a dusky promise beneath the plummeting neckline, the stark color offsetting my deepening tan. It was rare for a redhead not to burn, but even though I had Seamus’s pale Irish skin, I inherited the capacity to tan from Mama. Despite the risqué neckline, the simple cut of the long dress was elegant and sophisticated.

With my hair tousled in loose curls around my shoulders and breasts, longer than I’d worn it in a year, I felt beautiful.

That little voice in the back of my head reminded me of my flaws, but it was drowned out by how I imagined Dante might react to the sight of me like this. What he might say.

Beautiful,magnifica, mine.

He proved me right when I descended the stairs that evening, his face slack as he took me in.

“So this is how Paris must have felt,” he muttered, eyes burning as I neared him. “Knowing he would risk his entire kingdom for the love of one woman.”

“Do you think he believed it was worth it, even in the end,” I countered as I hit the main level and clicked over the tiles to him on my six-inch heels. “Even while Troy burned?”

He collected my hand and raised it to his lips, flipping it to press his kiss to the inside of my palm. “Undoubtedly.”

I sucked in a shaky breath because the power he had over me made my knees weak and my belly flutter. “Where are you taking me?”

His grin was so beautiful that it took a moment for the words to sink in. “Sorrento.”