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‘Home!’ Matilda said with false brightness.
‘Do you always take the stairs?’
‘Always,’ Matilda lied. ‘It’s good exercise.’ They were at her front door now. ‘Thank you for this evening. It’s been, er…pleasant.’
‘Really?’ Dante raised a quizzical eyebrow. ‘I’m not sure that I believe you.’
‘I was actually attempting to be polite,’ Matilda responded, ‘as you were by seeing me to my door.’ She was standing there, staring at him, willing him to just go, reluctant somehow to turn her back on him, not scared exactly, but on heightened alert as still he just stood there. Surely he didn’t expect her to ask him in for coffee?
Surely!
How the hell was she going to spend a fortnight in his company when one evening left her a gibbering wreck? She had to get a grip, had to bring things back to a safer footing, had to let him know that it was strictly business, pretend that he didn’t intimidate her, pretend that he didn’t move her so.
‘Thank you for bringing the plans, Dante. I’m looking forward to working on your garden.’ She offered her hand. Direct, businesslike, Matilda decided, that was how she’d be—a snappy end to a business dinner. But as his hand took hers, instantly she regretted it.
It was only the second time they had made physical contact. As his hand tightened around hers she was brutally reminded of that fact, despite the hours that had passed, despite a dinner shared and the emotions he had evoked, it was only the second time they had touched. And the result was as explosive as the first time, and many times more lethal. She could feel the heat of his flesh searing into hers, as his large hand coiled around hers, the pad of his index finger resting on her slender wrist, her radial pulse hammering against it. And this time the feel of his gold wedding band did nothing to soothe her, just reminded her of the depths of him, the pain that must surely exist behind those indecipherable eyes. Never had she found a person so difficult to read, never had she revealed so much of herself to someone and found out so very little in return.
But she wanted to know more.
‘You interest me, Matilda.’ It was such a curious thing to say, such a hazy, ambiguous statement, and her eyes involuntarily jerked to his like a reflex action, held by his gaze, stunned, startled, yet curiously reluctant to move, a heightened sexual awareness permeating her.
‘I thought perhaps I bored you.’
‘Oh, no.’ Slowly he shook his head and she started back, mesmerised, his sensuous but brutal features utterly captivating. ‘Why would you think such a thing?’
‘I just…’ Matilda’s voice trailed off. She didn’t know what to say because she didn’t know the answer, didn’t know if it was her destroyed self-confidence that made her vulnerable or the man who was staring at her now, the man who was pinning her to the wall with his eyes.
‘He really hurt you, didn’t he?’ It was as if he were staring into her very soul, not asking her but telling her how she felt. ‘He ground you down and down until you didn’t even know who you were any more, didn’t even know what it was that you wanted.’
How did he know? How could he read her so easily—was she that predictable? Was her pain, her self-doubt so visible? But Dante hadn’t finished with his insights, hadn’t finished peeling away the layers, exposing her raw, bruised core, and she wanted again to halt him, wanted to stop him from going further—wanted that mouth that was just inches from hers be silent, to kiss her…
‘And then, when he’d taken every last drop from you, he tossed you aside…’
She shook her head in denial, relieved that he’d got one thing wrong. ‘I was the one who ended it,’ Matilda reminded him, but it didn’t sway him for a second.
‘You just got there first.’ Dante delivered his knockout blow. ‘It was already over.’
He was right, of course, it had been over. She could still feel the bleak loneliness that had filled her that night and for many nights before the final one. The indifference had been so much more painful that the rows that had preceded it. She could still feel the raw shame of Edward’s intimate rejections.
‘I’m fine without him.’
‘Better than fine,’ Dante said softly, and she held her breath as that cruel, sensual mouth moved in towards hers. She still didn’t know what he was thinking. Lust rippled between them, yet his expression was completely unreadable. The same quiver of excitement that had gripped her in the restaurant shivered through her now, but with dangerous sexual undertones, and it was inevitable they would kiss. Matilda acknowledged it then. The foreplay she had so vehemently denied was taking place had started hours ago, long, long before they’d even reached the garden.
He gave her time to move away, ample time to halt things, to stop this now, and she should have.
Normally she would have.
Her mind flitted briefly to her recent attempts at dating where she’d dreaded this moment, had avoided it or gone along with a kiss for the sad sake of it, to prove to herself that she was desirable perhaps.
But there was no question here of merely going along with this kiss for the sake of it—logic, common sense, self-preservation told her that to end this night with a kiss was a foolish move, that for the sake of her sanity she should surely halt this now. But her body told her otherwise, every nerve prickling to delicious attention, drawn like a magnet to his beauty, anticipating the taste of him, the feel of him in a heady rush of need, of want.
His mouth brushed her cheek, sweeping along her cheekbone till she could feel his breath warm on the shell of her ear then moving back, back to her waiting lips, slowly, deliberately until only a whisper separated them, till his mouth was so close to hers that she was giddy with expectation, filled with want—deep, burning want that she’d never yet experienced, a want that suffused her, a want she had never, even in the most intimate moments, experienced, and he hadn’t even kissed her. Her breath was coming in short, unyielding gasps, his chest so close to hers that if she breathed any deeper their bodies would touch. She was torn between want and dread, her body longing to arch towards his, her nipples stretching like buds to the sun, his hand still on the wall behind her head, and all she wanted was his touch.
As if in answer, his mouth found hers, the weight of his body pushing her down, his lips obliterating thought, reason, question, his masterful touch the only thought she could process, his tongue, stroking hers so deeply so intimately it was as if he were touching her deep inside, his skin dragging hers as his mouth moved against her, the sweet, decadent taste of him, the heady masculine scent of him stroking her awake from deep hibernation, awareness fizzing in where there had been none.
His power overwhelmed her, the strength of his arms around her slender body, the hard weight of his thighs as he pinned her to the wall and a vague peripheral awareness of a warm hand creeping along the length of her spinal column then sliding around her rib cage as his mouth worked ever on. A low needy sigh built as it slid around, his palm capturing the weight of her breast, the warmth of his skin through the sheer fabric of her dress had her curling into him, needy, wanton, desperate, swelling at his touch, her breasts engorging, shamefully reciprocating as the pad of his thumb teased her jutting nipple. So many sensations, so many responses, his tongue capturing hers in his lips, sucking on the swollen tip, his body pinning her in delicious confinement, his masculinity capturing her, overwhelming her. Yet she was hardly an unwilling participant—fingers coiling in his jet hair, pulling his face to hers as her body pressed against him, his touch unleashing her passion, her desire, flaming it to dangerous heat, a heat so intense there was no escape, and neither did she want one. His kiss was everything a kiss should be, everything she’d missed.
Till now.
And just as she dived into complete oblivion, just as she would have given anything, anything for this moment to continue, for him to douse the fire within her, he wrenched his head away, an expression she couldn’t read in his eyes as he looked coolly down at her.
‘I should go.’
Words failing her, Matilda couldn’t even nod, embarrassment creeping in now. He could have taken her there and then—with one crook of his manicured finger she would have led him inside, would have made love to him, would have let him make love to her. What was it with this man? Emotionally he troubled her, terrified her even, yet still she was drawn to him, physically couldn’t resist him. She had never felt such compulsion, a macabre addiction almost, and she hadn’t even know him a day.
‘I will see you on Sunday.’ His voice was completely normal and his hands were still on her trembling body. She stared back at him, unable to fathom that he could appear so unmoved, that he was still standing after what they’d just shared. Blindly she nodded, her hair tumbling down around her face, eyes frowning as Dante reached into his suit pocket and pulled out a handful of chocolate mints, the same ones she had surreptitiously taken at the restaurant.
‘I took these at the restaurant for you…’ Taking her hand, he filled it with the sweet chocolate delicacies. She could feel them soft and melting through the foil as he closed her fingers around them. ‘I know you wanted to do the same!’
An incredulous smile broke onto her lips at the gesture, a tiny glimmer that maybe things were OK, that the attraction really was mutual, that Dante didn’t think any less of her because of what had just taken place. ‘You stole them?’ Matilda gave a tiny half-laugh, recalling their earlier conversation.
‘Oh, no.’ He shook his head and doused any fledgling hope with one cruel sentence, cheapened and humiliated her with his strange euphemism. ‘Why would I steal them when, after all, they were there for the taking?’
CHAPTER FOUR
WHAT she had been expecting, Matilda wasn’t sure—an austere, formal residence, surrounded by an overgrown wilderness, or a barren landscape perhaps—but with directions on the passenger seat beside her she’d found the exclusive street fairly easily and had caught her breath as she’d turned into it, The heavenly view of Port Phillip Bay stretched out for ever before her. Chewing on her lip as she drove, the sight of the opulent, vast houses of the truly rich forced her to slow down as she marvelled at the architecture and stunning gardens, tempted to whip out her faithful notepad and jot down some notes and deciding that soon she would do just that. The thought of long evenings with nothing to do but avoid Dante was made suddenly easier. She could walk along the beach with her pad, even wander down to one of the many cafés she had passed as she’d driven through the village—there was no need to be alone with him, no need at all.
Unless she wanted to be.
Pulling into the kerb, Matilda raked a hand through her hair, tempted, even at the eleventh hour, to execute a hasty U-turn and head for the safety of home. Since she’d awoken on Saturday after a restless sleep, she’d been in a state of high anxiety, especially when she’d opened the newspaper and read with renewed interest about the sensational trial that was about to hit the Melbourne courts and realising that it wasn’t just her that was captivated by Dante Costello. Apart from the salacious details of the upcoming trial, a whole article had been devoted solely to Dante, and the theatre that this apparently brilliant man created, from his scathing tongue and maverick ways in the courtroom to the chameleon existence he’d had since the premature death of his beloved wife, his abrupt departure from the social scene, his almost reclusive existence, occasionally fractured by the transient presence of a beautiful woman—anodynes, Matilda had guessed, that offered a temporary relief. And though it had hurt like hell to read it, Matilda had devoured it, gleaning little, understanding less. The face that had stared back at her from the newspaper pages had been as distant and as unapproachable as the man she had first met and nothing, nothing like the Dante who had held her in his arms, who had kissed her to within an inch of her life, who had so easily awoken the woman within—the real Dante she was sure she’d glimpsed.
Matilda had known that the sensible thing to do would be to ring Hugh and tell him she couldn’t do the work after all—that something else had come up. Hell, she had even dialled his number a few times, but at the last minute had always hung up, torn between want and loathing, outrage and desire, telling herself that it wouldn’t be fair to let Hugh down, and sometimes almost managing to believe it. As honourable as it sounded, loyalty to Hugh had nothing to do with her being there today. Dante totally captivated her—since the second she’d laid eyes on him he was all she thought about.
All she thought about, replaying their conversations over and over, jolting each and every time she recalled some of his sharper statements, wondering how the hell he managed to get away with it, how she hadn’t slapped his arrogant cheek. And yet somehow there had been a softer side and it was that that intrigued her. Despite his brutality she’d glimpsed something else—tiny flickers of beauty, like flowers in a desert—his dry humour, the stunning effect of his occasional smile on her, the undeniable tenderness reserved exclusively for his daughter. And, yes, Matilda acknowledged that the raw, simmering passion that had been in his kiss had left her hungry for more,
‘Careful.’ Matilda said the word out loud, repeated it over and over in her mind as she slipped the car into first gear and slowly pulled out into the street, driving a couple of kilometres further with her heart in her mouth as she braced herself to face him again, her hand shaking slightly as she turned into his driveway and pressed the intercom, watching unblinking as huge metal gates slid open and she glimpsed for the first time Dante’s stunning home.
The drive was as uncompromising and as rigid as its owner, lined with cypress trees drawing the eye along its vast, straight length to the huge, Mediterranean-looking residence—vast white rendered walls that made the sky look bluer somehow, massive floor-to-ceiling windows that would drench the home in light and let in every inch of the stunning view. She inched her way along, momentarily forgetting her nerves, instead absorbing the beauty. The harsh lines of the house were softened at the entrance by climbers—wisteria, acres of it, ambled across the front of the property, heavy lilac flowers hanging like bunches of grapes, intermingled with jasmine, its creamy white petals like dotted stars, the more delicate foliage competing with the harsh wooden branches of the wisteria. The effect, quite simply, was divine.
‘Welcome!’ Hugh pulled open the car door for her and Matilda stepped out onto the white paved driveway, pathetically grateful to see him—not quite ready to face Dante alone. ‘Matilda, this is my wife Katrina.’ He introduced a tall, elegant woman who stepped forward and shook her hand, her greeting the antithesis of Hugh’s warm one. Cool blue eyes blatantly stared Matilda up and down, taking in the pale blue cotton shift dress and casual sandals she was wearing and clearly not liking what she saw. ‘You’re nothing like I was expecting. I expected…’ she gave a shrill laugh…‘I don’t know. You don’t look like a gardener!’
‘She’s a designer, Katrina,’ Hugh said with a slight edge.
‘I’m very hands-on, though,’ Matilda said. ‘I like to see the work through from beginning to end.’
‘Marvellous,’ Katrina smiled, but somehow her face remained cold. ‘Come—let me introduce you to Dante…’
Matilda was about to say that she’d already met him, but decided against it, as clearly both Hugh and Dante had omitted to mention the dinner to Katrina. She wasn’t sure what to make of Katrina. She was stunning-looking, her posture was straight, her long hair, though dashed with grey, was still an amazing shade of strawberry blonde, and though she had to be around fifty, there was barely a line on her smooth face. But there was a frostiness about her that unsettled Matilda.
The interior of the house was just as impressive as the exterior. Hugh held open the front door then headed off to Matilda’s car to retrieve her bags and the two women stepped inside and walked along the jarrahfloored hallways, Matilda’s sandals echoing on the solid wood as she took in the soft white sofas and dark wooden furnishings, huge mirrors opening up the already vast space, reflecting the ocean at every turn so that wherever you looked the waves seemed to beckon. Or Jasmine smiled down at you! An inordinate number of photos of Dante’s late wife adorned the walls, her gorgeous face captured from every angle, and Matilda felt a quiet discomfort as she gazed around, her cheeks flaming as she recalled the stinging kiss of Dante.
‘My daughter.’ Katrina’s eyes followed Matilda’s and they paused for a moment as they admired her tragic beauty. ‘I had this photo blown up and framed just last week—it’s good for Alex to be able to see her and I know it gives Dante a lot of comfort.’
‘It must…’ Matilda stumbled. ‘She really was very beautiful.’
‘And clever,’ Katrina added. ‘She had it all, brains and beauty. She was amazing, a wonderful mother and wife. None of us will ever get over her loss.’
‘I can’t even begin to imagine…’ Despite the cool breeze from the air-conditioner, despite the high ceilings and vastness of the place, Matilda felt incredibly hot and uncomfortable. Despite her earlier misgivings, she was very keen to meet Dante now—even his savage personality was preferable to the discomfort she felt with Katrina.
‘Dante especially,’ Katrina continued, and Matilda was positive, despite her soft words and pensive smile, that there was a warning note to her voice, an icy message emanating from her cool blue eyes. ‘I’ve never seen a man so broken with grief. He just adored her, adored her,’ Katrina reiterated. ‘Do you know, the day she died he sent flowers to her office. It was a Saturday but she had to pop into work and get some files. She took Alex with her—that was the sort of woman she was. Anyway, Dante must have rung every florist in Melbourne. He wanted to send her some jasmine, her namesake, but it was winter, of course, so it was impossible to find, but Dante being Dante he managed to organise it—he’d have moved heaven and earth for her.’
It was actually a relief to get into the kitchen. After Katrina’s onslaught it was actually a relief to confront the man she’d been so nervous of meeting again. But as she stepped inside it was as if she was seeing him for the very first time. The man she remembered bore little witness to the one she saw now. Everything about him seemed less formal. Of course, she hadn’t expected him to greet her in a suit—it was Sunday after all—but somehow she’d never envisaged him in jeans and a T-shirt, or, if she had, it would have been in dark, starched denim and a crisp white designer label T-shirt, not the faded, scruffy jeans that encased him, not the untucked, unironed white T-shirt that he was wearing. And she certainly hadn’t pictured him at a massive wooden table, kneading bread, with his daughter, Alex’s eyes staring ahead as she rhythmically worked the dough.
‘Dante, Alexandra,’ Katrina called. ‘Matilda has arrived.’
Only one pair of eyes looked up. Alexandra carried on kneading the dough and any thought of witnessing Dante’s softer side was instantly quashed as his black eyes briefly met hers.
‘Good afternoon.’
His greeting was also his dismissal.
His attention turning immediately back to his daughter, picking up a large shaker and sprinkling the dough with more flour as the little girl worked on.
‘Good afternoon.’ Matilda forced a smile to no one in particular. ‘You’re making bread…’
‘No.’ Dante stood up, dusted his floured hands on his jeans ‘We are kneading dough and playing with flour.’
‘Oh!’
‘We’ve been kneading dough and playing with flour since lunchtime, actually!’
Another ‘oh’ was on the tip of her tongue, but Matilda held it back, grateful when Katrina took over this most awkward of conversations.
‘It’s one of Alex’s pastimes,’ Katrina explained as Hugh came back in. ‘She was upset after lunch—you know what children can be like.’ Dante gave a tight smile as Katrina dismissed the slightly weary note to his voice. Something told Matilda that whatever had eventuated had been rather more than the usual childhood tantrum. ‘Hugh, why don’t you go and take Matilda around the garden?’ Katrina said. ‘It seems a shame to break things up when Dante and Alex are having such fun.’
‘Hugh’s supposed to be resting,’ Dante pointed out. ‘I’ll take Matilda around.’
‘Fine,’ Katrina said, though clearly it was anything but! ‘Then I’ll go and check that everything’s in order in the summerhouse for Matilda.’
‘The summerhouse?’ Dante frowned. ‘I had the guest room made up for her. Janet prepared it this morning.’
‘Well, it won’t kill Janet to prepare the summerhouse! She’s the housekeeper,’ Katrina explained to a completely bemused Matilda. ‘I can help her set it up. It will be far nicer for Matilda. She can have some privacy and it might unsettle Alex, having a stranger in the house—no offence meant, Matilda.’
‘None taken.’ Matilda thought her face might crack with the effort of smiling. ‘It really doesn’t matter a scrap where I stay. I’m going to be working long hours, I just need somewhere to sleep and eat…’
‘There’s a lovely little kitchenette in the summerhouse. I’ll have some bacon and eggs and bread put in, that type of thing—you’ll be very comfortable.’
‘It’s your fault.’ Dante broke the appalling silence as they stepped outside.
‘What is?’ Matilda blinked.
‘That you’ve been banished.’ He gave her a glimmer of a dry smile. ‘You’re too good-looking for Katrina.’
‘Oh!’A tiny nervous giggle escaped her lips, embarrassed by what he had said but relieved all the same that he had acknowledged the problem. ‘I don’t think she likes me very much.’
‘She’d have been hoping for a ruddy-faced, gumchewing, crop-haired gardener. I have the ugliest staff in the world—all hand-picked by Katrina.’ Startled by his coarseness, Matilda actually laughed as they walked, amazed to find herself relaxing a touch in his presence.
‘Yesterday’s newspapers can’t have helped matters much,’ she ventured, referring to the string of women he’d dated since his wife’s death, but Dante just shrugged.
‘Ships that pass in the night even Katrina can live with.’
The callousness of his words had Matilda literally stopping in her tracks for a moment, waiting for him to soften it with a smile, to tell her he was joking, but Dante strode on, forcing Matilda to catch him up, and try to continue the conversation. ‘Do your in-laws live here with you?’
‘God, no.’ Dante shuddered. ‘They live a few kilometres away. But we’re interviewing for a new nanny at the moment—preferably one over sixty with a wooden leg if Katrina has her way. That’s why she’s around so much. Like it or not at the moment I do need her help with Alex, but if I decide to stay here in Australia…’ He stopped talking then, just simply stopped in mid-sentence with no apology or explanation, clearly deciding he had said enough. Silence descended again as they walked on the manicured lawn past a massive pool, surrounded by a clear Perspex wall. Matilda gazed at the pool longingly.
‘Use it any time,’ Dante offered.
‘Thanks,’ Matilda replied, knowing full well she wouldn’t. The thought of undressing, of wearing nothing more than a bikini around Dante not exactly soothing.
‘This is the garden,’ Dante said as they came to a gate. ‘It’s in a real mess, very neglected, overgrown with blackberries and bracken, I’ve been meaning to get it cleared, but my gardener is getting old. It takes all his time just to keep up with the regular work, let alone this. Oh, and one other thing…’ His hand paused on the gate. ‘The bill is to come to me.’
‘Hugh employed me,’ Matilda pointed out.
‘Hugh does not need to pay for my renovations—you will send the bill to me, Matilda.’
But she didn’t want to send the bill to him—and it had nothing to do with money. Financially it made not a scrap of difference to Matilda who picked up the bill. Instead, it was the disturbing thought of being answerable somehow to Dante, of him employing her, that made Matilda strangely nervous.
‘Do you need an advance?’
‘An advance?’ Instantly, she regretted her words. Her mind had been utterly elsewhere and now she sounded stupid.
‘An advance of money,’ Dante not too patiently explained. ‘To pay the subcontractors. I don’t know what arrangement you had with Hugh—’
‘Have with Hugh,’ Matilda corrected, watching as Dante’s face darkened. Clearly he was not used to being defied, but even though an advance would be wonderful now, even though she had a hundred and one people that would need to be paid, and very soon, she damn well wasn’t going to give in to him, absolutely refused to let him dictate his terms to her. ‘My business is with Hugh. If you want to settle up with him, that’s your choice.’
Surprisingly he didn’t argue, but as he pushed open the gate she could tell he was far from pleased, but, refusing to back down, refusing to even look at him, she stepped into the garden and as she did all thoughts of money and who was the boss faded in an instant. Despite Dante’s gloomy predictions, all she could see was beauty—the sleeping princess that lay beneath the overgrown bracken and thorns.
Dante’s manicured gardens were wonderful, but, for Matilda, nothing could beat the raw natural beauty of a neglected garden, a blank canvas for her to work on. It was about the size of a suburban block of land, the centrepiece a massive willow, more than a hundred years in the making, one lifetime simply not enough to produce its full majesty. But that was part of the beauty of her work. A new garden was a mere a sketch on the canvas—the colour, the depth was added over the years, seeds sown that would flourish later, shrubs, trees that would develop, blossom and grow long, long after the cheque had been paid and her tools cleared away.
‘Vistas.’ It was the first thing that came to mind and she said it out loud, registering his frown. ‘Lots of walkways all coming from the willow, lined with hedges and each one leading to a different view, a special area for Alex…’
‘You can do something with it?’
She didn’t answer, just gave a distracted nod as she pictured the bosky paths, a water feature at the end of one, a sand pit at the end of the other, and…
‘A castle,’ Matilda breathed. ‘An enchanted castle, like a fairy-tale. I know someone who makes the most beautiful cubby houses…’ Her voice trailed off as she stared down at the ground, her sandals scuffing the earth. ‘We’ll use turf for now, but I’ll plant lots of different things so that each path will be different—clover for one, daisies for another, buttercups…’
‘Will you be able to do it in the time-frame?’
