Page 46 of Twisted Obsession

I glanced at Dante again as I tried to discern if what she’d said was true.

‘Thank you. Please accept my apologies. I’m not normally this disrespectful.’ I replied earnestly, truly shocked at my own rudeness. ‘Your home looks beautiful.’

‘Truthfully, this is Dante’s home. But being the kind nephew he is, he offered me a place to live after my husband crossed our family and lost his life, when many others turned their backs on me.’

He did?

Dante was certainly a conundrum.

‘Aunt Mary, my home is your home,’ Dante offered and I watched as she put her fingers to her lips and blew him a kiss.

‘I’m truly honoured to be your guest, Aunt Mary,’ I added. ‘Being his guest, though… I’m not too sure about.’

‘Ahhh, young love. I may be older, but I remember it well,’ Mary added chuckling, as she began to ascend the staircase.

Love?If only.

Finally, her steps faded away and we were alone for the first time since I’d pretended to take communion. The electricity that always seemed to surround us intensified, or maybe it was because of my last thought. But Dante seemed to feel it too. He’d already downed the beer he’d been holding and now his arms were hanging loosely at his sides giving the impression that he was completely relaxed, but I watched on as his hands first began to make fists and then open again to flex his fingers. It was as though an inner struggle was taking place. Suddenly, it was obvious he’d lost the war inside himself. Shaking his head and inhaling deeply, Dante took the few steps he needed to close the distance between us. His warm hands grabbed the exposed skin at the top of my arms, and subsequently he bent his knees to bring his eyes to mine. All at once, the Davidoff Cool Water cologne he always seemed to wear shrouded all my senses.

I knew then, what I think I’d always known—I could easily lose myself in my entirety to this man.

My obsession and now my kidnapper.

‘How dare you talk to me of respect,’ I whispered my accusation and in the small space he’d allowed between us,I pathetically jabbed a fingernail at his sternum. The same fingernail I’d only painted that very morning in the childhood bedroom of my family home. ‘How could you?’ I asked. ‘You drugged me,’ I accused as I jabbed him ever harder.

‘Would you have flown willingly?’ Dante questioned, with his eyebrow arching in question and his blue eyes searching mine.

I shook my head at him in answer, as I tried to break the intensifying connection between us. Reading me, he pulled me into his arms and against his hard, muscular frame. My body melted into his and my hands instinctively found the fabric of the lapels of his expensive suit jacket to hang onto, as I silently willed him to never let me go.

‘I could have had a panic attack,’ I interjected, needing to give yet another reason why he shouldn’t have done it. ‘Or worse still. What if I’d been allergic to the drug you gave me?’

‘I wanted to get you away, Giovanna. You agreed with me that we needed to get away.’ His lips found my forehead and he gently bestowed two or three kisses on my already feverish skin.

‘To Bologna, Dante. Not out of the country.’

‘It was crucial, Giovanna.’ All at once Dante seemed annoyed at my accusations. He didn’t relinquish his hold, but stood to his full height and strengthened his hold on me. ‘They would have found us within hours if we’d stayed.’

‘You tied me to the plane seat.’ I said the words, as the exact circumstances of my kidnapping once again came to the forefront of my mind.

‘Your kidnap needed to be convincing,’ he answered.

‘It did?’ I questioned. ‘For whom?’

‘Your brother.’

‘I don’t see why? It would have been okay. We could have stayed in Italy. Salvatore would have been angry, but once I’d spoken to him, he would have listened.’

‘I’m not sure you really know your brother, Giovanna.’ Finally, Dante released his hold on me. He stepped away, leaving me by myself and bereft as he appeared to take all the warmth in the room away with him.

‘Of course, I know him,’ I added, confused. Following his every movement, I watched as he began to pace up and down the room, and at the same time move his numerous leather wrist straps from out of the confines of his long-sleeved shirt.

‘That’s laughable,’ Dante interjected, as he pushed one hand through his hair in exasperation and turned back to face me in one motion. I wrapped my arms around myself as I tried to protect myself from what was coming next.

Because inside I knew it wasn’t going to be good.

Chapter Twenty-One

Giovanna

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