Page 46 of The Scandal Behind The Italian’s Wedding

CHAPTER TEN

DANTEWASSTILLreeling from the ecstasy that he had found in Minerva’s arms. He had been ready to lecture her on allowing him to hurt her while her body was still tender, and then she had dropped that bombshell on him. And it made him go back in time. Every moment, every kiss, every touch since they had embarked on this farce.

The moment that he had first entered her body and she had flinched.

It was impossible.

It couldn’t be.

That she was not an innocent was one of the only reasons that he could have justified demanding that she become his wife in body as well as in name.

He had been certain that she had known exactly what he was demanding of her.

But she did not.

And while he didn’t hold to medieval ideas about virginity, and he was certainly not going to go hang a sheet out the window, it was about his age. His experience. The fact that he had swept her off the beach and taken her practically straight to bed without...

She had wanted it. He was certain of that.

But how could he be sure that she knew what she had wanted?

And how dare she lie to him?

Because he had been embroiled in this entire situation against his will, and apparently, Isabella was not her daughter.

Which begged the question... Who was the child?

And whom was Minerva actually hiding her from?

“Dammit,” he said, moving to a sitting position. “Have you stolen this child?”

“No!” Minerva scrambled to a sitting position, clutching the sheets to her breasts. The entire left side of her body was still completely bare, and his eyes were drawn to that golden skin that he knew now was softer than he could have anticipated.

And he had no reason to be staring at her now. Not when he was looking at a traitor.

She had lied to him.

“Then explain this,” he said. “Explain this entire thing. She’s not your child?”

“Not biologically,” Minerva said. “I said I didn’t give birth to her. I didn’t say I wasn’t her mother.”

“You adopted her?” he pressed.

“Not exactly. I lied. And everything... Everything to do with her birth was a disaster.” She pressed her hands to her temples. “I have to start at the beginning.”

“You had better.”

“You know when I left for school I was planning on doing a new country each year, a new university. Right. Well, when I went to Rome I was rooming with a woman named Katie. She was also from the States. We didn’t know each other before, but we became friends. She was very different from me.”

Minerva clasped her hands in front of her and made a study of them. “I liked her. I was fascinated by her. Mostly because I’d never known anyone like her. I know everyone thinks that Maximus and Violet are wild because they go to parties all the time. But nobody as successful as they are isn’t working most of the time.”

Minerva lifted a shoulder. “I was studying, mostly. And Katie was in and out at all hours. Finally, I agreed to go out with her one night. We went to a club down in Rome. We met men.”

A dark anger welled up in his chest. “But you didn’t. You didn’t have sex with him. You were a virgin.”

He didn’t know why now he felt the need to confirm that. And why the idea that this other man might have done something with her angered him.

“He kissed me once,” Minerva said. “I didn’t like it. I told him I wanted to leave. But Katie didn’t want to leave, because she had met someone and she wanted to go home with him. I went back to our dorm by myself. The next morning, she came home, and she was in a good mood. She liked Carlo. She wanted to keep seeing him.”

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