Page 6 of Unveiled As The Italian's Bride
‘Perhaps you should have something to drink before I say what I have called you here to say.’
He didn’t wait for her to respond, instead moving to fetch another wine glass and then proceeding to pour her some of the red wine, before sitting back and looking at her with deadly seriousness.
Kate smiled weakly. He was being so polite, so controlled, yet he was still so forbidding.
She gulped down a mouthful of the red and welcomed the rush of alcohol to her head.
‘Along with the sudden desire to move house and the new-found interest in bee-keeping, my uncle...’ He hesitated and then said on an exasperated sigh, ‘Has got it into his head that it is time for me to find myself a wife and settle down.’
‘Oh. Well...’
‘Surprised?’
‘It’s not something that he’s ever mentioned to me,’ Kate said in confusion. ‘And I have no thoughts on that one way or another.’
The man might be sinfully good-looking, and with a pedigree that would have every eligible woman in the country pulling tickets to join a queue for the role ofwife, but Kate had no idea, because his private life had always been private. In all her time working for Dante, she had never known him bring back any woman or introduce his daughter to anyone who was potential wife material.
That said, he was away an extraordinary amount, and probably had a wild and raunchy life somewhere else.
The thought of which brought hectic colour to Kate’s cheeks and, when she slid a look at him from under her lashes, it was to find him staring at her with his head tilted to one side. He didn’t have to utter a word to press all sorts of crazy buttons inside her.
‘At any rate, he’s got it into his head that he’s on the way out, and he can’t possible depart this mortal coil without seeing me settled with a suitable woman.’
‘And is there...er...a suitable woman around?’ Kate asked while she busily wondered where this was heading.
‘In actual fact, there is,’ Dante murmured.
‘Oh.’
‘This is why you’re here and why we’re having this conversation, as it happens. The truth of the matter is I care very deeply for my uncle, and my fear is that stress and worry will propel him to the early grave he’s convinced awaits him when there is no reason why he shouldn’t outlive us all, with suitable treatment.’
‘I understand,’ Kate returned with heartfelt honesty as she thought of her own father and the depression that had consumed him after his accident.
Dante looked at her narrowly for a few seconds. ‘Do you?’ He paused and shrugged. ‘No matter. Personally, I am utterly uninterested in marriage. I’ve been married once and it’s an institution I have since resolved never to venture near again.’
Kate nodded. He’d loved and lost. In his office, a dramatic painting of the flamboyant, haughty beauty hung behind his desk, a testament to an irreplaceable love.
‘But you said...’
‘I don’twantto marry, Kate. Iintendto. Those are two quite separate propositions. And do I have a suitable candidate in mind? Yes, I do. She is sitting in this kitchen with me. I’ve asked you here, Kate, for your hand in marriage.’
CHAPTER TWO
FORAFEWSECONDS,a crazy, dizzying thought spun through Kate’s head. She’dactuallythought that the guy sitting opposite her had asked her to marry him!
Since she had clearly misheard, she pinned a frozen, polite smile to her face and looked at him quizzically.
What was there to say? She blinked like a rabbit caught in headlights and waited for clarification.
‘You’re not following, are you?’ Dante said drily. ‘I don’t blame you.’
‘I’m sorry. I really don’t understand what’s going on.’
‘My uncle...’
‘I get the bit about your uncle. The bit Idon’tget is the bit that came afterwards.’
‘It’s simple. Antonio is in a fragile place. He’s desperate for me to marry. He has been for some time, but only now has the suggestion broken the surface and been voiced outright. I did what I could over the past couple of days to reassure him that this is not the terminal situation he fears, but...’
