Page 20 of Captive in His Castle
Painfully aware her cheeks were still burning… God help her, it felt like her entire body was a furnace… she summoned all her strength to speak evenly. “You’re not going back to Accardiano tonight?”
She’d assumed that now he’d found his lost ‘house guest’, he’d fly straight back to the celebrations of a wedding he knew damned well shouldn’t go ahead but wasn’t prepared to do a damn thing about.
“Not until Saturday.”
She gazed into his dark eyes in sudden panic… or something that felt similar to panic but also felt even more frighteningly… thrillingly… like anticipation.
He tutted and shook his head with faux regret. “Youshouldn’t have stolen that phone, Callie. My staff are good, hardworking people, but it isn’t fair for me to expect them to watch your every move when you’ve proven yourself such an excellent opportunist, so I’m going to stay right here with you and watch your every move myself.” A sparkle glimmered. “Just think what we can spend all the long hours and days we’ve got ahead of us doing…” Then, with a wink and an, “I’ll see you at dinner,” he sauntered out of her room whistling that now-familiar tune.
Callie, a bath towel wrapped around her, trod carefully across the floor in her bare feet. Geppa had treated her blisters and put a protective dressing around the burst ones, which mercifully were just the ones on her heels, but the pads were hurting a little too, a similar ache to what she experienced after a night dancing full throttle in pretty heels. Next time she decided to walk tens of thousands of miles doing a Great Escape, she’d make sure to wear trainers or proper walking boots, not the tight-fitting ankle boots that were so new she’d barely broken them in. Well, she’d broken them in now, obviously, with the added joy of practically breaking her feet in the process.
“Geppa?” she called into the empty room.
With miraculous timing, the maid, who’d left Callie alone to shower in privacy, appeared through the door carrying a tray with a cafetière of delicious-smelling coffee on it.
She practically swooned her thanks. She hadn’t known how much she’d been craving coffee until just then. Two tall glasses of water had slaked her thirst but hadn’t quenched her caffeine addiction.
“Do you know where my carry-on case is?” she asked as Geppapoured the coffee.
“In the wardrobe. Your clothes are being laundered, and there are new items for you to enjoy.”
“What do you mean?” She hobbled over to what deceptively looked like a wood-panelled wall but was, in fact, a cleverly fitted, wall-length wardrobe. Geppa beat her to it and pressed one of the central panels. The door opened. Callie’s mouth dropped open with it. Inside, an array of feminine clothing hung on the rail.
“Where did these come from?” She’d explored the entirety of her appointed room before dinner the evening before, and with the exception of a grey towelling robe with the castle’s motif on it, the wardrobe had been empty.
“They arrived while you were in the shower.Signor Coscarelliwishes for you to dress up for dinner tonight.”
Just to hear his name uttered was to make Callie’s heart thump, and she had to swallow to say, “He said that did he?”
Geppa nodded.
Rifling through the clothes, it became clear in seconds that only dresses had been couriered. Not ordinary dresses either. Beautiful, sexy dresses.
For a moment, she was unable to stop her imagination conjuring Dante peeling a dress off her…
She blinked the image away, but not before a pulse of desire weakened her bones.
Trust me, carina, you don’t want to know what I want you to do to me… or what I want to do to you.
She came close to trembling at the memory. “Is there anything else? Trousers? Leggings?”
Geppa blushed. “I have instructions to unpack the other items before breakfast for you.”
“Ah.” Callie got it, and now she was the one to blush. Looking away so the young girl couldn’t see her face, she took a deep breath to pull herself together. She was a whisker away from falling back into the hot, sticky, emotional mess she’dbeen in when Dante had left her on the chaise longue. Swallowing again, she said, “He’s not giving me any choice, is he?”
Geppa didn’t answer.
Ohwhyhad she been so stupid as to sniff his neck? One thoughtless little action, and now Dante thought she was his for the taking.
Violently shoving the imagery of her dream from her mind again, there was a tremor in her voice as she said, “It’s join him for dinner wearing one of these skimpy dresses or nothing, right? And if I refuse to join him and stay in my room, I’ll not be given any food. Is that also right?”
“The chefs have been working very hard on a delicious meal for you,” Geppa stated earnestly.
Callie couldn’t help it. She laughed. Her life had become so surreal she could believe she’d fallen into a Dali painting. “How can you work for a bastard like him, Geppa?”
The blush on the maid’s cheeks was the giveaway. “He is a good man.”
“Good men don’t kidnap women and then refuse to let them leave.” Or refuse to let their best friend know he was going to be a father before he married another woman.
