Dante's Dilemma (a Dante Legacy Novella) Read Online Free

you, and that you care for him, and provide him with children. Preferably male children. Maybe if I’d given your father sons instead of daughters, we wouldn’t have to sell the vineyard.”
    “Mamma—”
    Maria wiped her hands on her apron and turned to confront her daughter. “Would you dishonor your family, Julietta?” she demanded.
    “No, of course not.”
    “Breaking off the engagement at this late date would bring dishonor to us all. The Rossi family would not take it well. I don’t want to think what might happen if we were to get on their bad side. Please. I’m begging of you. Be an obedient daughter, Julietta Angelina. Marry Tito.” She wrapped her arms around her daughter and gave her a swift hug. “He’s not a bad man, is he?”
    “No, Mamma,” Julietta whispered.
    “Has he hurt you in any way?”
    She shook her head. “He’s been very kind to me.”
    “Isn’t that good enough?”
    At one point she might have thought so. But not now. Not after what had happened in the field. The chaste kisses Tito had given her couldn’t begin to compare to the heated exchanges with Rom Dante. With Tito, she’d felt nothing. Not passion, not distaste. Just… nothing. She attempted to imagine how she’d respond if Tito unbuttoned her dress. If he’d tugged aside her slip and caressed her breasts. If he’d kissed her nipples and teased them with his teeth.
    And she shuddered in distaste.
    No. She couldn’t imagine doing with Tito what she’d done with Rom. It seemed… wrong. Sacrilegious. Glancing down, she realized she’d dug her thumb into the palm of her hand in the exact spot where Rom had burned her with his “Inferno.” It itched, a constant reminder of how she’d betrayed her fiancé. It wasn’t Serena who needed to confess to
il sacerdote.
Her sins were far worse than her sister’s.
    What would happen when she confessed she didn’t love Tito, didn’t want him? What would happen when she confessed what she’d done with Rom? What she longed to do again?
    “I’m going to hell,” she whispered.
    “What did you say?” Maria asked.
    Julietta closed her eyes against the press of tears. “I’m not feeling well.”
    “We can’t have you sick for your engagement party tomorrow. Go straight to bed. I’ll send up a tray of chicken soup and fresh bread. I’m sure you’ll feel better by morning.”
    Probably so. After all, she doubted she could feel any worse. And while she lay in bed, not sleeping, she’d concentrate on erasing all thought of Romero Dante.
    If only she could also erase the escalating desire that wove like a ribbon of need through every part of her.

    Rom’s family celebrated his return with enthusiastic restraint. While they offered up hugs, kisses, and a table laden with food, it felt like the sort of greeting offered to a guest, not a son of the family. But then, he wasn’t a true son, but a bastard. He didn’t carry the Ranieri name, the name of his stepfather, Luigi, but his mother’s.
Nonno
eased the burden of bearing the Dante name, since he was also one, and Rom had often wondered if his grandfather lived with them for that express purpose, to lend an air of legitimacy and acceptance to his grandson. His presence had certainly eased Rom’s life and given him someone to talk to whenever life became difficult.
    In addition to the food, bottles of wine bearing the Ranieri label cluttered the wooden table, as well as his
nonno’s
homemade honey beer. Gossip about nearby friends and relatives flowed as freely as the drink, and he savored every moment of it with a bittersweet delight, aware that where once he’d belonged within the tightly woven fabric of Santa Lucia, on another level he had always stood outside its protective embrace and always would. Still, it was good to hear how the lives of the local villagers had changed or, more often, remained the same.
    He dug his thumb into the palm of his right hand while he listened, not that it eased the itch created