Carpathian 10 - Dark Symphony

The sound of Tasha's shoes reverberated through her head.
    "Oh that odious man! Not him. You know I can't stand to be in the same room with him.
    He's rude and obnoxious, and I hate him." Tasha stared at her reflection in the mirror of the vanity. "Why would you have a mirror in here? I've never understood that." She turned sideways and held her breath, checking her flat stomach.
    "It came with the furniture," Antonietta said. "What man are you talking about? I don't spend hours with any man." She turned away from her cousin to hide the sudden color she knew was spreading into her face. She couldn't think too much about the time spent with Byron. About her reactions to him.
    "The policeman, Antonietta," Tasha snapped impatiently. "For heaven's sake, follow along. This is important."
    "This is all over a policeman?" Antonietta sighed with a mixture of relief and exasperation. "Tasha, you're engaged to be married. You have a fiance, a very wealthy fiance, I might add."
    "What does that have to do with anything? I'm going to marry Christopher, but he's so boring. And he's so jealous. It's tiresome. His entire life is his family and church and business.
    All he can think about is ships and religion."
    "His family does own the second largest shipping company in the world, Tasha,"
    Antonietta said. "And Italian families are nearly always close."
    "Mama's boys," Tasha sniffed, "or in Christopher's case, a daddy's boy. They insist I have to go to church with him."
    "You knew going into the betrothal he wanted you to convert to his religion."
    "I didn't realize I was supposed to take it so seriously. He brings that horrible priest over every week, and I'm supposed to study. All I should have to do is go and sit with him during the services. I don't need to know all the mumbo jumbo that goes along with it. I doubt if anybody else really knows it. In any case, why can't he just be a Catholic like everybody else?
    Who cares which religion is the true one and who broke away from what? It's just silly."
    Antonietta sighed again. "You can't have a fling with a policeman when you're engaged to one of the more powerful men in the world. I think the tabloids would get wind of it."
    "Who mentioned a fling? I could really fall for him. He has the most wonderful chest you've ever imagined. Even Byron doesn't have a chest like his, well, not as perfect anyway."
    She made a rude noise. "Why do you like him?"
    Deliberately Antonietta misunderstood. "I've never met your policeman, Tasha, so how could I possibly have an opinion?"
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    Dark Symphony
    Page 33 of 188
    "You know very well I was talking about Bryon!"
    "Why don't you like him?" Antonietta countered.
    "He doesn't look at me. Never. That's just not normal," Tasha said. "All men look at me.
    And he's scary. There's just no other word for him. His eyes are flat and cold, and he stares at people like he sees inside of them. He never smiles." She shivered. "He reminds me of a tiger I saw at the zoo one time, pacing back and forth in its cage and watching me without blinking."
    "He smiles."
    "He bares his teeth, it isn't the same thing." Tasha gasped loudly. "Antonietta! What is on your neck? You have a love bite."
    Antonietta could feel the sudden burning, a throbbing on her neck that caused an instant reaction in her body. Fire smoldered in the pit of her stomach. There was an answering throb between her legs. For a moment she could actually taste him in her mouth. Wild. Untamed. A dark, erotic dream better left for night yet persisting into daylight hours. The throbbing spread to include a spot on the swell of her breast. She tried not to blush, remembering the feel of Byron's mouth, hot and wet and wild on her skin. She covered her neck with the palm of her hand, captured his kiss there, holding him to her with that small caress.
    "It is a love bite! He was here last night with you!" It was an accusation, nothing less, as if Antonietta were on trial for criminal behavior. "You took Byron Justicano into your bed!
    Look at you, what you're wearing!" Tasha was nearly hysterical. "That lace barely covers you!
    Have you no decency?"
    "Tasha." Antonietta forced herself to remain calm when she wanted to order her cousin out of the room. "You bought me this gown. I sleep in it because it is