The Trials of Tiah...Dante

By Evelyn DeVere

In Book Two of the series Tiah continues her misadventures in romance by giving up on the gorgeous Riley Lytton, youngest son of a wealthy wine baron. She discovers herself tangled in up with the smouldering but spoiled Dante Rossi, the rebellious son determined not to take over his parents prosperous restaurant chain. Determined not to let Dante use her to cover for him, Tiah finds herself at odds with someone who manages to kiss her and shout at her in the same ten minutes. Their relationship goes everywhere except where she wants due to the interference of the scary billionaire Vaun Dubois. Why is he still haunting her life? Why is he so interested in her? Tiah tries to protect her friends from the unwelcome and dangerous interest of Vaun Dubois and winds up in a bigger mess than even she could imagine. Will there be any happy endings for a girl foolish enough to face the manipulation of Ravenvale’s most treacherous villain? Tiah’s not sure she’s going to survive the day, much less dealing with the devil!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Breedles Publishing
• Release date: Apr 4, 2015
• ISBN: 9780994312303

Evelyn DeVere

I live in Sydney Australia and created a Young Adult romance series called the Trials of Tiah.

Book preview

106

The Trials of Tiah…Dante

by

Evelyn DeVere

Copyright Evelyn DeVere 2015

Published by Breedles Publishing at Smashwords

http://www.breedlespublishing.com

Cover by Padraig Designs

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All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher

except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

Contents

Chapter 1—Nightmare Of A Dream

Chapter 2—Sanzaru

Chapter 3—The Hell Of The Snow Maiden

Chapter 4—The Invisible Girl

Chapter 5—New And Improved

Chapter 6—Eye Of The Lynx

Chapter 7—Burning The Wires

Chapter 8—A Brighton Day

Chapter 9—Saved By The Monster

Chapter 10—First We’re Dealing With The Devil

Chapter 11—Organised Mayhem

Chapter 12—Coffee and…

Chapter 13—Entertaining The Enemy

Chapter 14—Hostess With The Mostess

Chapter 15—A Variety Of Truths

Chapter 16—Now We’re Dancing With The Devil

Chapter 17—Impending Doom Of Regret

Chapter 18—The Other Side Of Jealousy

Chapter 19—Marriage Is Thicker Than Blood

Chapter 20—Southside

Chapter 21—Ending Before It Began

Chapter 22—New Faces Old Story

Chapter 23—Wrapped Up In Despair

Chapter 24—Anticipating The Fallout

Chapter 25—Day One: The Quest of Vaun

Chapter 26—Day Two: The Quest of Vaun

Chapter 27—Storms In Many Realms

Chapter 28—Fools To The Left of Me—Jerks To The Right

Chapter 29—The Iceman

Chapter 30—Lies Of A Broken Heart

Chapter 31—Impode—Explode

The Trials of Tiah…Dante

Chapter 1—Nightmare Of A dream

I dreamt I was standing in the garden where it wasn’t night, it wasn’t day, and the sky was black with clouds. The wind made dead leaves dance around my feet and the flowers drooped, as if carrying the burden of some secret sorrow. I grabbed a rose to smell the perfume, but instead of being greeted by the sweet scent, a thorn cut into my finger. I dropped the rose and saw a drop of blood on my fingertip. I put my finger into my mouth, but didn’t taste blood because I was in a world of someone else’s creation.

Where am I? I whispered into the void; only nothing answered.

I didn’t see him there at first, though I felt him behind me. His presence crushed against me and his shadow crept on my skin, like a shiver under the cold wind. I wanted to leave; hide and get away from him. I couldn’t turn to look into his face because the air was a heavy weight trapping me between the clouds above and the flowers around me. I stood mute—afraid while he approached me. I closed my eyes like a child believing if I didn’t see the monster he wouldn’t exist. I didn’t know what he wanted, but he brought the blackness with him and it froze me.

His hand rested upon my back. No, I tried to whisper.

No matter how much I tried I couldn’t make more than a whimper. He was a blanket of evil that had me wrapped in its spell. I felt the power of the being behind me, immeasurable, like trying to weigh the universe in a tea cup. He swallowed my world and I prayed for something to take me away from there. He moved closer and before I could resist I was faint and falling backwards against him. His hard body curved into mine as he held me upright.

I held my breath, waiting for him to destroy me, instead his body softened. I remember the musky smell of his chest while the coarse fabric of his coat brushed against my skin. I didn’t open my eyes because I feared what stood behind me. The large buttons of his jacket pressed between my shoulders and his arms were like bands of steel as he held me in an inescapable embrace.

Let me go. I tried to protest, except my voice was only in my head.

His breath was warm on my neck and his hair brushed against me, making the world spin out of shape. I felt weak and overcome by his touch. He turned me around slowly until I stood facing him. Fear had me close my eyes again. I couldn’t look at who had possessed me. Afraid, I waited for him to destroy me and I could not, would not, look at my assassin. He moved forward, his body arching towards mine, and the air was sucked up between us as he filled the gap. The fabric of his coat crushing against me woke a familiar memory. The second his lips touched mine I knew that the man I couldn’t run from, the man I was kissing, was Dante.

I clung to his coat and allowed the passion of his kiss to consume me. I didn’t want it to end. His lips were fierce and demanding, taking control of mine, and I felt his body harden against me. My knees buckled and he caught me, held me against him, while I leaned into him embracing his heat. A moan caught in my throat and I shivered as he poured his desires into his kisses. I wrapped my arms around his neck, pressing him closer to me while his hands tangled in my hair.

His lips left mine when I murmured his name and his body became iron in the flash of an instant. He lifted his head from me and I opened my eyes to see why our kiss had ended. Instead of meeting the fire of Dante I gazed into the cold cruel green eyes of Vaun. I was disgusted and pushed against him. I pounded on his chest and tried to pull away from him. He laughed at my hatred and put his mouth back on mine. He held me in a ring of iron and kept me a prisoner of his lust. I struggled in panic, but he held me firm and his chuckles filled my ears while his lips burned mine. I cried out and twisted when he kissed my neck. Nothing stopped the flood of his abuse.

Finally, I pushed him away and ran back into the house. I turned to close the French doors into the garden, desperate to keep the evil away. I saw him ambling towards the house, wearing Dante’s clothes. He was relaxed, confident in his Dubois superiority, and smiled his disgusting smirk of triumph. I grabbed one door, only to have the other one blown from my hands by the winds. I looked up and saw the black clouds swirl behind Vaun as if they obeyed his bidding. Terrified and fighting for my life I held onto both doors at once. I used all my strength and pulled them shut with a loud slam. His gleaming eyes stared at me through the glass and his lips curled in a malicious smile of inevitable victory.

I woke up shivering and it took me a few minutes to realise that I was safe in my own bed. I should have realised that what happened would have some type of disturbing consequences. Vaun couldn’t have me in the real world, so how like him to terrify me in my dreams. There was something even scarier than being kissed by Vaun. I’d thought I was kissing Dante Rossi and I didn’t mind that one bit!

Chapter 2—Sanzaru

I woke up to the second worst day in my life as this was the day I had to go to work, face Dante and pretend nothing had happened. I stared at myself in the mirror. My auburn hair was a mess and the gold flecks in my green eyes gleamed like I was from another world. Dante was obviously driving me crazy and I decided that I wasn’t going to be in love with a freak-ape-boy-extreme-sport-lay-about-meat-head who was planning to start a crazy business so he could play all day instead of work. I knew I would be left with a life going nowhere and while I didn’t exactly want to get married or anything I also didn’t want to be his unpaid assistant. The way Dante used me at work showed he was happy to do that, but I wasn’t dumb enough to accept it!

But that was life in Ravenvale, the town of rich, opulent and insane. Run by the mad billionaire Dubois family and everyone else dancing to their tunes so their pockets stayed filled. When you are raised in this world behaviour that might seem immoral or plain creepy to others is just doing business to us. Ravenvale was filled with old money, new money and those who clung to the shirt tails of the rich in the hope of getting rich themselves. I was from a family that was more old bloodlines than old money, so that allowed me in the door. While we weren’t poor my family didn’t match the endless wealth of the Lytton wine fortune, the Rossi restaurant group, or the Dubois—who knows— murder and mayhem billions? This was Ravenvale and you survived it as best you could.

After shaking my nightmare I went downstairs to fin Mother looking pleased with herself, which I knew was trouble for me one way or another. I wasn’t about to get mixed up in whatever crazy plan she had going this time, so I ate my breakfast in the kitchen with Liv who nodded and glared at me at the same time.

She is fierce—a tiger—a good tiger!

I stared at her because sometimes you had to work out the difference between what Liv was saying and what Liv meant.

Who is? I asked.

Fiercemudder.

She was fond of merging words, so instead of her learning English properly we learned Liv speak. Being that she lived with us my entire life Liv was more like some dotty Aunt than a housekeeper. I knew Mother would be lost without her help; we’d all be lost without her stern muttering and household management.

I left Mother in her sitting room where she was burning the wires with one of her old boods and drove the longest ride to work. When I got there I sat in the car park for about ten minutes so I wouldn’t have to face Dante. We had to work together and I was trying to act calm. I wanted to be seen as in control and carefree. Though standing a foot away from him all day long without throwing myself into his arms was nearly impossible. If it was a total disaster I’d be forced to leave another job. At least then I could tell Mother I gave the work thing a try but it wasn’t for me, and she could splutter into her gin all she liked.

I went inside not knowing what to expect from Dante. He was working on an order at a table out front and he grinned when he saw me. I felt shy and a bit strange and not knowing what to do I nodded.

Hey, I said and kept walking to the back office.

Ava was waiting there for me, which was unusual because when angry she would call people up to the big office upstairs. That way the shouting was less public, not much, but less.

I stood wondering why she was waiting for me and it was weird because she seemed as nervous as me. If it was anyone else but Ava, I’d think she didn’t want to shout at me because of her friendship with Mother. Except this was Ava and pretty much nothing stopped her from shouting her low opinion of you.

She shuffled some papers on the tiny desk. How are you going?

What? I was confused. In my entire life of knowing her Ava had never bothered asking me anything. She had frequently told me to sit somewhere, be quiet and get out of the way, but how I was going was never a concern.

She seemed lost for words. How are you, ah, getting along here?

This confused me even more. Okay. I said and waited for her to tell me I was useless or fired or something!

I’ve been speaking to your mother.

This was hardly news as they burned the wires all the time. Usually they gossiped about the downfall of some uppity socialite who might have been stupid enough to be rude to one of them. Then she got what she deserved, because everyone knew you didn’t mess about with the founding families of Ravenvale. Even Mother was considered off-limits, so when someone crossed the line the old boods banded together and ensured payback was swift and brutal. Welcome to my world!

Mother didn’t say anything to me this morning, but she looked pleased with herself when I left. I felt my heart sink as I wondered what she’d done this time. If she wasn’t trying to get me jobs, she was trying to arrange my romantic life. When I was young and my father was alive Mother didn’t worry too much about what I did. I wasn’t sure if she felt she had to double parent because of his absence or wanted to pawn me off someplace so she could stop parenting altogether! Between gin and gossip I was never sure what her motives were. Ava brought me back to the conversation.

How are things going with Dante? Are you working together okay?

My face went red and my mind raced through a million thoughts. Why was she asking about Dante? Did he run home and tell his mother he kissed a girl, because that would make him even more a freak boy than he already was.

I heard that things didn’t go so well at the Opener?

I realized Mother had been the typical interfering parent and called up Ava to complain about Dante abandoning me. Since it was something almost like defending me I didn’t know if I should be impressed or cringe. Part of me also wanted to shout at how badly she raised her son. He might be the heir to the Rossi chain, but he could use some basic manners. Being an idiot monkey boy wasn’t doing him any favours. Instead I did what anyone would do when some bood pried into your life—I lied.

That was ages ago and there’s no trouble with Dante.

I couldn’t begin to think about the problems between us as I was busy resisting the urge to throw myself into his arms. His kiss was still burning on my lips and I wanted so much more, but he was going to blow up my world. He was more interested in thumbing his nose at everyone than behaving like