Chapter 19

CHAPTER NINETEEN

DANTE

H er screams have turned to moans bleeding into one another like watercolors on a canvas as I plaster my hand to her ass over and over, feeling the anger subsiding as her body goes pliant beneath mine.

She makes me crazy. She’s the definition of a menace. There’s still the scent of whiskey wafting between us, and I’m liable to leave here tonight still, and fucking maim Lorenzo and Antonio for this. For keeping her from me.

That’s crazy talk.

I bend over her body, and she presses her hips backward, her chaffed ass brushing my hard cock that’s aching to be inside her.

“I was so worried, tesoro. Driven nearly insane. Do you know what men like me do when they’re worried?”

“Spank innocent drunk women?” she replies breathily.

I can’t help it; I grin against her ear with my lips before I lick it.

“You could’ve called Lorenzo,” she offers weakly.

I push away from her to flip her over beneath me. Pressing her thighs apart, I drop both my elbows next to her face on the mattress, looking into her alcohol-infused gaze.

“I did call them.”

Her pupils dilate slightly at the news, and she picks her head up and skims her lips over mine in a teasing fashion that might get her spanked again.

“I’m sorry,” she whispers.

“Are you?” Even though I want to stay mad at her, I’m softening.

Her lips are too close for good sense to matter.

“I am. I’m afraid I have to disagree with archaic rules where you have the right to demand I answer my phone for you, but I see you were worried. I could have texted back when I saw it on the ride home.”

“You saw my messages then?”

She nods, keeping her lips far enough away that I can think.

“I did. It was late, though. Plus, I was already on my way home to you.”

Home. To me.

I like that sound coming from her, but I don’t outwardly react. I don’t need her to get spooked all over again when she only just started to show signs she’s letting her walls come down.

“I see. And did you have fun at the show? I know you drank far too much.”

She giggles, whiskey fanning from her mouth over my nose. “I had so much fun. Thank you for setting it up.”

I nod, pulling back when she tries to kiss me. Not to be an ass, but because now that I’m calm, I feel a bit selfish and rude for derailing her plan to shower.

She’s nowhere near sober, but she’s sober enough now after I chapped her ass to shower.

“I’ll let you wash,” I tell her, sliding off her body with great effort and heading out to the living room to pour my glass of Macallen.

She’s been in the shower so long that I think she’s fallen asleep. I turn the page on the music book, running my fingers over the ivory keys of the grand piano as I start to play.

Alyssa walks out in shorts and a crop top, looking sinful. My eyes track her instead of the page—no matter, I know this by heart.

She pours herself a hefty glass of whiskey, determined to keep her buzz alive, and sips it as she walks over and leans against the piano, watching me intently.

I drag my eyes down the page as I finish the piece.

“You know, I was sure this thing was just for show the first time I saw your place,” she says, sipping the last of her drink and setting the glass down toward the back of the piano.

“I’m not a man to keep something I can’t use.”

My apartment is indeed sparse, besides things I use or need.

The only frivolous things I have are my cars. Those I won’t compromise on.

“My mother taught me to play,” I tell her as I move the bench back some to allow her to step between my thighs.

She smells of vanilla and a light floral I can’t put my finger on, and I’m drawn into her like a bee to a flower in bloom.

“She taught you well.”

I drop my head to her stomach, listening to her rapid heartbeat.

“Anna loved to hear me play. I haven’t touched these keys since she died.”

“Dante.” She sighs, and it has me lifting my eyes to hers.

“I know you don’t want to hear these things from me, Lyss. I’m only being honest.”

She slides her hands into my hair. “It’s not that I don’t want to hear them; it’s just hard. I’ve lived my life the same way since the divorce, and it’s hard enough to deal with these feelings. Then you say things like that, and it only adds fuel to the flames of what’s happening in my head, you know?”

My eyes grow heavy as she absently rubs my hair. “I get it. I need you to know. Even if you don’t stay here. Even if you move on and return to life as you know it, I need you to know. I never thought I’d be who I was when she was alive again. I never thought I’d…” I sigh, seeing her clam up right before my eyes.

“I never thought I’d be normal,” she says in the absence of my words.

“What?”

“You’re the only man I’ve ever felt anything for beyond wanting to come. You’re the only man I’ve shared a bed with or wanted to know. You have to let me go at my own pace.”

“I’d never hurt you like your dad did your mom,” I tell her, to which she drops her hands away from my hair.

“You don’t know anything, Dante. So how can you promise that?”

It stings, but I only know as much as she’s told me.

I stand, anger raging through me like a torrent.

She clutches my hips, keeping me in place.

“Let me in then, dammit. I’m here, and I want to know you. Let me the fuck in!” I growl.

She rolls her eyes and lets my hips go, heading toward the floor-to-ceiling windows so she can escape back to the solitude of her room.

“No!” I snarl, rushing up behind her and twisting her around.

Her front collides with the window, and she gasps.

“Dante.” Her voice is shaking, and I don’t care.

“You’re not running from this. You’re not running from me!” I tell her.

I shove my hands between her and the glass, ripping her crop top open. Her breasts greet the glass, and she hisses.

I shove her pants down to her ankles and palm her pussy in my hand as I bend down to nibble her ear.

“Are we still arguing?” she asks, ass pressing into me, giving my hand space to spread her cunt, my fingers moving in and massaging her clit sloppily.

“Yes,” I answer, pressing two fingers inside her heat, hearing and feeling how wet she is.

“Who’s winning?” she breathes.

I reach around with my other hand, cutting off her airway as my hand wraps around her throat like a hungry cobra.

“I am.”

She moans as my heel of my palm grinds into her clit, and I grow even harder—which I didn’t know was humanly possible.

“Someone might see…”

I flick my head up, seeing the penthouses across the street lit up with their curtains open.

“What did I tell you before, tesoro?”

“You don’t care who watches you fuck me,” she reiterates like a good little girl.

“And?”

She shivers as her walls flutter around my fingers.

“That you only see me,” she finishes.

“That a girl.”

She whimpers as I let her throat go to free my cock from my sweatpants.

“I’m going to fuck you against this window, and if they see you, they’ll only be envious of me. Envious that you belong to me. That I’m the one who gets to fuck this pretty cunt of yours.” I press her into the glass, forcing her to arch awkwardly for me on tiptoes as I slide my dick through her ass cheeks to find my way home.

The idea that anyone could see us is alluring, but the lights are off. Even if they think they see something, they’ll write it off as a trick of the lights.

She cries out as I thrust inside her, her body gripping my cock so tightly that I nearly lose my footing on the marble beneath my feet.

“Goddamnit, tesoro,” I whisper.

She only moans as she tries to keep on her toes.

Her hands keep sliding, and she keeps readjusting, so I pull out of her and turn her. Before I make another move, she tugs me down to her lips, her whiskey-flavored mouth devouring mine as I take the kiss to the point of pain.

I lift her, turning her and placing her on the keys of the piano before shoving back inside her.

Each thrust makes its own music as her weight shifts on the ivories.

“Dante, don’t stop,” she begs.

“Already, tesoro? You were needy for me, weren’t you?”

Even though I taunt her, I’m not far behind her. It’s always like this with her—hedonistic at its center.

She arches, spreading her arms across the piano, looking like a goddess I’ve come to service.

When she comes, she takes me with her. I pull out of her, coming on her stomach in long drawls. We both shudder through our releases and then wrap around one another, kissing like the world around us is ending.

“Dante,” she breathes, growing lax in my arms. “Take me to the bedroom?”

After I carry her to the room, clean her off, and tuck her in, I climb in behind her and hold her tightly.

I don’t know if she’ll ever let me in or if she’ll stay, but I can do everything in my power to convince her this is where she belongs. To me, it feels right.

It feels perfect.

Morning comes with a very hungover little menace and a few hours of vomiting. I held her hair through it all, nursed her with Pedialyte and Jell-o, as Google told me to, and now I’m rubbing her hair as we watch Stranded on TV-Plus.

“This is what you wanted Brynne to win?” I ask her, having never watched the show myself. I find it odd to go into some of the most treacherous parts of the world and try to survive when the modern world and all its houses exist, but I get the draw.

“Don’t remind me. I feel awful about it. Look what she’s gone through.”

I scoff. “She found Slate, though. They’d have never found one another. Not as deeply hidden as he was on that island.”

She laughs softly. “Yeah, you’re right. I guess I’m a good matchmaker then, huh?”

I rein in a chuckle when she eyeballs me from my lap. “I wouldn’t say that; I think fate had a bit to do with it, don’t you?”

She turns back to the show, and I resume my rubbing.

“How’s your head?”

“Better. I just didn’t want to tell you that,” she answers.

I pucker my brows. “What? Why?”

She turns over in my lap. “I didn’t want you to stop rubbing.”

I brush my thumb over her bottom lip. “I already told you. Whatever you want, it’s yours.”

Her eyes turn devious. “Alright. I want the sun.”

“Well, the people of Earth are going to riot when I lasso it for you, and they find out you’re the reason for the eternal darkness.”

She laughs, and it has my chest in knots. I don’t know if this will last, but I’m determined to enjoy it while it’s in my grasp. Even if my brain is determined to ruminate on the what-ifs of the situation.

She lifts and straddles my lap, leaning her forehead against mine as she closes her eyes. I do the same, letting our peace spread through my body.

“Thank you.”

“Well, I haven’t given you the sun yet. There are details to hash out, you know? It’s a big job. Give me some time, tesoro.”

She giggles. “No! Thank you for taking care of me today. Thank you for worrying about me last night.”

I smirk. “Even if your ass is chapped today?”

“Even so.”

“I’m sorry I lost my temper with you last night. I don’t know what comes over me.”

“I’m not an easy woman to deal with. But don’t worry about it. I rather like being spanked.”

“Oh, I know you do. It still doesn’t give me the right to do that in that headspace. I’ll do better.”

“A man who communicates. You’re a rarity, you know that?”

“Well, I’m pretty pig-headed, too. Don’t go thinking I’m perfect.”

She kisses me, shutting me up as I grip her ass in my hands.

When she peels her lips away and sighs, we spend the next few moments just drinking the moment in.

“Tomorrow is the big day,” she says.

I nod. “It is. It’s going to be a long one, too.”

She groans and falls back onto the couch beside me. “I’m not ready.”

“You’ll be fine. We will get through it.”

An awkward silence falls over us, and she clears her throat and turns the television on. She’s this way when things feel too real, and it’s alright.

I’m going to take things at her pace.

My phone dings on the coffee table, and I lean over and grab it.

Slate

Sorry it’s late. I got Alyssa’s apartment set up so she can move in whenever she’s ready. She will be out of your hair soon. Sorry it took me a few days. Thanks for helping out, man.

I swipe it away and place my phone on the coffee table.

“Who was that?” she asks, sipping out of her can of ginger ale I got her from a store a bit ago.

“No one. Spam text.”

“I fucking hate those.”

She sits on my lap, and I glide my hands back through her hair.

As the night progresses and Alyssa falls asleep, I grapple with the lie.

She’ll find out, eventually. But I hadn’t wanted to ruin what could be our last night together.

I wanted to keep this moment as long as I could.