Chapter Twenty-Six
Dante’s gym was a massive, two-story structure that, apparently, used to be a nightclub.
As I looked around, I could see it. The lower level featured all the heavy lifting equipment; on the balcony overlooking it were all the cardio machines. The place even had a swimming pool.
Being new, I was led by one of the employees to the women’s locker room, where I toured the little rooms featuring vanities, hair dryers, seating, and shower areas.
When I made my way back out, I didn’t want to bother Dante while he got his workout in, so I made my way up to the balcony to play around on a machine that was kind of a mix of an elliptical and a stair climber in one.
I was having a good old time.
Until I glanced down and saw a woman in a skintight baby pink unitard leaning on the weight rack where Dante was adding weight to his bar.
I slowed then stopped, feeling like the woman’s posture was less gym-friendly and more ‘look at my butt gains.’
I’d never been a jealous person in my relationships. Then again, I guess I’d never really dated men who were so outwardly annoyingly gorgeous as Dante was.
I knew I was partial, but he was looking especially sexy with his cut-off sleeves showing off his arms. I almost wanted to hit on him myself. And I already had him.
To his credit, Dante did seem to be mostly ignoring her, just giving her the occasional nod, but never really even looking in her direction.
She was relentless, though. Throwing her head back laughing, leaning over to ‘check her laces,’ and raking her gaze up and down Dante’s body.
I was going to let it go. Really, I was. I was now dating a stupidly handsome man. Of course other women were going to notice him. And the more confident and bolder of them might even shoot their shot.
But Dante rolled the bar out away from the rack to, I assume, do some deadlifts.
The woman followed, circling around him like some sort of sexy predator.
“That’s enough of that,” I grumbled to myself, climbing off my machine and making my way toward the stairs.
I caught my reflection in the floor-to-ceiling mirrors as I got to the landing.
I’d opted for those swishy loose pants and a simple tee as my gym gear. My face was free of makeup. My hair was back in a high ponytail.
Standing side by side, the other woman might have been the clear winner in the looks department.
But that didn’t matter.
Dante wanted me.
He actually jerked back as the woman reached out to touch his bicep.
Actively working not to look like I was defensively storming over there, I slid around Dante, my hand on his belly.
“Hey!” I greeted him as the other woman stepped back, brows pinched.
“Hey, babe.” Dante’s smirk said he knew exactly what I was doing. And, what’s more, he liked it.
He leaned down and pressed a quick kiss to my lips.
“This is Hazel,” he said, speaking to the other woman. “Hazel, this is Amanda.”
“Ashley,” the woman corrected.
“Right. Ashley,” Dante said in a way that told me he’d screwed her name up on purpose.
“What? Oh, hey!” the woman said, waving to an invisible friend behind us. “Well, nice meeting you. I have to go.”
She scurried away.
And once she was gone, Dante smiled down at me.
“Staking your claim, huh?” he asked. “I like it,” he added before I could answer.
“I wasn’t going to come down but she was being pretty bold.”
“She wasn’t taking no for an answer,” Dante admitted.
“Should I get myself a unitard for the gym?” I asked, glancing over to look at the two of us in the mirror.
“You’d rock it,” he said. “But I don’t want anyone else looking at this ass but me,” he said, giving said ass a hard slap that dragged a laugh out of me. “Now, get, so I can keep these arms strong enough to throw you around back at home.”
“Don’t threaten me with a good time,” I said, leaning up to give him a quick kiss on the cheek before walking away.
I made my way back upstairs, heading over to the stair climber, deciding that if he was going to keep his arms strong for me, I was definitely going to keep my ass perky for him.
Apparently, all it took for me to fall in love with working out was the promise of fun, sexy times with a really hot guy.
It worked to jazz us both up, it seemed, because as soon as we were out of the car back at his place, Dante tossed me over his shoulder, carried me up to the primary shower, and we spent an hour showing each other how much we loved the other’s body.
Dante - 1 week
“Christ,” Domenico sighed, rubbing his eyes. “This is fucking exhausting.”
I put down the phone I was looking through.
“You’re not wrong.”
“This Family needs its own dedicated hacker. We barely know what we’re doing.”
All the capos had spent the last week looking through confiscated electronics we’d taken from all the soldiers and associates.
It was part of a multi-step plan to be sure that Big Ed and Don had been the only rats in our organization.
The problem was, shit was easy to hide these days. Folders inside folders. Fake apps. Cloud storage. Not to mention that pretty much every guy not only had a cell phone, but a burner, tablets, laptops, and smart watches.
“Once we track down that hacker who attacked Hazel, we could probably stop all this.” Dom powered up a tablet. “A couple hours of careful torture and we’d have a list of names.”
“I’d sign up to rip out the fingernails,” I offered, thinking of the bruises on Hazel’s shoulders that were starting to go green and yellow around the edges as they healed.
“It’s a deal,” he agreed. “How’s that shit going?”
“’That shit’ being my relationship with Hazel.”
“Yeah, that.”
“It’s good.” I was playing it down. It was the best fucking time I’d had in my life. However well-suited I thought we’d been from gut feeling alone, each day with her only further backed that up.
We liked doing the same things, thought the same way, had similar ideas for the future.
And that shit where she got possessive of me around other women?
Hot as fuck.
We’d been at the grocery store the night before.
She’d walked away to grab the garlic we forgot.
When she came back, a woman was genuinely just asking me what I thought of the brand of pasta I was buying.
She had a ring on her finger and everything.
But Hazel had walked up and plastered herself to me, her hand rubbing up and down my stomach and chest.
I wanted to bend her over the cart and fuck her right there.
“This is the longest you’ve been away from her, isn’t it?” he asked. “Three hours,” he said, checking the time on the tablet.
Three hours and thirty-seven minutes. But who was counting?
I wanted to tell myself that I was just a little worried about her safety when she was away from me. But I genuinely just… missed her.
As if I’d conjured her, the door to Famiglia flew open and there she was.
She’d clearly raided her closet back at home for the first time, dressed in a pair of deep green corduroy pants and a Santa Claus sweater.
The garden center had the garden center transitioned from Halloween to general fall as we waited for all of our winter wonderland decor to show up. But Hazel was already fully into Christmas mode.
The dining room table had become a craft zone for her as she strung lights, ornaments, and bows from long, thick strands of garland. She planned to drape them down the banisters, around the doorways, and on the mantle.
She’d also planned a special night for the whole family where she was going to cook dinner, then we were all going to paint Christmas ornaments together.
My mom was over the fucking moon with how quickly Hazel had settled into my place and how she was already making plans to host everyone.
“Is it just me or is she… stomping?” Dom asked as she made her way over.
When she stopped beside the table, her eyes were narrowed.
Someone was in the shithouse.
“What the hell were you doing in my apartment?” she snapped, glaring at Dom.
Uh-oh.
“Who said I was in your place?” Dom asked, not exactly lying, but not telling her the truth either.
“The protein bar wrapper in my bedroom garbage.”
“Think we can rule out a future for you in espionage,” I said to him.
“And you,” she said, turning to me, her arms crossing.
“Somebody’s in trouble,” Dom said in a singsong voice.
“I’ll get back to you,” Hazel said, gaze cutting his way.
Dom had the good sense to look a little concerned.
“You knew?” she asked, looking at me.
“Only after the fact.” Which, now that I said it, wasn’t a great excuse. “I told him not to break in.”
“Why did he break in?”
“He didn’t trust you,” I admitted. “He wanted to make sure you weren’t in bed with the guys who were fucking with the garden center.”
“Why didn’t you tell me he went in?”
Well, if we were doing the whole truth thing, I had to steel myself for her reaction to the next thing I was about to say.
“Because of what he found when he went in,” I admitted.
Dom looked like he wanted the ground to open up and swallow him.
Hazel glared at the top of his head for a second before turning to look at me. “What did he find?” she asked, teeth clenched so tight her jaw must have hurt.
“Something very personal.”
“Personal? What, like my tamp—” Her eyes went huge as the realization dawned on her.
“Are you serious?” she seethed. “That was hidden in an old purse in the closet.”
“It’s no big deal,” Dom said, trying to do some damage control. “What chick doesn’t have one?”
Clearly, Hazel. Before she bought the one he found.
“I am going to find a really horrible, truly diabolical way to punish you for this,” Hazel warned.
“Don’t talk dirty to me. Your man is right here,” Dom teased, making Hazel roll her eyes.
“How was everything at your place?” I asked, getting up to pull the chair out for her.
“Weird.”
“Weird how?”
“I don’t know. It felt oddly… foreign. Like all my stuff is there, but it didn’t feel like it was mine.”
“Because it’s not,” Dom said, shrugging. “You live with Dante now.”
She did.