Chapter 13 #2
I feel Dante move closer, and then his fingers touch my chin and force me to look up at him.
“Look at me,” he demands, and his eyes catch mine, luring me in with ease. I don’t dare look away from him. “You don’t gotta feel guilty about that, about anything. Not with me.”
I bite my lip briefly. “I know, I just don’t know how. I don’t understand the intensity of all of this. I don’t understand you or your family,” I say. “But I want to.”
Dante slides his fingers from my chin to my jawline and leans in closer. “You’re unlike any man I’ve ever met, Ethan.”
“I’m pretty sure that’s you,” I whisper.
I think he’s going to kiss me, but then he pulls away and lets go of my face. A deep sense of disappointment blossoms in my chest. Dante just looks at me, and I can see pain in his eyes. It feels just like that morning when I asked him about his mother.
I reach out for him and take his hand, leading him through my small apartment and to my bedroom without another word. It’s more comfortable in my room than in the living room, and I feel safe here. I hope Dante will, too.
“Come sit down,” I tell him, my voice soft as I move onto my bed and sit near the pillows with my legs crossed.
Dante’s eyes shift along the bed for a moment, and I sense his hesitation. I don’t say it again. I just wait until he finally sits down on the edge of the bed, turned halfway to look at me.
“Tell me about your mom?” I ask him.
His gaze moves away from me and to the wall behind the bed. “It’s nothing that can be changed. Just buried history.”
I frown. “Unbury it. I can’t change it, but I can hold it with you.”
“What if I don’t want you to hold it?” he asks.
“Too bad. You picked me to get obsessed with, and I care about you, Dante. It’s alright if you’re not ready, but you have to let me in at some point.”
It’s quiet for another moment. I don’t push or press. I’m prepared for him to not say anything else on the matter.
“Caroline. My mother. She died when I was a child,” he tells me.
He’s not looking at me, though. I don’t speak, just listen.
“I was always a lot closer to her than Marco, but she did her best for both of us. She was there for us more than Father was, that’s for fucking sure.
She was just as cunning and manipulative as him, maybe more.
We always said she was the real head of the family. ”
Dante chuckles weakly and shakes his head. “Unlike Father, she thought almost everyone in rival families were innocent. She put all the blame on the heads and wanted to spill as little blood as possible.”
I scoot closer to Dante. I can hear his voice thickening with emotion. It makes my own chest squeeze.
“A plan was set up to bring down a rival. Father decided we’d do anythin’ to get it done.
Didn’t matter who lived or died. He didn’t need any living members of that family, just needed them gone so we could move in on their turf and take over.
Actually, it’d be easier if they were all gone.
” His hands ball into fists. “They were a messy gang. Causin’ more trouble than anyone else.
Killed for no reason but fun sometimes.”
I swallow a lump in my throat, not liking where this is going. I place a hand on the back of his shoulder, and feel just how tight his muscles are.
“In the middle of all of it, Mama decided to try to save one of the kids—the youngest, a little girl. Father knew about her but wasn’t interested in getting any of the kids out alive.
To him, if they got in the way, they got in the way.
” His voice grows more strained. Dante turns his face away from me, and I use my other hand to touch his cheek and turn it toward me again.
“Don’t hide from me,” I whisper. “Let me see you.”
Dante growls under his breath. “Mama, she…went against his orders. She tried to get her out,” he tells me, his voice shaky as several tears drip down his face.
My own lips tremble as I brush his tears away with my thumb.
“Father…that son of a bitch, he decided she’d made her choice, that she knew the risks.
He wouldn’t call it off. She got caught in the fucking cross fire.
I was there. I’ll never forget it. I heard that she’d just run in to save that little girl, and that they weren’t going to stop.
They were just going to take down whoever they had to.
We took her to the hospital, but it was too late.
There was so much blood.” His words become mangled by his tears, and I wrap my arms around him.
“I’m so sorry, Dante,” I whisper as I press my face against the back of his shoulder.
“I promised myself…f-from that day on, I wouldn’t let anyone else I care about get hurt.
This life ain’t just threats and punching dicks in the face, it’s more than that.
A threat one day is a car bomb the next, and slicing your throat while you sleep the day after that.
We have to be on our toes, we have to be…
” He starts breathing so heavily he’s struggling to get his words out.
“I c-can’t…I can’t risk it, not with you.
I won’t be like him. I won’t be like my father and let you get caught in the cross fire just because it’s easier. Just for my fucking ego.”
I squeeze him tighter. Everything suddenly makes so much more sense. Several tears drip down my own face, my eyes stinging and my heart aching for him. “I’m here. I’m not going anywhere. I understand.”
Dante turns to me and wraps his arms around my waist, pulling me into his lap.
“I won’t let you go, not for nothing,” he growls. “You’re mine. No one will hurt you.” He slides his hands under my shirt, rubbing all along my back and holding me so tightly I can hardly breathe, but I don’t care.
“I’m here. No one is hurting me. You have me,” I reassure him.
Dante suddenly kisses me. I can taste his tears on my tongue as he moves his mouth desperately against mine. I gasp for air, but don’t pull back. I wrap my arms around his neck and straddle his lap.
“I need you,” Dante cries softly. The sound breaks my heart and turns me on at the same time. I don’t understand it, but maybe I don’t need to.
“You have me,” I say against his mouth.
The sadness and pain are thick in the air. I feel his hands shake and my own body tremble as we hold on to each other.
“What do you need?” I ask him, wanting to be sure, needing to know.
“Y-You. I need you. I need to feel you. I need to know you’re real,” Dante chokes out against my lips.
I slide my hands under his shirt, pressing my hands against his skin and feeling every curve of his body—muscles and scars, the softness of his stomach, the tufts of body hair.
We melt into each other so quickly—no more words, just touch.
I kiss Dante back eagerly, wanting to make him feel better, wanting to be close to him and give him what he needs. The kiss is sloppy, messy, and saliva drips down my chin.
As my hands slide along his torso, Dante’s move down my back until he grabs my shirt and starts pulling it off over my head.
I let him, removing my hands from his body until my torso is naked, and then I grab his shirt and pull it off as well.
Something about this is different than before. More emotional. More open. It’s less about Dante controlling the situation and dominating it. We both move in tune with each other, neither one of us fighting for control of any kind.
In perfect tandem, we pull each other down to lie on the bed.
The pain starts to ease into arousal, heating my stomach and hardening my cock.
As we lay on our sides, I break the kiss, only to kiss his cheeks, collecting his tears and drinking them just like he did for me.
“Ethan,” Dante moans against the side of my jaw.
I shiver hard and slide a hand down to his belt.
I don’t need to think; I just act. I undo his belt and his pants and slide my hands into them, pushing them down.
At the same time, I start to kiss along his jawline and neck, slow and soft.
His throat is warm, and I feel his pulse racing underneath my lips.
Dante licks and nibbles at my shoulder as I attend to his neck. His own hands slide into my pants and push them and my boxers down until my ass is bared to him. I groan against his skin as he gropes it so desperately that my dick throbs.
In just a moment we’re both naked in my bed. His groin presses against mine, cock to cock, and I feel how hard and wet he is already.
It’s difficult to know how much time passes as we kiss and explore each other with our hands. My legs part he rests between them, and it feels so natural, so perfect. There’s no rush in our movements to get off. All I want is to be close to Dante and make him feel good.
I don’t care if I come or not, and it seems he doesn’t, either.
I pull Dante’s head up and capture his lips with my own, kissing him deeply. He groans into my mouth and presses down against me even harder. Our hips rock against each other, slow and deep, but without the haste of wanting to get off immediately.
My entire body is burning with need, and sweat beads at my hairline.
Each movement, no matter how small, makes my bed creak underneath us.
Groaning, moaning, panting for breath…I’m not sure for how long I simply kiss him, lick into his mouth, dance my tongue around his, bite him…
and he does the same. Over and over again.
We trade mouths for necks, sucking on each other’s skin until it hurts.
Dante’s hands rub up and down my body like he’s trying to carve my form into his memory.
It’s dizzying just how aroused I am, and how close to him I feel. The sticky, moist air around us smells of intoxicating sex.
“I need you inside me,” Dante finally moans against my jawline after another of at least several hundred kisses trailed along my skin.
I try to pull my head together enough to reply. “How? Tell me how…” My voice sounds so far away.
Dante sits up a bit. “Condom…” he mumbles. “Shit.”
“Mm,” I hum, my head and body feeling a bit like they’re floating on a cloud. “Drawer. Left drawer.” I remember distantly.
Dante’s movements are unbalanced, and he nearly falls off the bed as he leans over, yanks the drawer open, and pulls out a completely unopened box of condoms. I take a moment to catch my breath as I watch him rip open the box like an animal, grab one, and rip it open.
The other condoms go flying out of the box onto the floor.
I gasp as Dante unrolls the lubed condom onto my aching dick.
He crawls back on top of me, straddling me, and reaches underneath himself.
I hadn’t quite thought about if Dante liked taking it versus giving it.
I’d always thought that people preferred one or the other.
It’s clear now that Dante enjoys giving and receiving, and as he sinks down onto my cock, I realize I do, too.
Dante grunts as he takes me in, and I feel him surround me, hot and tight.
It’s a foreign feeling, but one that quickly sends shocks of pleasure through my entire body.
I arch up against him, causing my cock to push up into him even more.
He places his hands on my chest, and I feel him quiver on top of me.
“Fuck, baby…you feel so fucking good inside me,” he tells me through a moan.
Something about the most dangerous man I know riding my dick in my bed and moaning in pleasure about it has me ready to explode.
“Oh my God,” I gasp, and tilt my head back. My hands fly to his hips, just above his thighs, and squeeze them tightly.
“Ahh, that’s it!” Dante bounces on top of me. “Fuck me, Ethan.”
As he moves on top of me, I start to rock my hips up against him. My length doesn’t move out of him very much, but what little does, smacks against him each time. His ass and thighs smack down against me as well, and the sound is one of the hottest things I’ve ever heard.
His fingers dig into my chest and I dig my nails into his hips in response. I’m desperate to be even closer to him, and to hear him moan louder.
“Fuck, fuck, fuck !” Dante growls and grunts between breaths. I feel his ass pulsing around my cock, almost in time to my own throbbing.
My balls squeeze, and his ass squeezes around me, too.
“I’m coming!” I gasp, and buck my hips against his harder, faster.
Dante’s breath catches in his throat at the same time as mine, and he leans down against me, burying his face in my chest.
Everything goes fuzzy and scorching hot as I come with my dick inside of Dante. His cum splatters on my stomach and chest at the same time.
We both tense and relax just seconds apart. Complete and utter bliss floods my body, and I hear his sob of pleasure and emotion muffled against my neck and shoulder.
“Dante,” I whimper.
I slide my hands up from his hips to his back and wrap my arms around him.
Dante’s body goes limp on top of mine, and I relax completely under him. A few minutes later, I shift my hips so that my dick slides out of him and rests against his thigh.
Hot, sweaty, and wet…it doesn’t matter as I hold him, cuddling him as tightly as I can with how tired I feel.
I feel tears against my neck, and I rub his back lazily.
I start to say something, but before I can get the words out, I fall asleep.