Chapter 6 - Alisa
I whipped up and around so fast at the sound of Dante’s voice that my back nearly gave up. Behind me, I clutched the sheet of paper with trembling hands, and my heart shot straight into my throat, clamping it shut from the panic of having been caught.
Dante leaned against the doorway with one shoulder to the frame, and his eyes slowly travelled from mine, down, down, and stopped at where my elbows bent back.
And then, he cocked an eyebrow at me.
“What’ve you got there behind you?” he asked in that smooth voice that felt really, really dangerous to me, like the calm before the storm. His eyes didn’t stray from mine, and he kept me locked up in his feline gaze.
Oh dear. How long had he been standing there for?
Long enough, I supposed.
I was so busted.
“Alisa? Need help looking for your voice?” He kicked off the doorway and started walking closer.
My mind went blank. Completely, utterly blank. Like someone had hit the delete button on every word I’d ever used.
And he kept walking closer, until he was just a few feet away, then even fewer. The closer he got, the tighter I held on to that piece of paper behind my back, as though hiding it from his sight was enough to prove I hadn’t been sneaking around.
Dante didn’t stop, not even when one more step would’ve brought his body to press against mine. He took that one step, and that’s when I felt the heat off him, his angled planes against my curves.
I took a few shuddering breaths for courage and tried to ignore the fire I felt in my veins from feeling him up against me. I mustered up some courage, tilted my head up, and asked: “Wh… what are you doing?”
My voice trembled. So much for courage.
His gaze dropped again to my arms, still twisted awkwardly behind me.
“You’re going to cramp like that,” he murmured.
Before I could even register what the hell was happening and comprehend why he wasn’t raging mad, he stepped even closer. So much so that his chest brushed against my breasts.
I let out a gasp. He grinned.
The bastard knew what he was doing.
I was thinking I should take a step back, but I turned to stone the minute I felt his single, light touch. His fingers skimmed down from my shoulder to my forearm, barely there.
My breath caught.
Then, without warning, his other hand slipped around the small of my back until we stood closer, tighter, until it almost felt like an embrace. My chest now heaved from how electric he felt, and he leaned low and whispered right into my ear, sounding far too amused for my liking.
“Let me help you with that.”
He reached behind me and plucked the paper right out of my hands.
I squealed and jumped back like I’d touched a live wire.
Too late.
Dante straightened, holding the sheet like it was a trophy. “Got it.”
My brain scrambled during those precious seconds to come up with something, anything, that would explain why I was bent over his floor with my hands all over his private documents.
“I—I was just—” I motioned desperately at where he had stood moments earlier. “The door was open.”
Dante’s eyebrow quirked upward. “Was it?”
“Yes.” I nodded too enthusiastically. “Wide open. I thought it was just, you know, another room. This place has like a hundred of them.”
He let his neck drop to his left and looked at me like he could see right through me. “Funny. I specifically remember closing it before I left.”
“Well, maybe the wind blew it open,” I offered lamely, then realized how stupid that sounded. “Or your housekeeper might have come in to clean.”
“The windows are sealed. And Maria knows never to enter this room.”
Great.
I was caught in a lie within the first thirty seconds.
My heart hammered so hard I was convinced I was minutes away from a heart attack. I shrugged, trying to appear casual while my insides twisted into pretzels.
Dante flipped the paper between his fingers and said casually, “You know I have cameras in the hallways, right?”
My eyes darted to the corners of the ceiling before I could stop myself.
He raised both eyebrows and smirked. “You look real guilty for someone who just wandered into a room the wind blew open.”
I swallowed hard.
Lying was useless now. But maybe… just maybe, I could still steer him away from why I was really here.
“Fine. I was curious.” I crossed my arms defensively. “Can you blame me? I’ve been trapped in this museum of a house for a week straight with nothing to do but shower, eat, and sleep.”
Dante moved toward me, and I took a step back toward his desk. But he kept stalking forward, like he knew the less the distance between us, the more my brain worked overtime, making it harder to lie.
Every step he took made my nerve endings tingle in warning. Or was it anticipation? I was so damn confused, I couldn’t quite tell the difference anymore.
“So you decided to entertain yourself by rifling through my personal files?” He didn’t sound angry, which somehow made this whole situation even more confusing. He sounded almost… amused.
“I’m going stir-crazy in here,” I said, stepping back until my legs hit his chair.
“I haven’t been outside in days except maybe to swim sometimes.
I also haven’t spoken to anybody who hasn’t been you and your staff.
” I gave him a pointed look. “I don’t know if you’ve met yourself or your staff, but between your scowling and their silent nodding, I might as well start talking to the plants. ”
“The fiddle leaf in the conservatory is a great listener.” He bit his lower lip like he was trying to hold back a laugh.
“This isn’t funny,” I snapped. “You may have saved me from those auction creeps, but let’s not pretend this is anything other than what it is. You bought me. You’re just a different kind of keeper.”
I saw the hurt that flashed across his face then, like I might as well have slapped him. I felt that familiar guilt rise up in me, an emotion so distant, back from when I hated hurting him.
But I shoved it back down. I knew I shouldn’t have implied what I just did, but god, I was furious, and in my quest to get information for my father, I never truly acknowledged how I ended up here, did I?
Dante still watched me in silence, his expression pained.
“I can’t leave or call anyone,” I continued, trying to keep the bitterness from my voice. “What am I if not a prisoner with a nicer bed and better food?”
Dante sighed and ran a hand through his hair before nodding slowly. “You’re right.”
Wait, what? My eyes widened in surprise. Dante Lebedev admitting I was right about something? Was I hallucinating?
“You need to get out of this house,” he continued. “Get some fresh air and loosen up.”
I narrowed my eyes suspiciously. “You’re kidding, right?”
His lips curved into that half-smile that used to make my knees weak. Still did, if I was being honest with myself, which I absolutely refused to be.
He pushed off the desk and moved closer, so close I could see the lines near his eyes when he smiled. “I’m not joking. You can go out, I swear. How about we start with that dinner you owe me?
I shook my head immediately. “No way. I never said anything about dinner with you.”
“Why not? You just said you’re going crazy in here.”
“Because I don’t want to have dinner with you,” I squealed in protest.
“You’d rather keep talking to the plants?” he challenged.
I pursed my lips. He had me there, and he knew it. The smug bastard.
“What are you saying? The only way I can go out is to have dinner with you?”
“Of course not,” he agreed too easily. “If no dinner, how about something else? I’ll make you a deal,” he added suddenly.
“I don’t make deals with criminals,” I shot back automatically.
He ignored that and took one step closer, his gaze falling to my lips. “One kiss. Give me one kiss, and you can go anywhere you want.”
I froze. “What?”
“You heard me.” His eyes were practically glowing with challenge. “One kiss, and you get a whole night of freedom.”
“That’s—that’s ridiculous,” I stammered. “And manipulative. And—”
“Tempting?” he supplied, the corner of his mouth quirking up.
My heart was doing gymnastics in my chest. I hated him for affecting me like this, and myself even more for responding to it.
“Don’t try to flirt with me,” I managed to say, though my voice came out embarrassingly breathless. “It won’t work.”
He licked his lips, and his eyes shot back to my eyes, burning into me like embers as his voice dropped an octave. “Seems to be working just fine from where I’m standing. It’s a tempting offer, don’t you think?”
Yes. God help me, yes.
Damn him for being right. I know I ought to have pushed him away, stepped back, and told him to go to hell.
Instead, I stood rooted to the spot.
“One kiss,” he repeated, his voice barely above a whisper now. “That’s all I’m asking for, Alisa.”
He said my name like he was undressing every alphabet, and I swallowed hard, my eyes drawn to his lips against my will. I remembered how they felt against mine, how he used to kiss me like he was drowning and I was air, and I’d never felt more alive since.
Just one kiss. How much damage could one kiss do?
“If I say yes,” I said slowly, “it’s just a kiss. It doesn’t mean anything.”
“Just a kiss,” he repeated his offer, his eyes never leaving mine.
I parted my lips and closed my eyes, leaning just an inch up to meet him halfway. My entire body felt like a magnet toward his, anticipating what I’d been missing for so damn long.
I felt him move closer and trembled at the gush of air that breezed past my hair as his one hand came up to cup my cheek.
My eyes fluttered open and closed, to take in this unbelieve snapshot from my life.
My brain scrambled, wondering if this impossible kiss I’d cried for in the months after he’d left could truly be real now.
I leaned into his gentle touch, felt his breath on my lips, and he hovered so close I could almost taste him.
And then—
Nothing.
I opened my eyes to find him clenching his jaw, like he was forcing himself to stop as he pulled away.
I stepped back, too, reeling from the hurt. I wanted to scream at him, and my heart was still racing from that near kiss, but there was something in his expression that told me he meant it when he asked, but something changed.
And now he thinks it’s a bad idea.
“What happened? Thought you’d disappoint?” I hissed, trying to cover my embarrassment.
He shrugged as he looked away. “Changed my mind.”
My cheeks burned from the stinging rejection. I gaped at him with mortification. “You arrogant ass! You think I was going to kiss you because I wanted to? I was just—I was just—”
“Desperate to get out of the house?” he asked calmly. “Don’t worry. We’ll still go to dinner.”
“I’d rather starve.” I shook my head and huffed.
He then let out a small, playful smile and motioned at his office door. “We’ll see how long that lasts.”
I received the message loud and clear. I had just been asked to get out of his office.
Fair enough.