7. Dante
7
DANTE
I hated being late to things.
Tardiness is a form of weakness. And weakness isn’t tolerated in my life.
But when I woke up at 6AM, Ilaria was curled up in my limbs. Her sweatshirt had been pulled up in her sleep, our stomachs warming each other. I forgot about my rule on lateness and thought about closing my eyes to sleep in for a bit longer.
She had slipped her fingers into my hair as one of mine laid against the bare skin of her back. Both of us were clinging to each other in our sleep and that shocked me because I wasn’t the type of guy to cuddle with a girl. Maybe in high school to appease who I was seeing but I couldn’t remember a time after the age of 21 I had spent the night entwined with someone like I was now.
But now I wanted to stay.
Looking at her dark mess of hair peeking out from the hood she had pulled up, I wondered why I cared enough to comfort her last night.
This need to protect her in that situation had overwhelmed all common sense. I felt this connection to Ilaria.
The way she would be my wife in a couple months wasn’t such a chore of an idea anymore.
Maybe it was just that knowledge she was mine to protect in a way something had never been that set me off balance.
Maybe it was that she was the first thing that felt like it would be entirely mine that made me feel for her.
Sighing out a deep breath, I took one last second to enjoy her, breathing her in as I told myself this was the last indulgence before getting out of bed.
She smelled like me from her shower last night and from spending the night on top of me in my bed. I breathed her in deeply, eyes closing as I thought about how it was going to be trouble if I became attached to her with feelings more than ownership.
Attachments were trouble and I had enough trouble in my life.
I tried to slip out of bed, get a workout done to get her out of my system, but when I went to move her thighs hugged around me as she shifted.
Her lips parted making a breathy little moan slip out of her sweet mouth as she snuggled deeper into me. Her pussy was right above my cock and I was thankful that she wore sweatpants to bed and was a heavy sleeper because I had a very hard cock from her rubbing and snuggling up on me.
Ilaria’s hips pressed down as I shifted my arm out of the back of her sweatshirt, gently rolling her so she didn’t wake up and berate me for my erection.
As much as I wanted to flip her over, bury my nose in her scent and rub my hard cock over the warm slit between her legs I was very sure that Ilaria was a good Sicilian girl and her experience wasn’t as vast as the people I had been with.
Also wouldn’t put it past her to punch me in the face.
It had been a decade since I had taken anyone’s virginity and the idea of taking hers was almost daunting. The threat of the sheet test, an out dated tradition already loomed over our heads. I wouldn’t be the one to ruin her and embarrass anyone before our wedding night.
Knowing that I was this turned on by her after such a short period of time made me worry that waiting until the wedding was going to be its own form of torture.
My eyes scanned over her, looking at her nuzzling up on her side as she tried to find something to snuggle up with as she started to fall back asleep. It made me smirk.
I reached out, curling a piece of her shiny dark hair around my finger, bringing it up to my nose as I inhaled her once again, addicted to her scent.
Beneath all the smells of me I could smell her.
The deep smell of champagne bubbly and fun, sweet notes of tangerine, and vanilla mixed together. She smelled like dessert, something to be finished and savored. Something to be indulged in and delighted about.
It reminded me of Italian summers spent at my family’s house in the country. Where I’d run around with my cousins causing trouble as we came back covered in dirt and fingers sticky from the fruit we had found to snack on.
I was pulling away from her as I slipped out of bed. Willing myself to be stronger than the need for her. Yanking myself away from the temptation of her harder than I ever imagined.
She was going to be my wife and yet the idea of getting close to her terrified me.
Maybe because my mother had loved my father so much it made her half crazy. Even now she looked at him half insane with want and need for him.
They had been arranged and had fallen for each other quickly. Traveling together and settling into their happy life together.
As a child, I would watch my father decorate my mother with pretty jewels and watch her paint his face with her fruit colored lips. It had felt embarrassing watching them flirt and now it scared me to think of how their love was.
It had blinded my fathers at time and was a risk to love like he did. In our world, she was just a target on his back. I had enough of those already.
I needed to work out.
I’d work out and my dick would get its act together because right now my dick is going to be my downfall.
“Is it time to wake up?”
Ilaria didn’t even open her eyes as she held onto the pillow that I had been sleeping on and it took all my strength not to climb back beside her and curl up with her in bed to get her to go back to sleep.
“No. You get your beauty rest, princess.” It wasn’t the teasing tone I had taken with her before but genuine want for her to be comfortable.
She made a sound at me, rolling over as she presented me with her back, it was obvious she didn’t think I was being real with her.
“Go fuck yourself, Demon.” She muttered as she rolled over onto her stomach and groaned out as she kicked her feet as she tried to get comfortable again in bed.
Did she know how cute she was?
If I was her Demon she was my angel.
And maybe that shouldn’t have made me smile in the way it did, but my lips curled up as I licked them, having to raise my fingers to wipe the smile off my lip that she had managed to get on it without even trying.
I was screwed.
Stepping out of the room I headed to the gym, half debating on pushing the breakfast meeting back so Ilaria could sleep in but remembering I still needed to head over to make sure everything was ready for Dante’s Inferno to open tonight.
I needed to do a walkthrough, just to make sure everything was as planned. Check the guest lists to make sure that the VIP’s that would be heading down to explore all the layers of the inferno had been properly vetted to be down there. Double check the menu to make sure everything was up to par.
Security would need to be increased with Ilaria coming with me.
The club was set up so people would enter into an open area where they could drink and sit around having appetizers to start their evening. If they wanted dinner that was through a separate room, up stairs the views were slightly better of the city from the dining room. It had been styled after 1950’s cocktail lounges.
Deep read drapes over windows and black leather booths lined the room for couples to curl up together in or for men to make business deals around.
The center of the dining room was decadent with white linens and black leather chairs.
The chandeliers had been antiques imported from Italy and instead of lights hanging with hundreds of candles. It was the type of place you take a date to impress them, something that felt romantic and intimate. If after dinner they needed something else for their appetite they would head downstairs.
Set up like a glamorous speakeasy, the brick walls downstairs were met with emerald green leather and gold ornate decorations. Heavy drapes and a live band played music as local performers sang on stage. It had that old Hollywood glamor feel. Couples could dance together on the black and white checkered dance floor.
It felt like a nightcap for a date. Something classy to share with someone.
But if glamor wasn’t the entertainment that they were looking for, the next floor down was an illegal gambling business that had been the reason my father had been okay with me doing this project.
This would be the link for the family.
This is where the VIP’s needed to be fully vetted. Not only did we need to make sure they were good for their buy-ins at the tables they were playing at, they had to not be rats.
The last thing we needed was an undercover busting us.
After the gambling floor, there would be a men’s only section of the club.
There was a boxing club for men on the fifth floor down. They could come during the day to spar or enjoy a drink and a cigar with the boys. A place where gentlemen could start to make deals that would run businesses.
This was the part of the club that would pan out to business deals and make me a lot of money.
The final level would have women again but only the ones I hired. It wasn’t a place to take a date or a wife.
Girls danced on onyx metal poles, deep red chairs tufted in expensive leather were placed around the room. A bar was set up in the corner where top shelves of liquor and cigars could be bought.
On stage entertainment was a mix of burlesque and stripping, the girls didn’t do lap dances but provided bottle service at tables. It wasn’t a flesh trade but a fantasy market that I hoped sold well and made people want to spend more money.
Tonight was the night the biggest business I was in charge of was going to be starting and that was a huge deal. I wanted to prove to everyone I could build something all by myself.
I had been shocked when she had printed the forms, someone else’s signature on the bottom had been confusing but I figured she would explain why her name wasn’t on them. Part of me was thankful her name wasn’t tied to the club; she would be on my arm tonight at ribbon cutting and the last thing we needed was a corruption case on opening weekend to be in the news.
“Where is the coffee?”
I looked up from where I was doing pushups on the mat to see Ilaria standing in the door frame, rubbing the sleep from her eyes as she pouted.
Part of me expected Ilaria to not be a morning person.
I had expected to get to workout and do some business before she got out of bed. Not that she looked too excited to be awake and she definitely wasn’t fully done with wiping the sleep from her eyes yet.
“I usually go out and get-”
She made a sound in the back of her throat that was full of annoyance and a whine, giving me a glare as she turned, storming out of the room.
My answer was not good enough for the little princess.
It wasn’t even 6:30 AM yet and she was already getting on my nerves from her stomping around.
Following behind her, I watched her slide on her gym shoes, picking up her bags and snatching her car keys off of the table but I wasn’t going to let her just grab her stuff and escape that easily.
Now that we were engaged, there were certain expectations of us and I needed to make sure that Ilaria not only understood what they were but how important her role was in everything that was happening. Without her on my side this was all going to go straight to hell in the worst way possible.
“You can’t leave.” Her eyebrow raised, challenging me as she looked at me with a who do you think you are expression.
It shouldn’t excite me to have her be this feisty but I loved seeing how much fire she had.
I continued, “We need to talk about things and you don’t have time to just run off home and get ready. I can run out and grab coffee for us if you want to shower and when I get back we can talk?” I was trying to pacify her and she nodded her head, accepting this olive branch.
My fingers ran through my hair, thankful that she wasn’t putting up a fight.
“I need two coffees in the morning or lattes or just one of each. As big as you can get and iced. Pick a flavor. Cream in my coffee and macadamia milk in my latte. If they don’t have macadamia, coconut milk is fine. Thanks, Demon.” She was walking away from me headed to the ensuite again. Not even a look back or good morning.
Of course she had a complicated order. Everything about Ilaria was proving to be complicated .
That didn’t stop me from memorizing it, planning to impress my little princess with exactly what she deserved.