27. Ilaria
27
ILARIA
D ante was across from me at the bar, staring at me as the intensity of his gaze weighed me down even more than the pressure I already was feeling.
I can always tell when he is looking at me.
I feel the emotions he has seeing me here in his eyes. But I know better than to look up and meet his gaze. Knowing my limits and how much I can handle. Knowing that right now Dante is outside of those limits.
Let Francesco take care of him.
I want to strangle the mother fucker right now.
How dare he thrust me into another man’s arms when I’m upset.
How dare he not text me back.
How dare he not tell me that our marriage contract might get fucked over because of everything going on.
How dare he abandon me when I wanted him to soothe me in a way it seemed he was meant to do.
Where was his trust in me?
Great , the shithead is on his way over.
Throwing money down for a tab Sammie and I have been working hard at building up for the last few hours I know I’m about to leave. Dante is standing besides me doesn’t feel like the safe security I had gotten used to and I hate that.
His presence annoys me.
“Ilaria, please, let’s go home.”
I shouldn’t get up or give him my hand but I do because he said home and for some reason my treacherous heart lurches when he says it, making me crave home.
Blame it on the drinks I’ve been having.
And then he is kissing me, his lips on mine as the pure desperation Dante hand is being pushed at me.
His mouth is hot and heavy against mine as his teeth nip my lips and he is being forceful and needy. I want to just melt into his kiss, let his tongue push against mine and forgive him for being an asshole.
But I don’t. I push him away thinking about kicking him in the nuts for distracting me.
“Francesco said he might be my husband.”
He looks at his cousin who has been drinking vodka like water all night and has yet to seem even a little bit drunk.
“He won’t be. I fixed it. I promise.”
I squeeze his hand as he lies to me, wondering if he thinks I’m so foolish as to believe that he has managed to fix anything when the Cartel is involved but maybe Dante doesn’t understand the trouble that we are in.
Francesco did.
He had followed Sammie and I here because Francesco understood that things were dangerous.
It seemed that he realized his potential bride was important enough to take the time to watch over.
Maybe Dante could learn a thing or two from his cousin.
Maybe I could learn a few things from his cousin as well since he was the only one who had no problem telling the truth.
But I’m tired and sick of causing scenes when I know that isn’t my best fighting tactic. I’m much better at running and hiding away, staying in the shadows as people walk past me without knowing.
So I follow Dante out to the garage, letting him hold my hand and play the white knight coming to take his Principessa home to her castle.
But in reality I’m about to ruin this man, blindsiding him with a side of me he is going to regret meeting because he is playing me for a fool and the only fool here is him.
Dante thinks I’m a mafia princess, I stay away from the business because that’s what good girls do in all the females.
But I’m not a good girl. I’m just a good actress.
He stops in front of the motorcycle I tried to kick him off earlier and I wish I could ask him to take a car instead of getting on the back of it but I know that I’m not going to have much of a choice.
“Wrap your arms around me.” My eyebrow shoots up and I think about flat out refusing but instead my arms wrap around Dante as I slide behind him on the motorcycle, thighs squeezing him. “Hold on, principessa. We’ll be home soon.”
He’s throwing home around like it’s going to solve everything by using one word with me but I’m not going to be so easily swayed.
I never rode on a motorcycle before.
The closest I got was holding onto Tessa as we whipped around an island on a Vespa one vacation. It had been enough to make me never want to ride on one again.
Tessa is our getaway driver because she’s fast and thinks quick. Not because she is a good driver.
But it seemed Dante’s kink was taking away my options.
The best part of the ride is not having to talk. To just be quiet as the world passes us by. It is calming to just fly through Boston at night.
The ride is only ten minutes, Dante being careful with the speed limit and pressing his hands over mine several times as if he was checking to make sure that I was holding on tight enough.
As we wait at a red light, Dante’s hands come back, hooking my thighs as he tugs me closer to him. His fingers stroke the back of my upper thighs as I squeeze onto him, trying not to think about how the soft spot he was touching had my mind spinning.
He gives my thighs a firm squeeze before sliding one hand to the handlebars, lifting his feet as we speed off again. One hand still strokes my thigh for a second before slipping off and instantly making me miss the contact.
Fuck .
My feelings are confused as I fight off the starved way I want him, the hunger he evokes inside of me that feels like I’m burning up from the inside out.
And still I’m furious at him.
“You’re quiet.”
“Would you rather I create a scene in public again? I thought once a day was enough.”
My quick comeback, as Dante helps me off the bike, has him glaring at me. His eyes on me as he pulls the helmet off. His fingers running through my hair and tugging me closer, his lips brushing against my ear.
“I don’t want to fight with you but if you ever disrespect me again like that I will pull you over my knee and spank you in front of everyone to remind you of your place.”
His hand unclenches from my hair as my eyes widen at the threat he had just delivered.
How fucking dare he try to take the upper hand?
But I wasn’t going to speak until we were inside.
I wasn’t going to hold his hand and play nice. I wanted to just change into something to sleep in and curl up on the couch because there wasn’t a chance in hell that I was going to curl up and sleep in bed with the asshole.
Dante reached for my hand, a sound leaving his mouth as I stepped in front of him and cut him off, opening the door to the apartment complex before he could do it.
Hearing his curse as he walks behind me watching me as I smash the button to the elevator, listening to the way Dante breathes behind me, loud puffs of air as he sighed out shifting the helmets that he held to one hand as the door opened and he used his body to push me inside.
I gasp out as he slams a button to shut the door as he slides the pass to the penthouse over the censor and we start heading up.
Dante’s hand is on my hip, his body pushing into mine making me stay flush against the wall.
Warm and sturdy, Dante’s muscles are like a wall of steel that I couldn’t fight against and knowing it was useless to fight against him made me want to fight him even more.
“You’re not a brat, princess, so stop with the pouting and the silent treatment. You’re allowed to be mad at me over earlier but you’re not allowed to ignore me.”
My elbow wiggles free as I slam it into his ribs, the satisfaction I get as he groans out and I smirk at the way he aches, not nearly enough but something. I’m satisfied to have caught him off guard.
Before I could try at another hit the doors are opening and Dante is spinning me, letting me enter the penthouse.
His fingertips brushed the skin of my forearm as I kicked off my shoes, already pushing towards the bedroom as I hear Dante following me, close on my heels as his anger started to fill the room.
Tension thick between us as I refuse to make eye contact or any conversation with him.
Fuck Dante.
“Ilaria.”
My name comes out tight, the last strings of his sanity tied to it as he watches me start to strip down.
I’m sure that as I slip out of my clothes, only in alacy burgundy bra with matching panties he didn’t know what the hell was going on.
Mixed signals were almost as good as mixed drinks when you wanted to fuck with someone.
“Ilaria.”
My eyes land on his as I reach behind my back, unclipping the hooks and letting my shoulders come together as the bra falls between us on the floor.
Dante’s eyes slip down as he sucks in a breath and I find myself licking my lips as I slip my thumbs into the string, hooking into my panties, bending over so I can let them fall to the floor with the matching bra.
It’s the first time I’m naked with a man in a bedroom and I wish I was doing it for reasons that weren’t heavily based out of spite and vengeance.
Spite and vengeance are like my air. I’ll do anything, prove any point just to spite someone. And now Dante will learn that the hard way
But his mood is melting, laced with confusion as he stands on the other corner of the bed, booking at me as I’m naked in front of him, thinking about what my next move is going to be.
“You handed me to your cousin when the only person I needed was you.” His eyes snap up from where they were taking in my body, realizing that I was still upset with him and that my current lack of clothing wasn’t a peace offering for him to have, “I was scared, Dante. I was scared and confused and I trusted you to be there for me but you weren’t.”
I step forward, the sway of my body taking his eyes from mine for just a second, but he was quick trying to look me in the eyes and ignore the way that he was thinking with his dick again.
All men think with their dick when you let them and it’s the greatest weapon to use against them.
“Principessa, let me-”
“Francesco told me he could be my husband. And do you know what else he said to me?” I interrupt him, feeling like his voice and his excuses sound like nails on a chalkboard. “He said he would fuck me if he had the chance. That he would bottle up his cum and my blood when he popped my cherry to give to you as a wedding gift.”
The way that Dante’s hands make fists, his eyes suddenly alive as he watches me, the anger there as he holds onto his last sense of self. But I’m not done. I’m going to break this man and I’m going to enjoy it.
“Ilaria-”
“I’m feeling sore. I need to take a warm bath. Francesco said that would help.”
And there it is.
The snap in his mental state as what I’m saying hits him and he starts thinking about what I just said to him. Thinking about how he had left me alone with the devil that was his cousin and how he was going to have to pay for it.
I turn, expecting Dante to reach out and pull me back but the bathroom door closes and I sigh as I lean against the door, locking it.
Like a gorilla being caged I listen to Dante lose his mind. The sound of things breaking, the growl in his throat as he hurts like I had earlier.
Good..
I was getting my revenge.