11. Dante
11
DANTE
Dante
“ A ct like I’m with you.”
If I could truly do that, we’d be giving them all too much of a show. I’d have my mouth over hers. My hands fisted in her hair. Her lipstick ruined and her body naked.
Giving myself the free rein to be with Nina would unleash a wave of desire no one could stop. Once I gave in to the lust she invoked, there would be no hiding or holding back.
However, after her words, I understood it from another perspective. She had done her part, getting dressed up and accompanying me, but as we took our seats for dinner, I replayed how much I’d actually interacted with her.
I hadn’t.
At all.
With tunnel vision to counter the questions about what Stefan said, falsely claiming that the Constellas would always have his back in friendship and finances, I'd ignored Nina completely. The balance between paying attention to her and managing the business talk was off, and now it was time to make up for it.
She was right. If I wanted them to know I was with her, I had to act like it. And I started now. Holding her hand, speaking with her. Facing her and smiling at her nervousness.
I realized that she had likely been lost and confused, unsure how to act as my plus-one as I chatted with the men I often dealt with, leaders and capos of other families. Knowing she was suffering bothered me, and it prompted me to really give her all my attention.
The only catch was how much I wanted it to be real.
To act like I wanted her was a double-edged sword. Because I really did.
“More?” I offered after the dinner plates were cleared away. Holding up her empty glass, I suggested that she have more.
“Trying to loosen me up?” she teased with a small, sexy smile.
“Loosen?” I smirked. “I like how tight you are.”
Her cheeks reddened immediately, and I fought a groan. Seeing her flushed like this was temptation personified. Knowing she was thinking about how I’d had my fingers in her pussy amused me. That was only the beginning of what I dreamed of doing to her, with her.
“Oh.” Her quip of a reply was quiet and short, and I enjoyed rendering her speechless.
I paired it with grabbing her knee under the table, smoothing my fingers over her skin and wondering how far up her thigh I could touch her until she turned redder.
“Are you enjoying your evening?” I asked as I pushed my thumb and fingers along her leg.
She didn’t stiffen, but I had a hunch she was measuring her breath carefully so as not to react too obviously to where my hand headed.
“I am.” She swallowed, meeting my gaze directly. “I mean, now I am.”
I hummed, accepting her jab. “Business always comes first,” I reminded her.
“That’s too bad.” She parted her legs, widening her posture in her seat. The change in her angle gave me more access to slide my fingers further up smooth skin. And I didn’t waste a second to do so. Leaning toward her, I stared right into her deep-blue eyes glittering with mischief. This slant made it obvious that I was feeling her up, and I didn’t intend to hide it.
She was playing with fire to invite me to touch her more. I was burning up with the teasing thrill of trying to rile her up. This was far past flirting—real or fake. And as I gripped her chair and eased her onto my lap, I made sure that she knew it too.
“Oh. Whoa .” She exhaled in an unsteady whoosh, startled at how quickly and smoothly I put her where I wanted her. Merely holding hands and brushing up against each other was no longer enough. I had to get my hands on her, her body flush with mine.
I’d been resisting her all this time, but I knew she’d be able to feel the bulge under my pants. If I wasn’t careful, I’d be tenting my pants sooner than later.
“Right now,” I said as I nuzzled along her jaw and kissed her cheek, “I’d like to make sure you come first.”
Her chest rose and fell faster as she leaned back to my chest, relaxed and open. Those generous tits nearly spilled out of her dress, and as I watched them, I was grateful her daring dress could be tugged down so easily. I wanted my fingers on her nipples, my mouth sucking on her flesh there.
She turned her head toward me, staring at me with such lust shining in her eyes. “Literally?” she whispered.
I answered by slipping my hand under her dress. The tablecloth hid most of her legs. The darkness of the dim dining room aided the shadows. Even if anyone could see that I wanted to feel her up, I wouldn’t stop. I didn’t care. This was taking “acting like it” too far, but it blended with what I wanted, anyway. Feeling her. Touching her. Pleasuring her.
“Do you want me to make you come?” I asked into her ear. I followed up with kissing along her jaw until I pressed against the corner of her mouth.
She moaned, turning the rest of the way until she kissed me. Deep and long. I growled into her kiss, and I anted up the tension by rubbing my fingers over her lingerie. The narrow strip of material would be wet soon enough, but for now, teasing her would do.
The idea of playing with her while the dinner concluded suited me. But I didn’t want to share her. Seeing her come apart, hearing her come… I wanted to experience that alone. All for me.
But this is fake, right? Her desire wasn’t. I knew she wanted me. She’d told her friend that. I felt the need in her as she kissed me back and kept her legs open for me to touch her.
It was difficult to separate what was an act from reality, but I refused to ease up on the torture and teasing.
“Dante?” Someone walked up to me, shaking his head as he glanced at his phone. “Since when are you agreeing to side with Giovanni about the distribution route to the ports?”
Fuck. They’d still been talking about Stefan and the shit he’d started to say.
“No.” I stilled my hand under Nina’s dress. She stiffened and held her breath, her mouth against my cheek. “You’ve got that wrong,” I told the man from a rival yet not antagonist Mafia family.
“Huh. I heard…”
Just like that, I was taken down the path of talking business again. Nina remained on my lap, but I was pulled from giving her all my attention like I wanted to. Like I wished I could. Being intimate and close with her was a hell of a lot more exciting than talking business, but I tried my best to compromise. Keeping her on my lap, against me with my arms around her, I held up the image of us being all over each other and very much a couple. But as I chatted about Stefan and how I should not be assumed to be allying with him, I regretted the distractions of it all.
Nina distracted me from shooting down those rumors.
Stefan and his boisterous lies prevented me from making out with the young woman eager for my sensual guidance to be pleasured. It was a catch twenty-two of wanting her when I shouldn’t. By the end of the night, I was frustrated with everything and anything.
Except her. Docile, quiet, and patient, Nina was an exemplary woman. She didn’t huff and roll her eyes for not having all of my attention, nor did she interrupt or whine about being stuck there. It seemed that keeping physical contact with her went a long way toward assuaging her discomfort and feeling of being out of place, but it tormented me.
I wanted to rip this dress off her and fuck her senseless. I wanted to tell her to bend over and ride me in this chair, right here and now.
Instead, we managed to sit through the night—as a pair, man and woman together—until she excused herself.
“I’ll be right back.” She kissed my cheek, and I loved how at ease she was with touching me and showing affection—although under the guise of faking it.
She stood, but I kept my hands on her waist as she got to her feet.
“Just running to the bathroom,” she explained with a sweet smile just for me.
“I’ll be waiting for you.” I watched her until she disappeared from sight through the doorway. Once she was gone, I exhaled long and hard.
“Damn. What a fine piece of ass,” Leo, a high-ranking capo from another family, said.
I shot him a hard look. “She’s not. Not a piece of ass.”
Nina was my old friend’s daughter, and I hated to hear anyone belittle her as easy pussy, dime a dozen and nothing special.
“Oh. It’s serious, then?” Leo asked, taking Nina’s absence as a break from whatever business we’d been talking about. “You and her?” He sipped his drink. “Hell, it’s only been twenty years since Grace died.”
“Thirty,” I corrected, missing Nina already. Leo wouldn’t be talking about my dead first wife if she were here, and I didn’t like going down memory lane that far.
“And here I thought it’d be you and Vanessa pairing up,” Leo teased with a knowing look.
“No.” I said it firmer than I intended to, but I couldn’t restrain from blurting out the instant reply to that line. “I’ve made it more than clear that I’m not interested in anything with Vanessa. Nor her father.”
Leo nodded. “Nothing with the Giovannis at all.”
“That’s correct.”
How many times will I need to tell them? Stefan had always been a talker, loud and obnoxious, but no matter how much he spouted bullshit about having Constella backing, I’d reject it all.
I fell back into talking about business, but unlike the pre-dinner mingling hour, this post-dinner session of talking and drinking felt lonely. I wanted Nina back at my side, and I realized with another glance at my watch that she’d been gone for quite a while. If she wanted a breath of fresh air outside, whatever. Guards waited at the doors, and they would protect her. No MC biker would dare come to Escott’s, but I’d made it clear to all the Constella men that Nina was under my protection.
“Excuse me.” I left the dining room and sought her out, curious whether it had all been too much for her. I struggled between wanting her and telling myself that I shouldn’t, and I imagined she felt the same.
“Nina?” I called out for her as I walked through the room and strode down the hallways to reach where the restrooms were. Nothing could have prepared me for the sight I found.
Nina, pressed against the wall. One man with his hand over her mouth, silencing her as his friend groped her, yanking her dress down.
They were servers, men who’d waited on us in the private dining room. I didn’t know what made them so deluded to act on their lust for her as she walked alone to the restrooms. I didn’t care, either. Rabid rage swarmed through me. My blood pressure skyrocketed. My pulse raced. Fisting my hands, I hurried closer to free her and make these stupid bastards pay for even thinking about touching her.
Romeo appeared, though. He’d arrived too late for the dinner but had just begun to make his rounds with the men as they drank and talked business.
He strode toward the men faster than I could reach them.
“What the fuck do you think you are doing?” he roared, yanking them off her.
She staggered back against the wall, slinking out of reach. Her wide-open eyes conveyed the depth of her fear. Trembling lips, pale face, and hunching over, she was the picture of a terrified woman.
Anger rallied higher. My need to hurt them grew and grew. I wanted to comfort her, but I couldn’t be any good at that while these men lived and breathed.
“Take her home,” I ordered my son. Two Constella guards rushed in, likely nearby because both of us were here.
Romeo, panting hard, turned back to see me. Then he looked at Nina, shrinking back against the wall.
“Take her home,” I ordered as the soldiers grabbed both of the waiters.
Romeo shook his head. “I can?—”
“You can take Nina home. Now.” I spared her a glance, not meaning to glare at her with this feral fury. As I handed another soldier my jacket, I let the heat of my rage and possessiveness over her keep me warm.
She wasn’t mine. Not really. It was only supposed to be fake. The idea of these assholes pawing at her guaranteed that they’d die a slow, painful death at my hands, though. And the faster I did that, the sooner I could comfort her and make sure she wouldn’t be too scarred from the trauma of this evening.
“Go,” I ordered.
“Dante.” She stepped toward me, perhaps even more frightened with the rage I couldn’t hold back. “I didn’t?—”
“For fuck’s sake.” I shook my head as the soldiers dragged the waiters outside. “I know, Nina.” That she could assume I would blame her for any of this was ridiculous. “I know you didn’t do anything.”
All she’d done since running into me was agree to fake date me. Right now, I had to punish these men for daring to touch what was mine, pretend or not. Because I had a very serious issue of seeing Nina as mine.
And no man would live to touch what I called mine. Ever.