25. Dante
O ther than kissing and holding Nina until we fell asleep, I didn’t show her anything. I had many ideas of what I’d like to do with her. To her. But we were both so exhausted and sleepy after that shower that neither of us stayed up late.
When I woke, marveling in the gift of this woman’s submission and agreement to stay the night in my bed with me, I lay there and relaxed in the quiet of the morning.
Her routine seemed to be getting up for a quick breakfast and coffee, then working out. It was already past the hour she was usually at it in the gym, so I felt confident that I was spoiling her to sleep in. With me.
It was right where I wanted her every morning, and after our talk last night, I was hopeful that she’d understand that.
As she slept, breathing evenly and so sweetly, I enjoyed the domestic bliss of just being with her. Yes, she was naked, and the sensation of her slim body warm and bare and flush to mine was temptation personified. All I’d need to do would be to nudge her leg a little and slide my dick inside her pussy. Spooning her was torture. Continuing to feel her plump ass against my morning wood was a challenge to resist, but it wasn’t only about sex with her. It wasn’t only physically that I needed her. I wanted her company because of the simple fact that her presence calmed me. She fit with me, and knowing I had a partner, another half to make me feel complete and whole, was a heady thing to grasp.
This is only the beginning. If I were a smart man about this, I would guarantee every morning would start like this. With her. Peaceful and full of hope.
I had to make her mine. I had to keep her with me. The first step was done. I’d told her that this fake dating stuff was over. It would be real between us, and her future would happen with me.
Time to get busy.
After I slowly extricated myself from her on the bed, moving carefully so as not to disturb her or wake her, I got up and dressed silently. She didn’t stir, and I left her cozy in my bed.
I exited my room and headed toward the stairs. Breakfast in bed was due for my woman, but before I went further, I stopped in my tracks in the hallway. Then I doubled back, peering at the doors that would open to her guest room.
She wouldn’t be returning here. She belonged in my bed. Considering that I’d need to move her things to my suite, and finally fill the hers half of the walk-in closet that had been empty for thirty years, I stepped into her temporary haven.
Nothing lay out, and I was pleased that she was so neat and orderly. A quick peek at her clothes amused me. Eva had no doubt arranged for the purchases of eighty percent of the garments in here, but Nina didn’t wear them. I hadn’t seen her in any of these designer things. She preferred more laidback clothes, stuff to wear around the house like she would call herself a homebody.
I knew she wasn’t materialistic, but this was too funny.
Why bother keeping it all if you have a different preference? I wouldn’t ask her. I guessed well enough. She probably didn’t want to complain or look ungrateful and just accepted whatever Eva ordered for her.
I snooped. It wasn’t snooping, since this was my house, she was my woman, and she was getting all these things on my dollar. She wouldn’t care if I’d asked to go through her room—that was how confident I was in her closeness with me.
Before I left, I snagged her laptop because it was right there and conveniently within reach.
Downstairs in the kitchen, I placed the laptop on the counter and opened it to boot up. She hadn’t set up a lock or password for it. She was that open and not wanting to hold secrets. I took it as a sign of faith and trust in me, and it inspired me to never betray them.
While the browser kicked on and populated what she’d been looking at last, I made coffee. I sat with a mug of the brew and browsed through the tabs she’d left open. Various websites of clothing and other necessities. Even a page for athletic gear suited for running and a fitness watch. In the shopping carts, she’d put many things as “save for later” or on a wish list. Most of the items were only on sale, clearance purchases.
“Fuck that,” I mumbled as I chose the brand-new options of all that she’d chosen. Once I moved it all into the cart, I bought it all. While I was at it, I ordered more options, in case she’d struggled to pick things, and then on the one site that offered lingerie, I picked out a variety of sexy apparel I’d love to see her in—for a short while. Until I peeled them off her fine body.
As I sipped my coffee, I woke up with every passing moment. It wasn’t only the caffeine erasing the remnants of sleep and making me more alert. It was her. It was the promise of what I could build with her for good. Pampering her was a simple gesture. I had more money than I could ever spend in my lifetime, and using it on her wasn’t a challenge. The challenge of finding out ways to please her filled me with energy. I was excited to treat her as well as she could’ve ever dreamed of experiencing with a lover.
Can it be that simple?
Treat her like a goddess. Knock her up. Marry her. And keep her.
It sounded perfect, and I plotted more ways I could show her that I would always provide for her and take care of her. Stefan’s warning and the bikers’ demands didn’t enter my mind. I had too much power for them to win. I had ample security and layers of protection that they’d never get close enough to reach her.
“Morning,” Eva said as she entered the kitchen moments later. It seemed like she'd stayed in the main house instead of the guest villa that she called her own home.
“You’re up early,” I teased. She was not a morning person, at all.
She shrugged, preparing to brew herself a cup of some kind of sugary concoction with caffeine in it. If anyone were to ask me, she put coffee into her creamer, not the other way around.
“Uncle?” She hugged herself and leaned her back against the fridge once she’d set her coffee to brew.
Dammit. I wouldn’t begrudge her for wanting my company, but I was annoyed. I’d brought this spare laptop that Nina had been using so I could get a head start on looking into a college she could attend. I’d gotten sidetracked with all the shopping, and I supposed I’d need to wait for another opportunity to research the options close to home.
“Yeah?” I closed the laptop and slid it aside.
“What are you thinking, being with someone like Nina?”
I sighed, hating that she’d ask this again. We’d gone over this. In the first couple of days that Nina had lived here, Eva texted, called, and flat-out confronted me about why this woman was here. I’d told her that we were dating, not wanting to mess with having to explain that we’d been pretending to be a couple. Now, it was a moot point. Nina and I were together.
“She’s not from our world.”
“So?” I leaned back on the stool I’d claimed.
“She’s a civilian.”
Not for long. The moment I knocked her up or married her, she’d be a Mafia wife through and through.
“She’s…”
I held up my hand, deducing from the snarl and disdainful expression on her face that she was ready to unleash more bitter judgment. Eva was orphaned as a young child when my sister and brother-in-law were killed. She was like the daughter I’d never had, but I was well aware of how spoiled and entitled she’d become. A Mafia princess.
“Stop right there,” I warned her. “Whatever your bias is with Nina, you need to either get better at swallowing your words or forget about them. I won’t stand back and let you question the woman I want in my life. And I won’t stand by and listen to you bitching and whining that another woman dares to be here.”
“She doesn’t fit in.”
I stood. “Maybe that’s a good thing. Ever look at it that way?”
She had no reply. Instead, she lowered her gaze and twisted her lips into a pout.
“Has she done or said anything to you to warrant your defensiveness or cattiness?”
After a long moment, she shook her head.
“Has she bothered you? Interrupted your plans or life in any way?”
Again, she stalled until shaking her head.
“Is she asking you for help? Begging you to stop what you’re doing and?—”
“No.” She lifted her chin and frowned at me. “No, Uncle. She’s not. She’s just here, and…”
“She’s going to stay, too.”
Her brows raised. “How serious is this?” Huffing lightly, she glanced to the side. “I thought… I thought it was some sort of deal. That you’d keep her from Reaper and the bikers as a way to attack them or mess with them.”
“No.” It felt like a lie. At first, I had offered to date her so the bikers would back off. It wasn’t to thwart them, though. It was just because I didn’t want her to suffer or be stuck in such a fate.
“You mean it. You actually like her well enough to want to keep her around.”
“Yes. Nina is here to stay.”
Who I was romantically involved with wasn’t any of her business. She wanted to make it her business because she worried about me. Eva was protective of me and Romeo, but she took it too far sometimes. Her default assumption was that everyone was out to get me, to get the Constellas. She was quicker to think someone was conning me than she was to consider the possibility of my being persuaded into matrimony. But there was no room to worry with Nina. She had no ulterior motive—other than to avoid the future her brother almost expected her to suffer.
“Nina isn’t going anywhere.”
She huffed. “I heard you say that last night.”
Exactly.
“She’ll be here as long as she wants to be.” As I passed her to grab things out of the fridge to start making breakfast, I added, “And you'd damn well better get used to it.”