Chapter 10
DANTE
What happened between us last night was bound to happen eventually, and we both know it’ll keep happening.
She’s like a drug.
Her beauty, those deep brown eyes…they fuel me like no one before her. The attraction between us lights me on fire, and I can’t deny it’s there, burning through my walls.
She has no idea I have cameras all around, including in the bedroom we share. She doesn’t know how much I enjoy watching her whenever I’m at work, like I’m doing right now in my office.
Raquel walks out of the shower completely naked, the ends of her dried hair dipping to her ass. I grow harder, my cock surging to move inside her the way my fingers did last night.
She felt damn good and tasted like heaven, and every time she said my name, it made me want to make her come all over again. I haven’t been able to stop thinking about it.
My door opens unexpectedly, and I fumble with my phone like I was caught doing something bad. And I guess I was.
“What you got there?” Enzo wags his brows as he strides inside. “Watching porn on the job again?” He tsks, sitting down on the seat across from my desk. “Don’t make me report you to the boss.”
“Is he even here?” I ask about Dom, who’s the CEO of the hotel chain Tomás used to run before his death.
Enzo and I are on the board of the company, and all three of us also co-own the nightclubs we started together.
“Nah. He’s probably torturing Chiara again,” he chuckles. “I really can’t believe she doesn’t know who he is. I bet she’d remember me though.”
He says it like he was some hot shit back then.
“You were barely in puberty. You didn’t even have hair on your balls then, baby bro. She wouldn’t know who the fuck you were.”
We’re lucky we never came face-to-face with her at the strip club she runs. But that place is so dark and creeping with so many people, it was highly unlikely.
“Screw you, man.” Enzo’s shoulders rattle with a snicker. “You sound bitter as hell. I’m sorry if you’re not getting any pussy, but don’t take it out on me.”
“I get all the pussy I need.”
“Really?” He rubs his palms together. “Finally, this conversation just got interesting.”
I crush a paper in my palm, one intended for the trash, and toss it at his head. “I’m not telling you shit. Get out of here and go work or something.”
“I’m done, actually. I was heading out in a bit.” He gets to his feet. “Marissa texted for a quickie.”
“Which one is she?”
“The one with the pink highlights, or whatever that shit is called.”
“All you had to say is the one who gave you head in the VIP room.”
He bursts out laughing, and I do too, remembering that night filled with too much booze and too many women. It was weeks ago, but it might as well be a lifetime.
“All right, I gotta get out of here too,” I tell him, putting away the files I was working on and following him out of the office.
“Have fun with Marissa,” I throw over my shoulder as he heads toward his car.
“Have fun with Raquel.” He smirks knowingly.
I plan to.
RAQUEL
I decide to take a pre-dinner dip in the pool. The days are still in the low seventies, which is my perfect weather. I hate the New York summer heat and humidity, and so does my hair.
Dante’s men pay me no mind as I strut out the door to the pool, but I know they’re aware of everything as they stand there like statues. It’s weird. I’m not used to it at all, but at least I feel safe knowing they can protect me if the need comes.
I don’t know what my father will do if he finds me before I can get away.
It’s probably nothing compared to what Carlito will do.
I don’t think my father would physically hurt me, but I can only guess how mad he is.
I’m sure he has men out searching for me, with Carlito leading the pack.
My dad is very protective of his family name—all my uncles are—and I bet once he found out his precious, dutiful daughter ran away so she could avoid marriage to a man he deemed her match, his head was rolling.
I wonder if this caused him to come out of hiding from whoever it is that’s after my family. Maybe it’s a good thing I’m here. Not only am I safe from Carlito, but I’m safe from the men after my father too.
Dad was always kind to me growing up, but I knew I was nothing more than another soldier in his army.
Someone whose job it was to obey. He treated me like I was his little angel, but also like his commodity, an object to shine and make pretty.
I was supposed to remain a virgin until marriage, but little do my parents know, I haven’t been a virgin for a very long time.
To their knowledge, I never had a boyfriend, but I did have a few short-term ones behind their backs. It got difficult to sneak around, though. I was constantly lying and telling them I was going out with friends from work when I was really out with a guy.
The women in my circle are nothing more than toys for the men in their life, whether it’s their fathers or their husbands.
Our opinions don’t matter, and our happiness sure as hell doesn’t.
All that matters is that we do what we’re told when we’re told.
I can’t stand it. And I can’t wait to be away from it forever.
I reach the pool, grabbing a chair floaty from beside it, then climb down into the perfectly heated warm water. Lying over the float, I close my eyes. The sun blazes down on top of me, and I love the heat on my skin.
The music plays from the speakers set around the garden, music I put on before I came out here.
Dermot Kennedy’s voice fills my ears; the song “Better Days” hits me right in the heart.
A song about finding the light in the darkness.
I hope I find my light soon, because the dark has been overpowering me for too long.
Just as I’m about to hop back in the water, I feel a hand grip my inner thigh. My pulse throbs in my ears as my eyes fly open. I find Dante smiling and his tanned, tattooed skin glistening with beaded droplets of water.
“Oh my God, you scared me!” I pant, a hand landing on my chest while my eyes refuse to unpeel from his body.
His legs are hidden in the water as he backs away into the shallow side of the pool while I drift over the deep end.
This is the second time I’m seeing him without his shirt on, but unlike when he got shot, I can actually enjoy the view this time. He shouldn’t wear clothing. Period. His stomach is shredded with an eight-pack, and my fingers are itching to trace his abs. To feel them.
And getting a better view of his tattoos is like looking at a piece of artwork.
The ink starts on the right side of his neck, drifting down his shoulder and forearm before finally wrapping around his knuckles.
But it doesn’t stop there. The black vines and matching roses also spread over the right side of his torso, with a large skull on his chest, surrounded by black flowers.
It’s as though his body is cast in both light and darkness. A man split between two worlds, caught in the middle with no way out.
“My sincerest apologies, wife. You looked so good lying there, I needed to join you. How was the shower earlier?” He comes toward me, placing a hand on my thigh.
I jerk with a wild stare.
“How did you know I took a shower?” I slap his hand off me.
Has he been watching me? Is he some creep?
I wait for an answer while he combs a hand through his hair, looking a little unsure of himself.
“Dante?” My voice is thick with ire. “You’d better tell me right now. Do you have cameras on me?”
“How mad would you be if I said I did?” He grins.
I snarl, splashing him with water and huffing out a breath.
“I can’t believe this!” My tone is clipped now, inhales rattling inside my lungs. “How could you not tell me you’ve been watching me doing God knows what!”
“I’m sorry, baby. Let me explain.”
“No. Fuck you!”
I try desperately to climb out of the chair, but his palm lands heavy on my knee.
“Let go! I’m leaving! You, this house, everything. I don’t need this. I’ve had enough of being controlled by my family. I don’t need it from a damn stranger.” I fight to get his hand off, but he calmly keeps it there. “You must be some sick perv to be watching me!”
“That’s not it, sweetheart. Let’s talk.”
But I don’t want to hear it. Instead, I try harder to get out of this stupid chair, even as he clutches to me with pleading eyes. But instead, I flip right into the water.
It envelops every inch of me as I tumble into six feet of water.
Down. Down.
Drifting.
Floating.
Not doing a thing to climb out.
Is this what drowning is like? To fight for air? To fight for life? The way I’ve always been fighting. The way I’ll probably never stop.
Strong hands grip my waist, bringing my head up to the surface.
“What the hell are you doing, Raquel?” There’s fury laced in the cadence of his voice, worry carved over his face. “You trying to die? Because I’m not gonna fucking let you.”
“Oh!” I throw my hands in the air. “So you’re going to tell me what the hell I’m allowed to do now too?! You…” I poke him in the center of his chest. “Don’t get to do that. You hear me!”
His jaw twitches, his eyes narrowing as his Adam’s apple bobs, while his hands drop to his sides, forming clenched fists.
My heart races from my own anger, but also from the way he looks at me, like he’s not sure if he wants to give me a thorough spanking or throw me up against the wall and fuck me. Maybe all of the above.
How the hell am I still attracted to him, knowing he’s probably some kind of sicko?
Oh my God! I walked out of the shower naked today!
I know he’s seen me almost bare already, but that’s different. I had no idea I was being spied on!
I sneer, turning away from him in an attempt to get out of here, but before I can, his hand whips out, clutching the back of my neck, yanking me flush against him.
“Did I say you could go?” His lips hover over mine. “We weren’t done talking.”
My eyes turn to thin slits. His dark, heavy gaze breathes me in like a serpent assessing its prey as I push at him.