Chapter 9
Chapter Nine
I’ve been getting mixed messages from Daniella for the last hour and a half. She’s been on and off the dance floor with her sister. Every time she’s come off, she sits next to me. And every time, just that little bit closer.
“Having fun?” I ask her when she sits down, her leg brushing against mine, her chest heaving as she tries to catch her breath.
“I like dancing,” she says.
“I remember.” We danced together a lot, on our own. Sometimes there wasn’t even music, but we still danced.
“What else do you remember?” Daniella questions.
“There isn’t a thing about you I don’t remember, Dani,” I admit.
“You should have moved on by now, CJ. You should be married or something,” she says, again with the hot-and-cold bullshit.
“You proposing, Dani?” I smile at her but my heart is pounding in my chest. I know she’s not. I can’t help but hope, though.
“You should be married to someone who’s not me,” she says.
“The only way I’m ever going to be married is if it’s you, Dani.”
“You know we can’t do that.”
“I know I could, right now. I could take you down to a little chapel and say I do without a second thought. It’s you who won’t do it,” I remind her.
“Whatever is holding you back is in your own head. It’s not on me.
You know, I thought it was me for a really long time.
But now I’m realizing it wasn’t anything I did, was it?
It’s something you’re not telling me.” I’m pushing her. I know I am.
“You wouldn’t actually marry me right now, CJ. You hate me.” Dani rolls her eyes.
“Try me. Come down to the chapel with me right now and say I do,” I tease her.
“Fine. Let’s do it.” She stands and grabs hold of my arm, pulling me up out of the seat.
My eyes widen. She’s not serious. She’s trying to call my bluff. Joke’s on her, though. I’m not bluffing. I would marry her, in a fucking heartbeat, because there is no one else for me.
“How drunk are you?” I stand and follow her.
“I’m not,” she says with a straight face. “Wait… Where’s my sister? I can’t get married without her.” Daniella looks around the club until she spots Rosie.
“You’re not getting fucking married, Daniella. We’re going home, now,” Aurelio cuts in.
“But CJ just said he’d marry me, Aurelio. Don’t you want me to be happy? To be married and all that?” Daniella looks at her brother, and they seem to have a conversation without words. “Besides, it’s not like he’s actually going to go through with it,” she adds with a laugh.
“He will,” I say and point to myself.
Aurelio turns to me. He’s mulling something over in his head, and for a long moment, he’s just silent. “Fine. Let’s do this. But when Dad finds out, remember I tried to talk you out of it,” he finally says.
I blink. What the fuck just happened? He’s going to let me marry his sister? Unless he thinks I won’t go through with it either.
Daniella pulls Rosie off the dance floor, and then the younger De Bellis sibling is squealing loud enough to be heard over the club music.
“You sure about this?” Alfie asks me.
“Sure about what?”
“Getting married? In a Vegas chapel?” he asks.
“Worked out fine for your parents.” I shrug, not taking my eyes off Daniella.
Am I sure I want to marry her? Yes. Do I believe she actually wants this? I’m not nearly so sure.
I should put a stop to it. But there’s this selfish asshole part of me that wants her tied to me forever, no matter what it takes. I gave her what she wanted years ago, and all it did was make both of us miserable. It’s time to try something else.
“Your mother is going to kill you.” Alfie laughs.
“Nah, she’ll forgive me eventually.” My mother is definitely going to kill me for getting married without her there. Daniella might just be the fastest widow in history.
“You know, if you break her heart, I will tear yours from your chest and shove it up your ass,” Aurelio tells me.
“If I ever hurt her, I’d let you do it,” I tell him.
“She’s… Between you and me, I think you two have shit to sort out before you do anything like this.
But I know my sister, and she’s stubborn and that conversation isn’t going to happen by itself.
If I let her do this, it might help get her what she really wants but won’t go for.
” Aurelio is talking to me, but I feel like he’s trying to rationalize letting his sister get married to me in a Vegas chapel.
“Whatever hangups she has, I’ll get to the bottom of them,” I assure him. Because I will.
First, I need to make her my wife. When I told her the only person I’d marry was her, I didn’t expect her to agree to it, or to suggest we do it right now.
“I need to talk to Daniella.” I walk towards where she’s standing with her sister.
The moment I reach the two of them, Rosie turns to me, her eyes icy as hell. “If you break her heart, I’m going to make you swallow a grenade and watch your ass blow to pieces.”
I do my best not to laugh, because the threats these siblings come up with are creative. “Noted. Dani, we should talk.”
“You backing out, CJ? Can’t really marry a girl you hate?” Daniella raises a challenging brow at me.
“No. I’m not backing out, and I don’t hate you.” I like to tell myself I do, but I’ve never been able to fully hate her. I hate the situation she put us both in. I hate the situation I put us both in by making her choose between me and her family. But the reality is… nothing has changed.
Whoever said that bullshit about love conquering all didn’t know what they were on about, because no amount of love can change the fact that our lives exist on opposite sides of the world. She won’t leave Australia. And I… Well, I don’t think I can leave Vegas.
I take Daniella’s hand and lead her away from her sister. “Are you sure you want to do this?”
“Marry you?” she asks, and I nod. “I’m sure you’re not actually going to say I do, CJ.”
“I guarantee if we go to that chapel, those words will leave my mouth, Daniella. You know that. So, I’m asking again. Are you sure? Because as much as I want to say fuck it, take advantage of this moment, and make you my wife, I don’t want that if it’s not truly what you want too.”
Daniella looks up at me. Something in her gaze shifts. “I can’t,” she whispers.
And again, my heart feels like it just got stabbed with a blade. “You can’t? Or you don’t want to?” I ask, because obviously I’m a sucker for punishment.
“I can’t,” she repeats. Which tells me she wants to. I can see it in her eyes: the indecision, the want, the love I use to let myself sink into.
“I don’t know what’s goin’ on in that pretty little head of yours, but you either need to sort your shit out, or tell me so I can sort it out for you. Because I can’t keep putting myself out there for you like this, Dani. There is only so much rejection I can take.”
“I’m not… It’s not you, CJ,” she says. “It’s me. I know that sounds lame. But trust me, you don’t really want to be stuck with me for a wife.”
Is she fucking serious right now? Stuck with her?
Before I can say anything, Daniella is turning and making her way towards her brother. I don’t move. I’m stuck. Frozen as memories of the last time she fucking walked out on me play through my head. I watch as Aurelio leads Daniella and Rosie out of the club.
Aiden stops in front of me. “You okay?”
“Not in the slightest. Go with her because I can’t right now,” I tell him.
He nods. I know I don’t need to hover over her. But fuck, do I want to.
Instead, I head back to the table, pick up the bottle of whiskey, and bring it to my lips. This is what I need right now. Alfie, Emilio, and Elias say nothing.
Frankie, however, isn’t so subtle. “You can do better than her.”
“Sure.” I shrug. “I knew she was never going to go along with that anyway.”
It’s a lie. I had hoped she would. But I should know better by now than to hope for anything. Especially when it comes to Daniella De Bellis.