Chapter 70 Night And Day
Dante POV
Isabella concentrated on her artwork during the day, doing her possible best to ignore me while the sun was up. She was pissed at me for a lot of reasons, but her biggest reason of all at the moment was because I’d been shot. She could barely look at me but when the sun was gone and the lights were out, she was as needy and affectionate as she’d always been.
She fucked me harder than I fucked her, needing all of me to reach her climax. She l clawed at me, whispered promises to me while I was deep inside her. Our connection was borderline spiritual and we moved together like we were of one mind. We were of one mind but once the sun was up, she acted like she hated me again. That was fine. I hated her too.
I walked into the art room and saw the collection of paintings she’d made in the past few weeks. The one she painted of herself was still my favorite, a piece of artwork I would never sell, no matter the price. It was so moody, dark, and sexy. It captured the way I felt about her perfectly. It was complicated, emotional, and sad. It illustrated my view of her, the exact way I stared at Isabella every single day. She had other paintings that she’d completed, all leaning against the wall. They all contained images of Milan and Rome, all beautiful in their unique ways. Before long, she would have plenty of artwork to fill an entire gallery. I noticed one painting had been turned the opposite way. It leaned against the wall, the paint hidden from view. I walked toward it, curious to see what she was hiding but she screamed “No.” Her voice steadied me, full of authority and foreign power.
I stopped and turned my head toward her.
She sat on the stool, her black hair pulled back and a drop of blue paint on her nose. She was working on a golden field of sunflowers. She held the brush between her fingertips, a mixture of yellow and white paint on the tip.
“That’s private.”
“Nothing is private here, not when I own everything.” I reached for it again. “Off-limits.” She set the brush on the easel and hopped off the stool, her short legs only touching the ground once she was on her feet. “I mean it.” She grabbed me by the arm and yanked me away. Like she had enough strength to make me do anything. I let her pull me, only because this painting seemed particularly important to her. “Tell me why, and I’ll think about it.”
“It’s private,” she repeated. “You have to give me a better reason than that.”
“It’s just…” Her eyes moved down. “I’m just not ready. I don’t even know why I painted it.”
“You’re only making me more interested.”
“Just leave it alone, alright?” Her eyes flicked back to mine, green and beautiful. “I’ve pulled two bullets out of your arm and stitched you up twice.
The least you could do is leave this alone.”
“You put one of the bullets there, in case you forgot.”
“And don’t expect me to apologize for it because I never will.”
There was my baby. I tried to hide my smile. “I want to see it eventually.”
“Fine.”
“Then why can’t I see it now?”
“I just don’t want you to.” She wore the white smock to cover her clothes, but even the shapeless fabric couldn’t diminish her unquestionable beauty. “It’s personal, and I’m not ready to explain myself, just drop it.”
“You really aren’t helping”
“Let it go, Dante.” She returned to the easel and grabbed her brushes and set them in the water glass. Her painting was only halfway completed, but she didn’t seem motivated to finish it that evening. I glanced at the painting again, more intrigued than ever before. I could
just tell her she didn’t have any rights and do whatever I wanted, but her artwork was important to her. It was like seeing a piece of her soul. If she didn’t want me to have it, I couldn’t force it. Just like when it came to fucking she had to decide.
“How’s your arm?” She peeled off her smock. The sun was going down, so she was becoming less hostile. As the night deepened, she couldn’t restrainbher affection. Her kisses started, and then she would move into my lap and take it a step further until we were in bed together, rocking the headboard all night long.
“Don’t even notice it.” That wasn’t true. It was sore, and it ached when I put weight on it. I held myself on top of her every night but ignored the pain because my cock was in heaven inside that wet slit. I concentrated on her kiss and her awesome tits, not the pain in my arm. I usually swallowed a handful of pills before bed then I was good. “Good. It seems to be healing nicely…” She finished putting away her supplies then glanced at herself in the mirror. She wiped away the dot of blue
paint then headed to the door. “I’m getting cabin fever. I’ve been working on my art all week and haven’t stepped outside once.”
I usually made dinner for us every night because she didn’t know how to cook and never cared to learn. But maybe she needed a change of scenery. “How about we go to dinner tonight?” We’d only been to breakfast once, and that didn’t go over well. “Like, you and me?” she asked incredulously. “Yes. Man and woman.”
“In public?”
“Yes.”
She rolled her eyes. “Not a good idea.”
“Why?”
“Varos and Rhylen are in the city a lot.”
“So?”
“Imagine if they saw me with you.”
“You think I care?” I hoped I ran into them. It would be a nice coincidence. “I know they don’t know who you are, but I don’t want them to see me with a man. They’ll ask me a million questions”
“ Varos knows who I am.”
She stilled by the doorway. “He does?”
I nodded. “Are you sure?”
“Absolutely, he sat right beside me at the Underground and even though I was trying out a disguise, one of the gang members called me by my name and there was no way Varos would just ignore that piece of information and I know he heard it.”
“If my family knew who you were, they would have killed you by now.”
That was my assumption too, but an attack never came. “They don’t know what my motives are. So instead of provoking me, they’re choosing to remainnambivalent and hope we can coexist peacefully.”
“Shows how little they know…”
“Couldn’t agree more. You should always take out your enemy before they can take you out.”
“Or you should take advantage of the fact that my family are peaceful people who have no ill will toward you. You should just let the dust remain settled and move on with your life. You provoked that fucker now and you almost died, and fucking with my family will certainly kill you.”