Chapter 149

"You’re aggressive," I hissed, holding my posture, even though the twist Cole was putting on my neck was unbearable.

"I fight, Emília. We fight. You’ll only know what it’s like when you live the same as we do. And believe me, I’ll make sure you live worse if you keep pissing me off."

Internal wounds were rising in my muscles, and the urge to strike Cole grew stronger, but my strength was no match for even a fraction of what he was. Cole wasn’t strong, but his anger was a trigger that transformed him into a human powerhouse.

"I’ll hit you if you don’t let go," I threatened, my voice trembling between each word, unable to maintain any firmness.

His sadistic smile spread.

"Do it, Emília. Touch me, and I’ll send you straight to Dante. But you won’t be alive."

Before I could respond, a gunshot rang out, and a shock gripped my chest. Cole groaned in pain, stepping away from me quickly. My body collapsed to the ground, the twist in my neck causing slight damage to my cervical area and lower limbs. I never thought I’d feel violated by something as simple as a hair tug.

As I raised my head to see what was happening, I came face to face with Dante and a gun in his hand. The shot had hit the tip of Cole’s foot, and he was clearly forcing himself not to scream from the pain.

"What did I say about touching my girl, damn it?!" Dante shouted. "Next time I warn you, I’ll be burying your body six feet under."

Cole stared back at him defiantly.

Both he and his friends.

But not me.

There was a part of me that reacted submissively to every powerful step Dante Faulkner took. It was as if my confused soul fed off Cole’s pain, Jaxon and Asher’s frightened states.

It was another side of him.

One that didn’t scare me.

It filled my blood with euphoria.

And I liked it.

I liked the taste of the chaos Dante exhaled.

"Man, you can’t accept that this—"

"Watch what you say about her in my presence, Van Doren," Dante interrupted. "Any of you."

Cole wanted to argue. He might have, if Asher hadn’t signaled to him that his foot was bleeding.

God. Didn’t he feel the pain?

"Get out of here," Dante said calmly, though his face was hardened.

He didn’t show any emotion except pure disdain.

The three boys didn’t argue.

None of them even breathed loudly.

I heard a near yes, captain from Jaxon, and the sound of a fist hitting Cole’s wall, but I was more focused on ignoring the pain in my neck as I lifted my gaze to meet Dante’s.

He stood tall, the gun in his hand as if it were part of his body. His dark clothes, the old boots he loved, and the chain around his neck that he’d always kept.

I heard him, admired him, smelled him, and felt Dante in an absurd way. Most of my senses were only functioning to take in all of him at once. And my desires focused on wanting to know his taste.

What was I thinking?

"Get up, Emília."

His command sounded like that of a god, and I obeyed like a subordinate.

I had no time to regain my balance because he had pulled me to the door beside us, passing through a room before reaching a bathroom.

Before I knew it, cold water poured over my clothes and hair.

"What are you doing?!" I exclaimed, shivering from the cold water.

"Cleaning you, damn it," he snapped, stepping under the shower with me, his hair soaking wet, and the rest of his clothes weighing him down.

"What are you talking about? I’m not dirty."

"They touched you."

His hand gently moved to the side of my neck, his fingers marking where Cole had dug his nails in before pulling my hair.

"Dante..."

"I don’t want any of them to have their hands on you, you hear me?" His hand crawled to my hair, maintaining its tenderness, and a satisfying sigh escaped me. "Not even a millimeter. I already told you. I don’t want you to get dirty, damn it. I don’t know why the hell you had to come here."

"I... I wanted to know why you’re mad at me."

Dante admired other parts of my body, not just my eyes. While his hand explored the back of my neck and strangely pleasurable areas, his gaze focused on other corners of my face that begged for his attention.

My legs wobbled. I wasn’t sure if it was from the cold coming from the shower or from reactions that seemed to demand something more from deep inside me.

"I’m not mad."

"You’ve been ignoring me."

Dante took a deep breath.

"I had to focus."

"That’s exactly what they said."

"What else did they say to you?"

"That you only offered hate and I needed to stay away because I was in love with you. They also said that..." And you’re not?

The cold water had turned hot. Scalding. A burning steam clouded my senses.

I was heating up in a worrying way. "Dante, I..."

I am.

His voice came out silent. My heartbeat drowned out anything happening in that bathroom at that moment.

I just saw his mouth move and two words whispered under the water.

"What?"

"I’m in love with you, Emília."

I struggled not to tremble and fall to the wet floor.

My thoughts became slow and without words.

If there had been a cabinet where I kept any vulnerability, Dante had surely found it and broken it open. My heart was wide open and susceptible to being taken.

"You’re lying," I whispered.

"I lie. But not to you. Never about you."

I fixate on his gaze. I fixate on his existence, more than I wanted. More than I thought I could handle.

Any trace of pain had disappeared. I wanted to believe it was from the cold water, but I knew it was because of how Dante had a unique way of bringing me good sensations.

This one was good.

Extremely delicious.

But I couldn’t believe it.

I lowered my head as Dante turned off the shower.

"You shouldn’t walk around with a gun."

"Cole pissed me off."

"He’s your friend. Shooting his foot isn’t a symbol of friendship."

"He was hurting you."

"I know how to defend myself," I retorted.

"And I know how to protect you," he challenged, grinding his teeth. "Cole knows he shouldn’t have touched you, but he still made sure to hurt you."

"It didn’t hurt."

The towel dropped onto my head. Dante didn’t let me move, as he decided to dry me off, starting with my voluminous hair. His patience in taking care of my curls was strangely pleasurable.

"Don’t pretend to be strong when it’s just the two of us." His face appeared before me again as he slightly tilted my neck.

"And don’t change the subject to avoid talking about your feelings, Gray. I wanted to talk about them."

I wanted to comment on how Faulkner made a storm of emotions take over my thoughts, my reason for living. Every day, my brain had a new report of feelings. All of them were good and addictive. Some hungry. Others seemed to comfort me.

Dante left deeper marks than Cole. And all of them, I wanted to keep.

"When?"

Dante inhaled sharply, the droplets traveling down his face and arms.

"I don’t know."

"What do you mean?"

"It just happened."

Two words were enough to ruin my future of loving someone else.

"Me too," I began. "I don’t know when, how, or why. I just know I like it, Dante. I really like what you offer me."

His hand took hold of part of my face, forcing me to have his darkened eyes fueling my shame.

"And I like what you make me."

"A boy who shoots his friends in the foot?"

He laughed.

"Something like that." I was won over to laugh too. "But it won’t happen, Emília."

His voice took on a different tone.

"What do you mean?"

"We can’t happen."

A pang of pain settled where comfort once was.

"Why? We like each other, right? Shouldn’t we be together?"

A deep and troubled silence emptied any happiness Dante had displayed before.

"I really want you. You have no idea what my mind produces when I think about you." His other hand rested on the side of my face, and his mouth brushed mine, his teeth biting my lower lip and stealing my breath. I moaned softly, my hands traveling up the wet fabric of his shirt in response, not pushing him closer to my chest. "I’d swallow you whole, Emília. And believe me, you wouldn’t want anything more than just the two of us. But I’d ruin your life."

"I don’t care what they think of you. I don’t agree with anything."

"But you should."

"Dante, I want everything. Everything you have. And I want you to take everything I have too." I felt embarrassed before continuing, but I avoided silencing myself. "I want to be ruined by you."

The surprise and malice in his smile didn’t chase away the shame I felt.

"You’re begging me to... "

"Don’t say that!" I shouted, unable to return to my normal color. "Please, don’t say the word."

Dante avoided laughing, though it was clear how much he needed to express how funny he found it.

"You’re adorable, Gray. Especially because you’re begging me to fuck you here and don’t want me to say what I’m feeling." I tightened my fingers on the fabric of his shirt. "I’ll make your wishes come true, Gray. You know that."

"So..."

"But not this one." Dante brought his mouth to my neck, his teeth grazing over spots where the nerve endings trembled with pleasure. "I can’t."

Saying I wasn’t sad would be a lie. He liked me, but he was denying me. Why?

"I’ll wait," Dante pulled away slightly, his gaze falling on me as if I were crazy. "Everything I have will wait for you."

I spoke romantically. I exposed what I felt clearly and openly. Dante didn’t. His eyes didn’t shine with romance. It was possessive. An obsession crystallized in his black irises.

He wanted me in a raw way.

I wanted him to desire me that way.

"Your first love?" he asked, his eyes drifting to my lips.

"Yes."

"Your first kiss?"

I nodded.

"Your virginity… Will that be mine too?"

It was unbearable to keep myself from falling into a hole, but my feelings needed to be expressed.