Chapter 6

Later that night, I found myself staring at the ceiling of the room as if there was something interesting among the shadows reflected in the window because of the storm.

I left my room, trying not to make any noise, to head for the kitchen in search of warm milk. My parents said it helped.

I stared at the glass of milk for several minutes, until I realized that the rain had stopped and I wasn't sleepy at all.

I heard a sudden noise at the back of the house, and I jumped up; I feared that someone had broken into the house. However, when I reached the garden, I could not see much more than the swimming pool, which was shining because of the lights inside.

The city was illuminated in the distance, as the villa was on a mountain in a nutshell, but that didn't help visibility.

I didn't want to think I was a heroine, so I preferred to go back to the house and call Mauro.

As I turned my body to go back, I collided head-on again with a body and this time, flustered by the noise I had heard, I couldn't help but scream in surprise. The stranger immediately covered my mouth.

"Shh," he said softly and I could define Dante's dark eyes, after watching him closely.

The low visibility and the brightness of the pool, made him look so creepy, I thought he would fall at any moment if I didn't compose myself. His torso was bare, I knew this because the wet skin glistened in the light and naughty drops fell on my face, chest and legs.

"Do you often wander around at night like the souls in torment?" he quizzed curiously and I swallowed saliva, before I could speak again.

"Do you usually take nightly showers?

He smiled half-sideways with his thin lips and my legs trembled, "It's relaxing.

"In the dark," I raised an eyebrow. He sighed, before walking away towards the pool again, as if I had never shown up.

"Out of darkness, curiosity is born," he said with his back turned, looking sideways at me with those unperturbed black irises.

How could he make me so tense with mere words, starting that hadn't happened before.

Bonding with his family and sleeping under the same roof seemed to be a switch for something else.

He made a muse with his hand, as if he was inviting me, before he made a dive into the pool that was twice the size of my college room.

"Out of darkness, is curiosity born?" I muttered to myself, as I watched the speck in the water move toward the center.

I didn't understand why Dante's behavior was so different sometimes, but for some reason he managed to tempt me to do things that in my life I would have been able to do. Like solving real cases that would give a normal person nightmares, to broaden my knowledge and prepare me for the future.

And at that moment, to swim in a cold pool in the middle of the night, with my boyfriend sleeping under the same roof. I was sure he was sleeping peacefully, because I passed by his room before going to the kitchen, and one thing I had learned about him from sleeping together was that not even an earthquake could wake him up.

Maybe he wouldn't think it was right for his girlfriend to be in the pool with his older brother, or it was just paranoia of mine; ideas I was getting in my head from the tension. He wasn't jealous and had no reason to be, I didn't love his brother like I loved him.

I took off the jacket I had on, staying in the top I was wearing and I had borrowed one of Mauro's shorts, which I thought looked better on me than on him.

I walked down the stairs to the pool, feeling the cold of the water envelop me and every nerve in my body jerk. I had never been in the water at night, under the stars.

I walked around the pool, until I reached the glass that overlooked the cityscape, being in imminent danger. However, I was distracted by the movement of the water on my back and my heart stopped as Dante came out next to me.

The cold lost its importance as soon as it was replaced by a strange tingling on my skin, as if my senses had been turned off and my body's instinct was activated.

I watched him curiously, as if he had caught me in the darkness of his eyes.

My chest began to rise and fall with speed, shocked by the bubble I had fallen into like a spell. It had all started because of that discomfort and the fact that I didn't know what was wrong with me.

By the time I realized it, I was being pinned by his arms against the glass and for some reason I was afraid of absolutely nothing, not even how intimidating it might be to fall into the void behind me.

It was just the two of us in the middle of a huge world and the friction of his body against mine was making me go a mile a minute. I couldn't control my hips, which attracted him like a magnet.

"What are you doing?" I asked breathlessly, when his face was above mine and I had to look up to the sky to see what was going on from his mischievous gaze.

He stroked my hair and his hands brushed the skin on my back; reflexively I pulled away from his touch, but ended up bumping into his chest and that was all it took for him to burst the bubble.

He pressed me to him and with mortifying slowness brought his face close to mine, to the point where I could smell the bitter odor of whiskey.

"Dante," I murmured.

"Shh," he whispered against my lips, before they consumed me, as if they had just stolen my soul.

I opened my eyes in surprise and was blinded by the light streaming through the window. I looked around tensely, realizing I was in my college room and right in front of me was Lexi still asleep in her bed.

I sat up and because of how fast my heart was racing, I knew I had had that dream again; sweat was all over my skin and for some reason the atmosphere felt warm.

I drank some water to calm myself down and went straight to the student bathroom, looking for a cold shower to make me forget.

I felt guilty for dreaming about my boyfriend's brother after swimming in the pool with him. However, that didn't explain why I was dreaming about making out with him, if that hadn't happened that night.

I couldn't deny that it had caused me nerves and mixed feelings to have swum in the dark, under the night and alone. But that didn't mean that something else had happened, and that was what I didn't understand.

When I returned to the room, my friend was sitting on the edge of her bed with her things ready to take a shower herself. I walked past her, trying not to get her attention.

"Evie," she said and I snorted.

It was clear that I wasn't going to save myself from her. She knew me so well, she knew something was wrong with me if I had gone to take a shower so early, having nothing to do that day. Especially if it was hot.

"Tell me," I put my things down in the closet and felt her stand behind me.

"Did you dream about him again?" she questioned and I tensed my jaw, "And don't try to lie, why I heard his name again while you were sleeping.

I sighed, "I swear I'm not doing it on purpose.

"I know, but it's wrong. You know that, don't you?" i turned around and she was folding her arms. She looked like a mother worried about her children.

"I know, but I don't know how to get it out of my head, I don't even think about it," I bit my lips in anguish.

"You shouldn't have swam with him in a pool in the first place, at night, alone and him shirtless," she pointed out obviously and I rolled my eyes.

"It didn't seem like a bad thing to me, why I wasn't doing anything wrong.

"You were with your super handsome brother-in-law, shirtless and alone in a pool, do you think anyone would think that's a normal thing to do?" she asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Well, now that you put it that way," I tensed my jaw, "But then, now what do I do? I don't know how to get him off me.

She grimaced thoughtfully, "I think it's best if you avoid him," she pointed out and I raised my eyebrows in surprise, "At least until you stop dreaming about him and saying his name in your sleep. Mauro might find out and I don't think that would be a nice thing for you to do.

I sighed and after agreeing with my best friend that she would try to seduce him, giving her clear information she knew about Dante Di Marco for the mission, we said our goodbyes to continue our long day.