The long hallway is decorated with expensive modern artwork. I’m not an expert on contemporary art by any stretch of the imagination, but I recognize a few of the pieces: Keith Haring, David Hockney and Robert Mapplethorpe
Once we make it to the end of the hallway Dante pulls me into a room. I gasp when I look around the large bedroom. Every bit of wall space is covered with one of the Dali illustrations of the Divine Comedy. I suspect he’s got the full collection. Just my one print cost a fortune, for me anyway, and some of the pieces are rare and hard to find. The entire collection had to be worth at least a million dollars.
“Why didn’t you tell me?” I ask as I pass by the prints and take them all in. “I can’t believe this.”
“I didn’t tell you because I knew you’d want to see them and I was ashamed to tell you that I still live at home with my parents and my siblings.”
My eyes grow wide. “Ally lives here too?”
“So does Ty.”
“Does she always—um—treat you like that?”
“Today was a good day. She actually retreated fairly quickly.”
There’s so much I want to say, I’m not even sure where to start, so I just wait to see what Dante says.
“I’m sorry,” he runs his thumb down my cheek. “When she mentioned you getting pregnant I lost it. I know that’s a sensitive subject for you and she had no right to go there.”
“It’s okay,” I tell him.
He shakes his head. “She’s such a bitch. I have to remind myself to consider the source. She barely made it through college. She was proud of the fact that she got her boyfriend to write all of her papers for her. Her two greatest achievements in life were being voted prom queen in high school and being elected the president of her sorority her senior year of college. The sum total of her vapid existence will be measured by the number of zeros in her future husband’s bank account and the amount of time it takes her to spend all of his money.”
“She doesn’t matter,” I tell him.
“It was a mistake to bring you here.”
“I’m glad you did. It helps me to understand you better.” It’s finally clear why he has the tattoo of Cerberus on his arm. His family treats him like a dog from hell.
When his eyes meet mine the anger seems to have diminished. Now he just looks sad.
“Did you really mean what you said?”
“You mean the part where I told your sister that I love you?”
He nods.
“Yes.”
I gasp when he lifts me up and carries me over to his large wooden bed. It looks like something out of a log cabin.
He carefully places me down on the lovely blue comforter and remains standing while he quickly gets undressed. “I need to be inside of you right now.”
He unzips my dress and pulls it off. Then joins me in the bed.
When he kisses me it’s needy and forceful. My bra comes off quickly and joins the pile of clothes on the hardwood floor.
My panties are not far behind joining the pile after he slides them off me.
As Dante kisses me his hands roam my naked body. When he glides inside of me I’m a little surprised that I’m already so wet and ready for him. I’m filled with so much emotion and my head is spinning with so many thoughts and questions it’s hard for me to concentrate on what Dante’s doing.
“Relax,” he whispers and I’m immediately brought back into the moment.
I don’t take my eyes from his as he continues to slowly glide in and out of me.
“Tell me that you love me,” he implores. “Please say it.”
My heart breaks at the desperation in his voice. “I love you, Dante.”
As if I turned a switch his thrusts become hard and deep. “Tell me again.”
“I love you,” I repeat.
Fire quickly spreads through my body as he pushes into me with so much force I cry out with both pleasure and pain.
Then I remember where I am: in Dante’s room with a party going on right outside. And I just cried out in ecstasy.
“Come with me, baby,” he urges as he pumps hard and fast driving us both home.
“I’m embarrassed,” I admit.
He actually grins. A huge one. “I’m not.”
“Am I turning red? My cheeks are burning.”
“You are hot, baby.”
I raise an eyebrow. “Did you really call me Baby?”
He bites back a grin as he nods.
“No one has ever used that word in reference to me before.”
“Good. You’re all mine, baby.”
I’m not sure whether I’m insulted by the word or if deep down I actually like it. It’s a weird feeling.
I narrow my gaze at him. “You’re awfully cocky all of a sudden.”
“That’s because a gorgeous woman just told me she loves me. And I believe her.”
Nine
An army of blonde zombies in white cotton dresses is about to kill me when I’m startled awake.
It takes me a few moments to remember that I’m in Dante’s bed and we’re still at his parents’ house.
We’re naked, wrapped in each other’s arms. We must have fallen asleep after the intense sex.
I wonder how late it is and if the party is still going on.
“Dante,” I whisper.
No response.
“Dante,” I whisper a little louder as I brush his arm.
“Is everything okay?” he replies groggily.
“I need to pee.”
“Don’t get dressed. There’s a robe on the chair in the corner. The bathroom is right next door. Right not left. Whatever you do don’t go into the room on the right. That’s Ty’s room.”
Once I extricate myself from our tangle of arms and legs I grab the robe from the chair and put it on. It’s huge on me and I feel like I’m swimming in material so I tie the belt as tight as I possibly can before I exit Dante’s room.
“Right not left,” I remind myself.
Unnecessarily apparently because there’s a young guy, who I assume is Ty, coming out of his room.
“Whoa,” he says when he spots me.
I gulp. The only thing he’s wearing is a pair of tight fitting jeans that aren’t buttoned at the waist. He’s bare-chested and barefooted.
And what a chest he has. A perfect six pack. He’s tanned, just like the rest of his family. Of course he’s blond. He’s got the same movie star blue eyes as his dad, and his dad’s charismatic smile and pantie-dropping charm.
“Where did you come from?” He stares into my eyes.
He’s so disarmingly attractive I feel like I can’t speak. So I just point to Dante’s room.
He furrows his brow like he’s trying to fit the pieces together. “You’re not Dante’s girlfriend, are you?”
I nod.
“Fuck.” He looks me up and down. “What’s a hot piece like you doing with my brother?”
I blink a few times and clear my throat. “What did you call me?”
“A hot piece,” he repeats as if I didn’t hear him.
“Dante and I have a lot in common.”
He laughs. “Sure you do.”
When he moves closer, blocking my way to the bathroom, my heart starts to pound. Ty went from charming to creepy in a matter of seconds. Part of me wants to yell for Dante, but a bigger part of me doesn’t want to embarrass him or myself.
Ty gets so close I can smell alcohol on his breath. He whispers in my ear. “If you want to see what I real man can do I’m available any time.”
I have no idea what to say or do. My mind has gone completely blank. All I want to do is get away from Ty as fast as I can.
“What’s going on?” Dante’s voice is louder than I’ve ever heard it before.
When Ty backs away from me he’s wearing a smug grin that I’d like to slap right off his arrogant face.
I wish I had the chance to tell him there’s no way in hell I’d ever consider being with someone like him. Then I re
alize how ridiculous my declaration sounds. I could have easily been with someone like him. When I signed the contract for The Club I had no idea I was making an arrangement with Dante. The arrangement could have been with someone like Ty, or even worse.
Dante glares at his brother like he wants to kill him. He makes a point of grabbing my hand and lacing our fingers together.
“I was just telling your girlfriend to give me a call sometime.”
“She’s not interested in you.” Dante shoots daggers at his brother with a look of utter disdain on his face.
Ty shakes his head. “Dante really does it for you? I didn’t think the day that Dante finally brought home a girl she’d look anything like you.”
“Isn’t there a game somewhere you can gamble on?” Dante asks sharply.
Ty crosses his arms over his chest. “I heard Ally’s taking bets on how long it takes for your girlfriend to get knocked up.”
I think all three of us are shocked when Dante punches Ty right in the nose.
“What the fuck?” Ty blinks for a few moments as if he’s trying to figure out what just happened. When blood starts streaming from his nostril he wipes at his nose. “Shit.”
He looks up at Dante like he’s looking at a person he doesn’t recognize at all. “What did you do that for?”
“Don’t ever say that about my girlfriend again. Got it?”
“You’re even more fucked up than I thought.” Ty gives him the finger before he turns and walks away.
“Let’s go back to my room,” Dante doesn’t sound like himself. He sounds like a robot.
“I didn’t use the bathroom.”
When he nods I take that as a sign to go. I hurry into the bathroom and lock the door behind me. I didn’t even realize my heart was racing until I sit down on the toilet.
I do my business as quickly as I can and when I exit the bathroom I’m surprised to see that Dante is standing exactly where I left him. He hasn’t moved a muscle.
“Dante.” When I touch his arm it seems to release him from whatever spell he was under.
He takes my hand as we walk the short distance to his room.
“I think we should go back to your place,” he states as he picks up his remaining clothes from the floor. Like Ty Dante is wearing just his jeans and nothing else.
“Sure.” I remove the robe and place it on back in the chair where I found it.
“It was a mistake bringing you here. I’m sorry. For everything.”
“It’s okay.”
He rubs his forehead. “I can’t believe I punched Ty. I’ve never done anything like that before. I just wanted him to stop hurting you.”
I place a hand on his upper arm. “Really. It’s okay.”
“I don’t want you to think I’m some kind of violent sociopath who goes around punching people.”
“Your brother and sister are cruel people. I can understand why you reacted the way you did.”
“I don’t really care what they say about me. I just couldn’t handle what they said about you. Especially after what you shared with me about not being able to get pregnant.”
I’m not sure what to say. I want to get out of here as badly as he seems to want to.
“I need to tell my Mom and Dad we’re leaving. I wish I could tell them that I’m never coming back.”
“You can stay with me as long as you want to. I told you if you want to bring some personal hygiene products or a few changes of clothes, you can keep them at my place. I don’t mind.”
He nods then disappears into the closet.
I take the opportunity to get dressed and run my hand through my hair so it’s not too much of a mess.
When Dante reemerges from the closet he’s got a small duffle bag that looks like it’s filled with clothes.
“Quick stop in the bathroom and then we’ll say goodbye to my parents.”
My stomach knots when I realize that I just invited Dante to live with me for a while.
Once Dante has removed his stuff from the bathroom we freeze when Ty’s door opens and he emerges with a tall, raven-haired beauty who looks like a model.
When he spots us he makes a point of making out with the girl right in front of us.
“Come back any time you want another ride.” When he smacks the girl’s ass I cringe. She seems unfazed by his grotesque display, however.
“Leaving so soon?” Ty turns his attention to me. “I’ve got some free time.”
“Get out of our way,” Dante demands.
To my surprise Ty moves out of the way without any further comment. Maybe the punch in the nose actually made an impression. His face is starting to swell a little bit and there’s already discoloration under his eyes. For a while he’ll think about what Dante did every time he looks in the mirror.
We find Dante’s parents in the kitchen putting away left over food. They both freeze when we enter the kitchen.
“I’m going to Mary’s place for a while,” he announces.
“How long is a while?” Jennifer asks.
Dante shrugs in response.
“I hope this doesn’t interfere with school.” Paul looks back and forth between me and Dante.
“It won’t,” Dante assures him.
“Thanks for inviting me to your lovely home,” I tell them.
They give each other a sideways glance.
Then Jennifer puts on a false smile and says, “We hope you’ll visit again sometime.” And I have a feeling she’s thinking: maybe when hell freezes over.
“You’re taking a bag with you?” Jennifer observes.
“Yup,” Dante replies. Then he looks at me, “Are you ready?”
I nod anxiously. I can’t wait to get out of here.
“Will I see you at the golf course on Monday?” Paul asks.
“Doubtful,” Dante replies. “I’ll be with Mary.”
“Do you golf?” Jennifer asks.
When I shake my head and tell her, “I never learned,” she looks at me like I’m from another planet.
“Where did you two of you meet again?” Her voice is sugary sweet, no doubt hiding the fact that she’s a viper ready to pounce.
“I never told you, Mom,” Dante says.
All eyes are on Ally when she stumbles into the room with a beer in her hand. “Didn’t you say you meet her at a bookstore?”
Ally is weaving so much it looks like she could tip over at any moment.
“We were both in the history section and we grabbed for the same medieval history book at the same time.”
Jennifer raises an eyebrow. “You’re interested in medieval history?”
“I am,” I reply.
“That’s unusual.”
I give her a weak smile. Not so unusual for a medieval history scholar, but I can’t tell her that.
“Where was the bookstore?” Ally asks before she downs a swig of her beer.
“Lincoln Park,” Dante says.
Ally slams her beer on the counter. “That bookstore closed a year and a half ago.” Then she narrows her gaze at us. “Have you guys known each other for a year and a half?”
Luckily Ty swaggers into the kitchen sans model girlfriend.
“What happened to your nose?” Jennifer asks him.
“I didn’t feel like putting on the light when I got up to go to the bathroom. I tripped and fell. Smashed my face on the floor.”
“It looks like you got punched in the face,” Ally observes.
Ty grimaces. “I fell. End of story.”
“Maybe you should see Dr. Patience,” Jennifer tells him. “Just to have it checked out.”
Ty shakes his head. “I’m sure it will be fine.”
“At least put some ice on it,” Paul says as he reaches into the freezer and removes an ice pack.
“We’re going to take off,” Dante says as he grabs my hand.
We make a quick exit before anyone has a chance to interrogate us any further.
When we’re in his car and belted up Da
nte exhales a deep breathe. “Was that as bad as I thought it was?”
“It wasn’t that bad,” I tell him.
“Liar.”
“You’re right. It was awful.”
“The only thing I want to do right now is get back to your place, get naked and get back into bed.”
“I like that sound of that too,” I tell him as he starts the engine and pulls away.
Ten
Dante and I spent all day Sunday and Labor Day at my place, naked and in bed, only emerging long enough to order a pizza delivery and take-out Chinese food.
It never occurred to me that I could have so much in common with a twenty-two-year-old, but Dante and I have a lot of shared interests.
Here are some things I learned about Dante when we took breaks in our two-day love-making marathon:
We both love grunge music, especially Pearl Jam, and we both think Nirvana is a bit overrated.
We both have an irrational fear of horses.
We both want to travel the world and the first trips we’d like to take in order of priority are: Italy, Greece, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Russia.
Our parents forced us to take piano lessons when we were kids when be both secretly yearned to play the guitar.
We’ve both watched the Lord of the Rings trilogy more times than we can count and we have apparently memorized large chunks of the movies, which we had a tremendous amount of fun acting out.
“I’m exhausted,” I tell him when the alarm goes off on Monday morning.
He grins. “We’ve been in bed for two days straight.”
“We weren’t exactly resting,” I tell him. “I’ve never had so much sex in my life.”
“Good.” He places a kiss on my lips.
“Remember what I said. We can’t walk over to school together and we can’t arrive at the same time. Let’s walk over there at least twenty minutes apart.”
“Whatever you want,” he tells me. “You know that. I’m like your own personal genie. Your wish is my command.”
***
When I arrive at my office Misty is standing there waiting for me. Shit. I completely forgot about her proposal to assist me with my research.
Her face completely lights up when she spots me. “Did you have a chance to look at my vitae?”
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