I sighed, my thoughts twisting in the same loops as I wished I had something else that I could do to take my mind off of things. If I could just get out of my own head for a while then maybe I’d be able to come back and look at all the evidence I’d gathered from a new angle.
Laini’s sheet was up around her bed and the soft amber glow of a magical light shone through it letting me know she was deep into a book. There was zero chance of me enticing her out of her Sphinxy book cave once she went into it so I didn’t even bother to try.
The door opened and I looked up as Dante strolled in with a towel wrapped around his waist and his muscular chest gleaming with drips of water. His hair was wet and his eyes dark as he headed for the closet at the back of the room, barely sparing me a glance.
I twisted onto my stomach and watched as he rifled through the closet before picking out a navy suit and white shirt to match.
He kept his back to the room as he pulled the towel from his waist and quickly dried off the rest of his body.
“You know there are ladies present, right?” I teased while happily checking out his ass.
Dante chuckled and I bit my lip at the deep tone of it.
“No, bella, I don’t see any ladies here. Laini seems to be shielded by her sheet and I don’t think you count.”
I smirked at that comment. “What does that make me then?” I asked as he pulled on a pair of black boxers before stepping into his suit pants. He turned to face me as he fastened his fly, his gaze capturing me and drawing my eyes from his chest.
“I’d call you temptation,” he growled. “Of the darkest variety.”
My smile widened at that and I pushed myself up onto my hands and knees, crawling closer to him so that I could rest my chin on the end of the bed. “Where are you going?” I asked as he pulled the crisp shirt on next.
“I need to check in with some of my people at one of the clubs my family owns,” he said.
“Take me with you,” I begged because I was so damn bored that I didn’t even care about seeming desperate.
Dante paused mid way through buttoning his shirt. “I would, carina, but this isn’t the kind of club to take nice girls to on a date.”
“I’m not a nice girl,” I protested. “What kind of club is it?”
He stepped closer, lowering his voice like we were sharing a secret. “The kind where men and women live out their fantasies. All of their fantasies without any limitations or judgement.”
My heart beat faster at his words and I sat up. “It’s a strip club?” I asked excitedly and Dante’s eyes lit up as he realised I wasn’t offended.
“The Black Hole is a little more than just a strip club, amore.”
“Your family own The Black Hole?” I asked, adrenaline trickling through my veins at the mere mention of the club which was said to have no limitations, no rules, just pleasure in any and every form you ever wanted to take or give it. I’d spoken to one of the strippers from Old Sal’s about it one night after she’d been drinking. She’d had a trial shift there but had decided against working for them even though the money was better. She was a Werewolf and she’d been told that people might want her in her Order form or on a leash or to participate in ‘pack activities’ and she’d decided she preferred a job where she could set her own limits. But all the wild and wonderful things she’d told me about the place had left me insanely curious.
“We do,” Dante confirmed. “We use the back rooms to conduct other kinds of business but the strip club is a good front.”
“Well now I’m coming with you whether you want me to or not,” I insisted, swinging my legs over the edge of the bed.
Dante’s smile had turned into something dangerous and I couldn’t help but shift a little closer to him, wanting to bathe in the fire in his eyes.
“There’s no backing out if you come, bella,” he said. “I’ve got things to do there so you’ll have to stay with me. I don’t want you getting all precious about the place once you see it and change your mind.”
I scoffed, shifting forward so that I could drop off of the bed and land before him. “It takes a hell of a lot to make me blush, Dante,” I breathed. “I think you saw that for yourself in the Pitball locker rooms.”
Dante’s pupils dilated with that memory and I smiled up at him as I moved towards the closet.
“So I’m guessing baggy sweats aren’t going to make the dress code,” I said casually. “Any recommendations?”
My wardrobe was considerably fuller since I’d found employment with the Kiplings and I smiled as I thumbed through genuine options instead of the pathetic scraps I’d been dealing with when I’d first come here.
Dante leaned around me and tugged out a little black dress which still had the tag on it.
“This,” he commanded and I smirked as I pulled it out. I’d bought it on discount down to eight auras even though I didn’t really have much call to wear such a thing but now I was beginning to think it was fate.
“I’ll go and pull the car around,” Dante said. “Don’t keep me waiting too long.”
“I’ll be there in a flash,” I promised.
The moment he left, I ripped my casual clothes off, tossing them in the laundry hamper before hunting down a matching set of black underwear and pulling on my new dress. It fell to my mid thigh, the skirt swishing around my legs and it hugged my figure from the waist up to show off my curves.
I quickly re-styled my hair and did my makeup then kicked on the lilac stilettos Leon had bought me for the dance. They were the only fancy shoes I owned but with my hair they worked.
I didn’t really have anywhere to put my Atlas so I left it on my bed, said a quick goodbye to Laini then headed out of the door.
I almost walked straight into Leon as he raised his hand to knock and his mouth fell open as he took in my outfit.
“Shit, little monster, it’s like you read my mind. Did you get all dressed up like this just to come see me?”
I laughed, rolling my eyes as I pulled the door shut behind me.
“You wish. I’m just on my way out actually.”
“On a date?” Leon asked, looking me over again.
“With Dante,” I said, not confirming or denying the date thing because I doubted gate-crashing his gang affairs counted as a date. But I also didn’t want Leon thinking I wouldn’t be dating other people now just because we’d hooked up a few times.
Instead of the anger or jealousy I might have expected from another man, Leon only smirked. “Maybe I need to set up a schedule with him,” he teased. “So we can have you on alternate days.”
“That wouldn’t work,” I replied.
“Why not?”
“Because then I’d never get to have you both at once,” I teased.
Leon’s smile widened at that idea and that act alone had me pushing up onto my tiptoes to steal a kiss from him.
He groaned as he tugged me closer, his hands sliding around my back as he drew my body flush against his. His tongue raked against mine hungrily and my pulse picked up as I slid my hands along his tense biceps.
I forced myself to pull back before I got carried away, offering him a smile and reaching up to wipe the pink lipstick from his mouth.
“See you tomorrow, Leo,” I promised.
His laughter followed me as I shot away from him, speeding down the stairs and across campus until I made it to the parking lot just as Dante pulled up in a huge black SUV.
“Sembri abbastanza buono da mangiare,” he said as I hopped into the passenger seat and I smiled at what I guessed was a compliment.
“You clean up pretty nicely yourself, storm boy,” I replied. He’d tossed the suit jacket on the back seat so I was gifted a view of his muscular frame pressing against the confines of his shirt.
Dante chuckled and I clipped my seatbelt on as he drove us out of the academy and into the heart of Alestria. He had one hand on the steering wheel while one hand sat in his lap as he absentmindedly thumbed through a tarot deck.<
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He noticed my attention falling to it and held the deck out so that I could pick a card from it.
I traced my fingers over the cards until the energy of one seemed to sing to me then teased it free.
“What did you get?” Dante asked, his eyes on the dark road ahead of us.
I flipped it over and smiled as I spotted the naked man and woman standing beneath a heavenly figure.
“The Lovers,” I said simply, my gaze drinking in Dante’s profile.
He blew out a laugh, his gaze cutting to the card for a moment as if he had to see it for himself to believe me.
“The stars are certainly testing my commitment to this deal,” he grumbled.
“They probably think it was a stupid deal,” I commented lightly.
Dante laughed again but didn’t say any more on it and he dropped the tarot deck into the cup holder which sat between our seats. I added The Lovers to the pile, leaving it face up so that they could mock him too.
Dante pulled up on a side street and got out of the car, circling it to open my door for me and offer me his hand as I climbed out. I smiled indulgently as he kept hold of me and pulled me towards what looked like the back entrance to the club.
“Buona serata, boss!” the big guy on the door called enthusiastically as he spotted Dante. “You never tell me when you’re coming!”
Dante embraced him fondly, the two kissing each other on the cheeks before he presented me to the him.
“Good to see you again, Fabio. This is Elise a…friend of mine,” Dante explained.
Fabio grinned and swept on me next, brushing right past my general aversion to tactile behaviour with strangers and planting two kisses on my cheeks like we were old friends.
“Quale stella ha dato alla luce una creatura così celeste?” he asked Dante.
“I don’t know, but for tonight at least, she’s mine. So hands off, mio amico.”
Fabio chuckled as he turned to open the door, handing Dante two masks as he stepped closer.
We moved inside and the door closed behind us, leaving us alone in a dark corridor lit with dim red lights.
Dante deftly tied his own black mask in place over the top half of his face before looking to me. I turned my back, allowing him to place the black lace over my face and his fingers sent prickles of electricity skittering along my scalp as he gently tied it for me.
“Qui possiamo essere chiunque vogliamo essere,” Dante breathed in my ear and I turned to look up at him.
“What does that mean?”
“In here we can be whoever we want to be,” he explained seductively.
“Maybe I like just being us,” I replied, reaching out to skim my fingers along his jaw.
His eyes darkened as he leaned into my touch and he shifted forward to speak into my ear.
“And maybe I like to pretend I’m more than just an Oscura when I’m with you.”
“You’re not just anything, Dante,” I whispered.
The air between us crackled with his power and I turned my head just enough to catch his gaze. The tiny space between our lips was a torture of its own design and we danced closer to the edge, both of us knowing we weren’t going to cross that line while both of us wishing we could.
“Sometimes I wonder how it is that you manage to see so much of me,” Dante said slowly.
“It’s because I’m looking, Dante. Not at a gang leader or Storm Dragon or an Alpha. I’m looking at you.”
He took a deep breath and I tasted electricity on the air, rolling down the back of my spine and making my skin tingle with expectation.
A cry of lust-filled pleasure came from somewhere along the hall and we shifted away from each other, a laugh tumbling from my lips at the exuberant interruption.
“Come on then, bella, you can show me what your darkest fantasies are.”
Dante wrapped an arm around my waist, drawing me further into the club and I walked at his side with a smile playing around my mouth. If he wanted to know my darkest fantasies then he might be surprised to find that he starred in a lot of them recently, alongside a Basilisk, a Lion and a Harpy…
At the end of the darkened corridor, we stepped out into a bar full of small tables with red lighting illuminating the dark wood décor. Girls and guys strolled between the punters, eyeing them up for private dances or offering up time alone with them in one of the bedrooms. Some of them were in strange and wonderful costumes like a guy with a fake Pegasus horn on his head and an even bigger one hanging over his crotch. Or the girl who had half transformed into her Order form so that her skin was coated in shaggy brown fur even though her body retained its human shape.
Dante tightened his grip on me as he led me towards the bar where several men and women were drinking together, their eyes trained on a wiry man in the centre of the group.
“Good evening, Uncle,” Dante said loudly, interrupting him just as he waved his hands exuberantly at some part of the story he was telling. They all laughed but their attention slipped to Dante and they each bowed their heads, murmuring greetings to their Alpha.
The wiry guy turned to face us last, emptying the contents of his drink and slamming his tumbler down on the bar before turning to us with a wide smile.
“Nipote!” he exclaimed, gripping Dante’s face and pressing kisses to his cheeks in a way that seemed somehow mocking.
“Don’t tell me you’re already drunk?” Dante asked, seeming to resign himself to that being the case.
“Me? Never,” his uncle scoffed. “I’m just drunk on the feeling of success! Five more Lunar bastardos fell at my hand today!”
I inhaled in surprise and Dante’s grip on me firmed as a deep growl resounded through his body.
“I thought I told you not to initiate any more conflict without my approval?” he snarled and the other men and women surrounding us all dropped their eyes to the floor submissively at his tone, a few of them whimpering.
“And I’d never go against you, Alpha,” his uncle said, shaking his head sadly and adjusting the mask over his eyes. “But we were only out for a drive and the Lunar scum attacked us in our vehicle. What would you have us do?”
Dante’s jaw ticked angrily. “And did you take this drive through Lunar Territory by any chance?” he asked, his voice at a deadly low level.
“Who’s to say for sure? We may have taken a wrong turn…”
Dante growled and a wave of static energy raced from him, rising the hairs along my arms.
I placed my hand over his where it rested on my hip and squeezed reassuringly.
“Aren’t you going to introduce me to your lovely lady?” his uncle asked innocently, his gaze shifting to me.
I looked up at him, my eyes meeting the cold, grey depths of his gaze and my heart stuttered with fear at the emptiness I found there.
My fangs snapped out and tension coiled through my body as if some base part of me recognised the threat this man posed even while I didn’t fully understand it myself.
“This is Elise,” Dante said tersely, not putting any kind of label on me aside from my name. “Elise, this is my uncle, Felix.”
My lips parted but for a moment, no words escaped me. Dante’s family was so large that I hadn’t even considered the idea that this man might be more than just any old uncle of his. That it would be the uncle. Felix Oscura, long since branded the most dangerous and cutthroat mobster in the whole of Alestria. I’d once read an article in the news which claimed they suspected he was responsible for nearly two hundred deaths. They called him The Reaper, Death’s Advocate, they said he bathed in the blood of his victims and delighted in causing as much pain as physically possible in those he sent to the afterlife.
This was the man who had tricked Dante into becoming a murderer by playing on his grief at the loss of his father. And for that fact alone I hated him, regardless of all the other reasons I had to do so from his reputation.
“It’s a pleasure to meet you, bella,” Felix said with a smile that didn’t touch his
eyes as he reached out to take my hand.
I put my fangs away through pure force of will so that he didn’t think I was threatening him.
“Thanks,” I replied, not returning the sentiment because I’d never in my life ever had the slightest desire to meet this monster. The touch of his palm on my flesh made my skin crawl and I snatched my hand back with a fake smile of my own.
“Your mamma will be thrilled to hear you have a girlfriend, nipote,” Felix mocked. “No doubt you’ll be filling her house with pups before long.”
“If only the stars would be so kind,” Dante said with a hard laugh and I chose not to comment. “So what was so urgent that I had to come down here right away?”
“Oh, I should have sent another message – it was nothing in the end. Isabella made a mistake, she thought she spotted Scarlett Tide making a move in our Territory but it turned out not to be her. You needn’t have rushed down here,” Felix said with a sigh. “But as you’re here now, I suppose we could go over other business.”
Dante exhaled irritably, seeming to find his uncle’s behaviour tedious and I looked up at him, wondering why he even associated with this piece of shit at all. I got that they were family but Dante at least seemed to live by a code of honour. Felix Oscura struck me as little more than an animal.
“Fine. Lead the way,” Dante gestured towards a door in the shadows by the bar but Felix hesitated, his gaze sliding over me again.
“There’s no rush, nipote. Go and have a drink with Elise, take her to one of the back rooms if you like. We can deal with business later.” Felix waved him off dismissively and Dante straightened his spine.
Static crackled through the air and for a moment I thought violence might break out but then Dante smiled widely.
“I can think of nothing better than spending time with, mio amore,” he said. “I’ll find you in a while, Uncle.”
Savage Fae (Ruthless Boys of the Zodiac Book 2) Page 42