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Dante apparently needed the same thing.
Abruptly, he turned away from me. “Go home, Noemi.”
“Wait!” escaped me before I could clamp my mouth shut and keep the pathetic cry where it belonged.
It didn’t matter. Dante didn’t stop walking, not even flinching at my desperate cry. I took a few steps forward, trying to shorten the distance between us. He didn’t even increase his speed, just continued walking away at a leisurely pace as if what he left behind didn’t matter in the least, not even enough to get him to hurry to avoid it. To avoidme.
I ran to catch up to him. He had to know I was right behind him as my heels clacked along the walkway. I certainly wasn’t sneaking up on him.
I caught up to him just as he reached a door that led to a part of the house I’d never been in. His hand reached for the latch as the words poured out of me.
“Why am I not good enough for you?” I practically yelled at him.
He paused, his back still to me. “Is that what you think?”
If his posture said he didn’t like me, his tone said otherwise. If he turned around, would I see the tender look in his eyes that I saw earlier? I wanted him to turn around so much my chest hurt.
“What else can I think?” I forged ahead with more bravado than I felt. “When all you’ve done since I got home is criticize me then walk away.”
He turned to face me, but his face nothing but shadows in the dimly lit night.
“That kiss was hardly a criticism,” he said silkily.
My brain spun. The man was so confusing. I returned to the conversational tactic he professed to dislike, but it seemed that direct questions were the only way I could get him to talk to me.
“Then what was it?” I pursued with a desperate cry.
He heaved a sigh and reached out for my cheek, cupping my face in his hand. I nuzzled into his palm without thinking.
“That kiss,” he said quietly, “was the best thing that’s happened to me in a very long time. But it won’t happen again.”
“Because you don’t want me.” God, that whine had to be the wine talking.
“No, baby girl. Because I want you too much.”
“I don’t understand.” If he wanted me, why were we stopping?
“No, you wouldn’t. You’re too sweet, too innocent, to know what it would cost you to be with a man like me.”
“What would it take?” Yes, I was that pathetic and desperate. This man was the epitome of everything I’d ever wanted, and tonight’s kiss proved that it wasn’t just my imagination. There could be something between us if he would just let it happen!
Dante smoothed his thumb over my bottom lip and set it quivering. One corner of his mouth ticked upward. “More than you could afford. A price so high I would never ask you to pay it.”
“What? Money?”
“No,bambina. Something more precious than that. But as I said, I won’t ask for it because you can’t give it.”
“What the hell does that mean?” I snapped at his confusing, cryptic words.
His eyes narrowed but I didn’t care if I made him angry.
“It means, this conversation is over. Goodnight, Noemi.”
He opened the door, walked inside and left me standing on the walkway trying to decipher his words. Irritated, I kicked the closing door with my foot, wrapped my coat around me, and headed home.
I made my way back through the house because the fence around the back yard had to have a code or key or something to open the gates. I thought about trying to find Lilly, but I wasn’t in the mood. If she asked me what was wrong, I’d probably tell her and then I’d have to hear her say “I told you so” as she consoled me.
Our kiss played through my mind on repeat as I let myself into my house and got ready for bed. The heat from Dante’s body hadn’t dissipated despite the cold walk home. He wanted me. I know he did. No one kisses someone like that and walks away untouched. I had to find a way to get through to Dante. He said it was possible, for a price. A price he said that was too high for me to pay.
Not money, he’d said. But clearly, it meant that it was also something that he wanted, something that had value to him. But if he didn’t want money, what could I possibly have that Dante Calegari would be interested in? It was something he thought I valued so much that I wouldn’t be willing to part with it, but he was wrong. I’d give my most valuable possession to Dante and never miss it for the chance to be with him... just once.
