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Chapter Four
-Dante-
NOEMI SHOOK HER HEADin the darkness, her hair sweeping across my chest. “I am. Romance doesn’t have to have all the bells and whistles some people expect. I don’t need all that.”
She stopped and grabbed my arm. “Not that I don’t appreciate what you’ve done for me. I’d be wearing yoga pants and tee shirts every day if you hadn’t bought me all these beautiful clothes. I’m not ungrateful. It was very thoughtful and kind of you. That’s what I like. Small gestures that show someone was thinking about me, not undying attention. I don’t want someone to fawn all over me, jumping to do my bidding.
“It’s too much and it’s insincere. Sweet gestures are one thing, but I’d rather have honesty, sincerity, and thoughtfulness. Right now, you’re the most romantic person I know.”
“How the hell did you come up with that?” I wanted to laugh but it came out as a bark.
The smile dropped from her dimly lit face. Her hazel eyes held mine. She rarely looked me in the eye, but she’d done so more often over the last two days. Her confidence was growing. Her transformation bewitched me. Bewitched me and terrified. Tonight, she looked right into me, like she knew me, really knew me. The prospect sent chills down my spine that shocked each nerve ending in my body.
It was a lie. She couldn’t really know me, because if she knew me like her eyes claimed they did, she’d run. Get as far away from me as she could.
“Well,” she tilted her head to the side and peered up at me. “For one, you made sure I had my favorite coffee creamer on the plane, and you ordered my favorite breakfast.”
I snorted, and she continued. That was a no-brainer. I’d watched how she made her coffee for almost a decade. The eggs benedict was by default: it was my favorite as well.
“And you rescued me - twice! If that’s not romantic, I don’t know what is.”
“You think I would let you die?” If she were anyone else, I just might have. I only stuck my neck out for the three people I was bound to by birth.
“No. I know you wouldn’t let me die. And by itself, it doesn’t mean anything significant. Lots of people would have gone above and beyond to save another’s life.”
For fuck’s sake. My heroics were just what everyone would do? “Make up your mind,” I growled.
“The coffee, the life-saving. The clothes, jewelry, massage. The wine!”
“The wine?”
“Yes. It hasn’t escaped my notice that since we’ve been on the yacht, the pinot grigio has been flowing freely. I rarely drink anything else unless I’m not given a choice.”
I smirked at her reference to the red wine the night before.
“And I know it’s not all coincidence. I said I wanted romance and gestures, but you don’t need to put pressure on yourself to come up with them.”
She leaned down and ran her mouth over mine. “You’re doing just fine.”
“I don’t need a pep talk,” I said, and she laughed.
“Ah, I woke the beast. It’s not a pep talk, Dante. I’m just letting you know that I don’t need you to try too hard. I don’t like all that fuss anyway. I just want you, as you are.” Her voice fell as her confidence shifted. “It’s all I’ve ever wanted.
“I’m okay with being in the shadows,” she continued. Her eyes never left mine, but a small quiver broke her words. “The dark suits me just fine.”
The dark?What was she trying to tell me? Noemi didn’t know a fucking thing about living in the dark. What she experienced in the last forty-eight hours was nothing compared to what she could have seen. She stayed on the edge; one foot stretched into the dark like dipping a toe into a cold pool of water. She’s still close to the light. One step was all she’d ever need to bring her right back into its rays.
But she’s not lying. She’s comfortable on the edge of the shadows. She’s comfortable with me. If she weren’t, she wouldn’t be there. She questioned me, but she gave in to my demands. She wore my blindfold. She ate dinner two feet away from someone else’s pet fantasy to please me, because I wanted to see how she’d react. She protested, yes, but she should have told me to go to hell when I locked her in the bathroom of bungalow six at the Grand Tropican. Something about Noemi made her comfortable in the little bit of the shadows I’d exposed her to, but she had no idea how dark it was on the other side of that line.
The idea of pushing her comfort zone, of bringing her fully into my world, clawed at me. Tonight was different. I caved into her. I gave way to what she wanted, let her take some of my hard-earned control. The exchange was temporary and we both knew it. I chose to give her that gift because I couldn’t give her anything else.
She’d understand how meaningful that was if she knew what it cost me. She owed me now, and I planned to collect before the week was over. How deep into the dark would she be willing to go for me? I fucking loved that she liked playing in the shadows, but the shadows weren’t the dark. Shadows move. They change. Sometimes, shadows don’t even exist. Noemi’s too good to know that the two aren’t the same, but was I the bastard who would teach her the difference?
I could show her. I could bring her into my wicked world. I could make her my queen of the night. But what I couldn’t do was pretend.
“You don’t know anything about the dark,” I whispered against her neck. “There’s nothing there for a girl like you.”
“You’re wrong, Dante.” She arched her back as I sucked on the tendon of her neck. “There is something in the dark for me. Something I want very badly.”
