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“Months? So, I’m supposed to move into your house and live with your family for months - maybe even a year? Are you crazy?”
I didn’t care that my words made him angry. I was pissed at him, hurt by him, and I didn’t care how I made him feel.
“You seduced me,” I hissed at him. “You knew how I felt about you. You let me fall in love with you and you told me you loved me. Now, you want to leave? You’ve got what you wanted and now conveniently, Bailey gives you an excuse to bail.”
I was angry, but nothing that came out of my mouth was the truth. But that didn’t change anything. He hurt me and I tried to hurt him back, using the only weapon I thought I had.
“If I didn’t love you, I wouldn’t be doing this,” he said between clenched teeth.
“If you loved me, youwouldn’tdo this. There has to be another way,” I insisted as the damn tears started to fall. Damn, I was tired of crying. I hadn’t cried this much in the entire five years I’d lived in England. Now, I couldn’t be around Dante for more than a few hours without my emotions getting the better of me.
“We can’t be together right now, Noemi,” he said, shoving his hands into his pockets and walking to the window. “Don’t you understand? It’s not just Bailey. There are others involved. The people who hired Donald, whoever the hell they are. Delacroix. I don’t trust him, despite Willis’ endorsement. And there’s whoever the hell planted that envelope in your bedroom. I still don’t know who the fuck did that and why. I can’t leave a trail of bodies all around you. Willis didn’t have all of the answers either, but we both agreed that there’s more to this than what we’re seeing.”
“Are you kidding me? Isn’t this enough? Just deal with Bailey and walk away.”
“I can’t do that, baby girl.”
“Yes, you can,” I lashed out at him. “You can do whatever you think has to be done.” I still couldn’t bring myself to say it. “And then we can leave. Just us. We can go anywhere.”
Turning his back on me, he shook his and sighed. “It’s not that simple. You don’t understand.”
“Because you can’t explain it. You just tell me little bits and pieces and then expect me to trust you.”
His back stiffened and my breath caught in my chest. Slowly, he turned to face me again. His eyes returned to the black voids where his emotions should have been.
“I do expect you to trust me, and if you don’t, then we’re done. I told you, the only person I’m afraid of is you. I’m afraid of exactly this: that you won’t trust me. That your love for me was just a manifestation of a crush that should have died ten years ago. I’m doing the right thing. I know that as much as I know that I do love you. I’ve never let anyone get as close to me as you have. And now, I’m fucking terrified that you won’t wait for me, that you don’t need me as much as I need you. Maybe, this entire affair was just you getting what you wanted, hmmm?”
Oh, God. Being on the cutting end of Dante’s blade hurt so bad I wanted to crawl away and start licking my wounds. He didn’t pull punches, but then, neither had I.
“After all, you made the initial offer, didn’t you? I was just the poor damn fool who accepted. But you know what,bambina?”
His voice softened and I fell for his trap.
“What?” I whispered cautiously.
“It wouldn’t have mattered. You could have never made the offer at all. I believe that I was always meant to love you. That’s why I stayed away from you. I didn’t want this,” he waved his hand in the air. “I didn’t want to one day face the fact that you couldn’t love me, so I kept my distance. It seems I was right to do so. I’ve always known, you see. Why would a girl like you ever love a monster like me?”
“But I do!” I blurted out. “I love you.”
He took a step forward and trailed a finger over my lips. His expression was once again unreadable. Or rather, he didn’t have one. He was blank again. No anger, no fear, no sadness.
And no love.
“I believe you,” he said in his classic monotone voice. “Now, go get your things. I’ll take you home.”
