AllFreeNovel
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I glance at the picture, but I don’t recognize the woman at first. I snatch the phone away from him. “Wait, is thatme?”
“Throughmylens.” Dante swipes to another pic. “But look, this is the picture Kurtis took of you. Call it the experimental control shot.”
I stare at it. I’m better looking than I remember from my time in the mirror. “I don’t understand.”
“I think cameras pick up how we see the person or object.” He frowns. “AndI think from all the abuse you suffered, you have developed some body dysmorphia.”
“What’s that?” I ask.
“When you have a distorted image of yourself.” Dante frames my hands with a light touch while I still clutch his phone.
I blink at the picture that shows a different image than the one I have of myself.
He gazes deeply into my soul. “You are beautiful, inside and out.”
I sit for a while, thinking about how many times someone told me I was nothing—that I was ugly and no one would ever really love me. It’s too many times to count. It cracked me, and I let their venom seep into me. Even when I told myself I wasn’t broken by this person or that person, I absorbed their negativity and their hate, and I let it tell me who I am.
I feel the sting of tears, and I let them fall. For the first time, I’m not crying because I’m sad or happy. I’m crying because someone has shown me the truth. Even if I wasn’t aesthetically attractive, someone sees beautyinme. The pictures show someone different from whom I have been brainwashed to believe myself to be.
Dante pulls me into a hug. I clutch his shoulders and hold on like I’m drowning.
I’m not ugly.
I’m not unlovable.
I’m not nothing.
What if I can have happiness and I am valuable? Could I love and be loved in return?
What other truths have I been convinced not to see?
Dante’s voice cuts through my tears. “You’re even pretty when you ugly cry.”
I laugh and lightly whack him on the arm before pulling away from our embrace.
He helps me wipe my wet face.
“Thank you for helping me see thatI’mway out ofyourleague.”
Dante’s face drops, and I laugh hard. He quickly joins me.
When our laughter dies off, Dante captures my face in his palms, glancing back and forth between my lips and eyes. I know he’s asking permission. My heart races, and my palms sweat. Am I ready for this leap of faith?
I lean forward and press a sweet kiss to his lips.
He returns it, then he deepens the kiss. My lips part, and he takes the invitation.
Dante kisses me with more urgency, and I run my hands up his torso to his broad shoulders, then down over his biceps. His hands slip from my face to caress my neck before he kisses a trail down my jawline, following his exploring fingers.
I fall backward onto the bed, and Dante crawls over me. He noses my shirt down my shoulder so he can nibble along my collarbone. His hand cups my breast, and he drags a thumb along my hardening nipple.
My body responds with undulations, trying to connect each point of my body with his.
He has yet to allow his body to fall onto mine, and I’m going mad with the lack of contact. I run my hands down to his waist and try to pull him on top of me, but he doesn’t budge.
When I resort to grabbing his butt to try again, he laughs, which is adorable, but I’m in the mood for more.
“Tease,” I say as a challenge.
