But he made a sound of amusement, as if what I asked him was silly.

“You saw me mark the calendar. And we’ll tell our fathers in a very short amount of time. So why don’t you close those beautiful eyes and get some sleep.” He was talking so softly, soothing me with his words as I laid with him.

It was so easy to just agree to what he said when he spoke with such confidence, like it was all already done and decided.

I nodded my head, laying back down on Dante as he slid his fingers up and down my spine. It made my eyes heavy, my thoughts leaving my head.

The last one being why hadn’t I rolled over. Why had I just fallen asleep on him?

7DANTE

Ihated being late to things.

Tardiness is a form of weakness. And weakness isn’t tolerated in my life.

But when I woke up at 6AM, Ilaria was curled up in my limbs. Her sweatshirt had been pulled up in her sleep, our stomachs warming each other. I forgot about my rule on lateness and thought about closing my eyes to sleep in for a bit longer.

She had slipped her fingers into my hair as one of mine laid against the bare skin of her back. Both of us were clinging to each other in our sleep and that  shocked me because I wasn’t the type of guy to cuddle with a girl. Maybe in high school to appease who I was seeing but I couldn’t remember a time after the age of 21 I had spent the night entwined with someone like I was now.

But now I wanted to stay.

Looking at her dark mess of hair peeking out from the hood she had pulled up, I wondered why I cared enough to comfort her last night.

This need to protect her in that situation had overwhelmed all common sense. I felt this connection to Ilaria.

The way she would be my wife in a couple months wasn’t such a chore of an idea anymore.

Maybe it was just that knowledge she was mine to protect in a way something had never been that set me off balance.

Maybe it was that she was the first thing that felt like it would be entirely mine that made me feel for her.

Sighing out a deep breath, I took one last second to enjoy her, breathing her in as I told myself this was the last indulgence before getting out of bed.

She smelled like me from her shower last night and from spending the night on top of me in my bed. I breathed her in deeply, eyes closing as I thought about how it was going to be trouble if I became attached to her with feelings more than ownership.

Attachments were trouble and I had enough trouble in my life.

I tried to slip out of bed, get a workout done to get her out of my system, but when I went to move her thighs hugged around me as she shifted.

Her lips parted making a breathy little moan slip out of her sweet mouth as she snuggled deeper into me. Her pussy was right above my cock and I was thankful that she wore sweatpants to bed and was a heavy sleeper because I had a very hard cock from her rubbing and snuggling up on me.

Ilaria’s hips pressed down as I shifted my arm out of the back of her sweatshirt, gently rolling her so she didn’t wake up and berate me for my erection.

As much as I wanted to flip her over, bury my nose in her scent and rub my hard cock over the warm slit between her legs I was very sure that Ilaria was a good Sicilian girl and her experience wasn’t as vast as the people I had been with.

Also wouldn’t put it past her to punch me in the face.

It had been a decade since I had taken anyone’s virginity and the idea of taking hers was almost daunting. The threat of the sheet test, an out dated tradition already loomed over our heads. I wouldn’t be the one to ruin her and embarrass anyone before our wedding night.

Knowing that I was this turned on by her after such a short period of time made me worry that waiting until the wedding was going to be its own form of torture.

My eyes scanned over her, looking at her nuzzling up on her side as she tried to find something to snuggle up with as she started to fall back asleep. It made me smirk.

I reached out, curling a piece of her shiny dark hair around my finger, bringing it up to my nose as I inhaled her once again, addicted to her scent.

Beneath all the smells of me I could smell her.

The deep smell of champagne bubbly and fun, sweet notes of tangerine, and vanilla mixed together. She smelled like dessert, something to be finished and savored. Something to be indulged in and delighted about.

It reminded me of Italian summers spent at my family’s house in the country. Where I’d run around with my cousins causing trouble as we came back covered in dirt and fingers sticky from the fruit we had found to snack on.

I was pulling away from her as I slipped out of bed. Willing myself to be stronger than the need for her. Yanking myself away from the temptation of her harder than I ever imagined.

She was going to be my wife and yet the idea of getting close to her terrified me.

Maybe because my mother had loved my father so much it made her half crazy. Even now she looked at him half insane with want and need for him.

They had been arranged and had fallen for each other quickly. Traveling together and settling into their happy life together.

As a child, I would watch my father decorate my mother with pretty jewels and watch her paint his face with her fruit colored lips. It had felt embarrassing watching them flirt and now it scared me to think of how their love was.

It had blinded my fathers at time and was a risk to love like he did. In our world, she was just a target on his back. I had enough of those already.

I needed to work out.

I’d work out and my dick would get its act together because right now my dick is going to be my downfall.

“Is it time to wake up?”

Ilaria didn’t even open her eyes as she held onto the pillow that I had been sleeping on and it took all my strength not to climb back beside her and curl up with her in bed to get her to go back to sleep.

“No. You get your beauty rest, princess.” It wasn’t the teasing tone I had taken with her before but genuine want for her to be comfortable.

She made a sound at me, rolling over as she presented me with her back, it was obvious she didn’t think I was being real with her.

“Go fuck yourself, Demon.” She muttered as she rolled over onto her stomach and groaned out as she kicked her feet as she tried to get comfortable again in bed.

Did she know how cute she was?

If I was her Demon she was my angel.

And maybe that shouldn’t have made me smile in the way it did, but my lips curled up as I licked them, having to raise my fingers to wipe the smile off my lip that she had managed to get on it without even trying.

I was screwed.

Stepping out of the room I headed to the gym, half debating on pushing the breakfast meeting back so Ilaria could sleep in but remembering I still needed to head over to make sure everything was ready for Dante’s Inferno to open tonight.