“You can’t leave.” Her eyebrow raised, challenging me as she looked at me with a who do you think you are expression.
It shouldn’t excite me to have her be this feisty but I loved seeing how much fire she had.
I continued, “We need to talk about things and you don’t have time to just run off home and get ready. I can run out and grab coffee for us if you want to shower and when I get back we can talk?” I was trying to pacify her and she nodded her head, accepting this olive branch.
My fingers ran through my hair, thankful that she wasn’t putting up a fight.
“I need two coffees in the morning or lattes or just one of each. As big as you can get and iced. Pick a flavor. Cream in my coffee and macadamia milk in my latte. If they don’t have macadamia, coconut milk is fine. Thanks, Demon.” She was walking away from me headed to the ensuite again. Not even a look back or good morning.
Of course she had a complicated order. Everything about Ilaria was proving to be complicated.
That didn’t stop me from memorizing it, planning to impress my little princess with exactly what she deserved.
8ILARIA
Stepping out of the shower, I realized that I had nothing to wear too brunch.
I couldn’t wear my clothes from last night and though, I did have an extra pair of underwear in my gym bag, that didn’t help my current state of being naked.
Groaning in annoyance, I headed to his closet, flicking through rows of suits. I rolled my eyes at just how predictable Dante was.
90% of his closet was black suits in various styles and patterns, mostly black dress shirts with the exception of a few crisp white ones were hung on wooden hangers. He had a section of his closet dedicated to gym clothes and a couple pairs of jeans that looked like they had never been worn.
How terribly boring this man was.
I tugged down one of his sweatshirts, pulling that on before grabbing the emergency makeup bag I kept stashed in my bag.
I didn’t pretend to be an all natural girl and had no problem doing my makeup without having proper clothes to wear with it. At least one part of me would look put together.
“Honey, I’m home.”
Dante thought he was funny. I could hear it in his voice and it took everything in me to not call him by another man’s name just to piss him off but, since we had a meeting with our fathers and had to discuss this engagement I knew it was best to play nice.
And nice people didn’t insult their fiancée by calling them by their ex’s name, unfortunately.
Dante was setting down a coffee tray as I walked into the room, his eyes glancing up for a second before stopping what he was doing and staring at me.
He was in gray sweatpants, like he was playing the role as the Devil’s cat nip, and a black fitted t-shirt from when he had been trying to workout earlier.
Casual looked good on Dante even though I was sure that he didn’t do it enough.
“Is that my hoodie?” He was staring at me, eyes glued to me.
I slid onto one of the stools in front of him as I nodded my head in confirmation to his question and reached for the coffee he had brought. He let out a breath as I looked over my shoulder to see what his problem was.
“The two iced are yours. The one with the straw in it is your iced coffee, the one without is a latte. I’m going to shower.” He muttered, sounding annoyed.
He was walking away from me as I frowned at him, looking at the bags that were on the counter.
“What are the other bags?” I called out to him, noticing that there was more than my liquid breakfast.
He stopped like he forgot about them, his eyes focused on me like he didn’t want to tell me what was in the bags, just managing to piss me off more.
I don’t like this aloof side of Dante. How he seems to be wrestling with something and not wanting to tell me things. It’s making me feel off balanced.
When he doesn’t answer me right away I look inside and turn to see him frowning at me.
“You bought me clothes? That feels creepy.” He threw his hands up, turning to walk away from me.
Some part of me is absolutely delighted to see him this exasperated by me. He’s thrown off and I like that I’ve unsettled him a bit.
“The words you were looking for were ‘Thank You’, princess.” he yelled as he vanishes into the ensuite. Rolling my eyes, I reach out sipping on the coffee he got me.
At least he had gotten me the right coffee order.
I finish the coffee in the kitchen as I texted a few of my friends, making plans for the July 4th weekend.
Usually on Saturday’s the girls and I would meet for dinner and drinks, usually some form of debauchery but since I couldn’t because of the opening night of Dante’s Inferno, I had to let them down which no one appreciated.
My girlfriends are close.
We had met in college and all had been through a lot of each other’s lives. We were each other’s cheerleaders, therapists, and sisters. There were five of us in total and it was always a scene when we were together because one of us needed attention.
And now they were begging to get invited to the opening of the club that I had told them I was going to, which I wasn’t sure Dante could handle. I wasn’t sure if they could handle it.
How the fuck was I supposed to tell all my friends I was engaged?
