We had already done the pictures with our families and had taken a dozen pictures of us cutting a ribbon because Dante insisted we do it together, whispering some romantic notion in my ear about how this was the first building of our empire.
He looked too good tonight.
All that dark hair and dark eyes in the burgundy, like he had danced out of the flames of hell. If he would grow a five o’clock shadow that man might convince we to trade in my-
NOPE.
I grabbed Sammie’s drink, tossing back the gin and tonic without even thinking about it, breathing heavily as I looked at the shots that were being laid out in front of us.
“Who is Dante talking to?” I looked at Maddie, watching her point to where my fiancée was currently half hiding in a corner, his arm around a girl that looked oddly familiar.
His left hand rested on her hip as she looked up at him, twirling one of her blonde curls as she flirted very openly with the man I was supposed to marry in a few weeks. Neither of them seemed to care that I was there.
And then it hit me.
Gabriella DeLuiso. Dante’s ex-girlfriend.
I had done some extensive web sleuthing when I had gotten home. Deep dives of his social media, trying to learn as much about I could about him. Which included the blonde he was currently talking to.
He had dated her for two years and they had traveled together in his early 20’s. Pictures that she still had on her account and even one that was pinned so I had to see my fiancee wrapping someone up in his arms, looking happy.
That mother fucker.
I should go and-
Stopping myself I blink, looking at my girlfriends and smiling at them, picking up the shot as they all exchanged looks, knowing that whatever I was about to propose was going to be an adventure. But wasn’t it always.
“To good times, good friends, and good trouble.” We clinked glasses, taking our shots and slamming the glasses down, laughing.
How many times had we taken shots together instead of talking? It was like our pinky promise to each other that we would eventually be able to talk about things.
I could feel Dante’s eyes on me and I knew better than to glance up at him as I looked at my friends. I didn’t want to see someone else wrapped up in the man I had taken engagement pictures with today.
“Meet me at Logan in an hour. I think we need a vacation.”
Standing up from the stool I turned just as Dante came up, wrapping an arm around me. I tried not to think about how he smelled faintly of someone else’s perfume.
I wasn’t jealous. I wasn’t hurt. I was….
Something.
“Is business settled? Did you move on to pleasure so soon?” Asking him sweetly as I didn’t flinch from his eye contact. Waiting for him to answer, see if he understood what I had seen and exactly how I had felt about it.
So much for not having a goomar.
“Princess, don’t act jea-”
“Fuck you, Dante.”
I rolled so that the door was to my back and I was still close with him, a smile plastered on my face so everyone would think we were two lovers talking instead of me being ready to ring the stupid mother fuckers thick neck.
He stepped closer, arm wrapping around me as he dragged me close to him, my hands sliding over his chest to keep the distance between us instead of tugging him closer like I would have done earlier.
“Come to my office, Ilaria. We can talk about what you saw. Let me explain myself.” There was a plea in his voice and I wanted to just follow him and let him explain himself.
But Dante should have never put himself in a situation where he needed to explain his actions to me. He should never have been holding his ex-girlfriend with the same hand I would be sliding a ring on. The same hand whose wrist was weighed down with a watch that I had bought him. The same hand he was holding me with now.
I was going to cry or throw up.
I had known him for a day and already this man was pulling at my emotions and manipulating me into feeling things that I knew better than to feel.
All men are the same.
They show you over and over again who they are. The fix me sign they wear in their eyes prompting false hope to a broken cause.
“No.”
The one word was all I could manage and Dante was searching my eyes, seeing the tears that had pooled there. I was going to cry because he had made me feel stupid and the last thing I wanted was to cry in front of him.
He didn’t deserve them.
“Just let me go home. Please.”
The exhaustion in my begging made him stop trying, looking at me as he nodded his head, leaning in and kissing my forehead with his poison lips.
The lips he had used to kiss me and give me hope that maybe I could be wrong and maybe I could have feelings for my husband some day.
Good to see that my original instincts were still all I could trust.
