Page 97 of Hearts Of Darkness

Not today.

These dangerous men and their sinister presence have stolen all of her sass, like Dante has stolen all of my innocence. The world will always be a darker place for us, now.

“Could you at leasttryto be nicer to my friends,” I say, as we take the elevator up to the fifth floor.

“They’re not important,mi alma,” he replies, dismissively. “You have me now.”

Is he for real?

“You’re such an arrogant asshole, Dante. My friends will always be important to me.”

He curses something in Spanish and shoves his hands into his pockets. His black T-shirt pulls tight against his abs, making that fine definition clear to see. I look away quickly. I’m too mad at him to contemplate being turned-on. But there it is again, that persistent beat, thrumming away between my legs.

“Unbelievable,” I mutter, folding my arms and moving away. The elevator carriage is tiny though, and I end up crashing into Joseph. Wow. He’s another man built of solid muscle.

The door to my modest two-bed apartment opens into a light and breezy living space, with a kitchenette off to one side. Manuel doesn’t hear us enter. He’s leaning against the side of the breakfast bar, bare-foot, bare-chested, and devouringa bowl of my cereal like he hasn’t eaten in a month.Lucky Anna,I think, right before Dante and his posse start menacing up the place. All of a sudden, there’s not enough room for all the testosterone.

“Put your damn shirt on,” snarls Dante, and Manuel nearly drops his bowl in fright. Muttering an apology, he disappears into my spare bedroom.

“Stop throwing your weight around. This is MY apartment!” I tell him furiously.

“Get that son of a bitch out of here,” I hear him say to Joseph, ignoring me completely. He’s got that unnerving stillness about him again. It’s like the ominoustick, tick,of a bomb before it explodes.

I can’t bear to be in the same room as him anymore. His behavior is driving me crazy. Grabbing a bowl down from the cupboard, I tip way too much cereal into it before storming into my bedroom and slamming the door in his face.

Collapsing onto my bed, I take a mouthful and then grimace. It tastes disgusting without milk, but there’s no way in hell I’m going back out there to get some. Instead, I place the bowl on my nightstand and curl up under my silver quilt, catching sight of a framed photograph on top of my bureau. It’s me and Anna laughing, drinking, having fun… Our first year of college before life got complicated. I shudder at how much I lived under a cloud of ignorance before Dante Santiago stalked into my life.

Minutes pass, and then I hear the front door slam. There’s movement outside my room. The handle is turning. Dante doesn’t bother knocking, he just walks on in like he owns the place and stands there at the foot of my bed.

“You sick?” he demands.

“Sick ofyou,” I mutter, refusing to look at him.

After a beat, he wanders over to the photograph. My eye line can’t help dipping to his gorgeous ass.Why does this devil have to be so desirable?

“What college were you at?”

“You know that already. You know everything about me, so why don’t we turn the question into a rhetorical one?”

“Northwestern.”

I lift my head in surprise. “Are you serious?”

“I was a bright kid.” He shrugs.

“Too bad it didn’t translate into adulthood.” I flop back down onto the pillow again.

He doesn’t answer, and I can’t be bothered to decipher the clues to his mind games today.

“Dante, listen—”

“I fucked up,” he declares roughly, shocking me into silence. “I should have given you that assurance about your father.”

My mouth falls open. “I thought you didn’t do—”

“I don’t, but it seems you’re pricking my conscience again.”

“I thought men like you didn’t have—”

---