Page 18 of In the Cover of Darkness

“Ace, come on man,” Dante says, shaking his head and gently squeezing my hand. He leans toward me, softly saying, “There are no bears here, sunshine, and even if there were, I'd keep you safe.”

Chapter 17 - Mila

We eat dinner in relative comfort, the conversation flowing easily. Ace tells me about his friend Nova who is going to come over tomorrow to meet me. He didn't want to overload me on my first day here but said that Nova insisted on meeting me, and he could only hold her off for one day.

Further explaining that she insisted I would want a female to talk to if only it was to complain about having to live with him. She sounds great and I'm looking forward to meeting her, and maybe getting the inside scoop on the town.

Ace and I talked about our love of books. Ace prefers crime and thrillers to my far superior love of romance. When talking about the TV shows we like, we made the alarming discovery that Dante has never seenGame of Thrones.Both giving him a lot of shit for that, but we've agreed to start watching it again from the beginning, if only to educate Dante on his shortcomings.

Dante didn't say much during the evening, preferring to leave the talking to Ace and me but a part of us always seems to betouching. Our legs pressed together when we were sitting side by side, or if I moved away slightly or changed sitting positions, he would put his hand somewhere on my leg. Toward the end of the night, he has his arm around me and I'm dozing off with the warmth of the fire across my face as I'm nuzzled into his side.

“We should get you into bed,” he says softly, pressing his mouth to the top of my head, kissing me ever so faintly.

“Do you want to walk or can I carry you?”

Sighing, still with my eyes shut, I say, “I can walk, I just need a minute to get motivated.”

I feel his chest vibrate, chuckling at my response. “I'm learning you're not a morning or a night person, sunshine. We're going to have to work on one of them.”

“I'll try harder tomorrow,” I smile at him, sitting up and stretching. “I mean if you brought me coffee in bed I wouldn't complain,” giving him a wink, nudging his side.

“You know, I would think you're trying to flirt with me, but seeing I witnessed the love affair you had this morning in the truck, with the shittest cup of joe that I've had in a long whi—”

“Shhhhh, it can hear you,'' I whisper, smiling at him. I turn and look toward the kitchen and say a little louder, “Good night, I love you coffee. I'll see you in the morning.” A smile on my face as I turn to look back at Dante, who is slowly shaking his head, grinning at me.

All of us stand and I give Ace a hug, thanking him for letting me stay. He had shown us around the house earlier in the day explaining that his bedroom was downstairs because he didn't see the point of using every room when it was just him living here. Dante and I each have a room upstairs, mine with an ensuite bathroom. Presumably, it is the Primary Bedroom because of its size, with Dante having the other bedroom acrossthe hall. There is also Ace’s office and another bathroom, but it would be mainly Dante and I using the upstairs space.

Standing in the doorways to our respective bedrooms Dante looks at me, rubbing a hand on the back of his head. “I put a change of clothes on your bed. They will still be too big but they will be fine until what we've ordered starts to arrive in the mail.”

“Than—”

“Remember what I said about saying thank you all the time?” he says, cutting me off, grinning at me.

Rolling my eyes at him, I step forward wrapping my arms around his waist.

“Good night, Big D Daddy.”

I can feel his smile as he presses his mouth to the top of my head, wrapping his arms around me, gently returning the embrace.

“Good night, Bear Killer.”

“Ha, ha,” I say, tilting my head to look up at him. Our eyes share some unknown language, trying to figure out what each other is saying but not being able to. Reluctantly, I step away from him, returning to my room, and softly shut the door.

???

I've given myself an awkward one handed sponge bath because I forgot I needed Dante's help to wrap my arm up so it doesn't get wet. It took me almost 15 minutes to put the change of clothes on that Dante left me, by which time, I'd worked up a sweat trying to get into them, therefore defeating the point of the awkward sponge bath.

Overall it’s taken almost 40 minutes to get into bed and now that I'm here I feel exhausted, but my mind won't turn off. Thisis not the moment I needed to suddenly develop insomnia, but nevertheless, here I am.

I change positions several times, decide I'm too hot, then too cold. Think about the foods I want to cook for the guys as well as things I can talk with Nova about tomorrow. If she's anything like Ace I'll be sure to get on well with her which excites me. I might get a new friend tomorrow, and that thought makes me realise I need to contact Charlie and fill her in on everything that has happened.

It almost seems like good things are happening too quickly considering how the week started, my thoughts soon drifting to Dante, who will no doubt be sleeping like a baby next door. The way his face felt so soft and rough all at the same time earlier tonight. How when he looks at me I see conflict, and sometimes restraint flicker across his face. Half the time I don't know what he's thinking and the other half I could swear he wants something more with me. I know it's barely been a week since everything with Trevor happened but there's something different about Dante. I'm in no rush to startanythingwith anyone, but I can't help but love all the little things he does for me.

Maybe this is what love looks like?

Love, huh, what does that even mean? Everything I thought I knew about love is incredibly wrong and fucked up. I could never see Dante treating me like Trevor did, slowly wearing me down and completely taking over.

Suddenly feeling overcome with isolation, my mind starts to read into every sound the old house makes. Has Trevor found me, am I safe here? I can feel the tension rise in my chest as I try and think rationally about what's happening. Logically, I know that Dante is right next door and Ace is downstairs. They wouldboth stop Trevor before he got anywhere near me but it doesn't help my emotional brain taking over, thinking of all the worst case scenarios.

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