Page 43 of Theirs to Rule

"Always."

"Have you talked to Bianca?”

I nodded. “We met up yesterday. It’s not completely the same between us, but it’s getting there.”

“Good. You have a lot to work out.”

I chewed my lip then sighed. "You can say that again..." I thought about the fact that Bianca and I weren't the only ones that had things to work out. When it came to me and Dante and his vow that I was enough for him... I swallowed hard and decided to take the chance that he wasn’t going to bite my headoff for asking what I was about to ask. "Since we were talking about bad habits before… Can you tell me about Jane?”

Dante stiffened and I waited for him to storm off. Instead, he sighed and motioned for me to come to him. I did, and he wrapped me in his arms, resting his head against mine. “Jane is my best friend’s mom. She’s had it tough. She’s an addict. She lost her daughter to addiction.”

“You pretty much implied you’d slept with her…”

“I did. We were drunk and it was a mistake. One I haven’t told my friend about.”

“Why haven’t you?” To my surprise, even though I still hated the thought of him with someone else, I didn’t feel threatened anymore--it was obvious from the way he talked about her that he had no intention of picking up where they had left off.

“It’s complicated.”

I took his hand in mine. "Dante, you're an amazing person. You should have faith that someone who really cares about you knows that. We all have our baggage, our mistakes. But it's not the mistakes that define us; it's how we move forward, how we make amends and grow from them. You've done so much for others, Dante. Don't forget that."

He smiled. “Wow, you sound like you could have written a passage in one of my philosophy books. You're whip smart, Peaches. And thank you, for believing in me the way you do."

"You make it easy, Dante."

Chapter 20

Camille

Dante lifted my hand and kissed it before finally glancing around at the party supplies littering the living room floor. His gaze landed on a box overflowing with black feathers. “Planning on building an army of crows? Either that or you're not just decorating a room for the Halloween party, you're decorating the whole campus?”

I poked my tongue out at him. Sure, I might have gone overboard with the supplies, but at least I was getting into the spirit of it all. The more I got into it, the more excited I got about showing off my space. The competitor in me wanted to do well, even if I didn’t expect to win. I told him about the theme I'd chosen for my room, knowing he wouldn’t leak my secret.

“Can I help you put your space together?”

“I’d love that, but Bianca is already helping. Plus, you're faculty so you probably shouldn’t be involved. I was also thinking…if you do want to continue seeing each other, we should probably start being more careful.”

“Let me guess. You want flavored condoms?” Dante deadpanned.

I rolled my eyes at his lame joke, even though I was reminded that with everything that had happened to me lately, I still hadn’t gone to the doctor for birth control. “Seriously, aren’t you worried about people seeing us together?”

“I’m not your teacher,” he argued.

“No, but you’re still faculty. And you were my counselor. I just don’t want you getting in trouble.”

Dante nodded. “We’ll be more careful, then. Maybe I can hang out with Kage more. We can make it seem like we’re friends.”

“Oh, Kage would love that,” I said with a laugh before my expression turned serious. “And that wouldn’t work anyway since Kage and I are no longer together. Plus, I'm planning on moving out. I need space. From Kage and from Ty."

"Have you talked to Housing about it?"

I shook my head. "I haven't gotten that far yet. I think I'm going to ask Bianca if I can stay with her for a while. If not, maybe Simone will let me crash on her couch."

"I'm sure Bianca would love to have you. But so would I.”

“That would increase our chances of getting caught together.”

“The risk would be well worth it.”

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