Page 3 of Dare To Free Us

We stood staring at each other for a few charged moments. Her stunning golden eyes captured me and for a moment I forgot the one reason she was off limits, wanting nothing more that to pull her into my arms and…

“Matteo,” she finally said with annoyance laced in her voice.

“Arianna. What are you doing here?” I stood, spreading my legs to stand with authority.

“What everyone else is doing, Matteo. Partying. It’s Tanya’s birthday.”

“Isn’t that group a little old for you to be hanging out with?” Most of them were at least six years older than her.

“No. Besides, they are the only ones that don’t openly try to use me for my money. Girls my age still get hung up on wanting to be associated with me.”

I couldn’t argue with her on that one. More than once she’d confessed to me about not having very many friends. Being who she was, most people wanted to be a part of spending Arianna’s money, or have the privilege of being seen in her circle of wealth. Arianna wanted nothing to do with their immature games and fake expressions of friendship. But there was an even bigger problem to discuss.

“How did you get in? You’re only seventeen,” I growled in frustration.

She chuckled. It was a sweet sound that had my stomach muscles flexing. “It’s really not that hard for me to get a fake ID, and I can afford the very best. Plus, I know how old I am. It’s something you won’t let me forget.” Her eyes narrowed accusingly.

“That’s only half the point.”

Arianna crossed her arms, lifting her chin like she just couldn’t wait to hear the rest. God, her total lack of fear around me always heated my blood. If she were anyone else I would take it as an insult, but not her. With her I craved it. She was the one person I never wanted to fear me.

“This club is filled with grown men who want to drool all over you. They are stripping you naked in their minds and…”

“I don’t care,” Arianna deadpanned.

I blinked. “You what?” I ground through my teeth. She didn’t care? Well, I did. I hated any man that looked at her, any man who wanted to touch her.

“I said, I don’t care. It’s not like I’m going to let them touch me.”

Anger flushed my face hot with the idea of Arianna letting another man touch what I so desperately wanted. It was hard enough to resist chasing off the few boyfriends she’d had in the past, but who she dated was none of my business, no matter how much I wanted it to be.

“Why do you care? After the kitchen thing you made your position perfectly clear, and have avoided me like the plague since. So why should it matter if other men look at me?”

She was referring to the moment of weakness when we’d been in the kitchen of her parents house alone. Not something that was uncommon, but those moments had taken on a new feel in the resent months. There had been honest words, then a clashing of lips— hot, amazing lips— that sent my one head spinning and the other jumping to eager attention. Then I felt so fucking dirty I wanted to scrape the very skin from my flesh. So I shoved the memory away and promised it would never happen again.

And no matterhow much I wished I could burn that memory from my brain it seemed to resurface on a daily basis, flaring my insides with longing and self-loathing. That day still clear in my mind.

I made my way past the main entry of the Dellucci family home after business had concluded with the meeting in Alessio’s office where my father and Arianna’s father would continue to bullshit for who knew how long. Now I went in search for what was creating the wonderfully sweet smell filling the house. If I was being honest with myself, the person I was hoping to find along with it.

The house was alive with the usual light security and a few maids that bustled around cleaning. I passed the grand entertainment room into the dining room that could fit an Olympic sized swimming pool. The smell was getting stronger and my heart was picking up speed the closer I got to the door at the end of the room.

The kitchen door swung open like a knife cutting through butter and the smell of baking cookies blasted me full force, but what took my breath away was the girl plating chocolate chip cookies fresh from the oven on a tray.

Arianna looked up, her eyes widening for a fraction of a second before her cheeks tinted a slight pink. The color might have been caused by the heat of the oven but I wanted to think I had that effect on her, even if I shouldn’t have been thinking that at all. But I couldn’t ignore the hard thumping in my chest.

“Hey, Matteo,” she smiled.

“Hey, Arianna.”

The moment I stepped over the threshold my anxiety and the weight on my shoulders ebbed away. Arianna was one of only two people I felt relaxed around in a wholly comforting way. It was hard to explain the feeling, let alone process the emotion.

I made my way to the counter and went to snatch a hot cookie off the plate. Arianna’s spatula came out of nowhere, smacking the top of my hand before I could touch one. I pulled my hand back.

“Ow!” It didn’t really hurt. “What was that for?”

Arianna shook the spatula at me. “Maybe you should ask first, instead of just assuming you can have someone’s cookie. Manners, Matteo. Or are you above that?” Her brow arched in a scolding kind of way.

I smiled, no one laid a hand on me unless they wanted it cut off, but Arianna knew I could never hurt her. Placing my hands on the counter I leaned in and asked in a low voice. “Can I have your cookie, Arianna?”

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