Page 63 of Bound By A Promise
He replied, “Yes, probably.”
“Probably?” I questioned.
Dante inhaled, his chest inflating before he exhaled. “Listen, I’m not against children. You’re young. We have time to discuss it.” He furrowed his brow. “This is a shitty world. What happened here last night and to you months ago are reasons towait. And then there’s your classes. Your father made it clear during our negotiations that you finishing school was a priority.”
I nodded. “I want to finish my degree.” I palmed his cheeks, relishing the roughness of his beard and briefly imagining that roughness at my core. I tried to focus on the topic at hand before my nipples beaded and gave away my desires. “As for the world, you’re right. It can be shitty, but we can’t make our decisions based on that.”
“When we get home, we’ll make you an appointment with Catalina’s doctor. Until then, I’ll do a better job of pulling out.”
“Someday?”
“Someday.”
“Probably or definitely?”
“Do you always get your way?” he asked with a grin.
“I don’t know. Will I?”
Dante nodded. After kissing my forehead, he stood, lowering my feet to the floor. “I’d like to join you in the shower, but I better touch base with Dario. You can go ahead without me.”
I started to walk toward the bathroom and stopped. “Dante, I know we’ll do what Dario wants you to do. But if we go to my house, promise me that you won’t leave me there.”
He slapped his fist against his chest. “You have my sworn promise.”
Swallowing, I nodded. “I trust you.”
About ten minutes later, as I stepped from the shower and wrapped myself in a towel, the bathroom door opened. No longer naked, Dante was wearing his boxer briefs. His expression did little to mask the fact that since waking, he had a change in his demeanor.
“Dario was happy for us?”
He shook his head. “I wouldn’t use that description. He and Catalina are on their way here.”
“What? Why?”
“Jorge Roríguez is on his way from Mexico.”
I staggered and reached for the vanity. “Because of us?”
“Us and the attack last night.”
“Jorge knows,” I said, thinking aloud. “Does that mean my father knows?”
Dante nodded. “It seems that as we slept, the entirety of the famiglia and Roríguez cartel were brought up to speed.”
“Have you talked to anyone downstairs?”
“I’m going to hurry and shower and go down.”
“Okay. I’ll be down as soon as I dry my hair and get dressed.”
It seemed surreal that I was drying my hair and wearing a towel as Dante showered nude in the same bathroom. That was what married people did. I assumed that was what they did. As I applied a little of the makeup Mia offered me last night, some blush and mascara, the concerns about my father settled in my chest, taking root deep in my soul.
Tears filled my eyes as I imagined being separated from Dante.
By the time he got out of the shower, my eye makeup was ruined. I splashed water on my face and hurried from the bathroom.
“What the fuck?” Dante followed me, his muscular body dotted with water and wearing a towel around his waist. He seized my shoulders. “Are you crying?”