Infinity Chronicles Book Two, page 15
“Not like that, don’t be crazy. I mean she won’t be able to assault you with hugs and tackle you with her excitement.” Ares actually rolls his eyes. I, however, am not really as mollified with his explanation as he seems to think I should be.
Before I can muster a response, Ares sits up straight. “All settled, let me get the food situation settled for tonight and we can call her. You guys get this weird tension you have going on sorted out, because Mom will spot it a mile away, and then there won’t be any stopping her from coming.” Under his breath Ares adds, “Not like it’ll help.” He stands, dropping a tender kiss at my temple, and strides into the bedroom area. The door closes as I sit there reeling. Not only do I have to meet their parents, but I also have to deal with Dante.
Staring straight ahead still in shock, Next to me Dante rumbles, “You’re mad at me.” It’s definitely not a question.
Taking a deep breath and squaring my shoulders I turn to face him. He’s in the opposite corner of the couch, his large frame somehow looking smaller with the way he’s tucked into himself. It doesn’t diminish his appeal in any way though. Peering at me with those gorgeous amber eyes and a slightly nervous expression, his chin tilts down.
I look away, I won’t be able to get the words out if I have to look at him. “I’m really confused,” I confess, dropping my hands into my lap. “I thought it was just Delaney making my feel so… so jealous, but it’s not just her. It’s you.”
The cushion between us shifts as Dante rearranges. “I promised that nothing like what happened with Delaney would ever happen again,” he says like I only need his word to erase his actions.
“Yet when we were in the elevator, you didn’t do anything to stop that girl from getting close to you, trying to touch you. What if she would have kissed you? Would you have even stopped her? And I was standing right there.”
“Of course I would have stopped her, but I wanted you to.”
I snap my neck in his direction, my mouth probably hanging open. Finally, I manage a very confused, “What?”
“I wanted you to claim me as yours, let them know I was with you,” Dante tells me with such certainty that I can’t help but believe him.
At a loss for words, I circle my fingers over my temples. Deciding to give him a bit more information since he’s divulging his own, I tell him, “There’s something about you that makes me crazy… territorial.” I settle on that word when I can’t find another to fit. Glancing at him from the side of my eye, I see his lips lift in a barely there smile before it’s wiped off his face like it never existed.
The couch shifts again as Dante inches closer. “I think that has something to do with my abilities,” he confides, but I have no clue what he means. “My animal,” he amends.
Licking over my lips, I give his idea some thought, could it be? But why would I react differently to him, considering he’s the animal and not me? “I’m not sure that makes any sense Dante.”
“I don’t let many people in. I’ve always been a bit of a loner, but I’ve also always had this feeling,” Dante’s hand waves over his torso, “of dominance I can’t always control. I don’t like being told what to do, where to go, hell, that’s how I ended up living in the apartment above the garage, because I knew Ares didn’t want that.” Dante runs his hands up and down his thighs, no longer looking at me.
“Once my ability manifested, it was easier to understand why I’d always been this way, but…” He lets the sentence dangle, not finishing his words.
Getting antsy I prompt, “But?”
Dante’s fists clench over his legs. “But it’s completely opposite with you, that part of me, my tiger, turns into a total pussy cat with you,” he winces at his words, “and craves your attention and affection.”
I swallow the lump in my throat. “So do you think me feeling like this, has something to do with us sharing your ability? That I’m feeling extra,” heat flashes across my face, “bossy and needy with you because of your animal?”
Dante scoots closer again until he’s right next to me with his arm behind me on the back of the sofa. “It could be, or maybe you’re just more dominant than me,” he says with an easy acceptance.
I drop my head into my hands. “Uh, I’m going to go no on that.” My voice is a little muffled coming out through my hands.
Dante leans in even closer, his nose nuzzling my cheek near my ear. I stiffen, I knew he was close, but not that close.
Dante’s lips part and I feel the press of an open mouth kiss on my jaw. His nose runs across my cheek until his lips are at the corner of my mine. “So, you okay with this?” I’m not sure what this means, but Dante bobs his head up and down in a jerking motion. “I was kinda mad at you, but more at myself because I was acting like a spoiled brat with a new toy.”
He makes a grumbling noise that rolls up his chest. His voice even deeper as he says, “I’m totally okay with that.”
A small burst of a laughter erupts from me and Dante locks his lips on mine, stealing the sound and my breath. Without a thought I bite his bottom lip. He jerks back, his tongue smoothing over my nip, and my eyes widen in shock when I see a dot of blood welling up.
“Oh my God, I’m so sorry,” I blurt, grabbing his jaw with my hands, and Dante gives me a shy smile while looking down with a small shrug.
“I was asking for it.”
“No, you weren’t Dante, that’s not okay. I never want to hurt you. That was wrong. If you did that to me I would me upset, and feel more hurt than just physically.” Dante wraps his hand around my wrist while still cradling his face. “People shouldn’t hurt each other Dante especially if they lov—” I stop before saying the entire word, “—care about each other, it shouldn’t ever be like that.”
“That was just a little nip Laura, I don’t want you to hold yourself back from me. I know what that’s like. So please, don’t do that with me.” I look between his eyes and he seems earnest, not upset in the least.
I resolve to make sure that doesn’t happen again. There’s a huge difference between the bites and nips Ares gives me in the heat of the moment and what just happened. I may not have intended to hurt Dante, but I was trying to punish him a little bit. I place a gentle kiss on his lips.
He grins at me, happy that I’ve dropped it. Leaning back in slowly so his intentions are clear, he keeps his eyes open and kisses my lips softly. I run my palms over the barely visible stubble on his jaw and delve into his thick dark hair. Dante’s eyes fall closed, the weight of his head dropping into my hands as he exposes his throat to me. He completely trusts me, even after what I just did, he doesn’t have any reservations. I place an open mouth kiss on his Adam’s apple then tilt his face back to me.
Dante’s mouth parts on a sigh as I brush my lips across his. My heart is still heavy from what I did, so I keep the kisses slow and sweet, not taking anything more than what he’s giving me. Heat invades my senses, making me think I might be about to spark up, but the burn is low compared to what I feel when Ollie touches me, so I let the feeling go and let the heat continue to build inside of me.
Dante makes a deep sound, almost like a growl, as the heat rises, and I shiver as goose flesh pebbles over my skin. With my thought solely on Dante, and the intention of never hurting him again, I release some heat building inside me.
The effect is immediate, Dante’s back bows and his eyes fly open. Not a sound escapes his parted lips. But before I can ask him what’s wrong, I feel a shifting in my body, almost like my insides are rearranging. It only last seconds, but when the feeling is gone, I can’t help feeling like something just changed.
Dante sucks in a few deep breaths, his eyes still wide on mine. “Holy shit,” he mutters, his voice half growl.
He doesn’t even need to say more, I already know what I’ve just done. I bonded him to me.
Chapter 14
“Well, I’d say as far as make ups go, that one was pretty damned successful.” Ares lays the sarcasm on thick.
I narrow my eyes at him, pissed that he’s making light of the fact I bonded another person to me without their consent. Dante, for his part, seems completely content, happy even about the development.
He didn’t almost pass out the way Ares did, but he collapsed back into the couch, his eyes drooping low. I made sure he was okay, brushing his hair way from his face and holding his hand, and thankfully I didn’t scream for help the way I did for his brother. I don’t think the hotel would appreciate my screaming bloody murder for all their guests to hear.
Ares gets a gleam in his eye and I’m pretty sure that gleam doesn’t mean anything good for me as he rubs his hand over his lips, trying to hide his grin. “This is going to be easier than I thought.”
“What is?” I question, still running my hand over Dante’s thigh, because it seemed to help Ares recover when I was touching him. That’s the reason I don’t want to take my hands off him, it has nothing to do with the fact that it feels like another piece of my soul just slide into place.
“Convincing my mother to stay in Italy,” Ares answers cryptically.
“Wishful thinking,” Dante chimes in, his body languid as he relaxes back into the sofa and pulls me with him to lie across his chest. I don’t bristle at all. In fact, I curl into him, inhaling his scent into my lungs.
My eyes grow heavy. The adrenaline kick I got after bonding with Ares seems to have been a one and done kinda thing. It might have had more to do with the fact that I thought I’d killed him more than the actual bonding.
Ares takes the seat I was mostly in moments ago and opens his laptop. Good, he’s giving us a few minutes before calling. With his thigh almost under my butt and Dante’s heart under my head, I absorb the feeling of wholeness I didn’t know I was missing. If it’s like this bonded to two of them, what will it be like once it happens with all four?
Ares is typing on his computer when I hear a woman’s husky voice call out “Ciao!” My eyes pop open to see a beautiful dark-haired woman waving vigorously from the open laptop. A man’s face pops up next to her, and she leans over to make room. I bolt upright, worried they could see me draped over Dante.
“Hey son!” the man calls. “A call on Saturday afternoon? We haven’t had one of those in ages.” All lightness in his tone disappears when he asks, “What’s wrong?”
“Why would you assume something is wrong, just because I’m calling my dear parents?” The man scoffs, Ares’s charm completely ignored. “William, your son is in trouble.” His face disappears from the screen but not before the woman tsks him.
Her thickly accented voice admonishing him as she scolds, “Stop it. My boy isn’t in any trouble are you, Tesoro?”
“No Mamma.” His accent elongates the word. If I hadn’t heard it myself, I would accuse anyone that repeated Ares’s words a liar.
She clucks her tongue again, not looking at the camera. Another man bends to view the screen and his eyes narrowed much like I’ve seen Ares’s do. This must be William.
“You always assume the worst,” Ares doesn’t hide his grin, “and even though that’s usually the case, it isn’t today.”
The other man returns, both of their faces looming next to Ares’s mother. “Where’s Dante?” I see her search the screen, but Ares is zoomed in close and his shoulders fill the space.
“He’s here.” Ares jerks his head over in our direction. I wipe my face off, and pat down my hair, he could have given me a little more warning.
“Hi Mamma,” Dante calls, and that’s just adorable. Dante’s accent is not nearly as pronounced, but I’m going to tease both of them mercilessly about it. Ares sets the laptop on the table and leans back, so all three of our faces are visible.
She sees Dante first, her face splits into a huge grin. “Dante—” She barely gets his name out before her pretty mouth falls open. “Dimmi?” she demands, her voice just above a whisper.
“Certo,” Ares answers her question, and I don’t even understand.
The woman stands, and then falls back to her seat as the camera goes a little pixilated. “Truly, Tesoro. Tell me this is her?” Her voice holds an edge of pleading.
Instead of answering, Ares says, “Mamma this is our Laura, Laura I’d like you to meet our mother, Rosa.” I lock my eyes on the screen awaiting her reaction.
Rosa’s voice is dead calm when she demands, “Malcom we need a plane.”
“And our fathers,” Dante cuts her off, “Malcom and William.”
“William,” Rosa calls out like he’s not standing right next to her.
Grabbing a hold of his sleeve she stares up at him. “I need a plane.” Rosa looks back into the camera. “No, Ares you come get me. Velocemente.”
Ares shakes his head. “Mamma, I can’t shadow walk you here from Italy.” He tells her like he just told a child Santa isn’t real, all delicate and sweet.
“You must. I need to be there. See, I told you we should have stayed.” Rosa switches over to Italian, and her words are rushed. William runs his hand over her shoulder and shrugs at us through the screen in a what can you do gesture.
“Mamma,” Dante calls. “Mamma!” he tries again, Rosa looks at him, her face pinched into a frown. “Mamma would you like to say hello?”
Rosa slides him a glare, and if I thought she was talking fast before, her words are a blur now. Dante winces and sits back to let his mom ream him out. I keep my mouth firmly closed, there is no way I want to be on the bad side of this fiery woman.
Reaching over I grab Dante’s hand and as her eyes track the movement, her words stall. Her gaze finally lands directly on mine. Rosa sucks in a deep breath. “Amanda?” I startle hearing my mother’s name from a woman I’ve never met. Ares leans forward, his face filling the screen again, and all traces of lightness gone from his tone. “You know her mother?” He sounds accusatory.
I watch Rosa’s head bob around the screen as she tries to get a better look at me. “Is she Amanda’s daughter? But that cannot be. Ares let me see her.” Ares leans back and he wraps his arm around the back of my neck, his fingers touching his brother’s shoulder. Dante squeezes my hand reminding me he’s here as well.
“Dio, you look just like her,” Rosa mutters, her eyes eating up my face. “How can it be?”
“Mamma, do you know something about Laura, about her mother?” Ares's voice isn’t as harsh, and he almost sounds like he can’t believe what’s happening.
“I had no idea.” Rosa’s fingers lift to cover her mouth and a look of absolute horror covers her face as her eyes grow glassy.
“Mamma,” Ares snaps, “do you know what’s going on, or where her mother is?”
“No Tesoro, I haven’t seen Amanda in,” Rosa's eyes lift to the ceiling, “almost eighteen years when I helped her escape Leon.”
Her words hit like a lead weight. She helped my mother escape who? And eighteen years ago? That would have been right before I was born. It’s Ares that finally speaks. “I need you to tell me everything you know.”
“Not like this.” Rosa looks around like someone might be listening. Both of her men are standing by her side and she reaches up, grabbing their hands. “I’ll be there soon, do not let her out of your sight.” With that ominous warning the screen goes black. The only problem is, I don’t know if she was warning them about me, or warning them for me.
Ares slams the lid of the laptop down and springs up from the couch. I can sense his frustration, now that he knows someone has information, he’s going to go crazy until he knows everything. He spins on me. “Did your mom ever mention a Leon?”
I shake my head no on instinct, but I’m trying to think back, did she? “Not that I can remember.”
Dante pulls me in close and Ares is stomping around the hotel room like the floor personally offended him. He stalks over to the sofa and I sink into Dante. I’m unfamiliar with this side of Ares, he’s angry and maybe even a little volatile. The lights in the room dim, casting long shadows on the carpet.
Ares drops back onto the couch and opens the laptop. The left corner is a mess of black spider webs when the welcome screen pops up. “Shit,” he curses, and it looks like someone dripped paint behind the glass, but most of the screen is still visible. He enters his password quickly. Moving his fingers on the trackpad, he highlights one of the lower icons.
It pulls up another login screen. He pounds the keyboard harder than necessary. Once his information is accepted, he hits a pull-down menu with a tiny magnifying glass. He types the name Leon into the search bar before hitting enter.
Several items pop up, all with the name Leon, and he scrolls down quickly, only glancing at the information beside each name. “This is ridiculous, there are one hundred and seventy-two Leon’s. It will take me days to run these down, by that time they’ll be here.”
Taking a chance, I reach out and place my hand on his shoulder. Ares flinches, but relaxes under my touch. His head falls forward into his hands. “Now we have something to go on, it sounds like your mom might give us some answers.” I hope he sees that as a good thing.
Ares turns his head, looking at me. “It also means my mom might have something to do with why you’ve been living out of a fucking RV your entire life.” He says the words like they’re taste bad in his mouth, like he couldn’t think of a worse fate than that. I take my hand back, feeling hurt for some reason.
If Ares sees the hurt splash across my face, he ignores it, choosing to pace again. Even without any pants he’s still intimidating. Coming to an abrupt halt Ares digs his phone out of his front pocket. Putting it to his ear after hitting one button he says, “Hey doll, I need your help.” He looks at me, but quickly averts his gaze. “Yeah, I need you to perform your magic.” I listen to the one-sided conversation, growing angrier by the second. There’s not a hint of anger or frustration in his tone. In fact, he sounds flirty. I would bet my last hundred dollars I know who’s on the other line.
“I want you to log in to the Infinite database, yeah you know all my information. I’m looking for someone specific, but I can’t remember his last name.” Dante tangles his fingers with mine.
