“We’ll?”
“Maybe just me.” She sighed and slumped. “Maybe not.”
“Be careful with your choices, Delilah,” I warned. Fuck, if I didn’t leave, I was going to rip that sheet off her. Still, I needed to touch her one last time. I stalked up to her, and my fingers trailed up her arm as she held her sheet in place. Goosebumps popped up everywhere on her skin, and when I reached her shoulder, I dragged one finger—slow, deliberate, powerful—along her collarbone. She sucked in a breath as I wrapped my hand around her neck and squeezed. “You’re so small. Someone could break you before they decide to eat you alive.”
She narrowed her eyes at me. “And what would be so bad about being eaten, Dante?”
I growled at her boldness and my cock twitched. She was baiting me when she knew damn well I wouldn’t let her go after I had her. “Make sure you’re careful with what’s ultimately going to be mine.”
I didn’t give her a chance to respond. I spun and swiped my key through the slot to go through our adjoining door.
I let it slam shut.
For now, I’d leash the wolf.
But not for long.
14
Sext your Almost Ex
Delilah
“We’ll be good enoughfriends,” he’d said.
That’s all my brain heard, really, because Dante might have been talking of owning me one minute, but I knew his mind wanted to place me firmly in the friend category for the rest of time.
And then what would I do with my mediocre life? I’d lost his baby, wallowed in misery until I needed a shrink, and now I was trying to live a life that wouldn’t leave me spiraling.
I got ready for work, putting on my blue scrubs and tying my hair up. I’d dress for my night with Allan in one of the locker rooms—we both had crazy work schedules and had already been on a few dates, so we didn’t expect much primping from each other. I packed my makeup bag and a form fitting black dress. Simple and sexy was what I needed tonight.
A text came through that a black SUV would be waiting out front for me. When I got to the lobby, Leonardo ushered me right to it like Dante had updated them all on my new mode of transportation.
I sighed and typed out a thank you to Dante before my shift started.
The man knew how to make me feel safe, that was for sure.
He knew how to make me feel a lot of things. My heart was already starting a war with itself over whether I could take things further with him, even though I knew it wasn’t an option.
At work, we had an emergency C-section, a broken leg from a car accident, a man having a heart attack whom we lost, and another heart attack victim whom we saved.
By nine, my mind couldn’t focus on much. I’d been speaking a second language at work all day and, although I’d majored in Spanish in college, it was still difficult to speak it fluently during emergencies. Thinking of my relationship with Dante, or lack thereof, should have been the furthest thing from my mind.
He was mob. I was a nurse. He was my older brother’s best friend. I was the kid sister. He was my heart, while our lost baby was my heartbreak.
I pulled my black dress on and sighed at how simple it looked. Simple like this date with Allan would be.
Simple like Allan in his jeans and gray button-down standing at the doors of the locker room, offering me his arm.
Simple like my steady heartbeat not jumping out of rhythm to sync with his as it did with Dante.
“You look great, Delilah,” Allan whispered to me as we made our way to his car. “I’m excited for this little restaurant we’re going to. I hear the mojitos are great.”
I nodded as he opened his Honda’s black door for me. “Have you been there before?”
“No. The guys at work were talking about it, and I figured before we’re back home, we have to go.”
I nodded. Allan and I were both from the Midwest, and he’d come to do his residency here. I guess we’d bonded over the fact that we weren’t locals, that we could explore Puerto Rico together rather than by ourselves.