Page 35 of Dante
“What are you—”
“Shh …” Nadia covered his lips. “You know what they’ll think if they see me going up there.”
Dante wasn’t getting why it mattered.
“And then I’ll never hear the end of it for the rest of the weekend.”
“You’re right,” he suddenly agreed, knowing Amo.
“I mean, it’s not like anything’s going to happen,” Nadia stammered out nervously, feeling as if she was a teenager herself, telling a boy that he wasn’t going to get to third base with her. “But you know how kids are.”
“Yeah,” Dante agreed again. “Of course.”
Exactly. I’m just going to use his bathtub.Nadia didn’t know why she was telling herself that. That was only something you had to do when you needed to convince yourself. And Nadia didnotneed to convince herself to not sleep with Dante Caruso. It would be really, really bad if she did …
Right?
She saw the backs of the two boys still playing pool; it was now or never.
Yes, it would be completely irresponsible, she told herself while she and Dante made a run for the steps, hand in hand.
Right?
Holding on to the rail, Nadia followed Dante up the stairwell, feeling the consequences of too many rum runners finally start to catch up with her. At the top of the stairs, she toed her shoes off, afraid to walk on the white carpet.Who the hell would put white carpet on a boat?Gaping at the private lounge, she snapped her mouth closed when Dante turned to see what was keeping her when she didn’t follow him through two open doors.
Making her feet move at the same time as she gazed around the lounge, Nadia nearly walked into a huge round chair piled high with black fuzzy pillows.
Dante frowned at her. “How many of those rum runners did you drink?”
Righting herself, she returned his frown. “How many drinks have you had today?”
“A few,” he admitted.
Nadia gave him a superior smile, like the ones Haley would give her when she had overspent on a budget.
He went back to her. “Give me a number.”
One, two …
“I can’t. I lost count.”
“Same here.”
Curiously, she stared at him, knowing that look. “You want to bop me, don’t you?”
Dante regarded her, as if she had taken a swan dive off the balcony. “Excuse me?”
She drunkenly lowered her face to point to the back of her head. “You want to smack me the way you do Amo.”
“Oh … no.” Dante’s icy gaze sparked a small fire. “I don’t want to smack you the way I do Amo.”
Her rum runners kept her from recognizing his true meaning as it went right over her drunken head. “Good. I have to admit, I don’t know what I would have done if you had taken me up on my offer.” Moving around him, Nadia wished she had her phone so she could take a picture. The bed was a showstopper. The sleek black bed took up most of the room, which was twice the size of hers. Five people could sleep on it and still have space to roll over. “You must be a restless sleeper.”
“Why?” Dante asked, giving her another strange expression at the personal question.
“The bed is the freaking size of Texas.”
For the first time, he took his gaze off her to look at the bed. “You’re exaggerating.”
