Page 58 of Anti-Heroes in Love Duet
To top it all off, Seamus had all but threatened me if I didn’t offer good intel on the capo. At least, if I was living here, I’d be safe from him and his.
I knew Dante’s enemies were circling in the waters, scenting his blood after his RICO indictment, and that potentially, they could use me as some kind of pawn in their game of domination.
So, I was safe from external forces in Dante’s two-story Upper East Side fortress.
The problem was, I had the distinct feeling the greatest threat to my safety was inside that same apartment prowling the halls like a caged beast.
The room he’d given me was lovely, which annoyed me too. The walls were gray plaster, the same dark shade as my eyes, but everything else was either a pearly white, silver, or accented black. It was like living inside a cloud with its ever-changing moods, light to dark, everything soft and opulent.
He had good taste, a quality I felt was underestimated in a man.
I fisted the satin sheets in my hands and wrenched at them.
I hated to be maneuvered, and I hated to lose.
And there was no doubt that I had.
Restlessness coursed through me, and though it was only four in the morning, a full hour and a half before I normally got up, I pushed out of bed and padded over to the black dresser to investigate.
Clothing lay neatly folded in the drawers.
I puffed a breath through my lips as I fingered a cashmere cardigan.
Of course, the bastard had bought me clothes, knowing I wouldn’t pack my own.
Anger fueled me better than coffee ever could as I wrenched open drawers until I found a pair of black leggings and a sports bra. I knew there was a gym somewhere in the massive apartment, and I decided I’d lift weights in bare feet because I didn’t have appropriate shoes.
Tying my hair in a messy bun, I quickly applied some mascara and lip tint before leaving the room.
I wasn’t the kind of woman who went anywhere without looking her best.
I found the gym almost immediately down the same corridor as my bedroom on the second level, at the end of the hall where it opened into a massive space lined with mirrors on one side and floor-to-ceiling windows on the other. My eyes immediately sought out the view of the nightscape through the glass, transfixed by the glitter of lights like sequins woven into the velvet night. I walked to the window and touched my hand to the cool glass as if I could feel the texture of the night beneath my fingertips.
“New York City is the most beautiful at night.”
I closed my eyes against the sound of his voice, furious with myself because a small part of me, something wild and unbridled in my chest, had hoped I might run into him.
“Then again, most things are,” Dante continued as he appeared in my periphery, a monumental shadow next to me.
I didn’t turn to look at him. “I’m a terrible sleeper, so I’ve come to enjoy the night. It’s peaceful. Sometimes it feels like you’re the only one awake in the entire world.”
“Mmm, that seems rather lonely,” he murmured. “Night should be spent on passion.”
I rolled my eyes, ignoring his light chuckle. “Fucking indiscriminately, you mean?”
“Oh, Elena, be careful cursing around me,” he purred darkly, moving just a little closer. “I like the sound of something dirty in that red mouth.”
I told myself the tingle I felt at the base of my back was from a cold draft in the room.
“If I’m going to stay here, there must be rules,” I decided primly, finally turning to face him.
My God.
I turned back to the window immediately, seeking solace in the New York night.
Because Dante was half naked beside me.
The broad expanse of his chest was quilted with deeply defined muscle, his abs a boxed chain in his abdomen, his pectorals round and hard topped by dark nipples covered in light, crisp black hair. An ornate silver cross hung at the end of a thick chain around his neck, the tip of the cross resting in the crease between his chest and tight belly, sexy in a way that was blasphemous. But it was the corded length of his arms, the ripple of muscle in biceps the size of my thighs that had my legs clenching together against a vague ache at my core.
