ADELINE'S POV
"I want to reiterate the fact that if you feel this place is too far from your work place you can just let me know. I don't want this to be an inconvenience to you so…"
"Shut up Dante." I say cutting him off as he closes the passenger's door behind me. "How many times do I need to make it clear to you that I actually want to stay with you. I feel like I'll get to know you better and everything." I say grabbing his collar and pulling his body closer to mine.
His body heat immediately hits me and his cologne attacks my senses as he instinctively wraps his arms around my waist. "Unless you don't want me around you Mr. Russo. Just tell me and I'll be on my way and you'll never see me aga-"
Before I can finish my sentence, he shuts me up by slamming his lips to mine and I feel sparks envelop every single corner of my body.
"Let's go home Adeline." He says and my heart warms at the mention of the word 'home'. Because that's exactly how Dante feels. He feels like home. He grabs my hand and leads me towards the huge mansion he just brought me to. It makes me wonder just how many houses Dante has.
This house seems even more secure than his other place that was broken into and as I walk towards it, it looks like something from a fairytale. It looks like a castle and the entire layout and aesthetic of the house is presenting to me a whole other side of Dante that I can't wait to learn about.
"How many houses do you have again?" I ask, side eyeing him with a smile as he slides a security card into the front door making the doors push open with a click.
"I have three others in different areas of the world. Greece, Venice and Egypt." He says regarding me with a soft smile as we walk inside the castle. A gasp escapes my throat as soon as we walk in because I've never seen anything like it before. I actually really feel like I'm in a castle. It's the most beautiful and aesthetically pleasing house I've ever been in.
I have no idea which side of Dante this is but I like it and I already have so many questions.
"Oh my God…" I whisper as he leads me further into the house. "This is amazing. What-"
I'm at a loss for words as I take in the interior design of the massive house. It seems like a lot of people had contrasting ideas of how they wanted the house to look like and in the end, they put all their thoughts together and blended everything and came up with THIS, and it's beautiful.
The ceiling is meters high and it makes me feel like I'm looking at the sky but it is covered in beautiful paintings and the biggest, brightest chandelier I have ever seen. the place seems a bit too extravagant and flashy for someone like Dante which is why I'm so curious to find out the story behind this house.
Every single piece of furniture in the house is made of either wood or marble and I start to imagine the amount of discipline and planning it took for Dante to do all this.
So, he has two properties in New York and three others spread out. It makes me wonder what exactly is so special about Venice, Greece and Egypt that he had to build entire houses in those places.
I admire the design of the house, Dante watching closely behind me, leaning against the wall with an amused smirk on his face.
"This is so beautiful." I say walking towards him. "How did you even come up with this?" I ask, looking at him eagerly with a huge smile on my face, but my smile quickly turns into a small frown when I notice the serious look on his face and I know for sure he's about to dig into the past to tell me the history of this house.
I swallow and keep my mouth shut as he starts speaking. He grabs the back of my neck and pulls me close to him, holding me tight like his life depends on it, while I silently wrap my arms around his waist. He moves with me gracefully in the big room, as though we were dancing and after a few seconds, he starts speaking.
"My mother loved art." My heart beats rapidly in my chest as I feel the sound of his pained voice resonate in my chest. I keep my mouth shut and listen to him speak as he continues moving around the room with me.
"She loved to paint. She would paint any and everything. She was creative and had the brightest smile I have ever seen, and she loved Greece." He says chuckling lightly and it suddenly becomes obvious to me why he has a property in Greece. He built it to honor his dead mother.
"She loved art and she loved making it. I always wanted to build a house for her in Greece with all her favorite paintings in it. Ever since I was a boy, I would tell her stories about how I would grow up one day and make her visit Greece. I told her I would build a house specially for her that had only her aesthetic. I was going to make her happy." He explains and then he goes silent again for a while.
I can tell he hasn't finished telling me his story so I keep my mouth shut, despite the overwhelming feelings exploding inside of me.
"And then there's my dad. He was always so calm and humble. The most disciplined man I have ever met. He was fascinated by the ancient Egyptian civilization and while my mother painted or cooked, he would tell her stories about all the incredible places in Egypt he wanted to visit with her. The house I built in Egypt is for my dad."
I suck in a deep breath. I'm feeling so many things right now, the greatest of which are admiration and pride. I'm so proud of him. Proud of all what he was able to accomplish in the name of his parents even though it must have been so hard for him, navigating this life all by himself.
"My sister loved glass, marble and wood. She wanted to build amazing sculptures out of these materials when she grew up." His voice suddenly becomes harder at the mention of his sister. His voice is laced in love, hatred but most of all, vengeance. I still don't know exactly what happened to his sister but the fact that he can at least tell me one thing about her means I'm maybe making progress.
Maybe one day he'll trust me enough to tell me exactly what happened but till then, I won't push it.
"I built a house for my sister in Venice. It was her favorite place in the world." He pulls away from me and cups my cheek. There's pure pain in his eyes and I know his heart must ache but he still smiles at me.
"The house we're standing in right now looks so chaotic because I took everything my parents and my sister loved and I put them all together in one house. This way I can be around everything they loved even though they're not truly here. This way I can be with them even though they're dead."
I shake my head and close my eyes to keep myself from crying and give Dante a big hug. "It's not silly Dante. It's the most beautiful thing I've ever seen. No matter where your family is right now, I'm sure they're looking down at you with pride. You did their memory good Dante. You're so strong and I'm so proud of you."
I look up at him and his gaze softens. He touches my face lightly, so lightly that his skin is barely touching mine but I still feel him everywhere. He looks at me like I'm the only solid and physical thing in the world, like he doesn't want to take his eyes off me in fear that I might disappear.
It makes me feel a million things all at once and my heart beats in a way it never has before.
"You have no idea what you mean to me." He says, his voice barely above a whisper as he gazes deeply into my eyes. My knees feel weak with emotions but I'm not scared of falling. I know Dante will catch me and I know we will fly together in absolute bliss.