HELENA’S POV
His eyes met mine, and they widened in shock, he hadn’t been expecting me to be standing there, hearing everything he was discussing with Matteo. I wanted to keep my expressions neutral but I knew my emotions would betray me. My chest felt tight, and my heart felt too big to contain in them that it nearly burst out, but we stared at each other with a sharp tension that sliced through the air.
His mouth opened, threatening to speak but no words came forth and I scoffed, pulling my eyes away because I could no longer bear the intensity of his gaze.
“You weren’t supposed to hear that” he said finally, with a calmness that I didn’t expect. He spoke like he had said nothing wrong and who was I fooling honestly – he was speaking the truth.
“I mean, you’re right” I said back, my eyes catching Matteo’s smug expression in the corner. “It is in fact a just a contract marriage nothing more so you’re absolutely right”
“You sound like you’re hurt, or you’re expecting something more” I was sure if it was a question or he was just stating an obvious fact. His whole body stood rigid, with one hand seamlessly placed in the pockets of his snug jeans, and his eyes I saw zero emotions in them. He seemed different.
“I’m not”
“Good”
I turned to leave but I stopped, my eyes flicking to chair where Dante had thrusts heavily into me the night before. The rhythm of his heart matching mine, his teeth nipping every cut and corner of my flesh, drawing pain and pleasure at the same time. I could still feel his tongue swirling inside my mouth like a greedy explorer, and right there between my legs was the familiar ache that constantly reminded that I had let me in and foolishly broken my rules to have him inside of me because I craved the intoxication that he pretended to offer that he got me drunk on high and leaving me dry at the end of the day.
I turned back to him and he took my gaze with a certain curiosity, his stance not changing one bit and my voice choked before I could force my words out “Last night was it was it nothing to you still”
A slight snicker ensued from Matteo and I shot a hot gaze to him but he wasn’t intimidated and I couldn’t be bothered by him at that moment because the burning in my chest was over consuming already.
“Helena ”
“Just answer me” I said quickly “What is nothing to you?”
The silence was brutal, wicked and cruel at the same time because they combined together to create a buzz in my ears defeating the whole purpose of the silence. Silence was supposed to be comforting and reassuring but not when Dante was involved it was rather suffocating.
“It was just sex Helena, nothing else nothing more” he said without a stutter and my eyes blurred but I held the tears in my eyes as I nodded my head. I turned away from him and I walked all the way to my room before letting the flood gates open.
***
I woke up the next morning with a certain headache festering at the left side of my head, when I peaked at the digital clock at my bedside, it was long past 8am but I didn’t have the strength to get out of bed. The whole situation still etched on my brain like a bad song that I couldn’t stop singing. It was one thing to replay the ferocious night I had with Dante and it was an entirely different ball game to remember how he said it was sex for him.
It wasn’t just sex to me, it was a little more than that it was a consuming act that still left me breathless each time it drifted into my head. How on earth could he make me feel all those emotions and say it was nothing. How did being so cruel become so easy to him? How?
But I swiped my legs out of bed anyways and headed straight to the shower, I needed to go to the dance studio and I planned to spend the whole day in there. I dressed up quickly and headed out of the room, hoping Dante had left already and I wouldn’t have to run into him on my way to drink coffee and head.
But to my lesser but more annoyed surprise, Matteo was there and scooping cereal into his mouth. I stopped when I saw him, he only spared me a brief glance but I didn’t miss the tiny smirk on his lips.
“Are you like living here now?” I rolled my eyes, and going straight to coffee pot. Matteo ignored me until he had chewed the bit in his mouth and then he said.
“I heard about the tragic loss in the D’angelo family , I’m sorry -”
“Sorry? Why? That you couldn’t get the one to kill my brother yourself” I cut him short and he chuckled.
“Shame” he said back and I rolled my eyes, pouring myself a scalding cup of coffee and Matteo watched me the whole time, while I took a sip and I winced at the burn on the tip of my tongue.
“You keep staring at me, is there you want to say to me Matteo?” I turned to him now, letting the steam from the cup warm the iciness out of my face. It was unbelievable how incredibly frustrating it was to deal with the D’angelo men, I was sure Vivianna was having an equal share of the cake.
“I just don’t understand how this whole turned out, I leave for two years and Dante is engaged to his ex wife. You know history is bound to repeat itself right? I know Gianna, she’s definitely come back”
God! I was so sick of hearing her name.
“Then he can go, I don’t care”
Matteo smirks now “I just want to be there to see the look on your face when everything plays on, you know my shoulder is pretty comfortable to cry on”
“Fuck you” I spat, turning around to leave when Matteo called me back.
“Where do you think you’re going?”
I shot him an odd look that bordered on surprise and ‘what’s your business’, but Matteo seemed liked someone who didn’t understand social cues and facial expressions, what mattered to him was only what he thought about in his fucked up head.
“To the dance studio why?”
“Hell you’re not going to that” he dismissed.
“Firstly you have a charity event to attend with Dante, let’s say 4pm as the couple you guys are pretending to be. Dante personally asked me to bring you”
“Well, I’ll definitely be back before then ”
“You’re not leaving my sight until then so you’re coming with me and we’re going shopping”