The house had been a buzz of activity all day. I tried to listen to what was going on, but everything was happening behind closed doors. I could hear yelling from my father’s office and about an hour later, I saw him and several other guys go into the basement. They weren’t down there long, but when they came back up, I felt very afraid.

If there had been any doubt as to whether I cared if Dante lived or not, all of that was erased when I imagined him lying dead in the room in the basement. I couldn’t say anything though, and I couldn’t even ask if he was still alive, if he was dead, or bleeding to death in the basement. That bothered me the most, that he could be really hurt. I wasn’t sure why I cared. I barely knew him, and he and his family had been doing terrible things to my family for as long as I could remember, including shooting people at the family restaurant named after me.

I tried to pass some of the time with Lina. She’d finished her paper and was relieved to have that off her plate. She was smart, but not very book smart. Writing papers, reading textbooks and things like that were hard for her. Ask her to help you with hair extensions, to walk in five inch heels or how to accessorize any outfit, and she was your girl. She wanted to be better at school things, and she really wanted to learn how to cook.

After spending two hours in my room doing our hair, nails and makeup, we headed down to the kitchen. I’d been quiet, not participating in the girl talk as usual. Lina chalked it up to me being upset about the shooting. Don’t get me wrong, I was upset about it, but I was also upset about Dante which upset me more.

“Hey, why don’t we go bake something?” Lina suggested once her toenails were dry.

I had told Dante I’d make him Tiramisu. It had kind of been a joke, but it made me sad to think that he’d never be able to taste it.

“Come on, it will make you feel better,” Lina said, noticing my face.

I agreed to go with her, not really feeling like baking. I considered telling her what was bothering me, but I wasn’t even sure what to say. She and I had only become friends about six months earlier. She was so much more experienced than I was when it came to men…life really. Would she think I was some silly girl who was interested in a guy she’d only met yesterday? I decided not to say anything, just follow her down to the kitchen.

As we walked through the living room, Lina ran into Marco. She threw her arms around his neck.

I looked away, not wanting to invade their privacy.

“I’ve missed you today. How come you haven’t been up at all? I thought we might have lunch together.”

I heard him kiss her quickly. “I wanted to. It was such a busy day. We have a guest in the basement who is taking up a lot of my time.”

“He’s still there?” I blurted out.

Marco looked at me, the shock evident on his face. “Yeah, he’s there. Why?”

I stared back, not really sure what to say.

“We’re on our way to make dessert,” Lina chimed in.

“Yeah. I’m going to make tiramisu and teach Lina. I just wondered about the guest is all cause, you know, I brought him dinner last night and I felt bad he didn’t have dessert. I’ll make sure he has some tonight.”

Marco looked at me, still a bit confused. “He doesn’t need dessert. He’s really lucky he’ll getting good food.”

“Everyone needs dessert,” I said, a huge smile on my face as I pulled Lina into the kitchen.

“I knew baking would cheer you up,” she said, oblivious to the actual reason I felt happy.

We began making the dessert. I tried to teach Lina, but in the end, she sat on the counter and watched me make it. I enjoyed talking to her and I felt my spirit lift. I wasn’t sure how much more time Dante would be here, but it would at least be for one more night.

Dinner seemed to take forever. I was all set to take his dinner down like the night before when Marco grabbed the tray. It had a plate of the chicken and sides we’d had for dinner. It also had a small plate of the tiramisu.

“I can take that down,” I said, trying to act nonchalant.

Again, Marco looked at me as if I were under a microscope. His eyebrows were furrowed and his head was tilted to the side for a moment. “No, I got it. Thanks though.”

I’d wanted to see him so badly, and now I was just going to stand in the kitchen while Marco went down to see him.

“Hey, this is going to sound crazy, but I’m super tired,” Lina said, coming up behind me. “I know it’s so early, but I’m going to go to bed. I have this feeling that Marco will be coming in again and wanting to make love at like two in the morning.

I nodded as if I knew what that was like. Ironically, Lina had given me an idea. She was going to go to bed now, so she could be up all night. I could do the same thing. Sure, I couldn’t stay all night with Dante, but it would make staying up so late a lot easier.

I followed Lina upstairs and climbed into bed. I set the alarm on my phone for 11 pm. That would be late enough that no one would be down with Dante nor anyone walking around the main floor who might see me out of bed, heading for the basement.

When my alarm went off, I woke easily. I thought I might be tired after only getting a few hours’ sleep but I was filled with excitement and anticipation. I’d thought about it all day and had decided I’d kiss him again and let his hands explore. I wasn’t ready to give my virginity to him, but I was willing to round some bases.

I spent a few minutes doing my hair and makeup. I didn’t want it to look like I was trying too hard or wearing it just for him since it was late enough that I should have been going to bed.

Once I was ready, I stole down the hall and descended to the first floor. This time it was Vito on the couch. He had his back to me and was on his phone. He was watching some video. From the amount of skin, I saw, it was porn. He didn’t even notice as I walked behind him.

There was no one in the basement. I’d thought of a story in case I ran into anyone. I’d tell them that I was supposed to come down to get the dinner dishes I’d forgotten earlier. It wasn’t a great plan, but I thought it would work. I never found out, because I never ran into anyone.

When I got to Dante’s door, I pressed the code and turned the handle slowly. I had expected that he’d be asleep, but he was sitting up on his bed, his pillows propped behind him.

“You’re awake!” I exclaimed.

He smiled at me. “I couldn’t sleep on the off chance you’d come down. I didn’t want there to be any chance I missed you.”

I couldn’t believe his words. He was waiting up for me! “I said I’d come, didn’t I?”

“Yeah you did, and you also said you’d make me tiramisu.”

“I did make it,” I said looking over at his dinner plates that still sat there. There was a dessert plate with chocolate remnants.

“You didn’t make that. You had to have bought it. It was so good.”

I started to laugh. He had to be teasing me, but I liked it. I felt myself relax. I walked toward the bed and sat down on the edge.

“Seriously though, it was delicious. I am very, very impressed. You can cook for me any day.”

I give him a light smile. I can’t imagine that he’ll be around much more, and surely not coming for dinner.

“I can cook too,” Dante said. “I make delicious meatballs and also my own gravy.”

I love pasta with tomato sauce and meatballs. I also loved that he called the tomato sauce gravy like my family did.

We continued talking about things that we could cook. That moved onto other skills we had and we even talked about things we weren’t good at. I found out that Dante was a really great shot, but he couldn’t ice skate. I loved to ice skate, but I’d never fired a gun.

“You’re pretty spectacular,” Dante said after I told him I could also play the piano.

“Thank you,” I said.

“I’m good with my hands too,” Dante said with a smirk. “Almost as good as I am with my lips.”

I’d remembered how he’d kissed me and how it had seemed to wake my entire body.

He looked at me, just then, bringing himself closer to where I sat on the end of his bed. His hand reached out and he slid it up my back to the nape of my neck. His fingers wound in my hair and he brought his lips close to mine, an inch apart, if even.

As if an invisible force pulled me to him, I leaned in and kissed him softly on the lips. Although the kiss was slow and soft, it made me feel weak in the knees. I felt grateful I was sitting on the bed.

His lips moved over mine, his tongue moving to explore my mouth. The way his fingers felt as he moved them through my hair made me tingle.

Dante pulled me a little closer and tried to sit up more. Wincing, he pulled me onto his lap.

“Are you okay?” I asked looking at his shoulder.

He stared at my lips as I talked, his eyes glassed over. “Yeah, it’s still store. I’ll be fine,” he said and pulled me towards him for another kiss. With me on his lap, it was a new position, making me several inches taller than him, putting my breasts right in his face. “Perfect view,” he said, moving his mouth to my neck. He kissed it roughly, sucking the skin into his mouth. I was worried he was making marks, but it felt so good, I couldn’t even care.

His kisses began to travel from my neck to the neckline of the tank top I wore. Dante kissed the material softly, moving his mouth lower and lower until his lips and tongue were less than an inch from my nipple.

I held my breath. Was he going to kiss my breasts? Electrical pulses shot from my bellybutton to somewhere between my legs creating a wetness that flowed from my body.

He looked up into my eyes for a moment and then back down at my breasts, which were less than an inch from his face.

I couldn’t look away. I watched, filled with anticipation as he moved closer and closer to my chest. I could barely believe it when his mouth first touched my nipples. I could feel the warm wetness through my shirt.

He sucked gently pulling my nipple into his mouth where he bit down softly and worried it with his teeth.

The way he made me feel was sinful as the moans that fell from my lips. When I thought the sensation couldn’t get any more intense, he treated my other breast to the same attention as the first, bringing my body to a new sense of arousal. My eyes were half closed and my breathing ragged.

I had no idea what to do or what to expect next, but my body seemed to know what to do. Instinctively, as his mouth continued to suck on my breasts through my shirt, I rocked my hips just slightly until I found the large bulge I’d hoped was there. I pressed onto it and rocked my hips slowly. Though I’d never had sex, the urge to ride on someone, to rub your genitals against theirs was primal. Animals did it in the wild, and I was no different.

As we kissed, his hand moved from my back to the front of my shirt. He pulled at the hem of the tank top, and for some reason I let him take it off. I looked into his eyes as his stared at my breasts. “Fuck baby girl, your body is so hot.” He was the first man to ever see me topless.

He licked his lips causing me to whimper. His warm tongue first circled my nipple then sucked it into his mouth. The feel of his tongue on my skin and the gentle tugging had me nearly losing control of myself. I grabbed his hair and held him to me.

He flicked my pebbled nipple with the tip of his tongue making it harder and harder by the second. When I couldn’t get enough of that, he’d switch to gentle sucking and then to hard sucking. While I was fairly certain that I didn’t have marks on my neck from his mouth, I wasn’t so sure about my breasts. If I had to guess, I’d say that my breasts were covered in small bruises.

While his mouth was licking and sucking on one breast, his hand was rubbing and pinching on the other. The longer he did it the more turned on I got. The tingling feeling I’d felt earlier behind my belly button had grown into a full fire. I knew what was coming.

I’d masturbated before and had given myself several orgasms, but they were nothing like this. I started to slow my hips to hold it off. I wasn’t sure I was ready to come in front of him.

He must have sensed my hesitation. “Oh no you don’t, my little angel.” Dante chuckled grabbing my hip with his free hand. “Come for me. Come all over me.”

I was so nervous, and I never thought I’d actually achieve orgasm, but everything felt too good to stop. I continued as he held my hip, rocking me on him while he teased my nipple with his tongue. I let out a low moan that was so loud I would have been worried if I knew anyone else was in the basement.

I continued to rotate my hips over the bulge in his pants until I thought neither of us could take it anymore. My orgasm was so close, I worked hard to hold it off, still unsure of finding my release in front of him.

Dante seemed to sense my concern because he stopped sucking on my breasts and pulled me towards him in a long slow kiss. As the kiss built, so did the speed I was moving my hips. He began pressing his tongue in and out of my mouth. It felt like he was making love to me with his tongue. That thought, combined with the sensation growing between my legs had me right there. “Dante...Dante... please,” I whimpered, not at all certain what I was asking him to do. Did I want him to stop, or did I want him to continue. I was so lost in that moment, I wasn’t sure what my name was, let alone able to make any rational decisions.

“Babygirl. Annalisa, come for me.”

His words, his mouth, his fingers sent me over the edge. Pulling free, I arched my back and allowed my release. Wave after wave left me. I was caught up in my own world of pleasure, but I was aware enough to realize Dante must have liked it too, because I heard him grunt and mutter, “Oh fuck.”

When I stilled, I felt his hardness twitching from under his sweatpants. Part of me was glad that there were two layers of material between us and part of me wanted it gone. “That was incredible Dante,” I panted, leaning forward and pressing my forehead to his. “You made me feel… oh… there really aren’t even words.”

Dante seemed to find some. He kissed me gently on the lips then said, “I want to make love to you.”

His words surprised and thrilled me. He was a very sexy man, and he wanted me. It made me feel special, but how many other women had he said this to? When I’d brought him dinner the first night and he’d kissed me, it had crossed my mind that he was just using me to get back at my father. I was fairly certain now, after talking to him for hours that it wasn’t about that. Still, did I really want to be another notch on his bedpost. On the other hand, I’d get what I’d wanted. But was it what I wanted? It was nice in theory, to think I could just hook up with a complete stranger, fuck him and move on. In reality, things were much more complicated. I did want him, I did want to have sex with him, but I wasn’t ready yet.

“Annalisa?” he asked, using his one free hand to slide into the waistband of my pants.

I pulled away. “I can’t. I um...I have to go.”

His face fell and it broke my heart. “Will you consider it for tomorrow? If I’m still, you know... here? Giving yourself to me?”

I nodded, climbing off of him. I found my clothes and dressed quickly. I couldn’t let myself think about him not being here tomorrow, instead focusing on the happiness he’d created. My head was swimming and I had no idea what I’d do if he weren’t here tomorrow night. I also had no idea what I’d do if he were.