Chapter Nine

Aurora awoke and was, at once, completely confused and completely clear. She knew exactly whose shoulder her cheek was resting on. Without even opening her eyes she knew that was Dante’s chest hair under her palm, his hand firmly on her ass. But what she didn’t understand was how the hell she’d ended up here.

She never slept over. Even on their first night together, she’d waited until he’d fallen asleep and snuck out. After that, he’d made sure she couldn’t sneak out, but she’d still managed to kiss him goodnight and leave before the sun was ever close to rising. But here she was, morning sun kissing her closed eyelids, blanket pulled damn near up to her chin.

She pulled away from him and sat up, pushing her hair back from her face. She was dressed in a big, soft t-shirt and sweatpants, her coral dress hanging on a hanger on the back of the closet door.

“You fell asleep during the movie,” Dante said in a low voice, gruff from sleep. “I didn’t want to wake you.”

Aurora turned and whatever she’d been about to say dried right up in her throat. Dante laid there, one hand crooked under his head, bare chested, his hair tousled from sleep. His eyes were heavy and his stubble was darker than she’d ever seen it.

“Wow.” She couldn’t help but reach out and touch his sandpapery chin. “Man, you’re really handsome.”

Dante’s eyes lit with so much surprise and delight that it made Aurora realize how rarely she ever complimented him.

“It can’t be a shock to hear that, Dante. You know you’re attractive.”

He gathered her closer, nuzzling his face into her neck and hair. “Sure. I know what I think of myself. But I didn’t know what you thought.”

She rolled her eyes. “Please, you think I’d have been fucking your brains out all this time if I wasn’t attracted to you?” She turned to him, traced one finger over his strong brow, up along the wavy hair at his forehead. “Not to inflate your ego, but you are really, really beautiful.”

To Aurora’s utter delight, a faint color came into Dante’s cheeks. His eyes fell away from hers. “Come on.”

“You’re embarrassed.” She couldn’t stop the grin that spread across her face like fire. “I can’t believe I figured out how to embarrass Dante Callaghan.”

“I’m not. And I’m not that.”

“Beautiful or embarrassed? Because from where I’m sitting, you’re very much both.”

Dante pursed his lips and opened them to say something but his bedroom door burst open.

“Coco, can we do scram-damn-ble this morning? I’m really hungry and… Oh! Aurora! You stayed!”

Aurora’s heart completely stopped as a tousle-headed Michelle came marching into Dante’s bedroom. Oh crap. Double crap. Triple crap. They hadn’t covered any of this. It hadn’t even occurred to Aurora that she was going to have to face Michelle this morning. And it definitely hadn’t occurred to her that Dante was going to have to explain why Aurora had slept in his bed.

“I’m so glad you’re still here!” Michelle jumped up onto the bed with them without hesitation. “Dante never has girls sleep over. Can we check my crystal? Are you staying for breakfast? Dante will make you scram-damn-ble.”

Aurora turned to Dante. “Scram-damn-ble?” she asked faintly.

He scrubbed a hand over his face, looking very much like he was trying to keep himself from smiling. “It’s just an egg scramble. But I make it so damn good you have to call it a scram-damn-ble.”

Aurora looked from Dante’s easy, smiling face to Michelle’s hopeful grin and she felt something fly right out of her chest. It was almost like letting go of a kite in the wind. She was just tired of clinging to it. And there was no fighting it anymore. She let go of it and wasn’t even sad to see it fly away.

She hadn’t planned on this. God. She certainly hadn’t planned on this. But while she was here, she was going to enjoy it.

* * *

Dante watched Aurora’s face carefully. He knew she’d been shocked when Michelle had just pranced right in. And actually, Dante had been a little surprised himself. It wasn’t unusual for Michelle to barge through the house, but he’d thought he’d have another hour or so before she woke up. As he’d lain awake that morning, Aurora sleeping across his chest, he’d been going through his options, including the best way to tell Michelle that Aurora had slept over.

In a different world, he’d have wanted to talk to her about it way before it even happened. But then both of them had fallen asleep during the movie and he hadn’t wanted to wake either of them. Aurora sleeping over was a surprise all around and Dante was just relieved that Michelle was taking it so well. She didn’t seem to find it weird in the least.

So now, all he could do was roll with the punches and help Aurora do the same. She just looked so damned cute, so different from her usual, immaculate business attire. Her hair was all tumbly and the sleeves of his t-shirt went way past her elbows. She was looking back and forth between him and Michelle like she could barely believe what the hell was going on.

Mildly concerned that Aurora was freaking out, Dante reached across the bed and grabbed Michelle by the ankle. She laughed and wriggled around as he dragged her across his lap. “Hey, nosy Mcgee. Go get the scram-damn-ble stuff out of the fridge and Aurora and I will be down in a second.”

“Okay!” Michelle was up like a shot.

“Oh! And press the button on the coffee maker.”

“You got it!” she called over her shoulder.

“Oh! And later today we’re going to go over the fundamentals of knocking. Don’t worry, you’re a bright kid. You’ll get it down in no time.”

Michelle stuck her tongue out at him and scampered out of the room. They heard her running footsteps down the hall and down the stairs.

“I’m so sorry,” Aurora turned to him, chagrin in her eyes.

“For what?” Dante ran a hand over her hair.

“For being here where Michelle could see. And not knowing how to explain it to her. I hope she’s not traumatized.”

Dante raised a wry eyebrow. “She’s resilient. I’m sure seeing you with your makeup smudged wasn’t quite enough to send her into therapy.”

“Oh!” Aurora’s hand went right to her eye make up and she was out of the bed instantly.

Dante chuckled to himself when he heard her furiously washing in the sink. And then he lost his breath when she came back out, pink and fresh from washing her face, his t-shirt falling over one of her shoulders.

“You know that’s not what I meant. Will she be traumatized from knowing that we slept in the same bed?”

“No,” he said, meaning it. Dante reluctantly slid out of bed and slipped past her into the bathroom, putting toothpaste on his own toothbrush and hunting up a new one for her. He handed it to her and popped his own in his mouth, talking around it. “She knows about the birds and the bees. I mean, ideally I would have talked to her about you sleeping over first, asked her permission, but as you could tell, she didn’t seem too bothered by the idea.”

Aurora spit toothpaste into the sink, her eyes narrowing. “You would have asked her permission to have me sleep over here?”

He shrugged, splashing water on his face and considering a quick shave. “Sure. It’s her house as much as it is mine. And she has to ask me if she wants somebody to sleep over. Makes sense for it to go the other way. Of course, if she said no, we’d have to have a pretty serious conversation about why. But I don’t think she would have said no. She obviously likes you.”

Deciding against the shave, he turned from the mirror and finally caught Aurora’s eye.

“You’re a good dad,” she said.

He felt the conflict of pleasure and irritation inside him. Pleasure at the praise and irritation at the wording.

“I’m a good brother,” he corrected.

She cocked her head at him before going back out to the main room and grabbing her dress off the hook. He sat on the bed and watched her as she slipped out of his clothes and into the dress. So graceful. So gorgeous. Good lord, he could watch this woman do her taxes and he’d still be aroused.

“You don’t consider yourself to be her father?”

Dante rose, swiped the t-shirt she’d been wearing off the ground and pulled it over his head. He got instant wood from the scent of it, a combination of him and her. “No. I’m her brother. She has a father. It’s just her bad luck that he’s a piece of shit.”

He didn’t want to shut her out or shut her down, but he also really didn’t want to go further into this. He knew that she was still teetering on the edge of whether to like him or not and he didn’t particularly feel like dragging his daddy issues into the room right now.

Stepping up behind her, he zipped her into her dress. He turned her, and seeing that she was about to say something further about the dad thing, he traced his fingers through the lacy holes at the neck of the dress.

“You know, the way this dress is cut, it makes the skin underneath look like a necklace.” He dropped his head and kissed along the delicate cuts of the dress. “A mouthwatering, golden, warm little necklace.”

Aurora’s sucked in a breath. Dante was completely shocked when suddenly, her soft hands grabbed him firmly on either side of his face. She hauled him toward her and started kissing the daylights out of him. Soft and hard at the same time. Her lips were so lush that no kiss could ever be too hard, but she was using all the force she could muster.

It was intoxicating to Dante.

And confusing as hell.

“I’m waaaaaaiting!” Michelle hollered up the stairs, and Dante and Aurora broke the kiss on a laugh.

He watched as she walked out of the room. He wanted desperately to grab her hand, make her tell him exactly what had her kissing him like that, but he didn’t. The moment passed, and all he could do was follow her downstairs.

* * *

Turned out scram-damn-bles were flippin’ delicious. But as she’d already insisted he was beautiful and a good dad that morning, Aurora kept her thoughts on his cooking skills to herself. She didn’t want to go playing all her cards right now. She was still in shock that she even had those cards to play. Her feelings had come out of nowhere. Blindsided her.

The three of them sat around the breakfast table eating and Michelle held up her newly cleansed crystal, ticking it back and forth on the chain like a pendulum.

“Aurora?”

“Hmmm?”

“Can crystals heal my Von Willebrand’s?”

Aurora swallowed what was in her mouth and took a quick second. She could feel Dante’s tension from across the table. She didn’t have to look at him to know what he was wanting her to say.

“No, they can’t, Michelle,” Aurora said quietly but firmly, not wanting to crush the little girl or give her false hope. “Remember how I said that they’re not magic? They’re good for you the way a full night’s sleep is good for you, or drinking enough water. They can soothe you or make you feel better, but they don’t do miracles.”

Michelle cast her eyes down but she nodded. It was the answer she’d been expecting.

“Besides,” Dante chipped in. “You know that Von Willebrand’s is genetic, Michelle. There’s no cure.”

“I know. I know.” She propped her head on her chin and took a big bite of her eggs. “I guess I just get sick of having it sometimes. I just wish there was more stuff we could do to get rid of it.”

“Yeah, that’s how I feel about being so dang handsome all the time,” Dante said, immediately making Michelle snort and fight a smile. Which, of course, had been the intended effect. “Sometimes it’s just such a burden. Every guy wants to be you, every girl wants to get next to you. It’s just like, enough already!”

Aurora and Michelle rolled their eyes at each other and laughed. But as Aurora finished off her breakfast, a thought was brewing. One she didn’t want to share with Michelle until after she’d shared it with Dante.