Page 184 of Dante
"You're trying to kill me."
"No." I lean up. Kiss her softly. "I'm trying to ruin you for anyone else."
"Mission accomplished."
The words hit me somewhere deep.
I pull back. Look at her. Really look at her.
She's covered in my cum.
Love this picture.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
Marina
Ileave Dante sleeping in the bedroom.
His breathing is deep. Even. The lines of pain that usually bracket his mouth have smoothed out.
I close the door quietly behind me.
The penthouse is silent. Forty-two floors above Denver, the city noise doesn't reach us. Just the hum of the air conditioning and the soft tick of a clock somewhere in the living room.
I find my phone on the kitchen counter where someone left it. The screen shows twelve missed calls. Eight from work. Four from my mother.
I check the time.
10:47 a.m.
I should have been at the nonprofit three hours ago.
My thumb hovers over Sarah's contact. My supervisor. The woman who hired me eighteen months ago.
I press call.
It rings twice.
"Marina?" Sarah's voice is sharp with concern. "Where are you? Are you okay? You didn't show up this morning and you didn't call and?—"
"I'm okay. I'm sorry I didn't call sooner."
"What's going on? This isn't like you."
She's right. It isn't like me.
That Marina feels like a stranger now.
"I have a family emergency. I need to take some time off."
Silence on the other end.
"How much time?"
I close my eyes.
"I don't know. A week. Maybe two."
