“I love your brain,” Olivia says with a wicked grin on her face. “We need to hurry up and finish this meeting so I can create flyers! That’s exactly how I was seeing the event, bookish baddies in ball gowns, and masked men parading around on the dance floor! We’re gonna need a mop on hand for all the drool that will be all over the floor.”
We all laugh, and Jordyn pulls her phone out. “We need to take a picture together so we can remember this.” She angles her phone, and we squeeze in together, smiling. “Say MASKquerade Ball!” We all say it in unison as Jordyn snaps the selfie, and my heart swells.
“Oh, are you guys coming to tonight's gathering?” Jordyn asks, turning to me.
“Yes, I am,” I say.
“I can’t, I’m sorry. I have inventory at Spines tonight.” We all cringe because, if you've worked in retail, you probably despise inventory day,too.
Jordyn turns to me, “Get here at six, I promise you won’t regret it.” I nod, and the meeting is officially over. Jordyn gathers her folders, puts them in her desk drawer, and then leads us back down the stairs through the service entrance. “Meet me here later tonight, and I’ll let you in through this way again.”
“Okay, see you later,” I say, waving to Olivia and Jordyn as I get into my car. My phone vibrates, and I pull it out, seeing that I have a text from Dante. There’s a flutter in my stomach as I see his name, and I click on his message:
“Holy fuck,” I say out loud. God, he looks so fucking good. My phone vibrates again, another message from him coming in, and this time he lifts his shirt to reveal his abs and his delicious, placed angel-wing tattoo:
Fuck, I’d lick like those wings to get to the center of that lollipop. I text him back:
I squeeze my thighs together in anticipation, back out of the service area, and head over to the parking garage. I don’t find any open spots until the third floor, so I pull into a parking space that’s not crowded. I hear the familiar rev of a bike engine. I turn, looking out my window, and see Dante on his bike rounding the last corner. He pulls into the spot next to me, and I wave at him. He flips his visor up, and he gives me a little wave back, and then pats the seat behind him.
I shut off my car and open the door. “Hi,” I say, feeling at a loss for words. He’s wearing blue jeans and a tight black long-sleeve shirt that leaves nothing to the imagination. You can see every outline of his abs, the curve of his biceps, and his tattoos on full display as his sleeve rolls up. Dante holds my helmet out to me and pats the seat again. I bite back a smile, feeling like a giddy schoolgirl, finally getting the attention from her crush. I take my helmet, slipping it on, and mount Dante’s bike.
“Hello,angel.” Dante’s deep, buttery voice says over the speaker system. I involuntarily clench my thighs over the absolute sin that is his voice, and he chuckles.
“Where are we going?” I ask, trying to ignore the fuzzy feeling between my thighs happening in my jeans.
“Nowhere. Just a drive.”
“Okay. I have to be back here by six tonight.”
Dante turns to face me, “Pyre? It’s Monday.”
I giggle at his apparent confusion. “I know the owner of Pyre. She’s having a gathering tonight and has invited me to go. It’s a small group of women who get together once a month. I’ve never been, so I can’t tell you exactly what happens.”
“Is it for like, therapy? Alex’s parents tried to make me go to group therapy after everything that happened, but it didn’t work out for me.”
“I guess you can kind of call it therapy, but it’s more for women to connect,” I answer truthfully.
“What is it like, a coven or something?” Dante jokes, but when I don’t answer, he cocks his head, “Are you telling me you’re going to a coven meeting tonight? At a place called Pyre…You know what that makes sense now that I say it out loud.” I can’t help but laugh; he’s so cute when he’s confused. “I promise to have you back here in time for your coven meeting.”
“It’s called a gathering,” I correct as Dante backs out of the parking space.
“Whatever you say, angel.” Dante follows the exit out of the parking garage. “Hold on to me,” he says as we approach the gate to the garage. Dante revs the engine, and we shoot straight out of the gate onto the road at high speed.
I grip his waist, pulling myself to him, and throwing my arms around his chest. “Holy shit, Dante.”
Dante pulls my hand from his chest and interlocks his fingers with mine. “I’ve got you, Luna.”
My heart squeezes, and my fingers relay its message as I grip his hand tighter. “You better.”
We spend the next several hours driving around the city, passingby its famous landmarks as Dante shares its history with me. I’ve never seen the city like this; my head’s always down, or I’m too busy looking over my shoulder. I’ve lived here for several months and never knew there was a public park just a few blocks from my apartment. I’ve realized that I’ve been living day by day, never really knowing if it would be my last. I’ve been afraid for so long, about everything, that I’m letting life slip right past me.
I don’t want to live scared anymore. I want to take risks again. I want todateagain. So what am I waiting for? Dante doesn’thaveto be my boyfriend; we don’t have to complicate things with a relationship if that’s not something he wants, but Iwanthim, and I know he wants me. The way he has been reaching back along the ride, squeezing my leg, running his fingers up and down, teasing touches that have been driving me crazy. He even said he wants me in a better headspace before he fucks my brains out.
Well, now that's all my thoughts are, of him doing just that, so he’s successfully embedded himself into my slutty psyche, and I don’t care.
We pull into the service entrance of Pyre, and Jordyn stands in the doorway, mouth hanging to the floor. I dismounted his bike, took off my helmet, and handed it back to him. “Meet me here when I get out?” I ask, hoping he says yes. He nods, and I lean forward, kissing his helmet on what would be his cheek. “Good,” I say, biting my bottom lip as I back away.
Dante revs his bike and turns around, doing a spinout as he takes off down the road. I turn towards Jordyn, “You lucky, bitch. No wonder you write suchhotmen holy fuuuuccckkkk!”
