Tell Me Ariel, Are You Mine?

Chapter 13 - I know.

Chapter 13 – I Know.

I swallowed at the sight of him. Would it ever get old? Looking at him, I mean. He was such an effortlessly handsome figure of a man. Of a...something.

His eyes passed over me and it looked as though he was attempting to fight back an emerging smile.

Unimpressed, I quirked an eyebrow. "What?" Then glanced down at myself where he'd been looking. Oh.

You're kidding me.

"It's okay," Dante's smirk couldn't help but make an appearance. "I sometimes hit the streets in my PJ bottoms too." The groove etched itself wider to the corners of his mouth.

I had absolutely no doubt he was joking. No way does he make the mistake of popping to the grocery store in PJ bottoms the way I'd just done, let alone grocery shopping himself or wear PJ's at all. This guy totally goes to bed naked.

Talk about absent minded. I'd thrown anything on and didn't think twice. I sighed like the realisation it was. No wonder I'd been getting the side-eyes at the grocery store. Not just my pathetic lonely vibe then.

"I mean, it's discreet," he examined with an unconvinced tilt of his head. "Kind of. If it wasn't for the uh...faded puppies all over it."

Here's to my navy blue PJ bottoms with paler blue puppies scattered all over them looking like wearable wallpaper. Great. You don't see a hot-as-fuck guy for weeks and when you do, faded puppies. Mortified. What else had I dragged myself out in?

I sheepishly ran a hand through my hair and resisted the urge to tell him this wasn't my usual get-up, because newsflash; it was. Now my hair was all the wilder by the bite of the wind which had taken over the sparse sprinkles of before. Too late to act like this wasn't a mistake but I pretended to own it nonetheless. While watching his charmed grin turn steadily straight and impassive, I wondered why I'd run after him.

"You're looking at me funny." Dante watched me. I guess my thoughts were a little too obvious.

At first, he coolly stared, his eyes a startling spark against his dark hair, his chest heaving as he straightened and only just parted his lips against the cold. Could I have been any more beguiled by that one movement alone? Or was this a case of what Nate had told me? Everything just felt intensified with him?

"You returned my dress," I simply said, not knowing what the hell to say.

"I did."

"What are you doing here?"

"You chased me down to ask me what I'm doing here when you know full well I came to return your dress?"

"What I mean is you didn't have to do it yourself. You could have sent anybody else. Even your no-name assistant."

He nodded. "You're right. I could have," he said without much else.

"Why didn't you?"

"T'was a nice day." He mocked.

"Oh c'mon Dante. You can do better than that. What is it? Making sure I keep my mouth shut about those eyes?"

I wasn't exactly serious but there was a moment's silence. Having kept a keen eye on his surroundings he finally addressed me.

"I need to be sure you won't say anything."

And in that moment I didn't say anything. I paled. I wasn't prepared. I had to tell myself not to react beyond the small lump in my throat I couldn't help but swallow. My eyes drifted in and out of his. How many times would I say something in jest and have it come back to sting me?