𝐁𝐚𝐧𝐝𝐢𝐭 𝐋𝐢𝐤𝐞 𝐌𝐞

48|| Entrance

"No, I mean it," he says. "She's good for Adriana. They spend an entire afternoon making flower combinations and stuff."

I lean forward. "They did?"

He's about to say more when the sound of heels ticking against the floor fills up the room. I glance up to find Celeste standing in my living room, casually looking like she's on a mission to get me too hard to get up from this couch.

The dark green dress she's wearing suits her body in all the right places. The swell of her breasts are pressed up and the long slit in the gown allows for one of her long legs to be visible.

The fabric is skin tight around the waist, showing off her figure and probably her ass as well.

I feel Ricardo's stare at my face as he mumbles something I can't be bothered to hear. Celeste is adjusting one of the high gloves that match her dress and suddenly, I want my hand to replace the pearls around her neck.

•••
Celeste // February 27
•••

Dante and I are sitting silently in the back of a limo.

I haven't looked at him ones the entire twenty minute drive, because the more I look at him the angrier I get.

It's not fair for someone to look so.. so..

I don't even have the words to describe it.

He's dressed in all black. His suit made to fit every inch of his muscular body perfectly and his hair styled in a way that makes me want to run my hands through it while he'd be on top of me.

His signature rings and thin chain are around his fingers and neck, and the contrast of the gold against his tanned tattooed skin sends a wave of warmth to my core.

I gulp and snap my eyes away to the window on my side. This isn't the time to lust after him. I need to focus.

I was going to be seeing Josette again tonight. The girl who was there at my highest and lowest points. The girl who was there to bring me to life and to suck it out of me. The girl who had taught me how to love and then took my capability of doing it away.

She'd be there, with her soft blue eyes and bouncy blonde curls. With her red lips and sweet smiles. She'd be wearing a pink dress and silver jewelry, talking about the newest romance book she'd fallen obsessed with.

She'd be frowning at the nail polish that she'd taken hours and hours to decide on, wondering if it was truly the most flattering shade of off-white while already planning out her next set of nails.

She's going to be there. After seven years.

Suddenly, the reality of it all settles in and my throat closes in nervousness.

It's then that I realize that she's going to be standing there, looking every bit of the princess I'd fallen in love with, while she held on to another's arm.

How could she marry someone like him? Someone so cruel and violent and unsympathetic and sure – I recognize that I share many of those same personality traits, but at least I have some redeeming ones.

At least I didn't target the weak or found pleasure in hurting innocent people.

Surely Josette wasn't so blind or ignorant to not see what kind of monster Tobias was? Surely she'd seen by now that he's not a good person, just like I told her all those years ago.