Up in the Stars

Fiction

Lots of fluff with our favorite Italian man ahead!

Hope you enjoy!

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A few hours later she found herself in the estate library.

The fire beside her crackled as rain thrummed against the windowpanes on the far wall.

A gorgeous copy of Villette clutched in her hands.

She sunk easily into the pages, the story dancing across her mind more vividly with each passing chapter.

"What have you got there, little bird?" The voice startled her from the reverie she had fallen into.

Enid grinned as she turned to face the handsome man, holding up the cover so he could see it.

"Ah, you are a Brontë fan?" Dante questioned as he sat closely beside her on the couch.

"Yes! I devoured Jane Eyre in a single day the first time I read it a few years ago. I had never gotten around to reading this one, though." She gestured toward the book in hand.

"I'm quite a fan, too. I studied at Cambridge for a while when I was taking my British Literature courses. The museum there had an incredible collection of her letters." His emerald eyes shined in the flickering firelight.

Enid sat up in excitement, her eyes widening.

"That's amazing! Did you enjoy Cambridge?" She placed the book between them as she turned her body toward him.

"Yes, it was a fun chapter of life. I did my dissertation on Keats. Stayed in Winchester for a while and everything. Being able to walk where he had walked and see what he had seen was incredible. But god was it a hell of a lot of work." Dante exhaled in amusement; his eyes distant with reminiscing.

"When did you leave Italy?" The question had been bouncing around her mind since the first time she met him.

There was so much she still had to learn about them.

"My father was a businessman who did a lot of work internationally. The first time we visited America I was in diapers. We moved here officially when I was five. I kept my accent because we brought all of the house staff with us, so I was still surrounded by it." His hands wrapped around her waist as he spoke, tugging her closer toward him until she was almost on his lap.

Enid had a hard time imagining this godlike man as an infant in diapers.

"Do you miss it?" She gazed up at him, barely catching the small flash in his eyes before it was gone with a blink.

"No. I still visit. I can't wait to take you there, principessa. We'll eat the best pasta in the world in Florence and ride in a gondola in Venice. And I'll show you where I was born." His warm promises tickling her skin as his minty breath washed over her.

"I'd love that." Her heart swelled at the thought of traveling with them.

"And that'll just be the start. We're going to show you every country that's safe to see." Dante grinned as he watched her face light up with excitement.

She had never left Wales before moving to the United States for university.

She itched to explore all that the world had to offer.

To see all that had been described to her by her father's partners.

He pressed a sweet kiss to her shoulder and grabbed the book from where it had fallen.

"May I read to you, sweetness?" He asked and she immediately agreed.

Enid loved his voice.

Everything sounded like poetry with his accent.