Dangerous Beauty: Part Three: This is War (76 page)

“Because I will end it! I’m not interested in being the man you share your secret apartment with, Dante. If you want that, take your ass back to your precious
Casey
.”

“Stop bringing him up,” Dante shouted. “I’m sick of it. Every time we fight you bring him into it.”

He picked up the dish rag because it was the only thing in reach, and threw the drenched cloth at Dante. It slammed into his shoulder.

“Gabriel!”

“Fuck you, Dante! I’m done with this shit.”

Gabriel left the remainder of the dishes and stormed away from the sink. He didn’t need this shit. He’d go upstairs with the twins and wait for Carter to come home. He was mere steps away from exiting when Dante appeared in front of him.

“Stop it, Gabriel!”

He shoved Dante back forcefully. “Get the fuck out my way, I’m done!”

Dante didn’t relent. He was stronger than Gabriel, and about four inches taller. He used both to his advantage and pushed Gabriel back into the kitchen with his body. Gabriel tried to fight him, but Dante grabbed hold of his arms and continued to push him backward until he was pressed against the counter.

“Dammit, Gabriel! Would you just stop and listen to me for a minute?”

Although Gabriel jerked out of his grasp, he did stop struggling. “I’m never listening to another word that comes out of your lying mouth.”

“I’ve told you nothing but the truth!”

“Bullshit! You’ve told me nothing but what you think
I want
to hear. You have no intention of giving me anything other than what the fucking love of your life
Casey
had.”

Dante slammed his fist against the counter behind Gabriel. “This has nothing to do with Casey. If I wanted the life I had with him then I’d be with him. I’m with
you
because
I want you!”

“You
want
me when you want someone to fuck! You
want
me when you want to sneak off to one of your apartments and play house. You were never interested in anything real with me. You’re a selfish son of a bitch.”

“I’m the selfish one? Me? I gave up everything to be with you! Everything you’ve asked for I’ve given it to you. Do you know the hell I had to go through when I broke it off with Casey? With all of the shit he knows about me, I had to convince him to keep his mouth shut so he wouldn’t be killed. I put
myself
and my whole damn family at risk when I pissed him off. I’ve turned my entire fucking life upside down for you! You think I do this shit all the time? You think I spend
my time
,
my money
on man I’m only interested in fucking? Fuck that shit, Gabriel! If I was only interested in getting my dick sucked I could get that anywhere, anytime I want without even spending
one goddamn dime
to get it.”

Gabriel tried to shove him back, and failed once again.
“Then leave me the fuck alone and go and get it!”

“Stop! Would you stop it, Gabriel?”

Gabriel didn’t stop. He was now hurt and pissed the fuck off about it. Tears that he didn’t want sprang to his eyes and fell down his cheeks as he fought to get past the man he loved … the man that obviously didn’t feel the same way about him.

“Let me go.”

“You’re not going anywhere,” Dante shouted. “You can’t keep running away every time we fight, Gabriel. That’s not how relationships work. You don’t just walk away every time shit gets hard!”

In that moment, he lied for the first time in his life. “I’m done. I don’t want to be with you!” He wanted to be with Dante desperately, but he refused to stand here and listen to how much of a fucking horror story Dante’s life was now because of him. “I’m sorry that you ever had the unfortunate pleasure of knowing me. I’m sorry for flipping your bloody life upside down. You shouldn’t have given up
anything
for me. For the life of me, I don’t even know why you did—”

“Because I love you!”

He stood silent, entrapped by the intensity he saw in Dante’s eyes when he made the confession. For two years they’d been sneaking around. During most of that time Gabriel had thought that he was the only one in love.

After a moment Dante released a long sad sigh and dropped his head forward. “I can’t fucking do this anymore, Gabriel. All this fighting … it’s not me.” Lifting his head, he slowly slid his fingers into Gabriel’s hair and pressed his lips to his forehead. “I’m sorry, babe. Please, can we just stop fighting?”

Gabriel sniffled softly and wiped the tears from his cheeks. His stared at the buttons on Dante’s shirt, avoiding further contact with his eyes. “Why have you never told me how you felt?”

“How could you not already know, Gabriel?”

He lifted his eyes, meeting Dante’s gaze. “Because I can’t read your mind, Dante. You are literally the only human being on this world that I can’t read … ever.” Gabriel had a gift. Not one that he was proud of, but a gift nonetheless. He could read people, get into their heads, and the ability had aided him well until he met Dante. Even now, as Gabriel looked into Dante’s eyes, he had no idea what the hell was going on in his head. “You’ve never told me how you felt. How was I supposed to know you loved me? When I told you I loved you, you didn’t say anything. That’s why we broke up the first time.”

“I loved you then, and I love you now.”

“Then why didn’t you just tell me that?” he yelled in frustration.

Dante gently cupped his face. “Because I was scared,” he confessed. “That’s the truth, Gabriel. My feelings for you terrify me,
you
terrify me. When I look at you all I see is … the truth, a reality that I’m probably never going to be ready for. You don’t hide anything, and I have become accustomed to keeping certain aspects of my life a secret. I’m a stubborn and particular man.” He shook his head. “I don’t like change. I was comfortable in my life before you, Gabriel, not happy. I know how my words may have sounded, but I’m not regretting my decision to be with you. I want to be with you. What we have was real the moment it began. I’m sorry.” He kissed Gabriel’s lips softly. “I apologize, okay? I shouldn’t have shouted at you for talking to your mother about us. You’re right, and I’m wrong.”

Gabriel kissed him back when he caught his lips once again. It was a slow, gentle, passionate kiss; the kind Dante knew Gabriel loved. When they parted, he brought his hand up and gently caressed Dante’s face. “You’re going to talk to your father,” Gabriel whispered against Dante’s lips, “and finally tell your brothers … right?”

Dante chuckled. “My, my, aren’t we demanding tonight …”

Damn right I am
. Gabriel had to demand shit with Dante or nothing would ever get done. “And I want you to get rid of your extra apartment, Dante,” he added. “I know all of the nasty things you do to men in that place.”

“That’s because you’re the only man I’ve done nasty things to in that apartment. Honestly, I don’t give a fuck about the place. If getting rid of it makes you happy …”

“It will make me happy.” Gabriel actually wanted Dante to get rid of both homes and get a new place, but he’d take it one step at a time.

“Then it’s gone. I’ll get rid of both. We can look for a new place together. I know that’s what you want—”

Before he could even finish the sentence,
Gabriel grabbed Dante’s face and kissed him hard. He
loved
it when Dante read his mind. He was the only person that ever knew what Gabriel wanted without even asking him. It was so fucking sexy how well he knew him.

“I love you so much, Dante.”

It was as if the words awoke Dante’s inner Dom. With a deep grunt, he took hold to the waistband of Gabriel’s sweatpants and pulled him hard against his body.

Gabriel knew all too well what that meant. A shiver of anticipations rushed down his spine as his eyes cut to the monitor and he quickly checked on the twins. Once he was positive that they were fine, he pulled back and gripped the front of Dante’s shirt.

“We have about ten minutes before they start demanding the cookies I promised them, so you better make it count, butch.”

~*~

“Did you hear that thunder, Dante? I didn’t know there was supposed to be a storm tonight.”

Gabriel hurried down the stairs, hoping to have a few more minutes with Dante before he headed back to the gate. He’d had to run upstairs to check on the kids after his and Dante’s make up session in the kitchen. They had spent a little longer than ten minutes making up, but as a silent apology for making the twins wait for their cookies, Gabriel gave them each a small bag of Cheetos and filled their cups with chocolate milk. They were both now content and watching a movie in their little theater connected to their playroom.

By the time Gabriel finally made back to the kitchen, Dante had pulled up his pants and was re-buckling his belt.

“Babe,” Gabriel said, trying to gain his attention. “Did you hear me? I asked if you heard the thunder.”

“Yeah, honey, I heard you,” he muttered as he continued his task. “The weather is always a little unpredictable this time of year.”

Gabriel sighed as he shamelessly ogled Dante’s bare chest. “You dressed fast. Trying to disappear before I got back down here?”

Dante chuckled as he slipped his arms into his shirt and brought it over his broad, muscled shoulders. The man was a fucking tank.
So damn sexy.

“You only left three buttons on here for me to close my shirt, Gabriel.”

Gabriel smiled. “You afraid your cronies are going to ask what you were up to in here?”

He cut Gabriel a look with a small smile in his eyes. “They wouldn’t ask me of my whereabouts. I only answer to five men in this organization.”

“And one woman outside of the organization, right?” he asked. Dante gave him an impassive look but said nothing. Gabriel had picked up on what Dante had hinted at—involving the close relationship of Anastacia and his father—during their argument and figured it out. Carter had said that their mother had had men in the Salerno crime family, but Gabriel hadn’t known that two of the men were so close to the boss and underboss. “So do I only get to know this because I’m a Stone?”

He shook his head. “Because you are mine.”

“And my mother is okay with us being together?” Gabriel knew Anastacia hadn’t been anything but supportive with him, but he didn’t think she would be as kind to Dante.

“She said don’t hurt my son, and then she walked away. That’s all she needed to say, the threat was clear enough.” He leaned against the table and held out his hand. “Come here.”

Gabriel took his hand and Dante tugged him over until his back was against his chest, and then he wrapped his arms round his waist. Leaning forward, he pressed a kiss to Gabriel’s ear.

Gabriel turned his head to look at him. “So the first moment you saw Carter …”

“I lost my breath, but kept my cool. We were in a public place and I was at the table with my brothers. However, the moment we left I called my father, who then called your mother. By the time we returned to the city Anastacia was already there.”

Gabriel tightened Dante’s arms around him and relaxed his head on his shoulder. “Is it hard, you know, to keep this secret from your brothers? I know how much you love them. You all grew up together. How hard is it for you to keep this big of a thing from them?”

Dante smiled and brought his lips to Gabriel’s ear. “The trick is to believe the lie yourself. Even in your thoughts, you have to believe the lie you’ve been raised to tell. The only time you need to be honest with yourself is when something needs to get done. But after that, slip right back into the lie. For five seconds, I acknowledged that the waitress Kyle raved about was Anastacia Stone’s long lost daughter before I snapped back into the lie, which was: I have absolutely no idea who this beautiful young woman is. That was what your mother taught me to do. It was what her father taught her to do. I love my brothers very much, but I can never tell them this piece of my life.”

“But Carterina and Nathan are married.”

“The French will still always have their secrets, Gabriel. That’s just the way things go. You have been told this secret because I wish for you to know everything about me, but you must never tell your sister.”

Gabriel frowned. “But she will be your boss—”

“Even when your mother steps down, I will only report to her if need be. We all love Carterina too much to put her in the position of lying to her husband. She will know about the others, but she will not know about myself and my father.”

Gabriel nodded. “I understand,” he whispered. “Does my mother know that you’ve told me?”

His brows furrowed and he shook his head. “She forbade it. This is the first time I’ve disobeyed her.” He turned Gabriel to face him. “I can’t be a lie when I’m with you, Gabriel. I love you. I need to be myself if I’m going to be with you for the rest of my life, right?”

A crooked, teasing smile appeared on Gabriel’s face. “Don’t tease a man like me with marriage, Dante Luciano.”

“I don’t
tease
, Gabriel,” he chuckled. “I’m serious. Is marriage something you’re interested in?”