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“You watch too many movies, Elena. In real life, the villain always wins because we are willing to do anything to succeed.” He paused as I did in the doorway. “I think you know a little something about that.”
He looked criminal, filled with wicked intent and handsome enough to tempt the pope to sin.
“I’m very interested in the right kind of men,” I corrected him in a throatier voice than usual, rough from my coughing fit. “Men of honor and substance. It’s not my fault they’re a rare breed.”
“I’m wearing heels bigger than your dick, so if this is a pissing contest, I think it’s safe to say I win,”
But Dante looked at me as if I was some priceless, mysterious work of art, and he wanted to know the story behind my almost smile.
“You’re so goddamn afraid of being soft and tender because all that silk beneath your armor would rip so easily in the wrong hands. This insecurity blinds you to the truth. It corrodes the goodness in you. If you saw what I saw when I looked at you, you would never doubt yourself again. You wouldn’t be tricked by the easy flattery
It wasn’t fair, Lena, and I’m sorry it’s been one in a long line of circumstances that have made you feel unloved.”
“I’ve never been so proud to make another person laugh,” he told me seriously. I swallowed the mass of emotion that rose in my throat. “Don’t say I should do it more often.” “No, the rarity of it makes it more beautiful. I’m becoming rather possessive of the sound.”
“Not all love is romantic,” he pointed out rationally, staring into my fearful eyes. “I don’t think you’ve had enough of it to know that, but I’m offering the love of a friend and the love of my body. The love of a man who can see you are not hateful. You are not villainous. You are misunderstood. And Elena, you don’t realize this yet, but I see you, I know you, and I’m fucking undone by the beauty of you.”
Where did one learn the right vocabulary for such things? How did I learn to thank a man for the simple yet profound act of loving me?
“I can’t explain what’s happened inside me,” I cried, clutching at my heart through my chest like I could pry it from between my ribs and show him how it had been altered. “But I’m not the same anymore. I used to think I knew who I was, but I never felt like this before.” “Like what?” “So alive I burn.”
I couldn’t bear the thought of knowing I existed in a world where Dante didn’t.
“I won’t go back to my life before this,” she murmured into my chest as she hugged me. “Don’t leave me here in this purgatory where nothing makes sense anymore except you.”
