CHAPTER 7 TOO CLOSE
1010 Words
The mansion felt quieter than usual that night.
Not peaceful.
Just tense.
Like the walls themselves were listening.
I stood by the window in my room, staring out at the city lights blurred beneath the rain. My thoughts kept circling back to Dante—his voice, his stare, the way he’d looked at me in the library like he was trying to fight himself and losing.
It should’ve scared me more than it did.
A soft knock interrupted my thoughts.
My heartbeat stumbled instantly.
I already knew it was him.
“Come in,” I said quietly.
The door opened slowly, and Dante stepped inside. Dark clothes. Tired eyes. Rain still clinging faintly to his hair and shoulders.
For a second, neither of us spoke.
Then his gaze moved around the room before settling on me again.
“You’ve been avoiding me all day,” he said.
I crossed my arms lightly, trying to ignore how nervous his presence still made me. “You told me to stay away from you.”
A faint, humorless laugh escaped him.
“Right.”
The silence stretched again.
Dante looked exhausted tonight, but somehow even more dangerous because of it. Like whatever control he usually carried so carefully was beginning to c***k.
He stepped farther into the room.
“I shouldn’t be here,” he admitted quietly.
“Then why are you?”
His eyes met mine immediately.
Because of you.
He didn’t say the words out loud, but I felt them anyway.
The rain outside hit harder against the windows as Dante ran a hand through his dark hair, frustration flickering across his face.
“You don’t understand what you’re doing to me,” he said softly.
My chest tightened. “Then explain it.”
He stared at me for a long moment before speaking again.
“I spend every second trying not to touch you.”
The confession stole the air from the room.
My pulse became uneven instantly.
Dante noticed.
Of course he noticed.
His gaze darkened slightly as he took another slow step closer, close enough now that I could feel the warmth radiating from him despite the cold rain outside.
“You look at me,” he continued quietly, “and suddenly I forget how to think straight.”
I swallowed hard, my back brushing lightly against the edge of the desk behind me.
“Dante…”
The way I said his name nearly undid him.
I saw it happen in real time—the tension in his jaw, the way his breathing shifted, the brief closing of his eyes like he was trying to regain control over himself.
But when he looked at me again, the restraint was slipping.
Slowly.
Dangerously.
“You should tell me to leave,” he murmured.
I knew he was right.
But neither of us moved.
And somehow, that silence between us felt more intimate than anything else.The silence between them stretched painfully thin.
Dante’s eyes stayed locked on mine, dark and conflicted, like he was fighting a battle inside himself that he was slowly losing. My heart pounded so hard I was sure he could hear it.
“You keep looking at me like that,” he said quietly.
“Like what?”
“Like you already know this is a bad idea.”
His voice was rougher now, lower than before.
Rain crashed against the windows behind us, the storm filling the room with shadows and soft flashes of lightning. But all I could focus on was him standing impossibly close, close enough that every breath felt shared.
“I should go,” Dante murmured.
But he didn’t move.
Instead, his hand rested lightly against the desk beside me, trapping me there without force. The tension between us felt unbearable now, sharp enough to steal the air from my lungs.
“You’re shaking,” he noticed softly.
“I can’t tell if it’s because I’m nervous or because of you.”
A faint smile touched his lips at that, tired and dangerous all at once.
“Probably both.”
For a second, neither of us said anything. The world outside the room disappeared completely, leaving only the storm and the space between us.
Then Dante slowly lifted his hand, brushing his fingers lightly against mine.
The touch was brief.
Gentle.
But it sent warmth racing straight through me anyway.
His jaw tightened slightly when he noticed my reaction.
“Ava,” he said quietly, almost like a warning.
But this time, I stepped closer first.
And the look in his eyes after that nearly stopped my heart.Dante’s entire expression changed the second I moved closer.
Like he hadn’t expected me to choose him back.
His hand tightened slightly against the desk beside me, and for the first time since I met him, he looked uncertain. Not cold. Not untouchable.
Just a man trying very hard not to lose control.
“You don’t know what you’re doing to me,” he said quietly.
My pulse stumbled.
“Then stop looking at me like that,” I whispered back.
A soft, almost disbelieving laugh escaped him before he shook his head slowly. “That’s the problem, Ava. I can’t.”
The storm outside flashed across the room for a brief second, lightning illuminating the tension between us. Dante stepped even closer, slow enough to give me time to pull away.
I didn’t.
His eyes dropped briefly to my lips before lifting again, searching my face carefully like he was making sure this was real.
“You should be scared of me,” he murmured.
“Maybe I’m tired of trying to be.”
Something about those words shattered the last bit of distance between them.
Dante rested his forehead lightly against mine, both of us breathing unevenly now. The closeness felt overwhelming in the quiet room, intimate in a way neither of us knew how to handle.
And for the first time since stepping into the Valente mansion…
Ava stopped feeling like a guest.
She felt like she belonged in his chaos.
- Writer
