Chapter 2
1141 Words
The next evening, the beach looked different.
The sky was bruised with streaks of purple and blue, the sun slipping behind clouds as if the day itself was holding its breath.
Aria stood where she had met him yesterday, the hem of her red dress brushing against her thighs. She’d chosen the color on purpose bold, daring, impossible to ignore. Her hair was loose this time, waves falling over her shoulders, glinting copper in the last of the fading light.
She had told herself she wouldn’t come back.
And yet here she was with expectations.
Something about Dante’s calm, unreadable gaze had pulled her back to him like a tide she couldn’t resist. There was danger in that stillness, something thrilling and forbidden. Yet she couldn’t stop herself.
When she finally saw him, sitting on the same rock as before, she almost smiled.
He hadn’t changed. Still in his dark T-shirt and worn jeans, still looking like he belonged nowhere and everywhere all at once.
But tonight, he wasn’t watching the sea.
He was watching her.
“I knew you’d come back,” he said when she reached him. His tone was steady, but there was an edge like he’d been expecting her all along.
Aria crossed her arms, pretending she wasn’t nervous. “You seem sure of yourself.”
“Not sure,” Dante replied, eyes flicking over her, “just observant.”
Aria sat beside him again, brushing a bit of sand from her dress. “Maybe I came back because you never told me what you do for a living.”
“I could ask you the same.”
She smirked. “You first.”
“Let’s just say I take care of problems.”
“Sounds shady.”
“Only to those who don’t understand the business.”
He said it so casually that for a moment she believed him to be nothing more than a quiet man with an ordinary life.
But there was something in his voice an old weight, a restrained power that made him different.
Aria shifted, turning to face him fully. “Then maybe you can help me with mine.”
That caught his attention. “Your problem?”
“Yes,” she said, tucking a loose strand of hair behind her ear. “My mother.”
His brow lifted slightly.
“She’s… planning to remarry,” Aria continued, eyes fixed on the horizon. “And I don’t trust the man she’s with. He’s after her money. My mother’s a millionaire, she owns one of the biggest fashion empires in the country. But she’s too kind, too naïve.”
She glanced at him. “I want you to stop the marriage.”
Dante’s expression didn’t change, but his tone dropped. “You want me to sabotage it?”
She hesitated. “Not exactly. I want you to marry her.”
For a heartbeat, the only sound was the crash of the waves.
He turned his head toward her slowly with his mouth open, as if making sure he’d heard her right. “You want me… to marry your mother?”
Aria nodded, her heart hammering in her chest. “You said you take care of problems. This is mine. Marry her. Protect her. Make sure no one takes advantage of her.”
He leaned back, studying her. “That’s quite a deal you’re offering.”
“I’m serious.”
“I can tell.”
Dante looked away, his eyes tracing the horizon. There was something unreadable in his expression like he was calculating, weighing her words carefully.
“And what makes you think your mother would even agree?”
“I can handle that,” Aria said quickly. “She’s… lonely. She wants someone steady. Someone who doesn’t want her for her name or money. You look… normal enough.”
“Normal,” he repeated, a ghost of a smile tugging at his lips. “I’ll take that as a compliment.”
She shrugged, trying to ignore how her cheeks flushed under his gaze. “I didn’t mean it as one.”
He chuckled softly, shaking his head. “You’re trouble, Aria.”
“I prefer unpredictable.”
He turned his gaze back to her, his voice dropping low. “You don’t know what you’re asking.”
“Maybe not,” she admitted, “but I know I can trust you.”
That caught him off guard. “You barely know me.”
“Sometimes you don’t need time,” she said quietly. “Sometimes you just… know.” With a little smile on her face.
The way she said it, with such unguarded belief, made something twist in his chest. He wasn’t used to people looking at him like that without fear, without calculation.
He reached for a cigarette from his pocket, lit it, and took a slow drag. Smoke curled between them. “You’re asking me to marry a woman I’ve never met. A stranger.”
“She’s not a stranger,” Aria said softly. “She’s my mother. Millia.”
That name made him pause. He’d heard of Millia before her fashion house was legendary, her name whispered among elite circles. But he said nothing.
“And why me?” he asked.
Aria smiled faintly. “Because you don’t look like someone who can be controlled. My mother’s last husband was a man who only wanted her influence. You… you’d scare off people like him.”
There was silence again. Only the waves, and the sound of his cigarette burning down.
Finally, Dante flicked the ash aside and looked at her. “You really want this?”
She nodded.
He studied her face for a long moment. Her eyes green, fierce, alive. The stubborn tilt of her chin. The way her lips pressed together when she tried to hide her nerves.
Something dangerous stirred in him again. Something he couldn’t explain.
“Alright,” he said finally, voice low. “I’ll do it.”
Her eyes widened. “You’ll marry her?”
“Yes,” he said, standing. “But not for your reasons.”
“What do you mean?”
He glanced down at her, the fading sunlight catching in his eyes. “You want to protect your mother. I want to protect you.”
Aria’s breath caught. “Me?”
He didn’t answer. Just brushed past her, his scent smoke, salt, and danger lingering in the air.
“Dante” Aria called out
He stopped, turning his head slightly. “Tell your mother to expect me.”
And with that, he walked away, his tall figure swallowed by the shadows of the evening.
Aria stood there, heart pounding, watching him disappear.
She didn’t know why his words felt heavier than the deal itself.
But deep down, something told her whatever she had started tonight would change everything.
- Writer
