DANTE'S POV
As soon her eyes widen and fall to my shoulders, I curse at myself internally for not being more careful. Her smile immediately drops and I literally want to slap myself. I changed my wound dressing and made sure it was still perfectly stitched, but I guess with all the hugging I've been doing with Adeline, I must have irritated the wound again.
Maybe I should go see a professional doctor for this. She drops her bag and walks quickly towards me. I don't want to lie to her, but I can't tell her the truth either so all I can do right now is keep my mouth shut.
"Oh my God. What happened to you? Why are you bleeding Dante?" She says, her hands hovering over my shoulder as if she didn't want to hurt me. One of the stitches must have popped lose cause now my entire shoulder is covered in blood. Her eyes scan mine in worry and fear and I squeeze my eyes shut when she starts unbuttoning my shirt.
"Adeline…" I start saying.
"What happened Dante?" She asks, her voice stronger this time and I really don't want to lie to her. She takes off my shirt and looks at the dressed wound in horror. How do I explain to her and make her understand it doesn't even hurt that much anymore, and that all I need to do is visit a hospital so the wound can be stitched properly?
"I got shot." I blurt out and she stops her movements robotically. Her eyes meet mine and I immediately regret telling her the truth. I have a strong urge to rewind time right now. Time to think of an explanation as to why I have a bullet wound. The back of her hand meets her mouth in horror and she stumbles backwards in shock but she recovers quickly, shaking her head as if she didn't want to believe what I just said.
"I'm not badly hurt. I just didn't dress the wound properly." I state, as if that's enough to ease the worry I've just created in her mind. I'm ruining everything. I was supposed to make this day special for her, not bleed all over the place. I don't care about some bloody wound. I'm taking Adeline to the aquarium no matter what.
"Dante, what do you mean you were shot? What happened?" She asks as she glances from my eyes to my shoulders in horror. "We need to get you to a hospital. You're bleeding so much."
In my defense, she's exaggerating. I'm not really bleeding that much but I guess she isn't used to seeing people with gun-shot wounds. At least she's not squeamish and she can stand the sight of blood.
"A robbery." I almost flinch from the lie but I guess I can't take it back now. "I was at my business partner's place and his house got broken into in the middle of out meeting. The burglars were caught but I got shot." I explain calmly, hoping she doesn't read the lies from staring into my eyes so much.
I may know how to properly conceal my emotions, but Adeline's still a therapist. If she thinks about this too much and reads into me, she'll immediately know I'm lying.
"I'm going to lose my mind, but we really need to get you to a hospital right now and then you're explaining everything to me Dante. I mean it." She says and immediately leaves my side, running up her stairs rapidly. I put on back my bloody shirt and she comes back down with a bag.
"Get in the car Dante." She says and walks out the door without a second look at me. She's mad at me. Of course she's mad at me. I left her here and traveled without even telling her what I was traveling for and now I come back with a gun-shot wound I would have never even told her about if she didn't find out herself.
She drives us to the hospital in silence and once my wound is all stitched up, I change into a new clean shirt she brought for me and now, we sit in absolute silence in her car.
"I didn't tell you because I didn't want you to worry. You have a lot on your plate right now." I say breaking the silence and turning my gaze towards her. I know it's a lame and pathetic excuse, but I need her to talk to me. I need her to say anything to me. Even if it's in anger because not knowing what she thinks right now is killing me and I would do anything to make this right.
She doesn't even spare me a glance. She keeps her eyes fixed forwards and then snaps her head towards me in anger and frustration.
"You got shot Dante! Shot! You could have died! If I get to tell you about my problems then you should be able to talk to me about a bloody gun-shot wound. What do you think this is Dante? This relationship isn't supposed to be one-sided. We should be able to tell each other things. Especially things as important as these. You could have died!" She says with trembling lips as her eyes start to water.
"I keep thinking you'll open up to me soon and tell me about yourself but if you can keep a gun-shot wound a secret from me then I don't even know Dante. Am I not important enough to know stuff about you? Is this thing between us just temporal to you? Is that why you won't tell me anything about yourself?"
To say her words break my heart would be an understatement. They drive a knife straight through my heart and I want to slap myself for ever making her doubt my intentions towards her. My face falls and my eyes soften as she looks into mine. A single tear escapes from her eye and my world turns upside down.
"Adeline… baby." I furrow my brows sadly and cup her cheeks gently. She lets me but I can tell she needs reassurance. "This is anything but temporal to me princess."
"Then what am I doing wrong Dante?" She asks, almost sobbing. I know her tears aren't only because of what I've done. Someone broke her trust before. She's had her heart ripped out of her chest before and she's scared I'm going to do the same thing. But she has literally occupied my mind and soul. I can't ever leave her and I would never think of hurting her ever.
"Adeline. I can't even begin to explain how much this relationship is important to me. Ever since I met you, my life became so much brighter. You showed me what it meant to genuinely smile again." As if the word 'smile' triggers me, I flash her a soft smile and she shivers under my touch.
"If I don't tell you much about my life, it's because I have nothing much to say. My parents died when I was young, leaving me to take care of my sister. But then she was taken away from me too. After her death, I kept to myself and focused on making money online because I couldn't bring myself to socialize with anyone. I just wanted to be alone. I have no friends to introduce you to. No relatives I know of to keep in touch with and honestly, I didn't look for them because I preferred my solitude."
I swallow gently because I've never talked so much about my life to anyone before. I hate the memories my sister brings back to me. And although I'm keeping out the fact that I'm a cold-blooded murderer going against one of the most powerful illegal organizations in the world, I've never been more honest.
Adeline listens to me keenly and I realize this is all she has ever wanted from me. To know who I am. She doesn't care about my past or the fact that I have no social life. She just wants me to be transparent with her.
"I literally have no life. I've felt like a failure my entire life no matter how successful I am and then I met you. One look at you Adeline and I don't even know what happened but I just knew I wanted to know you and you made me the happiest man in the world by giving me a chance. You make my life better just by being in it. I'm sorry I didn't tell you about the gun-shot wound. It was just a stupid and well planned out robbery that led to me getting shot but I promise I'm fine."
She looks to me with softness in her eyes, as if my explanation just cleared away any doubt she had of me.
"I hate you Mr. Russo." She says, tears still falling from her eyes. I grab the back of her neck and collide my lips with hers in a suffocating kiss. It's explosive and filled with all the things I want to tell her but can't yet.
"Show me how much you hate me love…" I whisper against her lips and she lets out a soft moan as she deepens the kiss, placing her hands on my chest and being careful not to touch my shoulder. I groan and pull her towards me in the passenger seat of her car so she's straddling me, kissing her hungrily, aggressively, passionately, with every single breath I have in me.
I'm never letting her go.