Confessing Her Feelings

The next day

Mireille clutched tightly to her bag, took one final look at herself in the mirror, did a little spin and gave herself a satisfactory nod before leaving the mirror.

Dante was finally leaving and Mireille was going to tell him about her feelings for him. She did not care if he had gotten it when she asked him those questions or not, she was going to confess her feelings to him directly.

Belinda had done a great job assuring her that Dante was only denying his feelings for her and he would not be able to deny it if she confessed her feelings to him directly.

Mireille held onto that little string of hope. With each passing second, she could feel her heart thumping in fear and in excitement.

In fear that she could be rejected and this time, rejected for real and in excitement that she could be just a few minutes away from being Dante’s lover.

She let out a deep breath just at the moment her door opened.

Dante walked in, charming as always in a black suit, clearly tailored just for him. Seeing him made Mireille heart thump and she swallowed down hard.

“Want to take a picture so you have something to stare at while I am gone?” Dante asked, a smirk pulling at the corner of his lips.

“I don’t want to” Mireille replied and looked away from him.

“Dante, let me ask for the last time. Can I really not follow you to wherever you are off to?” She asked.

“You can’t. If you could, I will definitely bring you along with me and not miss out on the little time we have left together” he took steps closer to her and smacked his lips wet.

Clad in a beautiful, blue knee length dress with a white flower design on the left side of her chest, Mireille looked simple and breathtaking and Dante held back a groan.

He was going to miss her, everything about her.

“You look at me like you really really want me” Mireille locked gaze with him, clutching harder to her purse.

“Because I really really want you” Dante grabbed her close to him, his right hand on her waist, the left hand resting lower at her ass and his gaze flickering between her eyes and her lips.

He knew for sure that if he took a taste of her lips, he would not be leaving here anytime soon.

“Then…” Mireille’s voice got shaky and the fear of rejection in her heart increased, overshadowing the excitement of acceptance.

She slowly pulled away from his grip, her expression nervous and her eyes avoiding his.

“Are you okay, Princess?” Dante asked, immediately concerned about her.

“Y… Yes I am” her voice shook a bit as she gave him an awkward smile.

Something in Mireille told her to give up on telling him about her feelings and just let him leave. It told her that she would only be hurting herself by telling him this.

“If anything is wrong, you have to tell me about it” Dante’s voice deepened as he took a step closer to cover the distance she had created by pulling away from him.

Mireille flashed him another awkward smile.

“I was thinking about following you to whatever air craft you are flying on.” she mumbled.

“You don’t have to, Princess. The longer I stay with you, the more I want to just spend the entire day with you”

Mireille felt her heartbeat tripling in excitement. His words somehow fueled her belief that she might not be rejected by him so Mireille decided to tell him.

She opened her bag and brought out a small sized blue teddy bear and a neatly packed compression shirt.

“Here you go, Dante” she stretched the gifts out to him.

A smile pushed at the sides of Dante’s lips as he took the teddy bear first. It had to be the cutest gift he had received in as long as he could remember.

“This is cute, just like you are, little Princess” he raised the teddy bear with a smirk like smile.

“I like it” he added and took the compression shirt with his other hand.

“You know you didn’t have to get me anything” he lowered his height to face her since Mireille was lowering her gaze shyly.

“I got my pay and I decided to get you some gifts. I didn’t buy those from the black card you gave to me”

“Oh, I almost forgot you still have that with you. I was going to give you another one” he held the two gifts in his right hand and dug his left hand into his pocket, bringing out another black card.

“How can you forget you gave out a black card?” Mireille asked him, raising her head to meet with his gaze.

Dante gave no response as his eyes locked with hers. His grey eyes staring into her hazel eyes. The both of them remained in the silence, staring at each other. With each passing second, Mireille’s heart beat harder.

“I love you!” She suddenly yelled the words out and shut her eyes tightly.

She had done it. She had confessed her feelings to him and it was time for the aftermath. Acceptance or rejection. She kept her eyes shut, scared of looking at his face and finding a negative expression on his face.

There was silence and the silence made Mireille even more awkward. He wasn’t saying a word so she slowly opened her eyes, her teeth finding her lower lip and biting hard on it as her hands turned sweaty.

Dante had taken two steps away from her, the gifts still in his hands but the look on his face was not favourable at all and Mireille felt her heart sinking.

His gaze was hard and his expression stony. The last time she recalled seeing this expression on his face was on that moonlit night when he had killed the man with a vase.

Yes, he looked that deadly at the moment. His jaws were clenched and his hands were tightened on the gifts and the card.

“Princess” he finally spoke up, his voice hard and almost harsh.

“We made a deal at the beginning of all of this and falling in love was not part of it. We agreed that it would be two months of sex and living together.” he pointed out.

“I…” Tears filled Mireille’s eyes and Dante looked away from her eyes, his tightened lips parting out as he let out hot air.

“I don’t know how I fell for you, Dante. I could… I could swear back then I did not love you but now, I don’t know how it happened but I am in love with you, Dante” she said, in an almost pleading tone.

“You are not in love with me, Princess. This is because I have been around you way too much these days. This is a feeling that will leave once I am away for like two or three days. You are not in love with me” he spelt out the last words.

“I know what I am feeling, Dante” A tear slipped down her cheeks and Mireille quickly wiped it away.

Dante groaned inwardly, resisting the urge to pull her into a hug and tell her he loved her too. He had to remind himself that letting go of her was the only way he could keep her safe.

He was more than willing to hurt his feelings as long as it would keep her safe but watching her hurt was worse than he ever thought it could be.

“You do not know what you are feeling, Mireille” he switched to using her real name and more tears rolled down Mireille’s cheeks.

“You don’t tell me that, Dante!” She raised her voice at him.

“I am not a kid, I know what I am feeling and…” She sniffed back her tears.

“And you do not have to tell me what I am feeling as if you reside inside of me. I know my own feelings, you do not know what I am feeling in my heart, I know that, Dante”

“Fine” Dante tried to sound as distant and cold as he could ever be but his voice shook slightly.

“I do not know what you are feeling in your heart” he agreed and gulped down hard as Mireille looked at him, her eyes requesting for a response from him to her feelings even though it was clear already what his feelings were.

“I do not fall in love and I do not love you, Mireille.” His heart clenched at the lie he had just told but he continued his words, painfully so.

“I told you women who fall in love with me get their hearts broken and I am sorry you have to be one of them now”

More tears streamed down Mireille’s cheeks and she did not try wiping the tears away anymore. His words broke her and the way he had said the words like they were nothing broke her even more.

“You… Are you denying your feelings with me, Dante?” Mireille asked, trying to hold onto any string of hope.

“I am not trying to deny anything. I just don’t have feelings for you, Mireille. You told me you know your heart better than anyone and I do know mine too better than anyone. My heart does not love you, it doesn’t beat for anyone… Including you” Dante avoided her gaze as he said the words he knew was crumbling her.

“Why would you treat me so well if you do not love me?!” Mireille yelled, more tears rolling down.

“You are the closest woman to my heart. That is why. But you are only close to my heart, you are not in my heart” He shook his head, wishing he could deafen his ears and not listen to her sobbing because of him.

“I am… I am sorry, Princess. It’s all my fault but I do not love you. Everything would be over by the time I am back and I hope you are over the feeling you think is love.” Dante raised the gifts in the air.

“I appreciate the gifts and I will cherish them, Principessa” he returned to calling her that.

“Goodbye” Dante whispered, not being able to handle being in the same room with a sobbing Mireille he could not console.

Mireille crashed down to her knees as the door shut behind Dante. She palmed her face, wetting her palms with her tears.

“I really love you, Dante. I really do” she sobbed.