Crave For You

Sofia

Nights have dreams. Dreams are beautiful. Dreams give hope. Dreams shower love. Dreams make the chill go away. Dreams bring warmth. Dreams are lovely when your eyes are closed.

Dreams shatter when they open.

They shatter with a splash of liquid that goes through your nose and throat and blocks your breath for a few seconds. It crashes through your senses, making you jerk from the warmth of the man under whose body you had stayed curled up to all night. The man has the same reaction.

Gabriel snaps his eyes open, jerking up at the same time as I do. I blink, collecting the blanket as my heart beats cacophonously. I can make the figure of someone beside Gabriel—a creature of a petite brunette which the vision slowly reveals as Bianca Bruno.

She is beautiful. Her appearance is polished so early in the morning. However, her eyes are clouds of fiery rage that isn't directed at me. She glares at Gabriel—glares like she will open a third eye and burn him to ashes.

I think I'm stuck in a nightmare. I rub my sleepy eyes, but she is still here. My brain unfreezes itself, awakening to form the connection between her coming here and mine being here with Gabriel—her fiancé. It is a rude awakening.

Gabriel's grunt beside me shows how irritated he is by the intrusion of our privacy. "What are you doing here?" he snaps, his raspy morning voice booming across the room.

Bianca doesn't even flinch.

"Get out," she spits through a set of gritted teeth.

Gabriel frowns at her. "Don't use that tone with me and get lost."

He tries to go back under the covers as if this was any other day. His hand reaches for mine which Bianca snatches midway, making his eyes open wide as if the spell of our night has been broken.

"Really?" Bianca's face twists in a sneer as she drops his hand at the dark look he gives her. She crosses her arms. "What will you do? Call security? Have everyone see what you're doing"—she cuts her gaze to mine, the sneer deepening—"or who you're doing behind their backs?"

I feel my body grow colder as her angry tone spells out the disaster in store. The beauty of the night is fast disappearing. I stare agape, feeling like my chest has been hollowed. Fate mocks at me.

Gabriel clenches his jaw, his fingers crunching. "Bianca, I'm warning you." His voice is threatening. "Don't piss me off."

"I'm not leaving," Bianca retorts, defiantly straightening her posture. "I'm here to talk and you'll listen to me, Signore De Luca."

Gabriel looks about done with her as he throws the covers off him. He gets out in all his naked glory—his morning wood pointing to the ceiling. Bianca, even being pissed, can't avoid ogling him. Her eyes nearly poke out of her head as she watches him grab his pants from the wardrobe and slide them on.

"Cazzo!" Gabriel mutters, grabbing Bianca's arm in a harsh hold and dragging her out. "Get out of here, woman."

As they turn their backs on me, I quickly get out from under the covers, pulling the blanket around me to cover myself. I itch to know how this conversation will end. I need to know. My self-respect has already gone down the drain. I follow behind them, keeping myself hidden behind walls and other furniture as Gabriel and Bianca step out of the room.

I hide behind the door, ready to eavesdrop while peeking through the hinges.

"Stop!" Bianca yanks her arm out of his grasp, her rage fresh on her face. "You don't get to throw me out of there. I'm your fiancée. I deserve your respect."