So, here's chapter 2, the second last chapter already.
Hope you like it!

ps: Though this chapter isn't exactly M yet I've already changed the rating, just to be quite on the safe side ;-)

~ I just can't get you out of my head
Boy it's more than I dare to think about ~

Zhalia

I looked in the bathroom mirror. It didn't surprise me I looked tired. Actually I looked even less exhausted then I'd expected, because I had barely slept last night. Usually a little midnight walk helps, but this time it had the opposite effect, though it probably wasn't to blame on the walk, rather the person I had ran into.
Dante.
Except for the first letter of their names Dave and Dante had very little in comment. I had expected to meet some kind of Dave number two but Dante was very different, though every bit as handsome as his brother.

Images of everything that had happened yesterday came up in my head. Dante's golden glance that kept catching my eye. His slightly rough voice talking to me. His muscular chest in the moonlight…
Stop this!
I shook my head. What was I thinking? For the first time in ages I had a real relationship again, and now I was thinking about another man?
"No… Zhalia you're with Dave now, and Dante is with Scarlet," I softly said to myself.

I desperately needed a shower, so I took off my violet bath robe and let the hot water wash away all my thoughts.
I saw a lot of tubes filled with shower gel. The golden honey color of one of them reminded me of Dante's eyes, and about how nervous and hot their glance made me feel. Again inappropriate thoughts appeared in my head.
I switched the temperature of the water quickly. I gasped for breath as ice cold water streamed over my feverishly feeling skin. It felt pleasant and unpleasant at the same time.

I turned off the shower. After I had dried my body with a towel I put on my robe again. I stared in the mirror as I combed my hair. Suddenly my eye fell on the door, I saw that I had forgotten to lock it.
My god where am I with my thoughts?
Anyone could have just walked in. Dave wouldn't have been so bad, but Scarlet or Dante… On second thoughts that last thing didn't seem that bad at all…
No it is bad! Really really bad! Jeez what the hell is wrong with me?

I walked towards the door to lock it. At the moment I stretched out my hand the door opened. Of course it was Dante.
His mouth fell open when he saw me. A shocked and slightly embarrassed expression appeared on his face.
I felt exactly the same.

"Zhalia… I- I'm sorry," he said. He was obviously trying not to look at me but failed.

I realized my robe was almost half- opened and quickly wrapped it tighter around my body.
Just great...
"It's my fault… I forgot to close the door," I said. I felt my cheeks burn and cursed myself for that. I had the reputation of being cool, fearless and composed, but ever since I had set foot in Dante's house all of that had faded. I felt like an insecure schoolgirl again. And that I hated, but loved – for some sick reason I didn't want to understand – at the same time.

Dante closed the door behind him, his eyes still set on me.
"Well now I've encountered you anyway, I want to apologize for last night." His voice had regained its usual rough coolness.

"For which aspect of last night in particular?" I asked. A little voice in my head said that I should step back a few inches, but I ignored it.

"Well jumping upon you I guess," he said with a smile.

Damn he was so close. Too close. Our nose tips almost touched and I could feel the warmth of his skin. I wanted to say something but couldn't get the words out, the sight of his strong chest through his black shirt and his soft looking lips was very distracting.

Dante cleared his throat. "Umm breakfast is in half an hour…"

I nodded. "That's okay, I'm almost finished here…"
The words had barely left my mouth when I felt his hungry lips against mine. I didn't know who started the kiss but didn't care either because it felt so so right.
I tangled my hands in his reddish brown as his tongue slid into my mouth. He grabbed my waist and pulled me even closer against him. It was a good thing because my knees felt so weak I was convinced I would fall down instantly if he'd let go of me.

"Zhalia…" He moaned my name as he brushed his lips against my neck and started kissing and sucking the skin there.
I moaned and licked his earlobe while I allowed my hands to run over the naked back under his shirt. I could feel his body shiver of pleasure, which reinforced the waves of pleasure that were running through mine.
Dante rubbed my ass through the thick fabric of my robe and I wished I wasn't wearing one. His lips had found mine again in a deep kiss.

Suddenly somebody knocked on the door, making my heart jump.
"Zhalia?" I recognized Dave's voice. "Zhalia are you done already?"

Dante and I quickly let go of each other. Confused to the bone I walked backwards, sweating and heavily panting.

"Zhalia? Are you there?"

I managed to get myself together. "Yes, yes I'll be there in a sec," I said, trying hard to speak normally.

I looked at Dante. He was still standing with his back against the door, looking too shocked to say or do anything.

Focus Zhalia!
I exhaled deeply. I forced myself to look him in the eye and nodded my head.

He understood what I meant and walked to the corner of the bathroom, so that Dave wouldn't see him.
I opened the door and smiled at Dave – or at least I tried to.
It probably worked because he smiled back, with a slightly teasing glance in his grey eyes.
"You've been in there for ages, what were you doing?"

I forced a new smile. "Just girl stuff."

Dante

I was still in the bathroom, with my back against the cool white tiles. I couldn't believe this had happened. Though I had feared it would, I had never actually thought I would kiss my brother's girl. It was wrong in so many ways, but damn it felt so good.

After god knows how long I could finally bring myself to leave the safe loneliness of the bathroom.

When I entered the dining room I saw breakfast was already served. Scarlet handed me a glass of orange juice.
"There you go, your daily vitamins," she said.

I sat down, without looking at the blue- haired woman at the end of the table. I was afraid that if I would, something terrible would happen. That Dave and Scarlet would know what had happened, even though that was close to impossible.

While Scarlet chatted about all sorts of things, I stared at my plate. I couldn't eat.

Breakfast seemed to last an eternity.

"Dave, I think we should go," Zhalia said. The velvet sound of her voice felt like an electric shock. Just like me she hadn't said a word during breakfast.

"What? Already?" Scarlet asked surprised.

I couldn't control myself anymore and glanced towards Zhalia. Her face was completely expressionless.

"Yes," she said. "Dave has a mission in America with Jeffrey, he has to leave as soon as possible, and I as well, they'll need my help." For a brief moment she looked at me, with an incomprehensible look in her eyes.

"But that's next week," Dave said.

"Jeffrey called last night, remember?" Zhalia said icy. "He said we have to leave as soon as possible."
She threw Dave an inflexible glance.

"Oh yeah… I remember," he said, visibly confused. "I guess that means we'll take the next flight to New York."

"Oh okay, too bad," Scarlet said.

I just knew Zhalia was lying but Scarlet didn't, of course.

"Yes, it's a big mission and we'll be gone for a long time…" Zhalia said.

She is leaving. For a long time. Does she want to leave? Does she want to get away from me?
My own thoughts were giving me a bad headache. A part of me knew it was probably for the best if she left, but another part of me desperately wanted her stay here, with me.

God, what should I do? What can I do?
I could tell her how I felt about her, how her presence made me feel more alive than ever, how her touch made my body and mind go crazy… But what if she didn't feel the same about me? What if this morning was just mistake or some sick, twisted game?
And what about Scarlet and Dave? It wasn't like Dave had never stolen a girlfriend from me. Actually he had done that three or four times. Win Tang, Jessy, Rachel, Alida…
Yeah Dave probably wouldn't kill me, but Scarlet would. No doubt she would be furious. Hurt. I didn't want to put her through all that pain, but on the other hand I also didn't want to lose Zhalia either.

"Dante? Dante?"

Scarlet's voice brought me back to reality. I saw Zhalia and Dave had already gone upstairs to pack.

Scarlet frowned. "What is wrong with you lately?" she said, a bit irritated. "You're so absent! And you look horrible!"

"It's nothing!" I said snappy. It was then I realized she really would never understand, and I started to doubt she ever had understood me.

Scarlet sighted and walked away, mumbling about the importance of communication in a relationship.

I stayed in the dining room, not knowing what to do with myself.
Eventually I decided to watch some TV. It wasn't something I did very often, but I hoped some idle entertainment would distract my thoughts.
Time passed by surprisingly quickly. Before I knew it Dave walked in to say goodbye.

"See ya bro," he said, and he gave me a brotherly hug. "Too bad we couldn't stay longer. I'll call you as soon as I've got something interesting to say, so that will be pretty soon!" He laughed.

I forced a smile. I was going to miss Dave.

"Come on Dave, we have to leave," Zhalia said.

I followed Dave to the hallway, where Zhalia was waiting for him. She was wearing jeans, dark blue boots and a leather jacket. She was holding a grey bag. I Felt a twinge of pain in my heart.

"Bye," Scarlet said, and she hugged first Dave, then Zhalia.

Dave opened the door and walked outside. Zhalia looked at me one last time. As usual her face was expressionless but her eyes weren't. They were filled with sadness and regret, or maybe I just wanted them to be.

"Bye…" she said softly, more to me than to Scarlet.

I wanted to say something but the words got stuck in my throat. I knew that if I let her walk away now, she would never return again.

My mind and body were too late, before I could decide what to do Zhalia had closed the door behind her. She was gone.

"Dante, stop staring at the door and help me clean out the house," Scarlet said. "It's a mess here, this house clearly needs a woman."

Zhalia

"Dammit, our flight is delayed," Dave said, and he sat down next to me on a bench at the airport. "Baby why did you lie about the mission? Jeffrey hasn't called."

I had expected that question. "I just hate Scarlet, I didn't want to spend more time with her," I lied.

"Ah I understand... I had already expected you wouldn't like her," Dave said, and he took a sip from his coffee. It was already his second cup since we arrived.
Seriously, I wouldn't be surprised if there was coffee flowing through his veins instead of blood. .

I sighted deeply, and stared at the greyish tiles on the floor. I felt nauseous, dizzy, irritated and sad. In brief; I was missing Dante.

I looked at Dave, who was checking out a good- looking girl that was struggling with her bags. I knew that if I hadn't been here, he would have helped her. And afterwards he'd ask her phone number of course.

Zhalia, do you really want to spend the rest of your life with hím?
The answer was simple: no. When I first met him I had known he wasn't 'the one', if someone like that existed at all. I didn't believe in things like destiny, true love and love at first sight. I had never even been truly in love. Of course I've had a few boyfriends, but after a few weeks or months I got either bored, or they cheated on me.
Bastards…
No one had ever made me feel that warm, exited, tingling sensation in my belly you always read about in books.
Until I met Dante.
The first moment I saw him the warmth had appeared.
During dinner the tingling had started.
That night in the living room the tingling had grown to disturbingly high levels.
In the bathroom - just hours ago though it felt like years – an intense, bubbling feeling of excitement had also joined the party in my belly.

Get over it Zhalia! If he felt the same about you he would have said something! He's with Scarlet, how annoying she may be.
Stupid Scarlet.
Stupid belly- feeling.
Stupid me for ignoring that feeling.

~ You could be my unintended
Choice to live my life extended
You could be the one I'll always love ~

Oh drama.

Next chapter will be the last chapter, and I'm guessing it'll be pretty long.

So stay tuned sweet readers! O yeah, and leaving a review would be nice too… ;-)

ps: Lyrics were Can't get you out of my head from Kylie Minogue and Unintended from Muse.