Alphas on Top(183)

When Sandra had stepped in and taken over the reins at Hart International, she was able to stop the downward spiral and start building it back up to what it was before all the craziness had happened. That allowed Dante and Damien to finish high school and college with the company in place. Dante became the President of Hart International and Sandra the Vice President. Damien was appointed as the chief engineer who oversees all the builds and installations, and Spencer took the position of the head architect. The business became more successful than ever, and I loved working there.

During the past year, my sister and I had gotten close to Dante and his family. We all met at Dante’s house most Sundays to barbeque and watch movies in his theater room. Brooke and the twins were virtually inseparable, which was a delight. Dante, Damien and Spencer had a running joke that the twins became triplets once they met Brooke. After the loss of our parents, Brooke and I had no family left. It meant everything to both of us to feel connected as a family again.

Over the last year, Dante and I had gotten extremely close. He became my best friend and he was the person I turned to when I wanted to share things. We met at the gym several mornings a week to run on the treadmills, we went to dinners, to movies, concerts and other events. He was very gung ho to do things with me, always coming to me with tickets and plans. It started out slowly, but within two months of taking the job, we were spending a lot of our time together, and as the months slipped by, we began spending more and more time together. Until these last few weeks when I started dancing all the time, all of my free time was spent with Dante.

There had been a few times, particularly over the course of the last few months, when I had thought that Dante had shown an attraction to me. He was hugely possessive, but I wasn't sure if that was because he thought of me in the same way he did his sisters and Brooke, or if it was because something more was there.

My feelings for Dante had evolved from a crush, to an infatuation, to something deeper. I tried always to be mindful of the fact that he had absolutely no interest in dating, and that he didn’t believe in marriage or committed relationships. That being the case, I knew that no matter what, he would never make a move on me, no matter how badly I wished that he would. Even if he wanted me half as much as I wanted him, I don’t think that he would ever put our friendship in jeopardy.

Dante went through women at an alarming pace. His reputation as a ladies’ man had been well documented. In the first seven months that I was his assistant, there were five different ‘liaisons’. Not one of them lasted beyond the three-week mark. It was hard to behave like it didn't drive me nuts, but I did it. Fortunately for my sanity, something seemed to have put him off sex lately. He hadn't had so much as a first date in the last four months. I’d wondered if the last girl had gone a little crazy on him, but he never said anything, which left his date-free status a mystery.

He had a "type". Each and every one a stunning blonde haired super sleek beauty, not one of them less than five foot ten. Statuesque and striking, they stood out in every way—although they all looked like ice queens. He didn't bring them to family events, but I'd met one who had dropped by the office. Not a wise move on her part, because she was never seen again.

Dominique and Delilah called them the Dante-bots, joking that Dante had a factory somewhere to churn them out, something everyone but Dante laughed about. He normally just grimaced and looked embarrassed when it came up, and he always quickly changed the subject.

Damien and his best friend Spencer had a far cruder expression for Dante’s dates. They called the women Dante’s “fuck bots.” They didn’t do it in front of me or the girls, but I’d heard them ribbing Dante about it when they thought we weren’t listening. Damien had been especially brutal for the last few weeks, asking Dante how he was surviving without sex. According to something I overheard Damien say, this was the longest Dante had gone without since he lost his virginity.

I used to find it depressing that Dante’s choice in women was so opposite to me. I’m five foot six, my hair is long and dark, and I’ve got hazel eyes. I’m nothing at all like the Dante-bots. I’m pretty, but I’m not in the same league as the women he dates, with their flawless faces and swimsuit model body types. I'm not emaciated, and my attitude doesn’t require a frost warning, which left me out of the running. I came to realize that it was a good thing that he had such a specific type, because it kept my feet on the ground and my head out of the clouds knowing that he would never actually be attracted to me since I looked nothing like what was obviously his ideal.