Page 88 of Masked Hearts

I push my insecurities to the back of my mind as I take in the red scratches covering his back. I trail my fingertip along one of them, and he flinches in response. “These are pretty bad,” I whisper, guilt clawing its way up my throat.

“No, I love them, they—” he clears his throat, “they made it better.”

I look down at him, and now it’s his turn to hide in my chest from embarrassment.

“Are you getting shy?” I chuckle.

“No,” he says, still not meeting my eye.

“Can I ask you something personal?” I ask.

This causes him to look at me. “I don’t think we could get any more personal than what we just did, but sure.”

“Did you ever do anything like this with Valerie?”

Hid face contorts. I watch as multiple emotions run across his face before she sighs. “No. I had feelings for Valerie, but she never felt the same way about me. We’ve never even kissed.”

“Okay,” I squeak, feeling unsure about bringing this up.

“Are you really that worried about the Valerie situation?” he asks, and I’m surprised that there's no air of judgement or annoyance to his tone.

“I know you care about her…and Augustus even called it obsessed, so I’ve just been thinking about it a lot.”

He rolls his eyes at the mention of his brother. “You’ll come to learn that Gus can be quite dramatic. I care about her a lot, but after everything that happened, I realised that maybe I just liked the idea of us being together more than I actually liked her.”

I expect jealousy to flood into me at the mention of him caring for Valerie, but in reality, I just feel really sorry for him. I’ve quickly learnt that Antonio cares so much for everyone around him, and it's heartbreaking to see it not being reciprocated.

He moves slowly until his lips are hovering over mine.

“You’re one in a million,tesoro. No one’s had me the way you do,” he whispers as his lips meet mine, and we melt into the kiss.

The shrill sound of my phone ringing interrupts us. I sigh out, reaching to grab it and see my father’s name flashing across the screen.

Antonio moves to get up. “I’ll give you a sec.”

“He can wait.” I silence the call before pulling him back down to reconnect our lips. It’s less heated and more lazy as we just lay intertwined, kissing. It’s beautiful and I want to spend every morning with him, like this.

My phone rings again, and a curse slips from his lips as he pulls away. When I check it again, it’s Eleanor.

“I’ll go make us coffee,” he says and kisses my forehead, not letting me trap him again.

I grab my phone and answer the call. “This better be good, Elle.”

“How rude, what if I was dying?” she asks, her usual dramatics coming to the surface.

“Well, are you?” I can’t help as irritation laces my voice.

“No. But I am missing my best friend. What are you up to?” She perks up.

“I just woke up, about to get some coffee.” I sit up, pulling the covers up with me to cover my naked form.

“How are things with Mr. Perfect?” she asks. My eyebrow inches up at the nickname and that jealous feeling floods in again.

“Don’t call him that, he’s far from perfect,” I say, but my words hold no conviction because even I know I’m lying to her and myself.

She breaks out into a burst of laughter. “I’m glad to see nothing has changed, and you still despise his guts. Kylian made it sound like you were falling head over heels for him.”

“Kylian?” I question.

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