Page 12 of Kissing the Villain

He glanced up at the house and smiled. “This place is perfect.”

“We’re finally free, Aid. We can paint all day and night without interruption.”

Unlike my grandfather’s mansion, the house was ungated, a modest Colonial-style home with many windows and blue shutters. Neither of us wanted to stay with Pops and our grandmonster. We’d spent enough summers under the same roof as Blaire Wellington and would have rather eaten glass than listen to her bitch and moan about us all day.

Aiden jammed the key into the lock and pushed the front door open. We stumbled into a large foyer, the floors solid wood throughout. To our left was a massive living room with a U-shaped leather couch, an ottoman table, and a huge flat-screen television hung on the wall.

We veered toward the right and entered a game room filled with old-school pinball and arcade machines.

“Get the fuck out of here. Lexie, they got the original Pacman.” Aiden dropped our bags and the floor and strolled over to the machine, hitting the button to play. “You don’t even need quarters. Shit, this is awesome.”

“There’s an art studio at the back of the house.”

As his eyes roamed around the rest of the room, his face lit up with childlike excitement. “Salvatore hooked us up big time.”

“Arlo insisted we come over tonight for dinner. You can thank him in person.”

He gritted his teeth. “Will Luca be there?”

“Who knows? I haven’t talked to him since my art exhibition.”

“I hate that you like him.”

“I don’t,” I lied.

“C’mon, Lexie. I was born a minute and a half after you, not yesterday. You can lie to Luca and yourself, but I know you have a thing for him. I saw you holding his hand at the gallery.”

Blush spread across my cheeks. “I was nervous. He comforted me.”

His eyebrows tipped up in question. “I know you better than anyone. You like Luca.”

I scoffed at his comment. “Absolutely not.”

“You’ve kissed him.”

“So. You’ve kissed more girls than I can count.”

He rolled his shoulders and grinned. “I’m a slut, what can I say? But you’re not. And that’s the type of woman Luca wants.”

“How do you know what he wants?”

“Because I’m a guy. We know things.”

I snorted with laughter. “Go back to playing your video game and stay out of my love life.”

He chuckled, his back to me as he slapped the button on the machine.

* * *

A few hours later, we drove to the Salvatore Estate for dinner. It was fall, and with the chill rolling off the bay, I paired my red cocktail dress with a light jacket. I made Aiden wear black slacks, a polo shirt, and boots. He was not happy about ditching his usual jeans and T-shirts, but he had to act like a grownup at some point.

We parked in front of a garage on the estate that housed at least ten cars. My BMW 8 Series convertible was the shittiest of the bunch. From what I could tell, there wasn’t a single car on the property valued at less than two hundred thousand dollars.

Ferrari, Lamborghini, Aston Martin, and Maserati. A sense of dread filled my belly when I realized all the Salvatore brothers were home.

“He’s here,” I said to Aiden, eying Luca’s Aston Martin Vantage as we approached the front door.

“Just be careful, Lexie. We already know he bites. So watch out. That’s all I’m saying.”

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