Page 81 of Darkest Deception

“You guys can begin now!” Venezia shouts.

But I can’t move my eyes away from him.

There is a pull between us that forces me to take a step closer to him. I want to reach out to him again, but how will I explain that?

Turning away, I clear my throat, grab the pizza dough, and start to roll it out.

“What will we be putting on the pizza?” Helia asks just as he grabs the tomato sauce.

Helia and I disagree on almost everything while making the godforsaken pizza. It left the others staring at us in shock. He didn’t like what I did, and I couldn’t let him win in any way at all.

“We don’t need pepperoni.” I push him away when he starts adding it.

“We might as well not put cheese on, and forget the tomato sauce too. I will just eat the base at this point,” he counters with a glare.

I like my pizza with cheese only, and he likes it with lots of different toppings, but we are making one pizza.

“Remo, let me do it!” Aurora calls out, frustrated.

I glance over to see that he is telling her to let him do the work so she can relax, but she looks ready to kill him.

“That’s not how you do it!” Kamari screams as she sees Ruel pick the pizza up, effectively making the sauce and the cheese almost fall off it. The pizza is not on the tray, just on the table counter.

I hide a smile. We aren’t the only ones fighting and it’s kind of fun to argue over something so little.

“Say cheese, guys!”

We all look up at once. Venezia is holding up her phone, taking pictures of us with the flash on.

“Make me blind, why don’t you?” Helia grumbles, shutting his eyes.

“Sure will.” She walks over and takes close-up pictures of him with the flash on.

My hand flies to my mouth, holding in a laugh.

Helia leans over the counter to grab her phone, and she screams, running back to the living room.

“It’s okay. A flash won’t blind you,” I mutter, admiring my plain cheese pizza, which is ready to be put into the oven.

Helia looks over at me. His eyes are a glittering colour today, sage green in contrast to his pitch-black hair. His sharp jaw and the tendons in his neck make my mouth water. I want to press my lips there, to feel his heartbeat.

I shut down that thought really fast.

The scar running down his eye really intrigues me. It makes him look devastatingly hot. Just looking at him makes my ears burn hot. It evokes turmoil within me, like molten lava is roiling in the pit of my stomach, and it burns hotter the longer he looks at me.

I am aware of his presence like never before.

Every time he passes me, every time he is in a room with me, my body buzzes with excitement.

It’s not possible to ignore any of this.

“In the oven now,” I mutter softly, grabbing the tray and placing the pizza in the oven behind us. Kamari follows soon after me, and so does Aurora.

We all are now piled into the living room, a movie ready to be turned on.

But a problem has arisen: the seating plan.

“Someone can sit on the sofa, if they don’t mind.” Aurora motions towards the sofa.

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