Page 127 of Heart of a Villain

She laughed, burying her face against his chest.

CHAPTER

THIRTY-THREE

Sayeda trudged across the restaurant’s dining room, bypassed the empty chair, and took a seat on Ayesha’s lap. She’d definitely gained weight from the stick figure she’d been when she arrived, though it was coming back little by little. But her sister could handle it.

Ayesha groaned, squirming. “Your ass bone is puncturing my thigh.”

“What are you trying to say?” She narrowed her eyes. “I don’t have a butt?”

“You’re getting there. I mean, there’s something there now for Adrían to grab hold of.”

“Don’t come for me just because you’re all curvy and sexy now. Let me get a few babies in me.”

“I’m surprised you don’t have a few babies in you already.”

She gasped.

Ayesha snickered.

“Eesh, you’re lucky I adore you,” she said, exchanging her seat on Ayesha’s lap for the chair beside her. “God, I’m glad these chairs were still in such good condition. This checklist is about to drive me up a wall, back down, and then up again. Whose idea was it to put churrasco on the menu?”

“You, babe. You’re planning to serve Brazilian barbecue. By the way, did you remember the pot for the tagine?”

She let her head fall back, groaning the same way Ayesha did only moments before. “No, I did not. Where’s Thanasis? He knows how to run businesses.”

“Looking over your paperwork for all these materials. You know that’s a big deal, right? That he’s here, and Wren’s not even in Sweden?”

“Giorgio told him he had to stay.”

“Oh, right.”

Adrían and Joel entered the main dining room, carrying heavy wooden bar stools as if they were made of plastic.

Adrían raised one. “Where would you like us to put these, my beloved?”

Both she and Ayesha answered, “In that corner over there.”

Joel’s brows dipped.

Sayeda sent Joel an apologetic look that was too mischievous to be mistaken for anything genuine. Ayesha leaned over, using the ball of her shoulder to stifle a laugh. In her opinion, Joel had suffered enough at the hands of his brothers, who’d turned Ayesha into their sinister-deeds-puppet. However, they continued to insist that Joel still had several rounds of torment left before they were all even.

“You know what?” Sayeda prefaced. “I was thinking about something. In the essence of fairness, me and Joel should hook up a few times.”

Ayesha nodded. “Sounds fair to me.”

Adrían and Joel didn’t utter a word.

She and Ayesha held on for as long as they could before erupting with laughter. Adrían and Joel continued past them, and Sayeda was sure they probably had moments where they regretted that she and Ayesha had found each other. But there was no going back, not when she had friends and a sister, and getting together was a regular thing. Occasionally, they had activities where all of them could take part, including Thandie, Monroe, and Tiare.

Late evenings were a different story.

Currently, they were watching a show about a serial killer who only killed other killers. Mo had never heard about it before, but halfway through the first episode, she’d turned to the room and said: “Don’t ever let Giorgio watch this shit.”

“What else is there to unload?” Joel asked, he and Adrían making their way back. “Julien’s picking the boys up from school, and Tay has Tiare. She said she forgot how to ‘do the baby thing’ and wants to get some ‘practice’ in before baby number two comes next year.”

Sayeda pointed at him. “Do you have it on the schedule that me and Adrían have her and the boys next weekend? I sent you a calendar invite.”

---