Page 32 of Heart of a Villain

She used to know the feeling.

“What’s your favorite thing about him?”

“Just one thing?”

“Okay, then. Top…six.”

Ayesha grinned. “His eyes, his hair, his voice, the kind of father he is, the kind of partner he is, and there’s something about the way that man says ‘Eesh.’ Lord have mercy.”

“I know what you mean.”

“Are you talking about Adrían?”

She paused, then nodded. “Yes. Adrían and I, we’ve…met. We have a little bit of history.”

“I can tell.”

“Nothing’s there anymore, though.”

Ayesha didn’t comment.

“Still, don’t get me wrong—I love it when he calls me querida. I mean, who wouldn’t, right? But it’s the way his accent makes him say Sa-yeh-thah instead of Sa-yay-dah. Let’s just say I was a virgin when I met him...”

Ayesha laughed until she snorted.

Although it didn’t manifest on the outside, Sayeda felt the smile blossoming inside her. “Your laugh is adorable,” she said. “Everything about you is just…the cutest.”

“Don’t let Joel hear you say that,” Ayesha warned.

“Even if we might be related?”

“It hasn’t been confirmed. He’s not right in the head. None of them are.”

Again, they both said:

“But that’s how I like them.”

Ayesha beamed.

She continued to warm over.

While she was fully aware that she was lying across from a grown woman, she felt like they were teens, whispering about the boys they liked in high school, although their parents had ordered lights out over an hour ago.

“Wren’s a lucky woman,” she added.

Ayesha frowned. “Wren?”

“Adrían and Wren.”

“Did Thanasis die?” Ayesha pointed over her shoulder. “The other guy that was here? He’s Giorgio’s brother, Thanasis. Thanasis is into Wren, and there’s no way anybody else is getting to her. I get the sense that she was into him, too, at one point, but that changed when his ex showed up in New York. He broke it off with the girlfriend when he first saw Wren—didn’t even know her name yet—and she’s not handling it well.”

Sayeda glanced at the empty doorway. So, Adrían had been trying to give her a stroke via jealousy.

“Gorgeous guy, just like his brother,” she pointed out.

“Which is probably why the ex is not handling it well.”

“But let’s go back,” Sayeda said, waving her hands. “Tell me everything about you and Joel. Start with the first time you realized Joel was no longer just a friend.”

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