Page 58 of Soulless Rivalry

I mean, sure, I’d done it since then, whenever I needed to release tension, but I’d never felt like I woulddieif I didn’t.

“How do you get a girl to… like you and, eventually, want to sleep with you?”

The question seemed to startle my brother to the point where he looked up from his phone. Mikhail had always been the most social out of all of us, except Devina and Dinara maybe. Still, it was unusual for him to spend so much time on social media. He also hadn’t bragged about sleeping with anyone in about two weeks, which was record time for this hoe.

“Excuse me? Repeat that question please.” He locked his phone and slipped it in his back pocket, a slow, devilish smile spreading on his lips.

“You heard me,” I gritted between my teeth.

“Yeah, but I want you to say it again. Are you finally ready to lose your v-card,mladshiy brat?”

I would have paid good money to kick the smile off his face but Mother didn’t like it when we fought. One would argue she didn’t have to know, but we were waiting for Dominik to join us and he could be worse than our parents with sticking to rules. I saved myself an earful and remained calm.

“Tell me, does that have anything to do with a certain Italian princess?”

I groaned and got up from the bench, ready to leave. “Forget I said anything, I’ll ask Royal.”

“No, wait! I’m sorry, please let me help relieve you of your virginity.” He grabbed my jacket and I sent him a disgusted look. When he understood how weird his words sounded, he coughed. “Not like that! I meant, show you the moves so you can get rid of it yourself.”

I sent him a pointed look before slowly sitting back down.

“Lesson number one, it might help if you were nice, sometimes. Not overly so, but maybe just say hi. Calling a girl beautiful also never hurt anyone."

Grunting, I took mental note of that.

“Lesson number two, this one you won’t like because it implies bodily fluids, but women needlotsof foreplay.” He put his hand on my shoulder. “If you don’teatthe pussy, you shouldn’t beinthe pussy.”

That was where I drew the line. I pushed his hand off my shoulder, ready to tell him to fuck off when a voice called out or name.

“Korolov!” Both of us turned around, only to see a blond guy stomp his way towards us.

I recognized him immediately, Lorenzo Bianchi Gavini.

Elyssa’s cousin.

I was surprised by the way he was addressing us and walking our way, clearly angry and not afraid to show it. Up until then, Lorenzo could have been compared to a mouse: he liked to hide from danger, lurk in the shadows, and not make a sound.

Looking at my older brother from the corner of my eye, Mikhail’s playful attitude was gone, quickly replaced by a glare so dark it rivaled mine.

The closer Lorenzo came toward us, the less sure of himself he appeared. Especially since we both got up, crossing our arms over our chests and waiting for him to start talking.

“You—you tell that brother of yours to leave my sister alone!” he screamed, pointing his finger at us.

Lorenzo wasn’t short by any means, probably around 5’11, which was pretty normal for a dude. But both Mikhail and I were well over six feet. Lorenzo looked like he might shit himself, like he already regretted the way he’d spoken to us.

People stopped walking to stare at the altercation, which only seemed to make him more nervous.

He was about to say something else, like he wanted to prove himself to the onlooking students, but before the words could make it out of his mouth, Mikhail had him by the throat, pulling him up until the Italian had to stand on the tip of his toes to be able to breathe.

“Sleduyet I privyazat' yego neskol'ko?” my brother asked me in Russian, never taking his eyes from Lorenzo’s face, which was quickly becoming purple.

“Nyet. Mama byla by v yarosti” I rolled my eyes, telling him not to snap the fucker’s neck or else mother would be mad.

He squeezed a little tighter, causing Lorenzo’s eyes to bulge a little, his hands clutching at Mikhail’s wrist in a weak attempt to disengage himself.

After a beat, my brother let go of him, causing the Italian to fall on the dirty, wet ground. The bench we sat at was near the entry to the woods, so everything was pretty muddy.

“Now try that again. Respectfully.”

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