Page 16 of Her Brutal First Love

Giancarlo still had not changed his mind about her needing to leave, and why that was, she still had no idea.

Since it was pretty obvious that he loved her, could it be thatherlove was what he questioned? She wished she could ask him, but she also knew one wrong word would be more than enough to have him send her packing.

Patience, Sarica.

She never had much of it even as a kid, but it was never too late to learn.

Right?

God would let her know about His perfect timing. But until then, therewasone last thing that she did want...

Giancarlo stared at her in disbelief. "You want a photo of me bare-chested? What for?"

The afternoon sun caught the silver in his hair, making him look like some kind of modern-day fairy tale prince. If princes wore thousand-dollar suits and carried concealed weapons, that is.

"Are you going to let me take a photo of you or not?"

"You must at least tell me why—"

"Because I'll be the only person in this world to—" Sarica's gaze narrowed at the flash of guilt that crossed his handsome face. "Are you telling me I'm wrong? Is there already someone else who has a photo of you...barechested?"

Oh, the very idea had Sarica gnashing her teeth, and more so when Giancarlo only continued to stare at her.

"Are youjealous?"

Dear God, I wish I could ask You to cover Your ears and pretend that you don't hear me. Because right now, I really, really want to ask Giancarlo if he's dumb.

"Of course I'm jealous," Sarica burst out. "I know you don't want to hear this, but too bad for you, I'm going to say it right now. I! Love! You! So of course I'm going to befucking—-"

"STOP CURSING."

"I wish I could," Sarica said sweetly, "but since the day you went missing, I swore that I'll only stop swearing once you come back to me." She crossed her arms over her chest and stared up at him challengingly. "Haveyou come back to me, Giancarlo?"

The tension between them crackled like lightning about to strike. His gaze dropped to her lips, and for a moment she thought he might—

The sharp trill of his phone shattered the moment.

"I have to take this one,dolcezza. I'm sorry." Giancarlo was already backing away, his expression a mix of relief and regret.

Sarica stared at him in frustration. "But we—-"

"This would only take a few minutes. I'll be right back."

Giancarlo was gone before she could answer him, and contrary to his promise of a few minutes, half an hour had already passed with no sign of his return.

Aaaargh.

Sarica wished she still had it in her to drop an F-bomb, but she didn't really want to.

I'm sorry, God.

She had known even then that the promise she had made was pointless and stupid. But at that time, she herself had been made stupid by grief and despair, and falling back on her old bad habits was all she could think of.

Since rebelling in her younger years had been her way of grabbing Giancarlo's attention, she had decided to start swearing in hopes that a still-missing Giancarlo would hear of it and he'd be so incensed that he'd come right back to scold her.

Ugh.

God might as well take back her brains if she were to ever act that stupid again. And besides, even if Giancarlo didn't want to admit it just yet—-

---