Page 60 of The Devil Can Be Kind

I silently cursed my father for his failure to provide an Italian tutor when I was growing up.

I decided now was as good a time as any to make my presence known.

“Morning.” I muttered, strolling over to the coffee maker on the side and collecting the ground coffee.

“Not a morning person, hey?” Jesse mocked, and I promptly flipped him the bird.

“I would have slept fine if it wasn’t for your irritating voice booming across the halls.” I retorted, watching the coffee as it brewed.

“Seconded.” The unfamiliar humor in Marco’s voice compelled me to look over at him.

I wish I hadn’t.

It was the first time I hadn’t seen him in a suit…or almost naked.

This morning he was dressed in casual shorts and a tank top, accentuating each of his heavily tattooed, muscular arms. His dark hair wasn’t its usual pristine self, tousled in different directions as if he had just run his hands through it. A thin sheen of sweat coating his forehead. He looked like he had just finished up in the gym…or a serious sex session.

With that lingering thought, I forced myself to look anywhere other than at the glorious man as he stood leaning casually against the counter.

It was the first time I noticed Jesse dressed in similar attire too.

“Why are you both so sweaty?” I questioned, looking more at Jesse than the God of darkness beside him.

He was the kind of man that women happily sold their souls to the devil for, and judging by his air of cool confidence, he knew it.

“Gym. You should try it once in a while.” Came Jesse’s sarcastic response.

“Oh, ouch. If you wereactuallyattractive, then that might have hurt.” I lilted, turning back to my task and pouring the steaming coffee into a mug.

“Can I get one, please.”

I jolted in surprise as Marco materialized beside me soundlessly, a mug already in hand.

“S-Sure.”

I recovered and took the mug, placing it beside mine and filling it. I went over to the fridge to retrieve the cream and milk, collecting some sugar along the way. I poured a little of the cream, a little of the milk and two scoops of sugar before swirling and tasting.Damn that’s good.

I placed it back down on the counter and within a blink of an eye a hand snaked out and took it. Marco took a big swig from the cup before setting it back down on the counter.

I looked at him, dumbfounded.

Where has all this come from?

“I was skeptical.” He shrugged, answering my unspoken question. “But it’s good. Can you make mine like that? Please.”

I had never heard him so much as utter the word please before and now he was saying it twice in a five-minute window… It was like hell had finally frozen over.

I sighed and shook my head in disbelief and got back to work repeating the process.

Jesse muttered something I couldn’t understand and started laughing as Marco retook his earlier position against the counter. The latter just smiled charmingly, flashing his perfect white teeth, completely unaffected.

I finished up making his coffee and slid it over to him.

“What about breakfast then, Bandit?”

I rolled my eyes at him. “I have more important things to do this morning!” I half-sung happily as I made my way across the tiled floor.

“Like what? Rearranging your sock drawer?”

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