Page 158 of Kissing the Villain

He rolled his broad shoulders against the leather seat. “Yeah, I guess he does. It’s hard to tell with him. Like Luca, he doesn’t show emotions.”

“Has your dad ever said he loved you?”

Marcello shook his head. “Not since my mother was alive. Even then, he could never form the words without them sounding strange in his tongue. She would wake me daily and say, “Ti amo mio principe.”

I love you, my prince.

“That’s cute.” I smiled. “Growing up, it was just Aiden and me.” I shifted in my seat and leaned closer to him. “From what I saw in my mom’s office, Luca gets his coldness from your dad. It was like watching Luca in action. Kinda freaked me out.”

He shifted the car into reverse and backed out of the parking space. “My brother wanted to be like him.” Marcello chuckled, shaking his head. “Luca wore the same suits as our dad when we were kids. He followed him everywhere and wanted to be part of the family business from a young age.”

I propped my elbow on the armrest and looked at him, studying the hardness of his features. “By family business, you mean the illegal side, right?”

“Yeah. The shit Luca had done for our father by the time he was in high school…” Marcello sighed. “He was born for this life. My father saw Luca’s potential and bred him to enjoy taking punishments as much as inflicting them.”

“His scars,” I muttered. “Are you saying Luca wasn’t a victim?”

“No, he was,” he assured me. “But Luca enjoyed the punishments. He thought that was our dad’s way of showing his love. Luca thought bad behavior would get our father’s attention, so he did things to make him angry. I think my dad cared for him more because of it.”

“What about you?”

Marcello floored the gas as we drove into The Hills. “I had a normal childhood until my mom died. When she was home, I spent a lot of time in her studio or hanging out with Sonny at his house.”

“Really? That sounds too normal for the Salvatores.”

He snickered. “It’s not like we’re the Addams Family.”

“No, you’re more like The Sopranos.” I laughed. “When did a sexual relationship with our parents start?”

“I don’t know for sure. In my freshman year of high school, I saw them together in my dad’s office. He had your mom tied up and naked on his desk.”

“What did you do?”

He drove faster as we passed the house I had shared with Aiden, and my heart dropped into my stomach. None of the lights were on. The entire street was empty.

“I watched,” Marcello confessed.

“Seriously?”

“I was fourteen years old,” he shot back. “I was curious.”

“You wanted to learn?” I guessed.

He smirked. “Yeah, I guess. And back then, your mom was fucking hot.”

I pretended to gag, sticking out my tongue. “Gross, Marcello.”

“Give me a break,” he challenged. “I was a teenager. I just wanted to wet my dick.”

“Marcello,” I groaned. “You sound like Luca when you talk like that.”

“I’m not much different from him.”

“You’re nothing like him.” His head snapped to me, and I grinned. “That’s why I like you. I can talk to you. Luca would have dismissed me if I asked him about our parents.”

“You look like your mother,” Marcello commented, his fingers gripping the leather steering wheel.

“Shame,” I bit out. “Maybe if I were ugly, Luca wouldn’t want to marry me.”

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