Page 18 of Kissing the Villain

“Oh, we’re doing this again,” he clarified, and my heart stopped pounding. “But next time, we’re fucking. I’m not into this sweet shit.”

“You’re so romantic, Luca.”

“I don’t do romance.” He parted my lips with his tongue, kissing me with a crazed hunger. “You’ll get used to what I like. I have to break you in.”

“What if I don’t like it?”

He snickered. “When you’re moaning my name, riding out one orgasm after another, you won’t want anything else.”

I rested my head on his chest, and he curled his muscular bicep around me. My eyelids grew heavier, and exhaustion won out.

It was the best night of my life… until I woke up.

The next morning, I was alone and naked, angry that he left. That was the day I promised myself never to fall for the villain.

8

ALEX

Luca hadn’t spokento me for weeks. He’d gotten what he wanted and hadn’t even called to explain why he left.

I hated him.

Marriage was no longer an option. I didn’t care that my grandfather needed this union to work or that my family’s empire would crumble if the Salvatores exposed our secrets.

I wanted to be free.

Free of Luca.

To keep my mind off Luca, I drove with my brother to Beacon Bay. He wanted my help with another one of his crazy ideas. Aiden supported me no matter what, so I agreed to break the law with him.

I picked up the spotlight lamp from the ground and inspected our work. We covered the brick wall behind the bakery in various shades of red, white, and black spray paint.

I stood beside Aiden and admired the Greek mythology-inspired mural. He wanted to gain the attention of a secret society called The Serpents, and according to Marcello Salvatore, this was the way to do it. While I’d grown closer to Luca, Aiden spent most of his time with Marcello and his best friend, Sonny.

“When we work together,” my brother said after a long pause, “we do some amazing shit. It’s like we have the twin ESP thing going on when the muse takes over.”

I nudged him with my elbow and laughed. “There’s no such thing as twin ESP.”

“We’re connected in ways no one else understands. No one gets us but us.”

I smiled up at him. “So true.”

Our parents did not understand us. For most of our lives, they had left us to fend for ourselves, disappearing for days or weeks at a time. If not for the generosity of our grandfather, we would have starved.

Aiden folded his arms over his thick chest and glanced at me. “Think this will catch The Serpents’ attention?”

“I don’t see why not. This is some of your best work.”

Aiden preferred street art to contemporary art and desperately wanted to earn a place among the legendary artists. No one knew The Serpents’ real identities, only the code names of the group’s four leaders: Hades, Morpheus, Lethe, and Minos.

Considered among the most prolific and edgy street artists, they created some of the best murals I had ever seen. I loved their pieces’ dark and urban feel, always inspired by Greek mythology, specifically the underworld.

Aiden grabbed the spray paint can from my hand, stuffing it into his hoodie pocket. I thought we would return to the car, but he led me down a dark alleyway between two tall buildings.

“Aiden, you said we would paint and go. If someone catches us, Pops won’t bail us out of jail.”

He snickered. “Pops doesn’t care what I do… as long as I don’t ruin his precious princess.”

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