Page 186 of Kissing the Villain

That was the day.

The second he glanced across the room at me, shooting daggers in my direction, I felt it deep in my bones. I had to bow out of the contest gracefully, but Luca would never treat her right if I handed Alex to him on a silver platter. So I pushed him to the limit and made him think I would steal Alex. Eventually, he would come to terms with his feelings for her. Everyone knew how much he cared about her, even if he had yet to understand the true extent of his love for our queen.

I rolled onto my side, expecting to see Alex in the bed beside me. Except she was gone. I shot up from the mattress, scanning the dark room. The patio doors were still locked, and the ensuite bathroom was empty. There wasn’t a single sound in the room. I slid off the mattress, slipped into my pants and shoes, and entered the hallway.

I didn’t have a guard on duty when I slept in her bed. She’d never woken up in the middle of the night and left the room, so I had no reason to think we’d need the extra security.

I checked the other rooms on this floor, skipping over Bastian and Damian’s bedrooms. Maybe she went downstairs for food. It wasn’t uncommon for her to wake up and ask me to get her a sweet tea or toast with raspberry jam.

I descended the stairs to the first floor, following the grand piano’s sound traveling down the long, tiled hallway. Bash had a habit of visiting the great hall when he couldn’t sleep. A few times, I’d found Kali on top of the piano with her legs spread as he played for her. Once, I’d even seen them fucking on top of it.

Considering it was a Steinway & Sons Fibonacci, Bash knew better. If my father had ever caught them disgracing a concert piano valued at over two million dollars, he would have killed them.

Based on his song choice, I assumed Kali wasn’t here tonight. He was playing “Gymnopédie No. 1” by Erik Satie, which was relaxing but depressing. All of us dealt with our anger in different ways. Bash enjoyed blood play and piano music, a strange combination. Before his parents’ tragic deaths, Bash was a prodigy pianist. He’d even won awards for his original compositions.

Relief washed over me as I approached the great hall. Alex stood outside the room with her back against the wall, her eyes closed, listening to Bash’s sad song. She must have heard my shoes smack the tiled floor because she turned her head, gazing at me.

She waved, then mouthed,Sorry.

“Everything okay?” I whispered.

Alex nodded. “I woke up from another dream from the past.” She raised the water bottle in her hand. “Needed some air and a drink.”

I swiped the bottle from her and gulped water.

She studied my mouth as I took another sip. “I remember what we did in the temple.”

She was so fucking perfect that night, giving each of us an equal amount of time with our queen. I’d always thought she was one of the most beautiful women in the world. But until then, I hadn’t fully understood Luca’s fixation with her. None of us did. And now, we were all obsessed with her.

Sonny had it bad. He always talked about Alex and said no woman would ever compare to her. Drake said he imagined every woman afterward was Alex. Even Bash and Damian had become enamored with her, which was odd considering their strange relationship with Kali.

My heart bled every time I looked into her crystal blue irises. No matter what she believed, she was always Luca’s girl. Not even her grandfather could make her love another man. Her loyalty would always be with Luca.

Despite all the fucked up shit he had done to her, my brother had given her a career and a life outside of Devil’s Creek. Because of him, she had her first showing at Tate Modern next month. She had a lot of things because of Luca. We all did.

“Are you upset about what we did?” I asked her.

She shook her head. “No. I don’t regret anything.”

“Can you handle the real ceremony?”

She licked her lips, then grabbed the bottle from my hand. “From what I recall, I handled all of you just fine.”

I leaned closer, my mouth inches from hers. “Oh, I know you can handle all of us, princess. Just asking if you’re ready to do it again.”

Alex’s teeth glided across her bottom lip, and for a split second, I considered taking it in my mouth.

“Do you think Luca will be okay with it?”

“Yeah,” I said with a sigh. “He’ll be fine. Luca knows what’s expected of you.”

“It’s my choice,” she pointed out. “So what I say goes in that temple.”

Because I couldn’t help myself, I reached over and rolled my thumb across her lip. “Whatever our queen wants, she will get.”

Her cheeks flushed with color. “You make this so hard for me, Marcello.”

“You know what you want,” I told her.

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