Page 26 of Her Dark Obsession

Surprisingly, Aurora bends down. Her lips press over the open wound before she brings her mouth to mine. My hand wraps around the back of her head as I deepen the kiss, tasting a mixture of my own blood andher.

Chapter Eleven

Picking up my phone from the breakfast table, I kiss my mom and then my dad goodbye.

“Who is calling you at this hour?” Papa asks when my phone starts ringing. I look at the display before turning the screen to show him.

“Trial number one,” I tell him, my brother Lorenzo’s name flashing across the screen. I miss him something crazy. Whilewe were in Italy, he did the unthinkable. Asshole ran off and got married.

I helped him, like any good sister would. I wasn’t missing my brother’s wedding for anything. But, seriously, he married the daughter of our parents’ friends from Australia. Kyla. I’ve always liked the girl. Never thought she’d become my sister, though. But here we are.

“Lorenzo, you homesick already?” I ask, answering the call as I make my way to the garage.

“I miss you,” he says. “How’re things?”

“Same. Not much has changed. I just have one less brother trying to lock me away in Rapunzel’s tower.” I laugh.

“Sheescaped. There are no windows to climb out of in the tower I have planned for you, little sis,” he tells me. “You staying out of trouble?”

“Yes,Dad, I am.” I start the ignition and wait for the car’s Bluetooth to pick up the call before I pull out of the garage. “I’m heading to school as we speak.”

“School, huh? That where you threw a star at some kid yesterday? Or is that where you knocked a girl unconscious and broke her wrist?” my brother asks me.

“I feel like it’s the same place for both of those incidents,” I say, while trying to figure out which one of my cousins is the narc. My money is on Orlando, because ever since we’ve been back, Dante has been all up in Josie’s ass.

“Aurora, why?” Lorenzo sighs.

“Two reasons. One, I won’t be disrespected. And two, I won’t let anyone disrespect my family.”

“You know you don’t need to fight Orlando and Dante’s battles. They’re big boys,” he says.

“I know, but it was fun.” I laugh. Also, better me than them. Connor wouldn’t have got off lightly if I waited for Orlando toretaliate. The only reason he didn’t is because I beat him to it. So, basically, I saved Connor. In a way.

“You really need to rein it in. Think of Mom. How is she going to feel if she finds out what you’re up to at school?” My brother’s right. My mother would be upset.

“Way to lay on the guilt. It’s not like I didn’t have a reason.”

“I’m not saying you didn’t. But please, just try to stay out of trouble,” Lorenzo pleads with me. “Maybe you can come to Australia during the break.”

“I knew you missed me, but I’m busy this summer.”

“Doing what?” he asks.

“Working on my tan,” I tell him. “Where’s Kyla? I wanna say hi.”

“Hello, Aurora?” My sister-in-law’s voice comes through my car’s speaker.

“Hey, I need you to make sure my brother can’t hear me.” I haven’t told anyone what I’m about to tell her. But she’s my sister now, and this is the kind of things sisters share, right? Also, we’ve been friends for as long as I can remember.

“Okay, I’m alone. What’s going on?” she asks me.

“I met someone. A guy,” I admit.

“Ohhh, oh shit. Lorenzo is going to lose his shit, Aurora,” she whispers.

“He’s not going to know,” I remind her.

“Well, not from me, he won’t. Tell me everything,” she squeals.

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