Page 72 of Pretty Plaything

---

A real couple?

I don’t know yet, but there’s a different kind of warmth forming inside me when I’m with him that has nothing to do with sex.

Maybe I should ask him if he feels the same thing, but if I do, he’ll probably laugh at me and tell me I have lost my mind.

Maybe he’d be right about that.

I think about my parents.

My father does his best to keep business and love separate. Sometimes, doing that is impossible, and he lashes out at my mother when he’s upset about something else.

But they work it through. Maybe I don’t like a lot of aspects of my parents’ relationship, but I admire them for making it work.

Alessandro is nothing like my father, though. At times, it seems like he has two different sides.

One is cold, calculated, and feral, and the other is human.

A dangerous mix, and yet, so enticing.

But the last thing I should do is lower my guard around him. He can change his mind whenever he wants, and I’ll be at his mercy.

I look up at him, and a smile tilts up his lips.

Maybe I can just enjoy this moment, whatever the hell it is, and not worry about what it all might mean.

Chapter 36

I’M IN THE DARKNESSagain. They’re taking me somewhere, but I still don’t know who they are. There are voices.

So many voices, but I can’t comprehend what they’re saying.

“We found him in time,” someone says loud and clear.

I don’t recognize the voice.

A shadow appears in the corner of the room.

---