Page 123 of The Heart of a Villain

I always want to send them back. However, I can’t do that to such beauties. So as a result, the entire house smells like roses and orchids, polluting the air so much that one of the maids joked we all might get sinus infections by the end of it all.

However, it didn’t stop there.

I’d find random gifts in the most unexpected places, from my room to the storage closet, and even at shops and restaurants.

Diamond necklaces, first-edition books, antiques—everything I love, basically.

He’s left theater tickets to a play I was dying to watch, and like the idiot I am, I went… only to see him there too, watching me.

Brooding and handsome, with everyone staring at him, which I hated too, because coming back to the real world proved to me that women find him charming and want his attention.

Which didn’t awaken the best feelings in me—not that it pushed me toward forgiving him.

He’d catch me at the end of every outing, offering to walk me back to the car and talking to me, even though I only gave him the silent treatment.

And then there were his paintings.

Every day, he’d send me one of those as well, each more beautiful than the last, and every one of them was of me through his eyes.

I never considered myself anything special until I saw how he sees me, and my heart flipped a thousand times over after each one of them, but I held my ground.

Maybe because he has done all this wooing in the last week, while my parents are away in France. How easy to show me affection when my father isn’t around.

Would he have done the same had my parents never left, or would he have stayed away for my own good?

And I think this is where the core of the problem lies.

As much as he tries, how can I be sure his affection is genuine and that he won’t hightail his ass away when he once again decides something for me instead of letting me make my own choices?

“So annoying,” I mutter, and putting on my shoes, I walk to the house, welcoming the frigid air on my warm skin. “Hey!” I greet the deliver guy, who at this point might as well work here for all the time we’ve seen him.

“Today, I have a thousand and one red roses for you… and this card.” He grins at me and gives me a golden envelope, which I open right away, expecting another famous quote. But I blink when I see it’s Rush’s handwriting.

I give you pieces of my heart that you never got. You’ll find them in your room.

On those pages of white lay my deepest thoughts.

Don’t be cruel with them.

Rush

Since the delivery guy continues to unload the flowers, I say, “Have a nice day, Phil!” and he salutes me while I dart to the door, too curious and stunned after the note to wait.

Because I know despite all this game of being Prince Charming, he would never actually be one, so he’s watching and studying my expressions at this moment, I’m sure.

Running inside the mansion, I fly through the doors and almost collide with Levi, who manages to catch me in time. “Whoa! You okay?”

I nod and smile wildly at him. “Of course. Why wouldn’t I be?” I swirl my finger in the air. “We might die suffocating from all these flowers, but at least we’d smell nice.”

“I call it going out in style.” He winks at me and flaps at my skirt. “You’re dancing again. That’s a surprise.” He is freshly shaved and wearing jeans along with a silky shirt, so he must be going out soon.

He’s used our parents’ absence in his favor too, staying even later at night and sometimes coming in wasted. Not sure what’s going on with him, but based on what Pierre told me, he’s also become quite a manwhore.

“I love dancing. Felt right.” I cock my head to the side. “Are you okay, though?”

He grins at me, although it doesn’t reach his eyes. “No, but I will be.” Before I can ask him to elaborate on this, as Levi usually doesn’t keep secrets from me, he states, “You dance when you need to clear your head.” He taps on my nose. “So what’s going on?”

“Nothing.” I place my hand on the railing of the stairs. “Just have to go upstairs and take a shower.”

---