Page 28 of Made to Sin

After swimming, I showered and reverted to lounging again. Instead of being out in the sun, I was now in bed with a steamy novel. If I couldn’t fall in love in real life, then I would find it with fictional men. Unlike real men, they didn’t disappoint.

I was in the middle of a spicy scene— the smuttier the better— when Maria barged in. My feet fell flat onto the comforter as I grumbled at the interruption. Sometimes, I wondered if she planned her horrible timing at the most interesting parts of my books.

Begrudgingly, I bookmarked the page, knowing I was goingto have to reread it once she was gone.

“What is it, Maria?”

“SenhorCamello informed me to wake you up early tomorrow.”

“Why?”

She lifted a shoulder. “He didn’t tell me much, but we are going to the new shooting range with the Benevetis, I think.”

My ears perked up at the mention of the Benevetis. Tomorrow was finally my chance to ask Luciano about the organization and what his intentions were by introducing me to it. For the past seven days since I started volunteering, I couldn’t get over the nerves of waiting for the rug to be pulled out from under me.

Ever since I found out he got me the opportunity, I wanted to ask him what made him want to help me. Similar to the other men I’d met, I could tell he was attracted to my looks, but that wasn’t a strong enough reason to go through the troubles, right? Was it because he felt pity for me? Or because he wanted to send me on a wild goose chase? A mixture of all?

I grew restless thinking about all the what-ifs and picked my book back up.

“Just do what you do best, Maria,” I accepted.

“Don’t stay up too late,meu bem.”

“I won’t.”

She kissed the top of my head before leaving and shutting me back in the dark room with my fictional characters.

—

I wished I had taken Maria’s advice to sleep early because I was struggling to wake up the next morning. The romance settled in after the spicy scene, and I couldn’t put my book down. I bargained that a harmless chapter wouldn’t hurt but found myself finishing the book at three a.m. in the morning.

“Five more minutes,” I groggily mumbled, covering my ears with a pillow.

Maria kept smacking me on the shoulders with her bony hands, brutally unrelenting. “I let you sleep in for twenty minutes already. You will be late unless we get ready soon.”

“Can’t you dress me in leggings and a hoodie? It’s a shooting range. What do I need to dress up for?”

“I told you to sleep early. AndSenhorCamello expects you to look flattering at every outing.”

I groaned, rolling to the other side of the bed to shield myself from her. This was not the time for an “I told you so” statement. I was completely at fault, but it was too late to do anything about it.

Maria didn’t bother entertaining my stubbornness anymore and impatiently yanked away my comforter. All sleepiness disappeared as my warm body was exposed to the crisp morning air.

I curled into a fetal position to stay as warm as possible. “You’re an evil woman.”

“Hurry up and go shower, or I’ll pour water on you too,” she threatened.

If I didn’t know the woman, I might have pushed my luck. But because I knew her too well, I also knew she wasn’t bluffing in the slightest.

Shivering, I sat up and gave her a menacing glare. I looked at the alarm clock and saw it was barely five a.m. It made no sense for me to wake up three whole hours before the event started. If I tried hard enough, I could get ready in less than half of that.

Against every resistance in my body, I got up and dragged my feet into the ensuite. Here was another day of playing a dress-up doll for Marco’s ego.

The morning only got worse from there, reinforcing why I was not a morning person. Who woke up this early and thought they would be productive? Not me.

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” I complained as I stared at myself in the mirror.

“What?” Maria asked, coyly concerned.

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