Page 92 of Made to Sin

I narrowed my eyes.

His twinkled.

I sighed in defeat, removed the comforter, and swung my legs off the side of the bed. Shivering from the cold air against my naked body, I picked up his discarded shirt from the night before and slipped it on.

“If this surprise isn’t worth waking up at the crack ass of dawn, we’re never sleeping together again,” I mumbled on my way out.

—

“What do you think?” I asked, giving deflated jazz hands.

Luciano looked up from his phone, stood up from the couch to walk over to where I was, and whispered, “Magnificent.”

My heart skipped its next beat.

“Magnificent is exaggerating for an outfit consisting of yoga pants and a t-shirt, don’t you think?” I nervously breathed.

“No.” He lightly spun me around, admiring me as if I was wearing a couture dress. “Magnificent is the right word for you.”

His tone was thoughtful like the compliment came directly from his heart. Maybe I was becoming rusty without Marco using me as a trophy because I didn’t know how to react.

Another stupidly bashful smile fell on my lips as I walked over and busied myself with lacing up a pair of beat-up sneakers.

He held the door open when I was done. “After you.”

As soon as we left the house, the rest was a blur. Though I was excited to see what Luciano had up his sleeves, I was too distracted by his words to keep track of where we were going.

By the time another, “Magnificent,” replayed in my head, the car came to a halt on the side of a curb.

We arrived already? I guess it was a good thing he said those words of affirmation in the morning then. It saved me from the budding anxiety of the car ride.

Luciano rounded the corner and opened my door. I hesitantly got out, not sure where we were.

But at the first inhale of the smoggy air, I became certain we were just in any other part of New York.

My head reflectively tilted. “This is the surprise?”

I took in the relatively busy streets. Bicyclists were swerving, taxis honking, shop bells ringing. Nothing unique.

“Come on.” His calloused palm brushed against my softer one, gripping me with full authority.

Electricity burned from his hand to mine as he pulled me down the short block.

We stopped in front of a large, university-like building with a surrounding gate around the courtyard. The surprise was taking me to school? When I told Francisco that I wanted to experience what it was like to be a normal young adult, I wasn’t serious about the college part. Luciano or whoever reported to him must have misunderstood the conversation.

I was preparing to shoot down the offer, but then I spotted Eda parking a large cargo truck at the unloading zone. It finally clicked that this wasn’t a school but a…

Excitedly, I turned to Luciano to confirm. “Is this a shelter?”

“Yes.”

My smile grew. “Are we going inside?”

“Yes. Every year, Eda goes around shelters to get an in-person progress report. I asked her if we could come along today.”

My chest warmed at the gesture. Add this to the list of nice things he’d done for me. He might be a bad man, but the only bad thing I saw was how he made me feel things I shouldn’t.

He tugged our intertwined hands inside, toward the reception desk. If I thought the outside was impressive, the inside was extraordinary. When I imagined a shelter, I pictured dirty bunk beds and half-functioning technology.

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