4. Luna
FOUR
LUNA
“This has been the longest week of my life. Did I tell you guys I already have an exam to start studying for? An exam. It’s the first week,” Cecilia cried out, frowning at her ice cream.
Luna patted her on the back. “You’ll get through it. Probably.”
They had officially reached the end of the week. One whole week. God, Luna didn’t know how she had done this for the past three years, but she was completely and utterly exhausted. All week she had been taking different routes to class to avoid running into the devil.
The sweets shop they had decided to visit was new to campus, packed to the rim, and wonderfully delicious. There was a variation of cookies, brownies, frozen yogurt, ice cream, milkshakes. It was overwhelming.
“I have a paper due in a few weeks that I need to start,” Blair said. “I’ll probably start it this weekend. Hell, I’ll probably be busy working on it the next couple of weekends.”
“What the hell? When did we get so boring?” Gianna asked, her eyes wide.
Luna took a spoonful of her cake batter frozen yogurt. “I’ve always been boring.”
“Ugh, cover your mouth,” Cecilia said, feigning gagging.
“We’re in college. We have to do our work to graduate,” Blair told Gianna. “Well, the ones of us who actually want to do something with our lives.”
Gianna glared at her. “I’m going to ignore that dig at me, and instead bring up how initiation weekend is in a few weeks and there’s a shit ton of parties happening every weekend until then.”
“No way,” Luna said, shaking her head. “First of all, I’m never going to a party you recommend again. Second, I’m not going to initiation weekend events. One event is hosted by my brother, the other by the devil. There are no events for me to attend and enjoy.”
“I’m sure Valerio would make you feel good at The Chase.” Cecilia grinned, pushing her brows up and down.
Luna smacked her shoulder. “What the hell are you talking about? Isn’t The Chase some barbaric, violent thing with weirdos playing tag in the forest together?”
“I thought you were into that,” Gianna said with a smirk.
She reached over the booth to smack her this time. “I told you that in confidence.”
“Well, this is news to me,” Blair said, raising her brows in shock. “Little Luna, do you want to be chased and manhandled?”
“I’m done talking about this,” Luna said. She could feel the heat on her cheeks at their comments, desperately trying to ignore what they said.
So what if she fantasized about something as primal as that? It wasn’t wrong to think about her being taken desperately and roughly. And it wouldn’t happen anyway; it was just something she read in a book and maybe searched to watch on her computer when she had some alone time. God, leave it to them to make her feel flustered about it.
“Any run-ins with your future fiancé this week?” Cecilia asked, changing the subject.
Luna rolled her eyes. “No, thank God. Like I’ve said, I can go without seeing him.”
“Marrying him couldn’t be that bad,” Gianna said, shrugging. “I mean, he’s related to me, so he has some redeeming qualities.”
“Not enough to let me enjoy a lifetime being married to him,” Luna said, shaking her head. She shoved another spoonful of cake batter frozen yogurt into her mouth.
“Well, think about it like this. There had to be something you liked about him in the first place to have a crush on him,” Blair said. “I don’t know, maybe you can find that thing in him again?”
“Why do you guys want me to like him so much?” she asked.
“Because you’re stuck with him,” Cecilia said.
Luna rolled her eyes. “I thought he was hot and mysterious, not to mention he was my family's enemy. I was like fifteen at the time. Of course I was into him because of it.”
“Into who?” a deep voice asked from beside them, making all the girls turn their heads to the two intruders who now stood in front of the booth.
“Oh, it’s you again,” Luna muttered.
Valerio grinned. “Miss me?”
“In your dreams,” she growled.
“That’s where I see you,” he said, leaning against the table. Dante stood behind him, looking at the menu behind the counter as if he was going to order something. “Now, who were you talking about?”
“Wouldn’t you like to know,” Luna said sarcastically.
“I’ve never seen people flirt like this,” Gianna said. “It’s interesting.”
Luna kicked her under the table. There was no flirting. No, there wouldn’t be anything with the devil in front of her because she couldn’t stand him.
“We were just talking about some guy Luna used to have a crush on,” Cecilia said. Luna sent her a glare, one she conveniently ignored.
“Doesn’t matter now because that boy is dead to me,” she said, taking a bite of her frozen yogurt. It didn’t taste as good now that the energy had been sucked out of the room by Valerio.
“So you were talking about me,” he said, leaning closer to Luna. “I’m flattered you think about me, fiancée.”
“Where is my copy of the contract?” Luna asked, ignoring his words and how her body stood up in goosebumps because of them.
“At my house,” he said. “You’ll have to come over to get it.”
“You can mail it to me.”
“It’s top secret. Safer being viewed in person.”
“What flavor is that?” Dante asked, pointing at Luna’s frozen yogurt.
“Cake batter,” she said.
“Ugh, I hate that one.”
She looked at him dumbfounded, turning back to Valerio. “I’m not going to your house.”
“My house is the only place you’ll find the contract,” he told her.
She clenched her jaw. “I’ll get my hands on it one way or another.”
“I hope you do,” Valerio told her. “Maybe seeing it in person will help you come to terms with our arrangement quicker.” He grabbed the spoon from her hand, tracing his fingers on hers. He took the scoop that was meant for her into his mouth, clearing off the frozen yogurt in a way that made her skin tingle. She hated how her mouth became dry watching it.
He stood at his complete height that towered over Luna’s sitting figure. She looked up at him, taking in his natural frown, his furrowed eyebrows. She hated the way her eyes traced his plump lips, the way they drifted down his body, stopping in front of his crotch, eye level to her. “Oh, I hope you’ll accept my invitation to The Chase in a few weeks. I would love to have you there.”
With that he walked out, leaving Dante—who now had an ice cream cone in his hand—to follow after him. Luna could feel the heat on her skin, and she didn’t know if it was from anger or something unusual and strange she didn’t want to bring attention to.
Luna turned to Blair. “How good are you at getting what you want?”
“Excellent. Why?” she asked.
“I need to see the contract. There has to be some kind of loophole or something,” Luna said. No matter what it was, she would find it. She couldn’t stay with him, and she wouldn’t.
Until then, she had to do whatever she could to get him to break the contract first.
“When’s the next party?” she asked Gianna.
Gianna grinned. “I’ll find out. Why?”
Luna got up, smoothing out her clothes. “Because I’m going to find a handsome stranger and make out with them.”
She grabbed her cup of frozen yogurt, tossing it in the trash and walking out of the sweets shop.
Would Valerio still want her if she was with someone else? She wasn’t sure, but dammit if she wasn’t going to try to make him hate her.