10. Elio #3
“No,” I answered. She frowned. “He’s not… alone.”
She looked away from me briefly. Even with the low lighting, I knew she was blushing. How innocent. And to think of the corrupt things I had just done with her, and in a fucking alley, no less.
Had I been a religious man, I would have believed I was going to hell for all I had done in this life, but somehow, corrupting her felt like the worst of them all.
“Oh.”
“Yeah,” I said, looking back out to the house, taking in all the cars. I had long ago memorized all the cars the traditionalist men owned, and I recognized all of them but one.
My eyes homed in on the black SUV, making note of the license plate. Who the hell was this? I didn’t know, but I was going to find out soon enough.
I put the car into reverse and pulled out of there.
“Where are we going?” she asked.
“Home,” I said. She frowned. “With me,” I clarified.
The lines on her face smoothed out, and it could be a trick of the lighting, but I thought I saw a hint of a smile there, too.
I didn’t know how I felt about that.
We were quiet on the way back to my place.
Massimo had bought five houses in a gated community, and all my siblings lived nearby.
The properties were closely lined with each other, so much so that I could walk out to my backyard and see all of their properties.
Giulia was in the middle house, with Matteo and me on her sides, to protect her in case shit went down.
Romeo was on my other side, taking up the corner house at one end of the street, while Massimo and Luna took the other end, next to Matteo.
Massimo had planned this out so we would always be by each other—to keep each other and Giulia safe, and because Massimo had a hard time letting us out of his sight.
A byproduct of the way we had grown up, perhaps, where he had always taken on the protective role for every one of us.
It didn’t matter that all my brothers were more than capable of looking after themselves.
Massimo could be paranoid on a good day.
I usually didn’t mind it much. It wasn’t like I spent a lot of time at my house as it was, but on nights like tonight, it felt like there were eyes on us as I drove the car into the front of the property.
I shut the engine off but made no move to get out. We didn't say anything as the air settled heavily between us. It would be so easy to forget about everything and just lose myself to her, lose myself in her, just for one night—even if I didn’t think one night would be enough.
Never enough.
But I was supposed to be the strong one out of the two of us. And it was obvious to just about everyone that she was innocent, through and through. Anything we did would fall on me, and it was hard not to feel like I was taking advantage of her in some way.
“We need to set up some ground rules before we go inside,” I said.
She didn’t speak for a moment, and it was hard to see her face with the low lighting from outside to gauge her feelings. My jaw clenched.
“What ground rules?” she asked softly. She didn’t sound angry. That was something, at least.
“What happened in the alleyway can’t happen again,” I said. “I shouldn’t have…”
“What? Touched me?”
I might be mistaken, but I could have sworn I heard faint amusement in her voice. But that wouldn’t be the case, right? “Exactly.”
She made a small, incoherent sound that I couldn’t tell what it meant.
“What about when you kissed me? Can that not happen again?”
I narrowed my eyes at her. “I’m serious. I shouldn’t have touched you. It’s on me, and if you want to tell Valentino about it, I wouldn’t blame you.”
“Why would I tell my brother about that?” she asked, sounding horrified.
“He should know. He would want to know. To protect?—”
“Do I need protection from you?”
“Of course not. I would never hurt you.”
She unbuckled her seatbelt. “I know.”
Before I could say anything in response to that, she had already pushed the door open and climbed out of the car. I stayed where I was for a moment, wondering what the hell just happened, and why it felt like I no longer had the upper hand.
Have you ever had it?
I stayed in the car for a long moment, trying to get my bearings under control before I opened the door and got out.
Isa was standing by the hood of the car, looking up at the sky.
Our neighborhood was far enough away from the city that the lights didn’t penetrate through.
We could usually see the stars out in the sky most nights, one of Giulia’s favorite things about living here.
Perhaps that was why none of us had moved away, even after Massimo had taken over the De Luca empire.
Giulia loved living here with all of us nearby, and when it came to our little sister, there weren’t many things we would deny her.
I walked over to Isa and stood next to her, my eyes taking in her side profile. I knew she was aware of my gaze on her.
We didn’t say anything for a long moment, and I didn’t rush her inside, even though I knew I should, considering it wouldn’t take much for any one of my nosy siblings to look outside their windows and see Isa standing there. The last thing I needed was to get any shit from Matteo over this.
But walking inside the house felt dangerous somehow.
Fuck me. I had faced some of the worst monsters in the world and didn’t even feel an ounce of fear, yet the idea of being in the same room—same house—as her, and suddenly, I felt like a fucking coward.
“Come on,” I said, pushing away from the car and looking back at her.
While Isa had always been terrible at keeping her emotions from showing on her face, she seemed to have it down tonight. I didn’t fucking know what she was thinking or feeling, and how I fucking wished I did.
“Let’s go inside.”
I walked away first, and Isa rushed to catch up.
We stayed silent as we walked side by side to the house.
I looked around, taking in my surroundings.
Everything appeared to be as it was supposed to be.
Even my siblings' houses were quiet. I could see Giulia’s lights on, so she was obviously home, but my brothers…
I didn’t know where they were supposed to be tonight, and what was more, I didn’t care.
I could only hope they wouldn’t barge into my house uninvited come morning, like they sometimes do.
The last thing I needed was to explain to any of them, especially Matteo, what Isa was doing here.
We walked inside the dark house, stopping by the foyer. I turned on the lights there and looked around. Everything was as I left it.
I didn’t hire help like Massimo. There was no cook or house manager coming in and out of my house. I did have a cleaning crew come in once a week, but that was all. My house was the smallest of the five, but it was by no means small .
I didn’t need this much room, especially since it was just me here, and I glanced over at Isa as she took everything in, wondering what she thought about it, and why the hell I even cared.
I shook away the thoughts. “I’ll show you to the guest bedroom,” I said.
She shot me a strange look that I pretended not to notice and walked away before she could reply.
The walk to the upper level of the house felt like fucking forever. I stopped in the bedroom furthest away from mine and opened the door. She peeked inside but didn’t step in right away.
I waited there for her to tell me what she was thinking, and I took that moment to observe her features.
Fuck me, but she was beautiful.
And it wasn’t like I had been blind to that fact. I always knew she was beautiful, but somehow, tonight, after that kiss, after I had my finger inside her…
I clenched and unclenched my fists, pushing the thoughts away.
She turned to me, the light catching in her blue eyes. “Where is your room?”
I pointed in the general direction of where the primary bedroom was located. She looked over at it before turning back to me, a strange, twisted smile on her lips.
“What?” I asked warily.
“Is it the furthest room from this one?”
“It’s late, Isa. Go to sleep. There is a bathroom inside this room. There should be some clean towels in one of the cabinets and a new toothbrush as well.”
I made a move to walk away when she grabbed my forearm, halting me. I could feel electricity buzzing on my skin from where she touched me.
“What about clothes?” she asked. I frowned. “You weren’t expecting me to wear these clothes, were you?”
I looked up and down the length of her body, taking in the black leggings and white V-neck shirt she wore. It wasn’t revealing in any way, but somehow, the clothes seemed almost indecent on her.
“The clothes you’re wearing look pretty comfortable to me,” I answered.
She scrunched her face up a little from my words. I almost smiled. Fucking hell, the last thing I needed was to think she was cute right now. Not when I was trying to keep my composure.
“I don’t want to get into bed with outside clothes. And I was going to take a shower, but didn’t want to put these clothes back on after.”
I took a deep breath. “You really can’t? It’s nearly midnight. You have to shower now?”
“Yes,” she answered with a straight face, yet somehow, it felt like I was being played. “I mean, I can always get into bed without anything on.”
“Isa,” I said through gritted teeth.
Her lips twitched. Fuck. She was playing with me. Did I look like the kind of man she should be messing around with?
“I’ll give you some of my clothes to wear.”
“I would really appreciate that.”
“I’ll drop them off later.”
She smiled like a cat that ate the canary. I pulled my arm away from her hold. I couldn’t fucking think straight while she was touching me.
I was about to walk away when she stopped me with her words. “And Elio? I don’t agree with your ground rules.”
Slowly, I turned around and looked at her. She was leaning against the doorframe, her arms crossed over her chest.
“That’s a dangerous and stupid thing you’re saying. And I’m not playing with you.”
She shrugged like she couldn’t care less. “Who says I’m playing?”
“Isa.”
She pushed away from the frame and walked closer to me. Alarm bells rang in my head, telling me to back away. Fucking ridiculous. Since when did I run?
“I might have kissed you first, Elio, but that second kiss? It was on you.”
“And I accept full responsibility?—”
“I don’t need you to. I don’t want you to. But just because you felt like it was a mistake that can’t happen again doesn’t mean I do. Good night, Elio. You can drop the clothes off by the door.”
She leaned up and pressed a kiss on my jawline, pulling away just as quickly. I didn’t react.
And with that, she turned away and walked inside the room, closing the door gently behind her and leaving me standing there, wondering why the hell it felt like I had just lost the battle.
Fucking hell.