I imagined.
I felt a finger tap my shoulder, which made me jump. I hadn’t noticed that anyone had come up behind me. It was when I turned around that I was met with eyes that were so dark that they looked black. There was a glint in them—a sort of danger that I’d never seen before. He appeared mischievous, as though he were out to get something. It was intriguing, but still, I tried to stay as expressionless as those eyes were. I was sure that he saw right through it.
He held out a glass of wine toward me. “You want a drink?”
I narrowed my eyes at him, trying to deflect his casual demeanor. He was the only one of the Cavettis who seemed even remotely relaxed. The others had these expressions on their faces that made me uneasy, and it was as though they’d practiced being as stoic as possible in the mirror, so as to not give anything away. It was impossible to tell what they were thinking. The guy with the dark eyes was different. Not only was he speaking casually to me, but his expression was softer.
The way he talked, looked, and moved his chin, and how his nose hung almost symmetrically between his eyes—somehow, it eased the fear that was growing in my belly. If only a little. An expression crawled up my face, but my mind was in too much disarray to even know which expression it was.
Fear? Pain? Or just relief?
I didn’t know which it was, so I tried my best to make it disappear and resumed my blank, expressionless face. The Cavettis seemed far more experienced in that field than I was. I’d never seen such well-worn masks in my life.
I reached out and took the wine glass from his hand. “Thanks.”
I glanced back to see that Marcello was still targeting Chiara, which caused my stomach to knot. I knew just how naive she was. She had her eyes averted and seemed uncomfortable. I wanted to help her, but I knew that if my father saw me intervening, he’d be upset and take me aside afterward.
“So, you must be Alessandra.”
I turned back toward the young Cavetti in front of me to find his dark eyes peering into my own. “Yes, and you are?”
He gave me a coy smile, which only solidified the idea that he was trouble. “I’m Savio.”
A voice in the back of my mind warned me about him. There was just something about him that set off every alarm in my head. A feeling deep in my groin screamedno!Still, I couldn’t deny that he was hot.Reallyhot. I wanted to think that he wasn’t one of the most attractive men I’d ever seen, but that was a flat out lie. He was, and I had no doubt that he knew it, too. He had a strong build, high cheekbones, and hair so dark that it looked like obsidian. He was unreal, as though he was an Armani model that walked right out of a magazine. I was in awe that the Cavettis had a son that was as attractive as he was. They were all decent-looking, but he was the one that captured my attention the most.
That made him all the more worrisome.
Sure, I’d seen attractive men before. I’d had a few crushes on boys in my high school, but none of them had looked like Savio. He was definitely more than I was expecting. And he was talking to me, which was something that didn’t happen when I was in school. I was more outspoken than my twin, so anyone that had thought we were attractive usually came to talk to me. Though it often meant getting in a fight with Chiara behind closed doors.
But it seemed as though she was already preoccupied.
It didn’t placate me, though. I couldn’t understand. What was he doing beside me? Honestly, I should have blended into the background easily enough. I wasn’t that attractive. At least, I figured he wouldn’t be attracted to me. I could see him waltzing around with the hottest women in Chicago. If he knew the rumors I’d heard about him, he wouldn’t have chosen to talk to me. He was known to be a deviant, sleeping with everyone that moved and doing it all without even saying goodbye.
I could see why that was the case—the way the sun’s radiance highlighted his straight, shiny hair, how light gleamed from his wicked black eyes, and how each side of his face seemed like the work of a master sculptor. I could see why it would make any woman daydream.
