Wasn’t I just thinking that could be her name? Sistine?
Yeah, I was. What was the sorcery that was happening in this fucking place? Maybe all the Baroque decor had held onto magic from an age long gone and was working in this time.
I’d been reading over a pamphlet a few minutes before I’d set my eyes on Sistine, and the pamphlet gave the history between the jewelry store and my family.
My family was the only source of income the jewelry family had, because they had been doing business since both families began their roles in this world. So, we were exclusive with each other. But there were rules.
One of them being: No Fausti could date, much less marry, a Capella/Cappello.
A terrible romantic situation had stemmed from it, and since the jewelry family and the Fausti family didn’t want their business relationship sullied by romantic ones, it became an iron-clad rule.
This all to say, Cappello wasn’t their true given name. It was Capella. Someone in my family years ago had gotten it wrong when their dealings first began, and since the Capella family of that time didn’t want to insult my family by pointing out the mistake, the jewelry store adopted the name, since it was close to their true name. AnOinstead of anA. Butcapellain Italian meanschapel, so the Renaissance Painting’s real name meant—Sistine Chapel.
She was more than art.
She was everything the chapel stood for.
I was willing to bet her physical appearance had nothing on what was going on inside of her, if she could lose the pinched look she had for me. She was stopping me at her door. She had closed herself off to me, guarding everything she had control over. What existed beyond the flesh.
Mia bopped me on the head with the pamphlet, and I grinned at her, fixing my hair. She was reminding me of the rules. It was more than that, though. Capri kept staring at me, and I was engaged in a two-way stare—three, including myself.
Capri kept staring at me, Sistine kept looking away, and I kept my eyes on both. Not because I had any interest in Capri, but because I could sense a situation between the two sisters. The harder Capri stared at me, the more disgusted Sistine seemed to be getting.
Huh.
Adone, though, was clueless. I could tell he was worried that something might happen between Capri and me. Especially with how openly she was staring. It seemed like he was totally dismissing anything happening between Sistine and me, since he put her in charge of showing us to our personal vault full of priceless jewels and collectables.
Big fucking mistake.
Maybe Capri might have been more forward with flirting, but a man with a true romantic heart wouldn’t be able to look past Sistine Capella. I’d never considered myself only romantic, but the threads of my heritage seemed to ensnare me the moment my eyes found her surrounded by all that colorful light, entranced by her trade.
Her eyes.
I released a breath.
Hazel.
Her eyes were a hypnotizing hazel.
Suddenly, my favorite fucking colors of the kaleidoscope. Because they created the spellbinding colors of her eyes. Hers were more of an olive green, with a touch of deep blue, and gold around her irises. I didn’t know if I wanted to take a walk through an olive grove or take a dive into the depths of the Tyrrhenian Sea, both during the golden hour of the day.
In response to Adone’s order, Sistine looked horrified, and for some reason, that made me grin. Adone had shifted fate in my direction, leaving the forward sister behind and giving me time with the one who was sending me daggers.
My heart seemed to swell with the dangerous intentions in her eyes. There wasn’t anything I loved more than a dangerous woman, especially when she seemed capable of going past flesh and hitting the heart in my chest. Just by looking at her, there was an ache that started inside of me that I’d never felt before. I wasn’t sure what heartbreak felt like, but if I had to guess, what I was feeling was exactly what this foreign feeling was close to.
Fuck me sideways.
I said a “fuck Marciano” (the brother directly after me) under my breath.
The family that had founded the House of Sicilia had arrived.
Based in Sicily, they were some of the most famous clothing designers in the world. The head designer and his wife stood with their daughter Sicilia, who was named after the company and the place it was rooted. Sicilia was in the process of taking over the helm of the family dynasty. Apparently Cappello’s Jewelry and the House of Sicilia were collaborating to design clothes inspired by the Fausti family. Marciano was used to knocking grown men out with barely a blow of his fist, but the moment his eyes found Sicilia, he moved into the shadows like he’d been sucker punched against the wall.
What did I say? Fucking sorcery.
The entire time my sister kept giving me looks, like she knew what the fuck was going on and had the sorcery all figured out. Which in turn sent Matteo into “head of the family” mode. I could tell he was going to order me to stay out front, but before he could, Mamma put a stop to it. She wasn’t in the business of trying to stop fate.
Instead of fighting fate, Matteo hit me on the head with a pamphlet, again, attempting to hit me over the head with rules and knock some order into me.
