Heat traveled from my ears to my toes. If I were smart, I would encourage it, but Matti was a fuckboy, and the thought of him touching the innocent Principessa made me sick. The idea of anyone touching her made me sick. She’d already put the idea in my head, and now we had to follow through. I looked up and caught her watching me. I remained fully composed as I typed out my message.
Me: dont you fucking dare
Her mouth tipped up.
Lenora: what would you do if I ask him?
Again, my body went hot. I looked at her. She raised an eyebrow. I had a love-hate relationship with this saucy side of her.
Me: fuck around and find out
Lenora: like you’d care
I knew she was probably fishing for compliments or trying to see if I said anything about Yari. I didn’t bother responding. What the fuck was I supposed to say? Was I supposed to tell her that I cared? Did ripping Matti’s and Nico’s limbs off if they dared to touch her constitute as caring? Fuck. That alone told me that I shouldn’t fuck her, much less be her first. It would only complicate the shit out of things, and the last thing we needed was more complications when things were finally settling down. I looked up again and saw her smiling up at Matti. It took everything in me not to charge over there and snap his neck. Yeah, I was doing this.
12
LENORA
I hated seeinghim with other women. I hated hearing about him with other women. I’d been at this party for two hours now, and I no longer wanted to rip Yari’s head off because she moved on to Jimmy and then Nico and kept talking about how hot he was. I thought that would be the end of that, but then Gabe’s finance bros arrived, and one of the women they were with introduced herself as Crystal. I knew instantly that she was Rocco’s ex, so I saw red all over again. I thought I was too young to have issues with my blood pressure, but this party was proving otherwise. Crystal was a little shorter and curvier than me, and she used those curves to her advantage. The black dress she was wearing looked like it was drawn on. The jeans and blouse that made me feel confident before suddenly made me feel like the prude I was. She was the opposite of me — which should’ve been fine since he said he had no type, and I knew he was attracted to me — but I still felt the sting of jealousy.
“Don’t start baiting Rocco,” the guy she was hanging onto said. He’d introduced himself as Reid. “I’ll be six feet under before I can do my next line.”
“Please. Rocco isn’t jealous,” Crystal said.
“Really? He looks like he would be,” another woman said.
Crystal scoffed. “I could have fucked Reid in front of Rocco, and he probably wouldn’t have batted an eye. He’s probably the least jealous boyfriend I’ve ever had.”
“And the best in bed,” the woman said.
“Tammy, can you shut the fuck up?” That was Reid.
“Reid is the best,” Crystal said, and I believed her with how she was clinging onto him, but then she looked at Rocco, and I got mad all over again.
I focused on Nico and Mattia, who talked about cars and engines. I rewound the conversation. She’d said Rocco wasn’t jealous, which was odd. He was jealous earlier when I was pretending I’d hook up with Mattia. I would never have done it, but I wanted a reaction out of him, and even though his composure remained completely stoic, his texts and burning eyes told another story.
“He’s fucking hot,” Tammy said. I was beginning to hate her.
“He’s emotionally unavailable.” Crystal clicked her tongue against her teeth.
“You’re just saying that because you tried everything to get a rise out of him and never got one.” Tammy laughed.
Crystal sounded like she didn’t care, but even though she was holding onto Reid’s arm, she was eyefucking Rocco. I decided I’d had enough of this party and this crowd. I’d be long gone in two weeks and never have to see most of these people again. I grabbed my phone and started walking. I thought it would be fun to mess around and make Rocco jealous, and it was, but not at the cost of me losing my mind in the process. The logical part of me screamed that I should stop the madness, that it was best if I didn’t give my virginity to Rocco or anyone else but Adriano. That idea repulsed the other part of me. It didn’t matter. I was done. If I felt this way and Rocco hadn’t even kissed my lips, imagine how I’d feel if he slept with me. I’d have to endure years of jealousy and longing while I stood by a man I’d never love. And Rocco would move on because that was what men like him did.
I kissed Rosie goodbye and told her I was exhausted, then said bye to everyone else and snuck out the side door that led to my brother’s house. A little garden sat between the houses. I’d only seen it during the day, but at night it was breathtaking. They’d strung little lights throughout. It almost felt like a fairytale. I startled at the loud slamming of the gate behind me and increased my speed. I hoped Dominic hadn’t told Nico or Mattia to escort me back. Dominic’s overprotectiveness was the only reason Dad let me stay here without his security. I heard movement behind me but kept going. I was near Dominic's gate when an arm grabbed me from behind, and a hand covered my mouth. Instinctively, my body tightened in readiness to fight or flee. I was ready to struggle against the person's grip until I heard his rough voice.
“Not a sound, Principessa,” Rocco said near my ear. My heart was still pounding wildly, but I sagged against him. He let go of my mouth but kept his hand on my stomach to keep me from moving.
“You scared me.” I elbowed him twice. Hard. He didn’t even make a sound.
“Why? Were you expecting Nico?” he asked, dropping his voice in a way that made my entire body shiver. “Or Mattia?”
“Were you expecting Crystal?” I spat out. “Or Yari?”
“Hm.” The sound vibrated through me as he bit my earlobe. I shut my eyes hard. “Is the Principessa jealous?”
“No.”
