Soulless Devil (Sons of Valentino #3)(16)

“What are you looking for?” Romeo asks, staring at my face.

“Nothing,” I lie and stare straight ahead.

“Right,” he says, pulling his phone from his pocket and typing out a message to someone. When we get to my dorm building, he hands me my bag.

“Thank you,” I say, looking past him. I swear I just saw someone on the other side of the road. But it’s a campus. There’s bound to be people around.

Romeo turns his head and looks in the direction that I was staring. “Is someone bothering you, Livvy?” he asks.

“What? No. I just… it’s stupid.” I shake my head.

“You’re not capable of stupid. What is it?” he presses.

“I’ve just had this feeling like I’m being watched when I walk back at night. That’s all. Like I said, it’s stupid.”

“It’s not stupid.” He glares up and down the path. There’s nobody in sight though.

“Want me to stick around for a bit?” he asks.

“No, I’m fine. Thank you for walking me home. I’ll see you on Tuesday.”

“Sure, thanks again for all your help. I really do appreciate it.”

“Anytime.” I smile and force myself to turn around and walk into the building.

Why is it always so hard to walk away from him? He has some kind of magnetic pull on me, an invisible force tying me to him.





Chapter Nine





Walking back to the library, I answer the slew of text messages that have been blowing up my phone for the last few hours. Most of them from Luca. I don’t think I ever noticed how fucking needy he was before. I guess because I’ve always been available to him. Now, my mind is preoccupied with everything that is Livvy. Which is fucked up, because Luca has always been my number one. He still is. At least I think he is.

The drive back to my apartment is short. I open the door and find Luca and a bunch of his football buddies drinking out on the balcony. “Finally, where the fuck have you been?” he asks the moment I walk in.

“Out,” I answer.

“Well, get a drink. We’re celebrating.” He smiles.

“Oh, yeah? What’s the occasion?”

“It’s Monday.”

“You’re celebrating because it’s Monday?” I ask. Surely I didn’t hear that right.

“Every day we’re still breathing is worth celebrating, bro.” He smirks.

Ain’t that the fucking truth.

In our family, it’s a fucking gift, each day we wake up breathing. That thought brings me back to Livvy’s question. Would I kill for love? I’ve killed for less, I wanted to tell her. I wanted to open my mouth and spill all of my darkest secrets. Shit, that could see me behind bars for the rest of my life. She’s fucking dangerous. I need to put distance between myself and her. If only I could fucking resist her orbit… I can’t fucking help but want to be close to her. And I haven’t even so much as kissed the girl. Yet.

“I’ve got to study,” I lie, pivoting on my heel and heading in the opposite direction. I don’t feel like drinking with Luca’s friends. I don’t feel like pretending. Instead, I close myself inside the sanctuary of my room. My mind replays the image of Livvy sprawled out on my bed. I can’t wait to get her back in here. Only conscious this time. And naked.

Sitting on my bed, I open my laptop, click my video messenger app, and call my cousin Izzy. She’s always understood me the best out of anyone. My brothers get me. I could always go to them for advice. The only problem with asking them anything about Livvy is they’re all horrible gossips and it’d just get back to my mom. Nobody, especially me, needs my mother getting it in her head that I’m about to give her a daughter-in-law. She’s obsessed with marrying all of us boys off. She wants enough grandbabies to fill her house. And the house I grew up in is fucking huge. Fifteen bedrooms to be exact. That’s a lot of fucking grandbabies—ones I have no intention of giving her.

Izzy’s face comes into view. “Romeo, Romeo, what can I do for you?” she asks with a devilish twinkle in her eyes. She knows how much I hate any reference to Shakespeare, which is precisely why she makes every effort to address me using her best rendition of Juliet.

I roll my eyes. “Izzy, can’t I just call my cousin to say hi?”

“You could, but you don’t. So spit it out. Unlike you, I’m not living the college life. I actually have shit to do.”

“I do shit,” I defend.

“Yep, sure you do.”

“There’s this girl,” I start.

“Wait. Stop right there,” she yells, jumping up. I watch as she runs to a window to peer outside.

“What’s wrong? Izzy, what the fuck is going on?” I’m ready to make the one-hour trip to her house.

She finally sits back down in front of the computer. “Sorry, had to check if there were any flying pigs outside because I thought you just said you had a girl.”

“Funny, maybe I should call another cousin. I’m sure Lily and Hope wouldn’t give me as much grief.”

“Meh, you know they’d be worse.”

I hate that she’s right. My other cousins, Lily and Hope, would go straight to their mom, my Aunt Reilly, who would then go straight to my mother with this gossip.