“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.
11
ISA
I wokeup early the next morning in the unfamiliar bedroom.
Dawn was just breaking, letting in enough light for me to look around the room.
I had never been to Elio’s house before. It didn’t matter how many years I had known him, or even the fact that he and Valentino were best friends. There had never been a reason for me to be here.
It wasn’t as if Elio was particularly sociable. None of the De Luca siblings were, now that I thought about it, except for Giulia. But from what I had observed of her before, even when she was surrounded by friends, it felt as if she was still standing slightly outside the circle.
A byproduct of the way they grew up, perhaps, or maybe because of who they were.
I sat up and looked around. It was a standard room. There was nothing personal in here that told me anything about Elio, not that I had expected much from a guest bedroom.
There were so many times throughout the night that I wanted to walk over to his bedroom. My shyness and fear of rejection held me back.
I might have talked a big game last night, and even if what I said was true—that I didn’t accept us just forgetting about it and pretending it didn’t happen, and that it cannot happen again—it didn’t mean I was brave enough to face his rejection again.
I climbed out of the bed and slowly walked over to the door, hesitating just as my hand touched the doorknob. I looked down at myself. I was in one of Elio’s shirts and a pair of his sweatpants. They hung over my small frame, and they smelled like him. I was almost tempted to wear this for the entire day, and I would if there were a good chance I wouldn’t run into anyone.
