“It’s fine. I’m happy to help in any way I can. How was she this morning?”
“Better.” She kept her gaze fixed on her page, avoiding mine. “Olivia was with her when I left. Now that I’m here, I feel guilty for leaving.”
“Don’t feel guilty. You need to look after yourself too. Take a break when you need one.”
“I won’t stay for long.”
“Stay for as long as you like.”
She swallowed, and her fingers tightened around her pen. I could see how hard it was for her to speak to me like this, but my heart was bursting with gratitude that she was.
“I just… I needed to be near Sani. I know that might sound weird, but I feel better, safer, and less anxious when he’s around. I don’t feel so alone, and he makes me less crazy.”
I smiled, my heart swelling at the bond they clearly had.
“Probably because he’s crazy enough for both of you,” I added, and she shrugged with a smile. “Well, I’m glad you’re here. It will be nice to have another girl around, and honestly, I don’t have many friends, so I’d like us to get to know each other better.”
That seemed to stop her in her tracks. She put down the pen. “You don’t?”
“No.” I shook my head. “I have a close friend here in Rome, Allegra. And then there’s Nita, who I work with, but we are more colleagues than friends. I swear, the older you get, the harder it feels to find genuine friends. To find people who get you and you have that instant connection with.”
“What about in the UK? You grew up there?”
“We moved around a lot. Nothing ever stuck. I guess I’ve always been a bit of a loner.”
She studied me, her eyes sweeping over my body. “You seem so confident and friendly.”
“Yeah. But I have a lot of walls around me. It’s hard for people to break through.”
She nodded. “Has my brother broken through?”
“With a sledgehammer.” I laughed, and she joined in, the once awkward tension between us depleting by the second.
“Sounds like Sani. Always pushing people out of their comfort zones.”
“Yeah. He’s a master at that.” I moved closer, pulling out the other stool and sitting next to her. This woman intrigued me so much. She was a closed book, guarded and careful with everything she said and did. The complete opposite of Sani. There was something about her that made me feel instantly protective, as if she were vulnerable, though I didn’t quite believe that either. She had a quiet strength hidden beneath the fragility she projected. It was confusing.
“Do you have many friends?” It was a bold question. I wouldn’t normally ask a stranger, but I had a feeling she didn’t have many people to talk to outside her family.
She shook her head and smiled at me. “I’m a loner too.”
“Maybe we could be loners together?”
She beamed, all innocence and sweetness, and I couldn’t help but smile. “Only if you can answer this question correctly.”
I snorted. Was she testing me? Maybe she was more like her brother than I thought. “Okay…”
“Would you rather be chased by a demon with a forked tongue and a ribbed cock who pins you down and fucks you in the dirt, or by a tattooed vampire with a pierced cock who chokes you with a feather boa while he ruins you from behind?”
I blinked at her, processing the fact that those softly spoken, filthy words had just come out of her mouth. Then I considered the impossible choice. I scrunched my face as I answered, “Can I say both? I feel like that’s a why-choose situation.”
A carefree, light laugh burst from her, radiating her natural beauty and making me giggle at her reaction.
“I think we just became best friends.”
Oh, thank God for that.
I pulled up outside the gates of Piero’s home and gestured to the SUV full of my men to stay back, even as Piero’s security team swarmed my bike. I imagined it was because they knew who I was, but the eight armed guards still seemed a little excessive for ten in the morning.
