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“Marcello,” I choked out, stunned by this surprise. “This is…” I turned to look at him, my mouth hung open. “Wow… You’re really good.”
“We have a lot in common,” he said with a wink.
I smiled up at him. “You could pursue an art career. We could…”
“No,” he said before I could finish. “I don’t want anyone to know.” He shook his head, dark hair falling onto his forehead. “My art is the only thing not corrupted by evil.”
“Exposing my art to the world opened my life up to interpretation. I get a lot of questions about Luca. People want to know if he’s the Devil in my paintings.”
“He’s your inspiration.”
“It started as a present for him,” I admitted. “Just an experiment. I didn’t even think my first Devil painting was that good. But Luca made a big deal out of it.”
“He does that,” he said with laughter in his tone.
“Queen D was a joke, just a name Luca called me. A way for me to hide my identity online. And then he posted a pic on Instagram with my first Devil painting. Well, you know the rest.”
“My brother is a bastard,” he said with his eyes on me. “But he has his moments.”
Marcello’s eyes flicked back to the mural. I studied the man with the snake wrapped around his body.
“Aiden knew your secret, didn’t he? That’s why you guys were friends. You told him how to find The Serpents.”
Marcello nodded. “We did the piece behind the bakery together.”
I lifted my brows. “The one in Beacon Bay?”
“Yeah. It was Aiden’s idea.”
“He showed it to me a few weeks before he disappeared.”
I wrapped my fingers around his wrist and looked up at him. He was so beautiful I wanted to cry. Lonely Boy. Now it all made sense. Artists were natural introverts, content with cutting themselves off from the world.
The loneliness suited him.
I opened my mouth to speak, and he pressed his finger to my lips. “Before you ask about Aiden, I can’t tell you anything. Marry Luca if you want answers.”
“The oath,” I muttered.
He nodded, then lowered his finger, eyes still on me.
“Does your brother know you paint?”
“We talk little,” he confessed, then led me by the hand toward his king-size bed. “Not unless it’s about work, the Knights, or you. He hasn’t been in my room since we were teenagers.”
“I wouldn’t have survived growing up without my brother.” Turning to face him, I moved my hand to his thigh. “Aiden made everything better. The night terrors. All the shit with our parents. That’s why he was so protective of me. Why he never wanted Luca near me.”
He sucked in a deep breath.
“Thank you for holding me at night. It helps me get back to sleep.”
“I wish I didn’t have to hear you scream… I don’t know any other way to make the nightmares stop.”
“Aiden did the same thing for me.” I smiled at the thought of my brother. “He had the magic touch.”
He gave me a knowing look.
“I miss him,” I whispered, fighting back the tears. “Every day.”
An awkward silence passed between us.
He looked down at my hand on his thigh. His fingers grazed mine, my skin on fire from his touch.
Our eyes met, and he swiped his thumb across my bottom lip. “You deserve better.”
“Than you?”
“All of us.” His voice was deep and smooth. “You’re too good for this place. So much like her.”
“Your mom?” I guessed.
Some of my success in the art world came from Luca’s connections. He made a lot of shit happen for me. Despite my feelings for the Salvatores, they had also done a lot of good for me.
“You remind me of her.” He traced a circle on the top of my hand with his finger. “At least what I remember.”
“You and Luca had horrible shit happen to you, too.” I squeezed his hand. “It should have bonded you, not pushed you apart.”
He stared over my shoulder at the wall. “We were never close. And after our mom died, our house was silent. No laughter. No music. Nothing. Just fucking silence. She was the only good in our lives. The light in the darkness. Then came the violence. I adapted to my environment.”
“My house was a nightmare,” I told him. “I hated it.”
He cupped the side of my face. “Your mom will pay for what she did to you.”
I felt a spark between us, an instant connection that made my skin sizzle with heat. “What’s happening between us, Marcello?”
His eyes held mine. “I don’t know.”
“We can’t keep doing this.” I blew out a deep breath. “Luca will end up killing both of us.”
“I knew it was you,” he whispered.
My chest caved from his confession, sucking the air from my lungs.
Be still, heart.
“Until tonight, I’d never fucked a woman without a condom.” He leaned his forehead against mine and groaned. “I wanted to know how you felt. Just once.”
