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“You can call me Ivy, and Mr. Blanchi is Marco.”
She opened a set of glass French doors to another interior room. Inside, were two young men. One was massive, with arms that looked about as wide as my toro. His eyes were dark, almost black, and when he looked at me, I shivered. They were cold and empty, and they were the eyes of a killer.
The other, his brother from their shared features, looked at me with an easy smile.
“Boys,” Ivy said, with a small flourish of her hand, “our guest has arrived.”
The smaller of the two smiled. “Glad to see you made it alright. Ma here was worried that we’d miss you.”
I shifted slightly. “Sorry that you had to cut your vacation short.”
“Nonsense,” Ivy said. “We weren’t planning to stay long, but Fiona and Eli both graduated, and honestly, it was hard to leave paradise. Mr. Blanchi, Marco, had to go to the office to oversee a few things, but he will be home tonight for dinner.”
Not sure what to say, I simply nodded once more. Standing before the Blanchi boys felt odd, especially since the largest, Eli, was looking at me as though I’d killed his favorite animal.
“Eli?” Ivy stepped away from me and toward her son. “Why don’t you show Carla to her room?”
Eli tensed. It was small but noticeable if you were looking, and I was looking. There was something about Eli Blanchi that made me both terrified and curious. Maybe it was the fact that he looked as though he wanted to rip my heart out of my chest, or maybe, it was how his jaw appeared to be cut from marble.
Either way, it made me shiver to look at him.
Ivy’s warm fingers squeezed my hand. “I’ll give you a tour of the house this afternoon, but why don’t you get some rest and pack. We’ll have a more formal dinner this evening, and you can meet the rest of the family.”
I swallowed heavily. That sounded awful, but I wasn’t going to say that aloud. “Sounds wonderful.”
“Come on.” Eli’s gruff voice drew everyone’s attention, and I could tell from the slight way his mother’s eyes widened that this was not normal for him. “Let’s go.”
He was out of the room so quickly that I thought maybe I’d imagined him. Unfortunately, I hadn’t, and before Ivy could say anything, I decided to follow behind.
CHAPTERFIVE
Eli said nothing as he led me through the house. The place was a lot larger than I would have expected from the outside.
It wasn’t as large as the compound, but perhaps, that was a good thing. These days I rarely slept. The further away from the memories of my former home, the better.
“Here’s your room.” I’d been so wrapped up in my own mind, I hadn’t been paying attention as Eli walked me through the house, and before I knew it, we were standing outside of an open room.
“It’s nice.” It was nice. It smelled like lavender, and it was filled with expensive white furniture and books. It had also been decorated in every shade of pink imaginable. And while the color didn’t offend me, it wasn’t my favorite.
“My mom went through a lot of trouble to decorate it for you. She wanted you to feel at home here.”
His words sliced through me. “This place will never be my home.” The words were barely a whisper, and I hadn’t meant to speak them aloud.
“Don’t say that to my mother.” Eli’s words were angry but even. “She went through a lot of trouble to do all of this for you.”
Something about his tone pissed me off. “I didn’t ask to come here, ya know.” Crossing my arms over my chest, I leveled Eli with my most irritated stare. “I was forced.”
His expression didn’t chance, which heightened my anger.Was this guy a fucking statue?Seemed like it.
“I don’t care why you are here,” he told me. “I don’t want you upsetting my mother.”
I looked him up and down. Eli was massive. Well over six foot tall, and with more muscles than an eighteen-year-old boy should have. Short, dark stubble peppered his chin, and it gave a sort of darkness to his otherwise clean-cut aesthetic. “I’m not here to upset anyone.”
“Then, why are you here?” There was an accusation in his tone. It was clear that he was not happy to have me here.Well, that made two of us.
A knock on the door drew both of our attention.
The driver peeked in, his jovial face looking at the two of us. “Just dropping off your bags.”
