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3
DITA
“Eat some, sweetie. Why aren’t you eating?”
I looked at Stella, my mother, who sat across from me with Cary Volt, her new husband and my stepdad. He looked everything like a rugged, rock ‘n’ roll rock star—long hair, a leather jacket, cool cowboy boots and a large number of jewels around his wrist that made me wonder how he was able to play the guitar in that famous death metal band of his.
Due to some wrinkles, he seemed a little older than he was, but nevertheless, he still looked attractive at fifty-two. Maybe he cursed a little too often, and I did see him take his aspirin with a shot of vodka before we took off to the restaurant. But all in all, he was a real nice guy.
I couldn’t say the same about his offspring.
Wrapping my tongue around another bite of ravioli, I shrugged, not wanting Mom to worry about me. I hadn’t filled her in about how I’d finally met Cary’s sons. It wasn’t something I’d particularly wanted to get off my chest.
Rio and Ares.
Twin brothers.
They looked like Hellenistic sin but meant trouble. They got what they wanted, and they damn well knew it.
Ares… Ugh, I didn’t want to think about him.
I suppressed my body’s shudder and forced a smile around a mouthful of pasta. “I had a late lunch.”
She didn’t believe me. She cocked a perfectly manicured brow and tapped her nails on the table.
Fine. I rarely hated her mother’s instinct, but this was one of those moments I wished she’d let things go. “It’s just the move, that’s all.”
It wasn’t. The moment she told me Cary thought we were a package deal, I’d jumped on the opportunity. I’d packed everything within an hour. Those cardboard boxes were now stacked neatly in my new room. I just hadn’t unpacked yet because I couldn’t find the key to my room, and I didn’t want the guys snooping around my things.
Especially Ares.
From whom I didn’t want to ask where that key might be.
Yup, I was so alright.
Mom had no idea how hard it was to breathe around him or how my heart slingshot out of my chest when I thought I saw him coming down the stairs yesterday morning. Luckily, it was just Rio, and he wasn’t all that bad. He was fine. But Ares? I couldn’t put my finger on why his brother didn’t like me, and I hadn’t asked.
I almost regretted not sweet-talking my mother into loaning me some money. Why I’d stubbornly wanted to be a badass bitch and not let her worry was majorly biting me in my juicy half-Cuban ass. It was exhausting. Renting my own apartment sounded ten times better now.
Mom’s hand came down on mine, reassuring me through a squeeze that things would work out. “The last few months have been tough on you, sweetie, I know.”
“Ares and Orion being good to you?” Cary chipped in, having made me lie straight in his face so soon already. “They’re not giving you any trouble, are they?”
I pulled my brows together. “Orion?”
“Rio,” Cary elaborated.
“Right.”
Famous people and their weird child names. I’d never understand that concept, but despite that, Cary couldn’t have chosen better names for his sons. His boys looked as chiseled as their Greek counterparts.
Too bad their personalities weren’t as polished.
Forcing a smile, I trained my eyes on his gray ones, which were a shade darker than my roomies. “They’re not so bad. Why would they give me trouble?”
Yeah, why, Cary? Air out some dirty laundry, would you?
Maybe I could dig up some dirt now that Rio and Ares hadn’t joined us. I knew Cary’s relationship with his sons was strained, but not even Mom had cued me in as to why. I could use anything to blackmail them—Ares… I meant Ares.
