Heart of Stone - Stone and Fire #1 [17+] (REWRITING)

Chapter 14

HEY CUTIES

very long chapter today

ALSO DONT DO DRUGS YALL (supposed to be the tw cuz ion want this book banned again)

Adriana's POV

I was supposedly great at noticing the small things.

The modern paintings of black and white lodged up against the hall outside my room. Not one ounce of meaning in them, unless you counted the dust around their borders.

His locked bedroom door.

How fucking cold it was in this house.

Sometimes I opted to wear a robe, and even that wasn't enough to disregard the one thing I hadn't noticed- there were no heaters. Anywhere.

Did the man freeze to death when New York had it's annual share of snow? It was like my superpower for reading people seemed to dissipate into thin air the moment his face came into view. The only thing I felt when he was in proximity -which wasn't often- was a clenched sort of patience, entitlement, and a tingly feeling in my lower stomach.

I found myself thinking about that last one the most.

I'd rather his presence be ghosted rather than his gaze. Because his eyes.. his eyes made me feel things I didn't wanna admit. They casted images in my head that were filthy, dirty, and a disgrace to humanity.

It was wrong. So wrong. Sometimes at night I'd even catch myself slip and say, well, fuck it, because he's gonna be my husband in two weeks. But people in the Cosa Nostra get married every week, and they don't seem attracted to each other after a millennia.

God, was I really this easy?

He was the goddamn enemy, and here I was, wishing he'd sneak into my room at night and do unspeakable things to me.

Fuck.

I needed to get out of this house before I died of touch deprivation.

I dialed Layla, praying she hadn't lugged Hugo to the mall again.

I started pacing the room the moment she picked up.

"Alleviate. Tonight. Please?"

She scoffed. "Damn. I owe your sister fifty."

I stared at the wall. "You guys bet on me?"

"No, we bet on the fact that you would fucking lose it within a week."

I sighed and sat on the edge of my bed. "I don't know what it is. He's not even doing anything- he hasn't done anything except for fucking ignore me."

The line went silent. "Mio Dio, Adriana. Just because you were homeschooled doesn't mean you should allow yourself to act this demented."

"What?"

"How do I even- okay. Let's make this easy, yeah?"

"Okay. Easy. Easy is nice." I sat back down on the edge of my bed.

"He wants to fuck you."

My amusement faded away within the next second.

I pretended she was standing in front of me. "He wants to fuck me?"

"Real bad. I'm talking all-night, no strings attached bad. Like, the borderline predatory kind. The kind that'll leave you paralyzed from the bottom half."

I suddenly wondered if his personality was weaved through sex. Was he rough, like his voice? Demanding like his aura? It stunned me that I could picture it so perfectly. His large hands coasting my skin, and then flipping me over on the mattress-