Stepbrother | ✔︎

15 | petrichor

Petrichor [ pet•rich•or ]
n. the smell of earth after rain

^ - o r a b e l l a - ^

"Orabella, I wanted to personally apologize for my behavior. I was acting out in selfishness," Valentino spoke huskily when he found us preparing to exit out of the house doors. I noticed how Vincenzo looked agitated as he glared at his brother.

"It's fine," I told him, my voice soft, not sure if I meant it or not.

He gave me a beautiful jaw-dropping smile before taking my hand into his and placing a small kiss on my knuckles. "You look especially beautiful," he complimented.

"È abbastanza, Valentino," Vincenzo told him, annoyance clear in his voice. [ that's enough ]

"What? Sono solo gentile," Valentino responded, smirking at his own words. I moved closer to Vincenzo after he had wrapped his arm around my waist, connecting our bodies. It was crazy how they spoke of Vincenzo being the one all scary and mighty, when all his brother had to do was look at you for your heartbeat to exhilarate. [ I'm being nice ]

"Have fun on your date," he said before finally taking his intimidating eyes off of me and looking over at his brother. "Also, Barbie took your little Orabella here to my club," he told him.

I swallowed hard as I looked up at Vincenzo. My hopes were extremely high that he wouldn't lash out and take out his anger on Anastasia, the only person who I could see myself trusting here.

"What?" He asked angrily.

I narrowed my eyes at Valentino as a newfound dislike seemed to sprout from me as I looked at him. He didn't pay Vincenzo any attention as he smirked at me. "Sorry, Principessa-you tell on me, I tell on you," he chuckled out, acting as a child. [ princess ]

"Non ha visto molto e mi prenderò cura di Barbie," he said, shrugging his shoulders. I was going to make it my mission to learn Italian. Not knowing what everyone was saying around you could get really stressful and nerve-wracking. [ she didn't see much, and I will take care of barbie ]

"I want her handled. Poteva farsi male-," Vincenzo began, fire swimming around in his eyes. If this were a cartoon, I just knew that smoke would be steaming out of his ears. [ she could've gotten hurt- ]

"Go enjoy your time. I've got her covered," he spoke, never wiping that wicked smirk from his face. In fact, I believe that it grew as the sentence flew out of his mouth.

I noticed how he wasn't wearing his suit jacket anymore. Instead, his shirt had the top few buttons unbuttoned allowing his muscular chest to be seen. He even had a gold chain around his neck that seemed to add to his appeal. He gave me one last look, then I watched as he turned on his heel, whistling a tone as he went.

When my eyes trailed back over to Vincenzo, he was already looking at me quite angrily.

If I had known Valentino was just going to tell him everything I was attempting to avoid, I would have told him myself. That way, I could've explained it in a way that would've made him less upset.

"Okay, look-"

"I don't want to hear it. We have a dinner to get to. We will discuss this later," he told me. For some reason, I found a double meaning behind his words.

My whole body shivered as he placed his hand on the small of my back and guided me outside of the estate. We walked to the front where a man was already waiting for us with the back door of the limo ajar.