For Angelo (Full-Length Standalone Italian Billionaire Romance) (5 page)

BOOK: For Angelo (Full-Length Standalone Italian Billionaire Romance)
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Chapter Two

It took an entire week before Lane saw him again.

It was orientation day of the legal management seminar she had signed up for, and Lane had taken one of the seats at the back, not wanting to draw any attention. While therapy had enabled her to lead a somewhat normal life, her therapist had also been honest with her.
 

Lane would never be the same again.
 

But how
much
her fears would affect her was up to Lane.

And so here she was,
Lane thought ruefully. Ever the masochist, she had accepted the scholarship offered by Christopoulos University, which wasn’t just thousands of miles away from home. It was also
the
school for rich kids – no, wait, that wasn’t right. CU was
the
school for the
richest
and
best-looking
kids.

Every day was a silent torture, and lately, it had been made worse by the depression that was stealthily finding its way to her heart.

In front of the class, the dean was telling them about how special they were to have been selected for this extremely special seminar.

“You’ve been accepted based not just on your grades but your potential as well. We believe that you have what it takes to do spectacularly in your chosen fields.” The dean cleared his throat. “And so, without further ado, I would like to introduce two of my former students who have graciously accepted my invitation to be your mentors.”

The dean gestured towards the doors on his right, as if beckoning someone to come in. The doors opened and a tall, dark-haired man in a conservative-looking suit entered.

“Ladies and gentlemen, Steel March, CEO of the Beaufort-March Enterprises.”

The guys in the room clapped politely, while almost half of the girls in the room shrieked.
 

Lane blinked, utterly taken aback by the class’ reception. Was he a celebrity or something?

“He’s mine, darn it,” she heard the girl next to her mumble very distinctly.

Surprised, Lane turned to face her, and the blonde appeared startled then dismayed.

“Oh God, you heard me?” She was tiny and enviably slim, with large blue eyes dominating her classically beautiful face. She was also dressed rather provocatively, with her black dress high-necked in front but dipping up to her waist at the back.
 

Rich,
Lane’s mind warned her, and she was immediately wary. She said cautiously, “Yes.”

The girl slumped in her seat. “Don’t tell him, okay.”

Lane was confused.
Tell…whom?

But before she could ask, the dean was introducing the other mentor. “Angelo Valencia III. He was previously a Student Council President of our university,” the dean shared proudly before proceeding with the other accomplishments of his former student.

Angelo,
she mused absently. That was a nice name.

“And now, let’s hear from our mentors,” Lane heard the dean say. “We’ll start with the one who gave me more trouble as a student, and that, my dear children, is none other than Angelo.”

The class laughed, and so did…he.

And that was when she knew.

Her head jerked up.

And when she frantically searched for him, she realized she didn’t have to look hard at all.
 

Because he had already been gazing at her from the start.

Because from the very moment he had walked into the room, he had known she
was
there, and that upon seeing her, his body had gone still and his blood had turned cold.
 

The entire time the dean had been talking about him, his attention had been completely focused on her, and he had not been able to understand why she had not looked up when he entered the room or when the dean had mentioned his name.

Instead, he had seen her look up only at the sound of his laughter, magnified by the microphone pinned to the lapel of his suit.

And now, she was staring at him, and for one moment he could not stop himself from gazing back at her. Even as he exchanged banter with the dean, even as he continued with the rest of his speech, he claimed her gaze—

Until he remembered that she already belonged to someone else.

His jaw clenched, and this time he looked away and never glanced back at her again. Even when it was Steel’s turn to speak, even when he could feel her stunned, wide-eyed gaze on him the entire time, he did not look at her even once.

A sickeningly strong sense of déjà vu struck him then, and his resolve strengthened.

Never again,
he thought grimly.

When the orientation was over, he had reinforcements in place, a woman waiting for him right outside the classroom.
 

Amor was a model and Italian like him. More importantly, she knew how to play the game as well as he did and expected only from Angelo what he was comfortable giving.

“Ciao,” he murmured in greeting, taking her hand and raising it up to his lips.
 

But instead of pleasure, he felt…pain.

Her pain.

He didn’t understand how and why, but he knew that she had seen it all, and she was in pain.

His jaw clenched.

He ended the kiss, but he didn’t release Amor’s hand. Instead, he held it tightly, knowing that to others it would seem like he was possessive of the model. Beside them, his friend Steel shot him a curious look, but Angelo ignored this.

He curled an arm around Amor’s waist, pulling her closer to him as they walked away, wanting to make a statement.

You are never going to be a part of my life.

He wanted the message to reach
her
loud and clear.

But it didn’t.

****

They started playing a cat-and-mouse game after that, and it left Angelo torn between anger and exasperation. In some strange, explicable twist, like the universe playing a joke on him, he – Angelo Valencia III, whose soul was beyond redemption – had ended up being the target, a full-sized prey being stalked by a tiny, hapless kitty.

And what made it worse,
he considered tautly, was that she didn’t even seem to be intentionally following him. As far as he could tell, it was fate constantly throwing them together, fate forcing their paths to continuously cross.

He would be heading to the dean’s office, see
her
from the opposite direction, and he would find himself turning around with embarrassingly clumsy haste. He would rather take a circuitous route than walk past her.

And now, Steel was asking him what was wrong. They were outside the library, with Angelo keeping his friend company while they waited for a family friend Steel was supposed to meet.

“Well?” His friend arched a brow at him.
 

“Nothing,” Angelo lied in a clipped tone. If he admitted the truth, then he might as well admit that he was already fighting a losing battle and
she
had gotten under his skin.

And that
, he thought grimly, he would never do.

Steel was smirking. “You’re lying. Remember the time we were supposed to have lunch at the students’ cafeteria because the one for faculty was crowded?”

“So I changed my mind—”

Steel rolled his eyes. “You were starving as much as I was—”

“You’re exaggerating,” he said brusquely. “I wasn’t starving. I just realized it would set a bad example if we didn’t maintain the barrier between students and mentors.”

“Riiiiight.” Steel’s tone was amused. “You’ve become rather fickle-minded lately, now that I think of it. Like the time we were crossing the street and you
changed your mind
halfway. You almost caused a four-car pile-up—”

Because he had seen her with the convenience store guy,
he recalled blackly. Angelo looked at Steel. “Just drop it, March.” His lips compressed in frustrated anger.

Damn it to hell.

Why couldn’t he stop being so affected?

And why, dammit, did he always end up wanting someone who already belonged to someone else?

“She’s here,” Steel murmured.

He looked up, thinking it was the girl Steel was supposed to meet. But instead he saw…
her.

Chapter Three

“Thank you so much for coming with me,” Farica de Konigh was saying as she curled her arm around Lane. She was a naturally affectionate kind of girl, and after having spent some time in Farica’s company, Lane had gradually learned to relax and accept the other girl’s presence.

Although “what you see is what you get” didn’t exactly apply to her newfound friend, what Lane did know about Farica was enough. The first day they had met, Farica had taken one look at her dazed expression and asked in a patently relieved tone, “You have a crush on Angelo Valencia?”

The words had Lane cringing. “It’s that obvious?” she had whispered.

“Only because I saw your face,” Farica had told her with a grin. “I’m so happy you like him,” she had continued. “At least I know you’re not going to be my rival.”

“Ri…val?”
 

Her voice dropping low, Farica had said, “Only a few people know about this, and if you tell my secret to someone else, I’m going to have to kill you—” Then Farica beamed. “But I have a feeling about you. I think you and I are going to be really good friends.”

They were?

“So I’m going to tell you my secret,” Farica had decided. “I have the biggest crush on Steel March.”

Oh.

“And because you like his friend, we can have a double wedding. Yay, right?”

And the rest was history,
Lane thought with a reminiscing smile.

Beside her, Farica suddenly started squeezing her arm. “Oh my God, Lane. He’s there. He’s really there, and he’s waiting for ME.”

Lane grinned.

“And oh my God, Lane,
he’s
there, too.”

“Who?”

“Angelo Valencia.”

Her head snapped towards where Farica was staring.

Her friend was right.

He was there.

Her fallen angel.

Or at least he had been, but now he was walking away.

Again.

He was always walking away from her, and she just didn’t get it. Didn’t he feel what she was feeling? Was it really all on her side?
 

She bit her lip, wanting so much to go after him.

But something stopped her, and it wasn’t pride or even shyness. It was something else, something that told Lane the next step…had to come from him.

So please take that next step,
she whispered in her heart.

Please.

****

And so their cat-and-mouse game continued. In class, he would do his best to avoid her gaze even though she would
not
stop staring at him. But every damn day, there would be that one instance he wouldn’t be able to help it.

He’d look at her, and always she would already be looking at him, her rosebud lips seemingly parted in invitation.

Steal my first kiss,
those rosebud lips seemed to tempt and taunt him at the same time.

And it would be her first kiss
, he thought grimly. Even though she and that boy from the convenience store were going out, he was experienced enough to recognize the signs, had seen innocence defiled too many times to count.
 

She had never been kissed, and certainly her body had never known a man’s touch.

But the fact remained.
 

She belonged to someone else.

That first day they had met, he had practically tripped on his own feet in his haste to get back to her. But from across the street, he had seen her with the boy, and they had their heads together, talking with a kind of intimacy that only people who were exceptionally close could do.

BOOK: For Angelo (Full-Length Standalone Italian Billionaire Romance)
7.23Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

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