Total pages in book: 79
Estimated words: 79061 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 395(@200wpm)___ 316(@250wpm)___ 264(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 79061 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 395(@200wpm)___ 316(@250wpm)___ 264(@300wpm)
“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?