A Touch of Sin |18+|

27

ALANI

I groaned out loud, letting myself fall onto the sofa after I had just read a text from Eddy.

Did you get started on the assignment yet?

What assignment?

"What's wrong?" Valerio asked, staring at me from across the living room.

I gave him a look of despair and quickly looked through my schedule, hoping that I wasn't stupid enough to miss an entire assignment. Low and behold, it was right there. Due in twenty four hours.

I groaned louder, already feeling irritated by myself and my inability to be on time. I was so distracted by everything in my life that I failed to double check if I had anything due.

"Amore," Valerio deadpanned, still looking at me with a concerned expression. "What's wrong?"

"I have an assignment that needs to be completed by tomorrow," I said, sounding a bit more defeated than I intended. I had planned on spending a relaxing evening with Valerio—which was no longer an option.

"Oh," he said, pushing himself off his chair to sit down next to me. "Can I see?"

"Yeah, sure," I murmured, handing him my phone. The file was open and Valerio looked down at the instructions, his brows furrowing as his eyes scanned over the words.

He lifted his head, handing me the phone. "Well. Let's get started."

"Wait," I muttered, looking at him sceptically. "Really?"

"Statistics. I can help you with that if you want," he said with a small shrug.

I narrowed my eyes at him. Was he pulling my leg? "I don't want to be rude but—"

Valerio chuckled. "Don't worry about it. I think my degree in applied mathematics will finally be of some use," he said casually, and my jaw just about dropped to the floor. Valerio had a degree? I wasn't shocked at that—but how could I have missed that about him?

It was as if he knew everything about me, and I was just learning about him.

"Wow. Did you just say degree in mathematics?" I repeated, leaning closer to him. There was a grin on my face and his own lips pulled up into a smile as he looked down at me.

"Yes," he whispered. "Is that a surprise?"

"Not at all, but I'm just surprised that I didn't know that about you," I said softly, realising that I really needed to ask Valerio more questions.

"I didn't think it was important," he said with another nonchalant shrug. It wasn't important? Of course it was. When I said I wanted to know everything about him, I meant it. Not about his work, or the shit he did in his everyday life—just him. His past. His childhood. How he feels.

I needed to open up more, but Valerio needed to do the same if what we had was going to work.

"It is," I stated. "Everything about you is important. Don't hold back anymore. Do you understand?"

Valerio gave me a once over, until his eyes met mine. "Yes, I understand."

I gave him a pat on the cheek, giving him a quick kiss on the lips. "Good. I'm about to take advantage of you, Valerio. I hope you're ready."

He smiled cheekily, giving me another kiss. "You can take advantage of me all you like."

I laughed at the blatant innuendo. "Not in that way."

"I don't give a fuck," he whispered. "In any way, shape or form. Ask and you will receive. I mean it." The chilling part was that it didn't seem like he was lying.