Page 24 of Heartless (Scathing Hearts #1)

Sienna

Camila and I were bent over the kitchen table, covered with a dozen colorful takeout menus I’d divided into two piles.

Even though I’d just had breakfast, some of the pictures made my mouth water. The front door opened and closed, and I uncrossed my legs before lowering my feet onto the cold tiles while my heartbeat kicked up.

Jake was home.

When a lyrical voice called Camila’s name, she beamed and jumped off her chair just as the woman burst into the kitchen while I slowly stood up.

The stranger was the picture of an Italian starlet from the olden days. She was dressed in a sleeveless cream knit wide-legged jumpsuit, and the sleek sheet of her long, gleaming, light-brown hair swayed as she rushed to wrap her arms around Camila.

Through their joyful mix of English and Italian greetings, I understood that the incredibly gorgeous woman had just flown from Florence.

Silas, who’d stopped at the arched jamb with several bags strapped over his shoulders, winked at me. “Hey, sweetie.”

I grinned at him. “Hi, Silas.”

As they stepped closer, the woman kept her arm around Camila’s waist. Up close, she was even more stunning.

“You’re Sienna. Zio Lenny didn’t lie, you’re bellissima. I’m Bianca.”

Then, she hugged me, and I happily fell headfirst into a girl-crush.

“Bianc, where do you want your truckload of luggage to go?” Silas asked.

Pulling out of the hug, Bianca shifted to face him. “My home from home, caro.”

“Jake renovated the quarters, and it’s where Sienna stays,” Camila said.

Warmth enveloped my face. “I can move... I don’t mind."

Bianca shook her head. “Absolutely not, I’ll stay in the guest room.” She curled her hand around mine. “But you have to show me what Jake did in there.”

“Sure.”

Silas started down the hallway, and five minutes later, Camila, Bianca, and I were in the quarters.

During the short tour, she’d gasped in wonder at the small library slash office.

If her flight from Florence had tired her, she was showing no sign of it.

She was full of life, and every word she said sounded delightfully seductive.

Bianca pulled me down onto the sofa beside her while Camila sat on the arm of the sofa behind her.

Bianca’s tone was gentle. “My uncle told me who you are and why you’re here.” She grazed her fingertips to the middle of my chest. “I also know about this, and that your father makes Attila the Hun sound nurturing.”

I couldn’t help but giggle. Camila did too.

A knock on the door made me jump. Slanting sideways, I aimed my voice at the door. “Come in.”

As Silas did, Bianca and Camila, who had their backs to the door, twisted toward him.

“Bianc, you’re in the room over the pool.”

“Thanks, caro,” Bianca replied.

Her voice was soft, but it was the mix of hunger and tenderness in Silas’s expression I found fascinating. He liked Bianca. He liked her a lot.

As he started toward the door, I asked, “Are you coming back for dinner?”

“I’ve smuggled pistachio gelato directly from Florence,” Bianca added.

I didn’t know how anyone could achieve such a feat, but Bianca seemed to be the type of woman who could do pretty much anything she’d set her mind to. After he’d agreed to come back for dinner and closed the door behind him, Bianca and Camila turned back to me.

“You arrived just in time for Sia’s birthday party. We’re having a poolside junk fest on Saturday,” Camila said.

It sounded a lot cooler in her words.

She continued. “Tomorrow we’re having a girls’ day.”

Bianca combed her fingers through her hair and hummed. “I could do with a girls’ day.”

Mom would have loved the two women.

****

After lunch, Bianca, Camila, and I were lounging by the pool. Bianca and I had changed into swimsuits. Hers was a white, simple bikini, and the perfect ornament for her fantastic body. Mine was a navy blue halter neck with yellow spots. Camila had kept her black tank top and hot pink shorts on.

I was sharing the huge daybed under the cream parasol with Bianca while Camila had settled in the chaise lounge across from the coffee table.

Lying on my stomach and propped on my bent elbow, I finished my white wine and set the hard plastic tumbler on the ground.

Then, I turned my smile to Bianca who was on her back beside me.

She was one of those women one read about.

Interesting, gorgeous, kind, and funny. She’d moved to Florence when she was eighteen to train as an opera singer.

In her own words, she hadn’t been good enough.

Now, she worked for a talent agency based in London in which she represented a pop singer I liked, and two painters I’d never heard of, but whose work I’d seen.

She loved the pace of her job and the lifestyle it afforded her.

She also had a sarcastic wit and used it mostly while talking about her love life.

After she’d told me the circumstances in which she’d met Jake and Silas, I’d stared at her, but Bianca had reassured me that the experience had left her with no scars.

I learned she’d married twice for love and divorced twice because of boredom.

The only time a shadow had passed through her radiant expression was when I asked her if she was Scary Edo’s daughter—I’d kept the scary part to myself.

She’d shaken her head and said, “No, Dario is my father, but I wasn’t the son he wished for, so Lenny’s the one who raised me. He’s my heart father.”

At just a few years older than me, she’d already lived three lifetimes.

As for Camila, since retiring from her accountant job, she’d been thinking about buying a catering business or a flower shop, hence the business management course.

I’d voted for catering, which had made her laugh.

She’d also started thinking about dating again, but she was taking things slow, not wanting to fall for another violent abuser, and focusing on her own happiness.

When it’d been my turn to tell my life story, I’d done it in three sentences, but Bianca had gently pushed and asked to know more about my tiny credentials as a writer.

I’d winced when I’d disclosed the nonexistence of my sexual life, but she’d just listened.

In fact, neither Camila, nor she, had commented, or judged.

And it’d been nice to not feel like the freakish oldest virgin in the world.

I was me, and it was good enough for the two awesome, accomplished women.

As I turned on my back and rested against the plump cushions, she aimed her ravishing smile at me. “And now you’re around two men with very strong male energy. How are you getting along with Silas and Jake?”

I was lightly buzzed and completely relaxed, so my reply was unguarded.

“I love Silas. He’s like a big brother, or what I imagine a big brother would be like. Jake scares the life out of me. But he’s nice to me now, and we’re okay.”

Bianca turned her shaded eyes to me. “Jake can be intense.”

Understatement of the century. I shuffled a little against the jitters that had made me restless at the mention of Jake Rhodes.

As I nodded, Camila leaned forward. “This is the second time I hear you say that Jake is nice to you, now, Sia. Wasn’t he nice while you were dating?”

Bianca rolled on her side. “You dated Jake? When?”

Heat flooded my face while I tried to smile. And failed. “Before... before I came here. But it wasn’t real, and now we’re... friends.”

Why couldn’t I pitch my voice higher than this strangled whisper?

“Tell us more, cara,” Bianca encouraged.

“We’ll just listen, Sia. You can tell us anything.”

I cleared my throat. “I just feel stupid to be attracted to him, knowing how repulsed he was by me in the beginning.” I breathed out to bury that pain a little deeper. “It’s going to take me forever to lose my virg—”

Bianca’s sudden jolt halted my semi-tipsy tirade.

She slid her sunglasses up to the top of her head. “What do you mean he was repulsed by you?”

Camila climbed onto the daybed, so we were in a kind of circle. She was frowning too.

My heartbeat bumped against my constricted chest. Those two women loved Jake and Silas. If I told them what had happened, they—

I shook my head and dropped my gaze to my lap. “It’s... nothing. I just... I was just—”

In perfect synchronicity, Bianca took my hand and Camila touched my cheek.

Their expressions were concerned. Worried even. Bianca tilted her head to the side. “Whatever you say, stays between us.”

Camila’s brows curved down. “What happened, sweet girl?”

With my heart beating through my whole body, I took a big breath and bared my soul to them.

I told them everything. From the moment I’d been targeted at the Silver Shell to the almost-kiss I’d interrupted a few days ago.

My nose had stung while I’d related my first day here and recited the words that were still tearing me apart.

Then, I whispered how insecure I’d been since that day.

After clearing my throat of my welling tears, I also told them about my utter confusion at Jake’s current behavior and the emotional limbo it put me in.

When I finished, I felt lighter, so it took me a few seconds to realize the considerable change that had occurred in our bubble. Both women’s eyes were narrowed into slits and blazed with a ferocity that made me hold my breath.

I straightened my back. “I know. It’s stupid, and I’m na?ve. I—”

Bianca’s hand squeezed mine hard. “He said that shit to you? That’s absolutely revolting!”

Camila said something under her breath I couldn’t understand, so I leaned closer. “What?”

“I’m going to hang him by his balls,” she hissed.

My chest seized, and I shook my head. “He didn’t force me to fall in love with him. I was just too—”

Camila’s flushed face inched in. “He knew exactly what he was doing and who he was doing it to.”

That was true.

After a long sigh that curved her lips down, her voice lowered. “That’s why you kept your eyes down when he was around. I thought you were shy. Why didn’t you tell me?”

Before I could reply, she clicked her tongue and answered her own question. “The next day I walked in your room and told you they were good men. Shit!”

I touched her hand. “It’s okay, Camila. I was too embarrassed to tell anyone about it anyway.”

Shifting closer, her tone softened. “Sia, I know you now, so I know you can’t see it, and what Jake said probably didn’t help, but you’re a knockout through and through.

And I mean through and through. Beautiful face, beautiful body, gorgeous eyes, and smile.

It almost matches the beauty of your heart. ”

I gaped at her while tears rose in my throat.

“I agree with Cami. You said Jake wants to be your friend and he’s kind to you, now?” Bianca asked.

When I nodded, she said, “And what do your instincts tell you? Do you feel he’s being genuine?”

I did. So, I said so.

“How did you feel when he kissed you?”

Heat crawled up my neck and took over my face. “Really good. Like very uh... I can’t control my reaction to him, and I get really turned on just from a kiss, but I can’t forget what he said, so I ...” I pulled my head into my shoulders, not knowing how to explain.

But it seemed I didn’t need to as they nodded knowingly.

“I’ve known Jake and Silas for a long time. I love them, but I’m horrified and really furious at what they did to you.”

I squeezed her fingers. “I’m not. Not anymore. A lot has happened, and in hindsight, I’m safer here than I would have been if I’d stayed within Nigel’s reach.” I grinned. “And I wouldn’t have met Camila and you.”

I liked them, and I liked the feeling of belonging they’d made so easy even more.

Bianca’s smile was as soft as her voice. “But this is not about Jake, it’s about you, cara. We need to get you back into your sensuality, claim your Venus back, and feel confident in and with your body.”

That sounded all wonderful in theory, but... “How do I do that?”

Something I couldn’t quite name flickered in Bianca’s expression. “You do nothing. Cami and I will take care of you.”

Camila smiled. “We got you, sweet girl.”

No one had ever gotten me before. I stared at the two beautiful women and grinned.

Yes, they got me.