Darkness

MATEO

I shouldn’t be following her. Yet, here I am.

I’m not a fucking stalker. Okay, maybe I am. A little bit. Just enough to keep the situation under control.

Turns out I’ve spent days tracking this jaw-dropping blonde I met because of my best friend (and boss, though I hate to admit it), Luca Vitrani. Luca has a serious problem with a woman who, unfortunately for him, happens to be the daughter of his worst enemy: Kiara Morelli. He kidnapped her to ransom her father for some territory nobody gives a shit about anymore, all because my idiot friend fell for his captive. He’s completely, fucking head over heels, even if he turns to stone every time I throw it in his face.

Because of his stupid, lovesick morality, he had to let her go, and he tasked me—his right-hand man—with tailing her to keep her safe. You know, just mafia things. Normally, I’d send my men for these babysitting gigs, but during one of my routine checks, I spotted her best friend: Barbara.

How do I even describe her? She’s a gorgeous creature straight out of the underworld. Beautiful, flawless, and sexy to a fault. I lost my mind the second I saw her, and now here I am, acting like a teenager with raging hormones, following her around like a psycho.

I promise I don’t have bad intentions. Well, maybe some of my intentions are a little... dark.

The problem is, when I mentioned my new interest to Luca, he strictly forbade it.

“Don’t you dare, Mateo. Kiara will kill me,” he told me with that signature seriousness of his. I swear, the man doesn’t have a single funny bone in his body; sometimes I wonder how we even ended up as friends.

“Kiara already wants to kill you right now, that has nothing to do with me,” I said, winking at him. “I just want to get close, get to know her. Please?” I hit him with my best Shrek’s Puss-in-Boots eyes.

“No.”

“I’ll make it look like a coincidence. I swear.”

“No.”

“A meet-cute straight out of a movie!” I insisted. “I turn the corner, accidentally bump into her, she’s carrying a ton of papers, drops them all, we both bend down at the same time, our hands brush, we lock eyes, and bam! Love at first sight.”

“You’re ridiculous.”

“And you’re a buzzkill,” I retorted, walking away insulted.

But he didn’t explicitly say I couldn’t follow her, so here I am, obsessed with a woman who is keeping me awake at night. I’ve watched her go out with a couple of guys on dates that made my stomach turn, but she never brings anyone home. It looks like her encounters are platonic, or I don’t know, maybe nobody is on her level. Until she meets me, of course.

It’s Sunday, my day off. A message pops up on my phone. Well, technically, it popped up on the blonde’s phone... Yeah, I hacked her cell. It’s for a good cause: I want to protect her. And fuck her. And a few other things we don’t say out loud.

Looks like she’s planning to head over to Kiara’s place tonight. This is my chance. Come on, Mateo, today might be the day you meet the love of your life.

I decide to change course and head to Kiara’s apartment first. Just dropping by to “make sure everything is good.” Looking out for my friend’s interests, you get it? What a great employee I am.

An hour later, I’m sitting in Kiara’s living room. At first, she welcomed me with that typical distrust of women who have been kidnapped by mafiosos (so sensitive, right?), but I used my charm to eventually get her to relax.

“I was just stopping by to say hi, Kiara. God, you’re so distrustful. And no, Luca didn’t send me; in fact, he told me to stay away. But here I am, looking out for a friend’s well-being.”

Even if we aren’t that close yet, we will be. I like Kiara.

After a couple of beers and a chat where I managed to get her to let her guard down, the doorbell rings. She looks surprised, but I know exactly who it is. Still, I put on my best “Who could that be at this hour?!” face.

When the door opens, I’m face-to-face with the blonde of my dreams. I flash her the most charming, seductive smile in my arsenal.

“Did I just knock on heaven’s doors?” she says, scanning me up and down with a boldness that sets my blood on fire.

That’s it, Mateo. You’re done for. Utterly fucked.

I don’t waste any time. I need to introduce myself before my brain completely melts down.

“I’m Mateo. Luca’s best friend, and I’m trying to be Kiara’s, though your friend is an absolute iceberg,” I tell her, smooth-talking my way back in.

“Nice to meet you, Mateo. I’m Barb,” she replies, extending her hand while winking at me. “You can be my friend whenever you want. I’m the exact opposite of an iceberg; I’m more like a wildfire.”

OH, DARLING, YOU HAVE NO FUCKING IDEA WHAT YOU’RE SAYING. I try to play it cool before she notices I’m disintegrating on the inside.

CONTROL YOUR HORMONES, MATEO. YOU CAN’T JUST JUMP HER. YOU JUST MET. BE A PROFESSIONAL.

“You two are two peas in a pod,” Kiara chimes in, bursting into laughter. “Barb, what are you doing here? Speak up before you two ravish each other with your eyes.”

“I could ravish him with my eyes... and with other things,” Barbara murmurs, just loud enough for me to hear perfectly.

EASY, MATEO... EASY.

I quickly sit down on the couch, trying to hide the erection that suddenly feels like a very real, very unsubtle threat in my pants. I cross my legs with an almost comical urgency. If this woman keeps talking like this, that “wildfire” is going to leave me in ashes before the night is over.

THIS WOMAN IS GOING TO BE THE DEATH OF ME.



BARBARA

I was worried about my friend. Last night we went out to celebrate her birthday; I wanted to take her to a bar, get her to hook up with some hot idiot, and give her self-esteem a little boost. Kiara needs it more than I do. Her heart is broken over some asshole mafioso who doesn’t know what he’s missing. She’s a treasure: smart, lovely, and with power rooted in her bloodline, even if her father is just another specimen from the same breed of idiots. They say women are cursed to choose men like their fathers; luckily, mine was a sweetheart, though he died in an accident when I was very little.

What came after... I prefer not to talk about that. I keep it locked away in a dark corner of my mind where nobody can find it.

The point is, Kiara vanished from the bar with some guy named Jon and didn’t give any signs of life until today. She told me everything was fine, but I needed to see her for myself. Last night, while she was getting lost, I stayed behind with her hookup’s friend... I don’t even remember his name. We made out, I grinded on his lap looking sexy, and once I had him sporting an erection the size of Mount Everest, I bailed, faking an emergency.

I do it all the time. I love to flirt, dress to kill, and make them think they actually have a shot at getting between my legs. Sometimes I let them touch, let them get confident... and right when the temperature hits the point of no return, I leave. I find their frustrated faces hilarious.

But the truth is, I never let anyone go any further. It’s not that I don’t want to... it’s that I can’t. I haven’t slept with anyone in years. Not since the last time it happened.

So, when I went to Kiara’s apartment tonight, I wasn’t expecting a blonde giant, nearly six-foot-six, to open the door. He had these blue eyes I got lost in instantly; a fallen angel with the word “DANGER” tattooed all over his fucking flawless face. He was a mountain of muscle that screamed trouble from every angle, but nothing intimidates me. I’m the one who intimidates men.

I won’t deny it: I loved it. He’s charming, he made me laugh, and he looks like he walked right out of any woman’s wet dream. I asked for his number and saved him as Muscular Angel.

When I got home, I caught myself smiling in front of the mirror. I think I gave him hope, and maybe, just maybe, I have some too. Hope of finding someone who can stir something real inside of me. Someone who makes me feel alive and lets me stop pretending that I’m not dead inside. Maybe, just maybe, this giant can wake up the Barbara who existed before the darkness consumed it all.