My body stills. What did he just say? I feel like I'm in some type of Twilight Zone. No tha-wait-that's impossible! The Damian Castellano I know is around the same age as me. We went to middle school together for crying out loud. This guy is at least in his early twenties. I push all the bad things he did to me as kids to the back of mine. The last thing I need right now is to have a panic attack in front of a drug Lord.
"H-how old are you?" I keep my hand on the door knob just in case he gives the wrong answer.
"I'm 23." I breathe a sigh of relief. Okay so maybe it's not him.
I turn back around to face him. "It's weird I keep getting the strangest feeling that I know you from somewhere." I shake my head and laugh awkwardly. He stands up from his desk and walks over to me.
"I get that a lot." He murmurs. We stare at each other for a while and then he turns and opens the door gesturing for me to walk out first.
"So how can a 23 year old afford a place like this? Whatever you're doing I want in. This is amazing" I say in awe. A big chandelier hangs from the ceiling right above the staircase.
He sucks in an awkward breath and rubs the back of his neck as we slowly descend the stairs. "I'm pretty sure you don't want to know what I do gattina." I nod lazily and follow closely behind him.
We walk around for a little while until we end up at the front foyer. The floors are a clean shade of black marble and all the walls are a soft cream color. I learned that every room in the house has its own unique color. All the rooms are pretty empty besides the guards that linger around on each level. There are two wings to the house; the east wing and the west wing. The west wing is for his so called "family" and is currently where we are standing.
"So let me get this straight you have am entire wing to yourself?" I all but shout. This guy is too rich. He laughs at my reaction. I take a moment to look at him. Some would call it checking him out. But i'm not. Just...safety reasons. Or not...Okay kill me. If a hot guy kidnapped you, you'd be checking him out too. He takes out his phone and I continue to stare. He gives off this spine curdling impression that would make any man cower against him. His eyes are a steel shade, but they turn dark because of how much focus he puts into his phone. His complexion is golden olive. I can see his arms better now that he took off his suit jacket and rolled up his sleeves. He has a nice build. Nothing too over the top. He obviously takes care of himself. I groan internally when my eyes make their way back up to his lips. One word: Plump. My tongue runs across my bottom lip when my eyes scan across the faint five o'clock shadow that covers his chiseled jawline. A weird sensation stirs in my lower abdomen and just like that I'm snapped out of my thoughts. I quickly look back up to his eyes. He's staring at me with full smirk on his face. Great he caught me staring. I cough and walk over to admire one of the paintings on the wall. What a nice painting. Just so..paintlike. Is that even a word? I scrunch my face up.
"Soo..." I play with my fingers looking up at the painting. It's a picture of a small boy riding a bicycle.
"So..." His breath touches the back of my neck and I jump. When the hell did he get that close? And why didn't I hear his footsteps? This man is a freaking ninja. His cologne engulfs my entire body and I inhale naturally causing the weird sensation in my abdomen to come back. What the hell is that? And why does it only happen when he's this close to me?
"Can I really go home tomorrow?" I blurt out in a whisper. His chest presses against my lower back and I refrain from freaking out. I've never been this close to a guy before. Like EVER. I've never even spoken to a guy before, well except the pizza guy and Holden.
"Yes. But you do know that if you tell anyone-"
"I know, I know-you'll kill me." He opens his mouth to say something else when the front door opens and someone walks in signing at the top of their lungs. I quickly move away from him and rub the back of my head.
"YEAH ALL I NEEEEEEED IS THE RHYTHM, ME AND THE RHYTHM OH OH OH" I open my eyes and mouth in shock. A man who is about 6'2 wearing a tight black t shirt strolls in holding two boxes of pizza and a liter of soda with white ear buds in his ears. He has dark hair like Castellano and looks a little around my age. I turn and give Damian a questioning look; a small smile creeping up my lips. He simply shakes his head and looks at the guy like this is an everyday thing.
"WHO'S THE CHICK?" Pizza guy yells gesturing to me. I awkwardly wave my hand and smile. Damian rolls his eyes and walks over to him. He rips the ear buds out of his wars, pats his cheek and takes the pizza out of his hands.
"Smooth." I mumble as he walks past me to the kitchen. He simply smiles and keeps walking.
We make it to the kitchen which is ginormous by the way, and Damian opens the first box of pizza. I grab two slices and pull out a stool to sit on at the counter. Damian hands me a plate when pizza guy decides to reach for my hand. Being as though I was just kidnapped I slap his hand away and jump out of my seat.
"Whoa-hey. I wasn't going to hurt you," pizza guy puts his hands up in surrender. My breath hitches and I look over at Damian who's about to enter a slice of pizza in his mouth. My breathing doesn't go back to normal until Damian pushes him out of the room.
After two minutes of quiet murmuring in Italian they both re-enter the kitchen.
"Rachel this is my idiot cousin Nicholi." Damian gestures to the guy and walks over to me. I lower my head embarrassed.
"Gaurdami." He lifts my head up and stares into my eyes, "He's not going to hurt you. I won't let anything happen to you again. Okay?" I nod slowly. Nicholi clears his throat and I pull away from Damian.
"Hey look I'm not Dom. I would never do anything to a woman let alone abuse one. I just wanna make that clear. I didn't mean to scare you. Please forgive me?" He gives me the puppy dog eyes and I try my hardest not to fall for it but he's hot and he has an accent. Shoot me.
"Okay" I sigh. "I'm sorry-I guess I didn't realize I was still a little shaken up." I say honestly. Damian's jaw clenches and I look down awkwardly. Nicholi pulls my face back up with a finger.
"Hey don't worry about it. You're safe now." I smile and nod.
"Okay enough with the sad stuff," I shake his fingers away, "if I don't eat in the next 30 seconds I'm going to pass out." I walk back over to my stool and grab my slice of pizza off my plate and shove it in my mouth. I feel like I haven't eaten in years. Decades even.
I turn around to see Damian with a smirk on his face, but he quickly covers it with a scowl and Nicholi is laughing. I give them both questioning looks.
"Whaa-." I say with a mouth full of pizza.
"You."
"Nothing," they both say. Damian scowls at Nicholi and walks back over to his plate. I shake my head at both of them and continue to chew my pizza.
Twenty minutes pass and I'm hunched over in my seat laughing at every word that spills from Nicholi's mouth. This guy legit has no filter.
"Okay I think Ms.Taylor has had enough for one night." Damian says and pulls my stool away from the counter.
"Awww" Nicholi and I say in sync. We both continue to laugh.
"Twins!" he yells. I laugh while Damian scowls at the both of us.
"Great now I have two children to deal with" he rolls his eyes.
"Hey!" We both yell at the same time again.
"Jinx!"
"Jinx again!" I think I've found my life partner. As friends of course. Damian scoffs and picks me up bridal style and carries me out of the room. Jealous much?
"Really is this necessary?" I try to get down but he tightens his grip on my thighs. A few whistles are thrown our way from some of the men sitting in the living room. How didn't I notice them before?
"Where did all these people come from?" I ask looking at the strange men walking around the house.
"They live here," and that's the end of discussion.
We finally reach my room and he puts me down.
"Uh thanks. I'll call if I have to pee. Ya know in case you wanna carry me again." He smirks and then turns to walk away.
"Wait." I grab his bicep. He looks at me questionably.
"Don't forget your promise. I get to leave tomorrow." I let go of his arm.
"I never make promises." He smiles and with that he walks away again.