Page 38 of The Villain We Tempt

And then, within about five seconds of meeting up, Ian tensed against me, bit my tongue, and then came.

In his pants.

We tried again three nights later. This time he made it a wholetwentyseconds before blowing in his boxers again.

…Needless to say, there wasn’t a third attempt.

I told myself that college would be a whole new world that would offer all kinds of opportunities. But then I spent freshman year building my Villainess platform and having the best time ever with my friends. Well, and studying.

Who has time for boys who jizz in their pants with all that going on?

“Hey, you!”

Wren’s exclamation tugs me out of my head. I glance up from where I’m sprawled on one of the couches in Morvaine Manor just as Yelena walks in, followed by a tall, good-looking guy with short dark hair and ice-blue eyes.

“The heck have you been?” Wren frowns.

Yelena rolls her eyes and glances down at her outfit: running shoes, shorts, tank top.

“Attending a black-tie event,” she says, smirking at Wren. “Jeez, I was out running. Clingy much?”

“So much,” Wren giggles as she looks past Yelena to Damiano, the tall model-looking guy who walked in with her. “Thanks for bringing her home,” she sighs. “She gets off her leash sometimes and just runs away?—”

“Swear to God, I’m going to smother you in your sleep tonight,” Yelena groans, laughing as she walks over, grabs a pillow off the couch, and whacks her suitemate in the face with it.

“Yeah, well, I found her running off-leash alone atnight,” Damiano grunts with a dark look on his face as eyes Yelena. “Use your head, Lena.”

Damiano Barone is the head of The Order, not to mention heir to the Barone mafia family in New York. He’s also Lucia’s first cousin.

Personally, he’s not my type, but that’s probably because I grew up with him almost as if he wasmyfirst cousin, too. His father Carmine, who's the current don of the Barone family, has been best friends with my papa his whole life.

Cousin-adjacent aside, though, Dame is a handsome guy. He’s tall and built, with broad shoulders and powerful arms from all the boxing he does. A few tattoos run up his biceps, disappearing into the sleeves of his black t-shirt. He wears his dark hair buzzed short. Honestly, he always makes me think of Brad Pitt near the end of Fight Club.

Yelena sighs and shoots Damiano a look. “I wasfine. It’s the freaking Knightsblood campus, not Kabul.”

Damiano’s heavy dark brow furrows. “Need I remind you of the still-unsolved murder barely two miles from here?”

Okay, he's got a point. Hawthorne Hollow was shaken up right before school started this fall by the discovery of a young woman’s body on the rocky beach just outside of town, alongside a suitcase full of clothes apparently belonging to her. The local police haven’t been able to identify her yet, so they’ve taken to calling her “Jane Doe” in the local news. Her cause of death is still also unknown, but everyone is calling it a murder.

“Yeah, because I need a fuckingbabysitter.” Yelena exhales heavily after Damiano gives her another reproachful look as he leaves the room.

Arianna frowns. “He’s not wrong, Lena. You shouldn’t be out running this late alone, not right now.”

Yelena starts to open her mouth. Then a sudden blush creeps over her face before she shakes it away.

“It was fine.Iwas fine.” Her brow furrows as she glances at the doorway where Damiano just left.

Wren arches a brow. “What’s up?”

Yelena shakes her head. “Nothing. I just…” She frowns and glances at Lucia. “Does he ever seem like he’s up to something? Dame, I mean?”

Lucia snorts. “Well, yeah, because he’s a serial killer. Duhh.”

The rest of us go silent as we turn to stare at her, dumbstruck.

Lucia giggles. “Guys, that was ajoke?” She snorts. “He’s always been an insane neat freak abouteverything.I mean even worse than you, Galina. Seriously, when we were kids, if he got hishands dirty playing outside, he would basically scrub a layer of skin off.” She eyes us. “Hestilldoes that. Seriously. Poke your head into his shower sometime. I guarantee, he’s got one of those sandpaper-level loofahs.”

Wren grins. “Like the murderer in the movie uses so they don’t leave DNA?”