Chapter 4

Giovanni’s POV

I heard her stir in her sleep, and my eyes snapped to her in one second. She was lying in my huge bed, her frail frame looking lost underneath the sheets.

Pushing away from the couch, I walked over to her, the bed dipping as I plopped on it. Her hazel eyes were invisible now, and weirdly, I craved the look of defiance she always had directed at me.

She moved again, and a stray curl found its way to her face. She frowned slightly before pushing back into the arms of sleep. My fingers reached slowly for the curl, and I pushed it behind her ears, my hands lingering.

The shrill of my phone pierced the silence, and I got on my feet at once, rushing back to my desk.

“What is it?” I whispered, stepping away from the room.

“You left abruptly,” Nathan’s voice came up. “Where are you?”

“I had a business to take care of.”

“Dario has been asking a million and one questions about you and that newbie.”

“She isn’t a newbie.” My reply came out a little too fast, before I could stop myself.

“Are you with her?”

“Something like that.”

Nathan sighed. I heard a mumble, like he was about to object to whatever I had planned before Dario's voice came on the line.

“Giovanni, my man,” he teased. I could tell that he was drunk. “How do you manage to get all the girls crawling after you? Adina? I thought we all agreed nerds were untouchable.”

"I am not doing anything with Adina," I muttered, infusing the right amount of irritation in my tone. "Did you hear her tonight? She is a bloody virgin. I don't want anyone to claim they have fallen in love with me. Remember the last time that happened?"

“Yeah,” Dario laughed. “I also remember Lucia taught her a lesson so deep that she had to change schools. Poor girl. But I bet that you cannot get Adina. She is so stuck up and rigid.”

Silence erupted at the other end of the line before Dario’s voice came up again.

“Where are you? The games were just getting more intense when you left.”

"I had to run a quick errand," I replied. Nathan and Dario were two different people. While I was much closer to Nathan and could tell him anything, Dario would never understand. And they both had different principles, even if we rolled in the same circle.

“A quick errand with Adina?” he muttered knowingly.

“She needed a ride home.”

I heard a yawn behind the door.

“I need to go, Dario. Talk to you later.”

The line clicked dead just as I turned around and headed back into the room.

Adina was sitting up, looking around the room like it was the strangest thing she’d ever seen. When her eyes landed on me, she jumped suddenly.

“What are you doing here?” She screamed, pushing further into the bed, away from me.

“I live here,” I replied calmly, keeping my distance.

She did a double-take, scanning my bedroom again. I saw the realization in her eyes. The false realisation.

“Oh my God, did we….”

I rolled my eyes. “Of course not, Adina. I prefer you to be conscious when that happens.”

She scoffed and got out of bed. “In your dreams, Giovanni Malvetti. I am never having sex with you.”

“Okay.”

She looked surprised that I didn’t argue with her, but I’d never had to convince someone to come home with me, and I didn’t think Adina was any different.

She grabbed her shoes from the side of the bed and stumbled towards the door. I knew when her bout of dizziness hit again, and in a fleeting second, I was behind her, catching her before she hit the ground.

“You should eat more, Adina,” I murmured as she pushed herself away from my hands, wrapping the damn scarf tighter around her shoulders.

“Why do you care?”

I shook my head. “I don’t. I just don’t think you should collapse anywhere on campus. You were lucky I was the one who found you on the curb. It could have been worse.”

“There is nothing lucky about you finding me there,” she shot back, her hazel eyes glaring daggers at me. “If everyone is a predator, you are the worst one out there. I know you, Giovanni. You are bad news.”

"Really?" I murmured, folding my arms across my chest. "Then, why did you come to the party if you really wanted to stay away from me?"

“It is a decision I gravely regret.” She twisted the handle of the door and stepped out of the room

I walked out closely behind her, chuckling when she halted suddenly, staring at the grand space before her.

Reluctantly, she turned around. “Where is the way out?”

“I’ll take you home.”

Grabbing her hands, I brought her with me to my sports car parked on the driveway.

It was a quiet ride to her dorms, as she remained glued to the windows, as if getting close to me would mean her sacrificing her purity.

Purity. That was one word that never strayed close to me.

“We are here,” I murmured, pulling up in front of her dorm.

She looked at me for the first time since we left my house, her hands undoing the seat belt. “Thank you for bringing me home.”

I nodded and watched as she got out of the car. A girl raced out to meet her halfway, but I didn’t wait before making a U-turn and heading back to Lucia’s house.

The group was in the same spot as I left them, but this time, they had moved on to another game.

“Finally!” Dario sighed dramatically when I walked in. “I thought you were so smitten with Adina that you couldn’t let her go.”

Lucia’s head snapped in my direction, but I ignored her.

“Smitten?” I scoffed, shaking my head. “You know Giovanni Malvetti is never smitten with anyone, talk less of a fucking prude.”

Alessandro shook his head. “I don’t think that is it,” he began. “You are just stumped that she keeps rejecting you, unlike all the other girls that worship the ground you walk on.”

"I invited her to this party, and she came, didn't she?"

“She was being polite,” Nathan chirped in. “Adina looks different from all the other girls in school. Did you see the way she spoke to you in the parking lot earlier today?”

Everyone burst out laughing. It was something they had been tormenting me all day about, and I hated it. The others in school had witnessed the exchange. No one spoke to me in that manner.

No one.

“Oh really?” I angled my head. “Let’s make a bet then. I will get Adina to fall hard for me, then get her into my bed and dump her afterwards.”

“Giovanni…” Nathan began to say.

“And when that happens, you guys have to swallow your words. No one can resist me.”

“Deal!” Dario muttered, raising his red cup in the air. “This should be fun.”