Chapter Twenty Two

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

ARIA

I was livid.

At first, my anger stemmed from the fact that Maximo’s brother interrupted the moment we were having. I had been confident that my plans to seduce Maximo would work, especially as I saw the way he reacted to me.

Until Lorenzo showed up, glaring at me like he wanted to kill me with his own bare hands.

Lorenzo was the type of man who was all smiles and jokes but was actually very dangerous. Men like that were dangerous because people often underestimated them. But there was something about him that made dread skitter across my stomach. It was different from the transfixing fear I felt for Maximo—the one that held me in a state of captivation, unable to look away from him despite my trepidation.

With Lorenzo, the fear I felt was dirty and repulsive. His presence in the room made my skin crawl.

My anger only worsened when they began to speak Italian, deliberately exempting me from the conversation. Each time Lorenzo laughed and glanced at me, I wis