“Am I dismissed?” I ask.
There’s nothing more for me to say.
Alessandro nods and gestures for me to leave.
I head out of his office, leaving the door open before finding my way upstairs. “They’re in Ivy’s room,” Francesco says.
“Thanks.” I head down the hall for Ivy’s bedroom and give a brief knock on the door before entering.
Inside the room, there’s a giant canvas tarp laid out and an open can of lavender paint.
“Does Alessandro know what you’re doing?” I can’t imagine he gave them permission to paint any room in the mansion, let alone purple!
“Relax,” Ivy says with a giggle. “He told me I could do whatever I wanted to the room.”
“And that includes painting it?” He just had Etta executed. While I doubt he considers Ivy a threat, it still makes me nervous.
“Big scary guard in the hallway bought me the paint. So, I’m pretty sure it’s allowed,” Ivy says. “Chill out.”
Karina stalks across the room and wraps her arms around my waist. “Do you think we can convince the big scary don to let us paint our bedroom pink?”
“Hell no.” She better be joking. There’s no way in hell I’m sleeping in a pink bedroom.
“Can I paint mine too?” Ashton quips.
Karina drops a kiss to my cheek before glancing at her son and untangling herself from my embrace. She bends down to our son’s eye level. “Of course, Ash. What color do you want your bedroom to be?”
I groan.
How am I supposed to tell Ashton no?
Did Alessandro give Ivy permission to paint her bedroom purple? My stomach does somersaults. It sounds completely out of character. Crazy. Insane.
Wait.
Are they sleeping together?
No, that couldn’t be. I mean, when? Ivy has been crashing in Ashton’s room for days. And besides, Ivy and Karina are identical twins. I grimace at the thought. I swear if he so much as touched Ivy, I’ll kill him myself.
“You and Alessandro aren’t—” I can’t finish the sentence. Bile rises to my throat just considering the disgusting notion that the two of them might have done something intimate together.
“What?” Ivy glances at me, a scowl on her face, purple-dipped paintbrush in hand.
“Sleeping together?” I cringe at my own words.
Ivy rolls her eyes. “Not that it’s any of your business, but no, he’s not my type.”
To say I’m relieved is an understatement. “Fair enough.”
Ashton grabs a roller and dips it into the plastic tray on the canvas. He doesn’t even try to wipe down any of the paint before smacking the wall with it, the paint dripping everywhere, making a huge mess.
Ivy grabs the roller from Ashton and fixes the disaster before it ends up everywhere but the wall. She glances over her shoulder at me. “If you both want to help, maybe get changed into something else?”
I glance at Karina and gesture for her to follow me out of Ivy’s bedroom. I want a few minutes with her alone anyhow. This gives me the perfect excuse to steal a moment of her time.