It has been so long, yet I never could forget that face. I didn’t think I ever would. That was the face that haunted my dreams, my thoughts, my desires for so damn long. I didn’t think I’d ever be able to move on without him.
“Carlo, what…”
But then he stepped forward, and I knew something wasn’t right. The eyes of the man before me were dark orbs of hate and not the warm chocolate eyes I remembered. These were not the brown eyes that had the power to captivate me with a single glance, making me forget everything bad in life. No. These eyes had the exact opposite effect.
“What’s going on?” I asked, my back now one with the headboard, the wood crushing against my spine.
With his hands clutching a box, he moved, stepping right under the light, and I couldn’t stop the gasp that escaped me in a huff as I took in his features. His blue-black hair was neatly cut at the sides and down the back yet kept a little longer on top—exactly as I remembered. His sturdy, square jawline was dark with the outline of a five o’clock shadow. The Carlo I remembered was clean-shaven to perfection, with absolutely no facial hair outlining those invitingly full lips.
The thick dark brows that framed his eyes were slightly curved up in what I could only assume was amusement.What is going on?
Then I noticed a crescent-shaped scar that ran through the corner of his eyebrow, curling around his right eye and disappearing as it reached his cheek.
Carlo didn’t have such a prominent scar. A scar like that wasn’t something anyone could have missed.
“Hello, Tatum.” The corner of his mouth lifted into a wicked smile.
A cold shiver ran up my spine at the sound of his voice. It was the same low, husky voice that had whispered sweet, tantalizing words into my ear once. When I heard that voice for the first time, I knew it was a voice I would never be able to forget.
“What is going on?” I couldn’t take my eyes off him. Apart from the scar and the darkness looming in his eyes, he was the most beautiful creature I had ever seen—exactly like I remembered him…Carlo.
“First of all, let me introduce myself.” He placed the box on the bed before holding out his right hand.
I glanced down at his hand before looking back up at his face. “Why would you want to introduce yourself? I already know who you are.”
He smiled at me like he was about to tell me something that would change my life forever, like he was going to enjoy whatever reaction I was about to give.
“You don’t know me, Miss Linscott.” He placed his arm back at his side.
I narrowed my eyes, furrowing my brows as I continued to stare at him with confusion. How could he say I didn’t know him when, in fact, I knew him so, so well? He was the man who broke my heart—the man who left without a word, leaving me to wallow in my own heartbreak without so much as a goddamn explanation.
Anger bubbled like toxic lava in my veins, thinking about the hurt he had caused me. “You’re the man who broke my fucking heart in two, Carlo.”
He continued to smile. “That’s the thing. I’m not Carlo.”
I snorted. “Quit your games, Carlo. You disappear off the face of the Earth and then suddenly reappear—having me kidnapped, by the way.”
He stepped closer, and the way his eyes darkened, the cold threat exuding out of him like rays of malevolence, had every instinct inside me screaming for me to run, to fight, to do anything in order to survive whatever was about to happen next.
“My name is Castello. Castello Fattore.” He leaned closer, his gaze never leaving mine. “And Carlo was my twin brother.”
A gasp slipped out of my mouth while I continued to stare into his eyes. I wanted to look away, but I couldn’t. The depths of his black eyes had me entranced along with the revelation that just shook me straight through my soul.
He slanted his head to the side. “What’s the matter, Tatum? You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”
“I…Is this some sort of joke?” My voice came out as nothing more than a whisper, lacking even the tiniest amount of confidence.
“Believe me, Miss Linscott, this is not a joke.”
Miss Linscott. Carlo never would have called me that. He knew how much I hated my surname, how much I loathed being so formally addressed. And the way this man said it was like my surname left a bitter taste in his mouth, bitterness that came all the way from the pit of his stomach. It scared me.
I swallowed hard. “What is going on?”
He shrugged, still holding on to his very nonchalant smile. “I’m merely trying to be courteous by introducing myself as Carlo’s twin brother.”
I studied his face, scrutinizing every contour, every inch…his eyes. And then I noticed it. Apart from the scar, the pupil of his one eye was elongated. It was easy to miss since his irises were already dark, but I saw it…and Carlo didn’t have that.
I sucked in a breath, and his smile widened.