Chapter 239 Stop thinking about HER

Chapter 239: Chapter 239 Stop thinking about HER

Alessio Ricci had never been a talkative person.

Even as a child, he had been unusually quiet. While other boys ran around shouting, arguing and competing to see who could make the most noise, Alessio had preferred to sit somewhere with a book or observe people without saying much.

He spoke when he wanted to speak.

He gave orders when something needed to be done.

And when he had nothing to say, he saw absolutely no reason to open his mouth simply to fill the silence.

Growing up hadn’t changed that habit.

If anything, adulthood had made him even quieter.

At school, his appearance had naturally attracted plenty of attention. He had been tall for his age with striking features that became more pronounced as he grew older. By the time he reached his teenage years, girls had begun finding excuses to approach him, offer him gifts, ask for his notes or strike up conversations that had absolutely nothing to do with schoolwork.

Alessio’s response had almost always been the same.

A brief answer and a polite nod and then he would return to whatever he had been doing.

Initially, the girls had found his silence mysterious. A handsome boy who barely spoke, rarely smiled and never seemed impressed by anyone was apparently an irresistible challenge.

Unfortunately, the mystery became considerably less exciting when they realized he genuinely had no intention of making an effort to impress them.

Some girls eventually grew bored of trying to get a reaction out of him. Others decided that he was arrogant, cold or simply uninterested in women.

The last assumption had been the closest to the truth.

Alessio had never been particularly interested in relationships.

While his classmates worried about girlfriends, dates and school dances, he had been occupied with something far more important to him.

Finding his little sister.

Years had passed, yet he still remembered the day she disappeared. Every failed lead, every useless piece of information and every door that closed in his face had only strengthened his determination to find her.

He had built his life around that search.

There had been no time for romance and even less interest in entertaining it.

He had never felt the need to change that.

Until Daisy.

The problem was that Daisy had never tried to impress him.

She hadn’t chased after him because of his face, his physique or his reputation. She didn’t bombard him with questions, flirt with him to get his attention, or attempt to discover what lay beneath his quiet personality.

She simply treated him like Alessio.

Sometimes she smiled at him. Sometimes she frowned when he annoyed her.

And somehow, without either of them making a grand effort, she had begun occupying a place in his thoughts that no one else had ever managed to claim.

At first, he had told himself that he was simply concerned about her.

She had been through a difficult marriage. She was trying to rebuild her life and he wanted to make sure she was safe.

That was reasonable.

Then he started noticing everything that was related to her.

The way she tucked her hair behind her ear when she was concentrating. The way her eyes widened whenever she became surprised. The way she sometimes tried to hide her laughter behind her hand, as though she were afraid someone might catch her enjoying herself.

And lately, his thoughts had begun wandering into territory he had never seriously explored before.

He had started noticing her as a woman.

Not merely as his friend Daisy, whom he wanted to protect and help.

As a woman he found beautiful.

A woman whose smile could distract him from an important conversation. A woman whose presence made an ordinary morning feel unexpectedly pleasant. A woman whose hand he occasionally found himself remembering long after he had let it go.

Sometimes, he caught himself wondering what it would be like if she looked at him the way a woman looked at a man she desired.

"Stop thinking about HER."

Alessio’s hand paused over the equipment on the table.

He slowly turned his head, his jaw tightening.

Rafael was standing beside him, checking his weapon with an annoyingly entertained expression, a smirk playing at the corner of his mouth.

"What?" Alessio asked, his voice flat.

"Focus on work," Rafael instructed, smirking as he loaded his gun. "We have a job to finish and I would prefer it if my brother didn’t spend the entire time daydreaming."

Alessio stared at him, his gray-green eyes narrowing. "I wasn’t daydreaming."

"Of course not," Rafael said without looking at him, his tone dripping with sarcasm.

"I’m serious." Alessio’s voice carried a hint of irritation. He felt uncomfortable, seeing how Rafael wasn’t believing him.

"So am I," Rafael replied smoothly.

Rafael slid the magazine into place and checked his weapon with ease. The two brothers were in the preparation room at the estate, getting ready to leave for an operation. Their men were already gathering outside, waiting for the final instructions.

Alessio had been reviewing the details of their assignment moments earlier.

Then, for reasons he would rather not examine, his thoughts had drifted toward a certain woman with soft eyes and an infuriatingly sweet smile.

He had been thinking about the way she had looked at him that morning when he apologized for questioning her about the phone call.

And then he had remembered how she had stayed on the phone with him for an entire hour while he rambled drunkenly.

He had even caught himself wondering whether she would laugh if he told her he couldn’t remember half of what he had said.

Alessio exhaled sharply and reached for his own gun.

"And for your information, I am not thinking about Daisy," he said, his voice tight.

Rafael stopped moving.

Slowly, he turned toward his older brother, his eyebrows lifting.

For one second, there was complete silence. Then Rafael burst out laughing, the sound echoing through the room.

"Bro!" he exclaimed, his eyes sparkling with amusement.

Alessio’s expression darkened. "What?"

"I didn’t even say her name!" Rafael said, his voice rising with glee.

Alessio froze, his eyes widening slightly.

Rafael bent forward, laughing so hard that he had to brace one hand against the table.

"Oh, my God! You actually did it yourself!" Rafael gasped between laughs.

Alessio stared at him with a killing expression, his jaw clenched so tightly that a muscle jumped in his cheek.

Rafael only laughed harder.

"You were the one thinking about her! I just said you were daydreaming!" Rafael managed to say, wiping at his eyes.

"Rafael!" Alessio’s voice was sharp, his ears turning red with embarrassment.