The Billionaire's Sinful Appetite

Valentino, aged 12. Long fingers unzip the pencil case, I watch on as she pulls out a pencil and a pink sharpener. It’s the kind that has a little plastic barrel that catches the sharpenings. Smooth and calm, with a perfect turning style, and even though I’ve sharpened a million pencils in my life, the way she does it is…fascinating. I lean my face onto my hand, entranced by the beautiful creature sitting two desks over. Serafina Alfords, the object of my obsession. I stare at her all day, and dream about her all night, and even though she doesn’t know I exist, one day I’m going to talk to her on my own. Say something, something that makes her like me back. Her eyes drift over and I smile. Unfazed, she goes back to her pencil sharpening. For ten minutes I stare, she says something to her best friend sitting beside her, Violet. The second prettiest girl I’ve ever seen. Violet whispers something in reply to Serafina and they look my way and giggle, my stomach swirls. What did she say? “Eyes on the board,” Mrs. Busa calls. “Valentino, are you listening?” I drag my eyes back to the front and pretend to concentrate, but from my peripheral vision I can see Serafina is still sharpening her pencils. I should get to school early tomorrow and sharpen her pencils for her. If only I could talk to her, but I never get the chance. My friends all hate girls, and I have no idea why because they’re all I can think about. Knock, knock sounds at the door and Mr. Greco is standing there with a boy. “Good afternoon, class,” he calls. “Good afternoon, Mr. Greco,” everyone sings. “We are very lucky; we have a new person joining our school, he’s going to be in your class. Everyone say hello to Carlo Bernetti.” “Hello, Carlo,” everyone says on autopilot. He looks around without so much as a smile and I smirk at his attitude. “Welcome, Carlo.” Mrs. Busa smiles. “You may take a seat next to Valentino.” She pats the table next to mine. “Valentino, I want you to look after Carlo, you will be his buddy.” I nod, unimpressed. Ugh, I don’t want to get stuck with the new kid. Carlo slumps into the seat beside me and I force a smile. “Hi.” “Hi,” he grumbles. Mrs. Busa begins talking again and Carlo looks around at everyone as if summing them up, he leans over and whispers, “What’s her name?” I frown. “Who?” “The one with the ponytail.” He gestures to her with his chin. “Oh.” I nod. “Her name is Violet.” He watches her, and after about ten minutes he leans in again and whispers, “Can we hang out with them at lunch?” I blink, surprised. He raises an eyebrow. “Well?” I smile, and in that very moment I know we were going to be friends. Aged 15. Saturday night. Drinking wine out of the bottle, smoking cigarettes, and chasing older girls, all the while pretending to sleep over at each other’s houses. We sneak into clubs, crash parties, and pretend that we’re twenty…. But man, do we laugh. Carlo Bernetti is wild and fun, he’s the brother that I never had. My closest friend. Sometimes he’s a little too big for his boots, and I have to rescue him from being beaten to a pulp. He steals the girls, and starts the fights, but I’m always the one that finishes them. Once I step in, his opponents back off. Nobody beats me, so they don’t even try. “You see her.” Carlo points to a blond girl as he takes a drag of his cigarette. “Bet you ten dollars I can get her naked.” My eyes linger on the woman and her long legs. “She’s at least twenty-five.” “All the better.” He drags his cigarette and blows a thin stream of smoke into the air. “That means she’s going to be great at sucking cock.” He looks her up and down. “I’m sick of young bitches who have no idea what they’re doing.” I chuckle as I sip my beer and he saunters over to the group of hot girls. “Ladies.” He smiles. “I hear you’re after a stallion for the night.” He holds his arms out and bows before them. The girls all laugh and he begins his pickup spiel, laying out his s****l prowess. I sip my beer and smirk as I listen in, in awe, sometimes in shock…. But always in admiration. That’s the thing I love about Carlo Bernetti, he doesn’t give a f**k. If someone tells him no, it just makes him want it more. Aged 18. I sit on the brick wall and watch the Porsche drive by. “Look,” Carlo says. “Can you imagine driving that?” “Yeah.” I sigh. “A little too well.” “I’d rob a bank if I had a car that fast,” he replies. I smile as I imagine him robbing a bank, wouldn’t surprise me actually. We’re waiting for our friend, Giuliano. He’s sneaking around with a girl in the library and meets her here a few times a week. “Just how bad is her older brother?” Carlo asks. “Supposed to be tapped.” I shrug. “Like…real bad. Probably going to kill him kind of thing.” “f**k….” He thinks for a bit. “You reckon we can take him?” “Giuliano must.” I shrug. “Why else would he make us come with him and wait out the front like losers?” “Do they f**k in there?” I glance over at him. “Who?” “Giuliano and his girl, do they f**k in the library? Like on the shelves and s**t….” “Nobody f***s in a library,” I scoff. “What the hell’s wrong with you?” I look over and see a bodyguard. “Look, there’s her guard coming around now.” “I can’t believe she has a bodyguard,” he whispers as if the guard can hear us. “What’s her brother’s name again?” “Enrico Ferrara.” “He’s rich…right?” “Loaded.” A black Ferrari drives past, and we both stop to watch it drive by. “I’m going to have one of those one day,” I say. “How are you going to get one of those?” Carlo scoffs. “Dream on.” “Watch me.” I think for a moment. “I’m going to buy my parents a nice car too. You should buy yours one.” He screws up his face. “No way. My parents can get their own f*****g car; they wouldn’t appreciate it anyway.” He flicks his cigarette onto the sidewalk. Carlo isn’t close to his family like I am, in fact, he spends a lot more time with my family than he does his. Sometimes he stays there when I’m not even home, he doesn’t talk about it, so I don’t ask. “You know what? When I’m rich, I’m going to spoil you too,” I tell him. “Buy you a nice car, get you a fancy big house.” I shrug. “You’re my family too.” He smiles wistfully as he listens. “Thanks, man.” We sit on the wall and watch the world go by, “How long do we have to wait here for him?” he asks. I glance at my watch. “Another half hour or so.” “Screw that.” He flicks his cigarette and stands. “I’m going.” “Where to?” “Delfina’s.” My eyebrows flick up in disgust. “I cannot believe you like her.” “Who said I like her?” He winks. “A man’s got to do what a man’s got to do.” He begins to amble up the road and I smirk as I watch him disappear. A text vibrates my phone as it arrives. Come inside. She brought a friend today. I twist my lips, annoyed. f**k’s sake, now he wants me to babysit her friend so that he can sneak her away. I type, Seriously? He replies, Come on man. Help me out here. I reply, You owe me. I see the dots bounce as he types. Anything. Upstairs at the back right corner. I am not in the mood for this, I walk up the front steps and make my way past the bodyguard. He’s leaning up against the wall and smoking a cigarette, jacked as f**k and looks as tough as nails. In fact, I’m positive that he will beat us to a pulp if we get caught being anywhere near the precious Francesca. Ugh, this is so stupid, Giuliano makes us come all the way to Milan twice a week just so he can visit her in the library. He really has it bad for this girl. I push through the heavy front doors and walk in, now…where is this staircase? There it is, I make my way upstairs and head through the rows and rows of bookshelves until I get to the back right corner where there’s a large clearing and a giant long table in the middle. Giuliano is sitting beside a girl with another sitting opposite who’s reading a book. “Hello.” I smile as I approach them. “Val.” Giuliano acts surprised, he leaps out of his chair and shakes my hand. “What a coincidence seeing you here.” I look at him deadpan. “Is it though?” “Haha.” He shoots me a shut-the-f**k-up glare. “Val, this is Francesca.” He proudly presents her to me like she’s Aphrodite herself. “Francesca, this is my best friend, Valentino Leone.” Best friend. His words hang in the air and linger in the silence, he said them so seemingly nonchalant and almost inconsequential, but they mean a lot. “Hello.” I smile, I hold my hand out to shake hers.