“Sorry about that,” I wheeze.
She grins. “I’m not sure if I should be offended that you find this so funny.”
Shaking my head, I bop her on the nose. “That’s not what I was laughing about.”
“Care to tell me what you found so amusing?”
I nibble my lip. “Okay, but you can’t laugh.”
“Why not? You did!”
“No, I mean you can’t laugh at me.”
She brushes her nose against mine…and I melt. “I promise. Now tell me.”
“Okay, so before we met—” That’s a better way to describe it thanbefore you abducted me, which could potentially ruin our very nice evening together. “—I was reading a new book calledMob’s Seduction.”
“That’s an appalling title,” she scoffs.
“Agreed, but not the point.”
“Sorry, continue.”
“Well, as you can probably tell, it was about a mob family.”
“Shocking,” she deadpans. I swat her bottom.
“Anyway. One of the main characters is forced to marry a mob queen to save her family.”
Allegra’s smile blossoms before me, and she laughs. “Ah, it makes sense now.”
“What does?”
“The reason you drunkenly told me you wouldn’t marry me and be my sex slave.”
Oh shit, yeah. I forgot about that.
“Well, yes. I’ve been thinking about the book ever since I met you. And…”
“And?”
“And I promised myself I wouldn’t fall for your tricks like the main character in the book. But here I am,” I grin, “I fell into bed with the mob queen.”
She gasps, “So, you are my sex slave!”
“No,” I laugh. “Well, maybe. If that’s the level of performance I can expect every time.”
She scoffs, “Please. That wasn’t even my best work.”
“I think your best work would kill me, then.”
She drops her head to my arm and rubs her nose up and down. I can see she’s got something on her mind, so I wait.
“Are…are you okay with what happened? I mean, the part where you slept with someone you vowed not to?”
Running my hand through her hair, I pull a little, so she has to look at me. “I am. I wouldn’t have done it if I didn’t want to.”
She nods. “I know that, but… Well, are you going to regret this later? We’ve only just started working through some things you find problematic about my life.”
