“I don’t want you to get into trouble on my account, Nicky. You were right—this is all my fault.”
I grab him and roll us back, all the way, so I’m on top of him. His cock is thick with morning wood and his eyes are clearing up. He’s still a fucking mess, but he’s a completely tempting fucking mess. “I told you. I got this. You don’t need to worry.” He wriggles under me and for a second I think he wants me to get off, but when he reaches down to grab my ass, I figure he actually wants me to getoff. “We need to get up soon,” I groan, but I let him pull me into a rhythm, my dick rubbing into his, catching on his cockhead, his fingers digging into my ass.
It doesn’t take long, and it’s not very satisfying, but I’ll take what I can get. I’m never going to be able to do this again, and if I can help Carlo wipe away the memory of last night, I’m happy to do it. He comes with a gasp and the familiar look of shock in his eyes, staring straight into mine as he floods my belly with wet warmth, and I follow a few seconds later.
“Well, damn,” he says after, once I’ve rolled off him onto my back and slicked a hand through the mess on my stomach.
“Yeah.”
After a moment, he asks, “What now?”
“Now we shower.”
He takes a breath. Pauses.
“What is it?” I grunt. I half-wish we could’ve done what we just did in the shower instead, but too late now.
“I’ve been thinking, Nicky.”
Fuck. That’s trouble every time, right there. “Thinking? When? You were asleep and then you were nutting.”
He ignores that. “I don’t want people to know we’ve been fooling around. I don’t think it’ll help.”
I lie there staring at the ceiling.
“Nicky?” he asks hesitantly.
“You’d rather have people think you murdered a guy than fucked me, huh?”
“I didn’t meanthat.” He sighs, puts a hand over his eyes. “I think we should keep that alibi in reserve, you know? Because if anyone else at this wedding knew Gatti was heading up to my room, and they find out we were together last night, they might wonder if he ran into you while you were with me.”
I let that sift through my brain. He has a good point. There’s no need for us to give information before we really have to, and maybe Gatti did mention it to someone, that he was gonna go put that Morelli lawyer in his place.
But it also raises some stuff I hadn’t thought about before. “You think someone sent Gatti up there to take you out?”
“What? No, of course not. I mean, I don’t think so,” he adds, doubtfully. “I mean—here, of all places? Anyone with half a brain would do it well away from here. And everyone with the power to call a hit like that is here this weekend.”
“Fair point.” I sit up. “And it’s not a bad idea, keeping quiet about…this—” I wave my sticky hand between us. “If we need to, we can pull the hookup card as a fake-out for why we were so cagey. But you’re right. Better to just not be cagey in the first place.” I stand, stretch, let my head roll on my neck. “You better shower first, then scamper, huh?”
I can’t look at him. If I do, I might not be able to let him walk out of here. Because when he does, we’re done.
Wehaveto be done, for so many reasons. We never should have started, and now all that’s compounded by the fact that I lost my head enough to kill someone to save him. I don’t know what the hell came over me back in that room, that possessive, primal rage that pulled me into action, but I can’t risk feeling like that ever again. Notnow, when everything with the other Families is so precarious. Luca needs me focused. Carlo’s a distraction.
So I need to remove the distraction from my life. If nothing else, that piece of shit Gatti helped me see it clearly.
“Okay,” he says after a minute. “We were all supposed to be here this morning anyway, for that Morelli Family breakfast.”
I snort, pulling on the robe hanging on the back of the door with the Villa Alessi crest on the pocket. “Sure. Better get moving. Don’t wanna miss Hudson’s pancakes, huh?”
He showers. He dresses. He gives me one last kiss.
I stop him with his hand on the door. “Hey. Keep it contained, huh? Don’t panic, no matter what happens. Just keep quiet, let me handle anything that comes up.”
His gaze wanders all over my face. He takes a breath like he’s going to say something, but then he stops, nods, and leaves me standing there staring at the door long after he closed it behind him.
Chapter Eleven
Nick
