“Look, John.” I blew out a heavy breath. “You seem like a really great guy, and I can’t thank you enough for covering the bill on that overturned tray, but I don’t date.”
Silence stretched between us for so long that I began to squirm.
Finally, he repeated my words. “You don’t date? Like, ever?”
“No, I’m sorry. I have a past, and it’s just safer if I stay single.”
A disappointed exhale rushed past his lips. “Sure, I get it. But I hate how a few bad apples can ruin it for everyone else.”
I shrugged. “Yeah, me too.”
“Well, if you ever change your mind . . .”
“Not possible,” I replied.
“So . . .” John rocked back on his heels. “If you could point me toward that book rec, I can get out of your hair.”
My eyebrows hit my hairline. “You still want the book?”
“That is why I came in here, after all. Though getting to see you again was a welcome surprise.”
Shaking out of my stupor, I switched into work mode. “Right, okay. Um, let me see.” I scanned the titles, landing on one that would meet his specifications. “This one here”—I pulled the book from the shelf—“has a strangers-to-lovers plot, though I’m afraid the small town is coastal instead of mountainous.”
“That’ll work.” He extended a hand to take the thick paperback from me.
“Great. Bizzy’s up front at the register, and she can get you all checked out.”
John held up the book. “Thanks for this. It was really nice seeing you again, Ro.”
“You too, John.”
When he turned his back to walk away, I cursed both the family I’d been born into and the one I’d married into. Together, they would forever cast a shadow over any happiness I might’ve been allowed to have.
I could almost hear Gio mocking me inside my head.
“Poor little mafia princess with the world at her fingertips, and still it wasn’t enough.”
But what he never understood was that he couldn’t give me what I wanted most.
Love.
Chapter 3
Gio
IfIcouldn’tgetRory to give me the time of day, how in the world was I going to knock her up?
Her refusal to date was a roadblock I never saw coming. I’d thought for sure there would be a list of men I needed to kill for touching my wife, so the discovery that she’d kept to herself these past seven years was an unexpected surprise. But at the same time, it was a fucking problem because it slammed the door shut on getting close to her.
There had to be a way around her hard and fast rule to stay away from romantic entanglements.
Think, Gio, think.
Like a bolt of lightning, an idea—a memory—hit me.
How had I not realized my past knowledge of Rory’s deepest desires was my greatest advantage until just now? Especially when I’d given her that bullshit bit about instruction manuals, not realizing I possessed the one to manipulate her all along?
Now all that was left to do was set my plan into motion.
