“Not tonight,mia passerotta,” I say, brushing her hair from her face. “When I kiss you. I want you to remember it the next morning.”
She whines again but doesn't put up much of a protest as I walk out of the room. My cock is heavy in my pants, throbbing fiercely as I dig through my closet for a T-shirt. She’s already asleep when I walk back to her room, and I manage to wake her long enough to help her change out of her dress. We somehow manage to do it without exposing her naked body, albeit with a lot of whining and grumbling. She slides under the covers and pulls them over her shoulders. I tuck her in and hightail it out of the room before I can do something crazy like kiss her. Again.
This is just the first of many nights that she’ll sleep in this apartment. Gia doesn't know it, but I bought this penthouse for her. So conveniently close to the theatre, so I could be close to her. Hell, it was her favorite of the apartments she toured with me when I was apartment hunting, and she loved that it came with a stunning view of the Hudson River.
She chose it for us.
No, she doesn’t know that yet. She’ll probably fight me on the move when I bring it up tomorrow, but I always win. Soon, she’ll realize she belongs to me and has from the moment I saw her in that church.
My angel. My little sparrow.
Mia passerotta.
I glance back at the guest room and bite back the need to seek her out. If only to touch her and assure myself that she’s real.
Patience.
Soon, she’ll be living here and sharing my bed. I’ll give her time until she has no choice but to accept that she’s mine. And when that happens, she’ll never sleep anywhere else ever again. But until then, I’ll be patient.
After all, it’s what I’m best known for.
Chapter Three
Gia
I chew nervously on my nails as I watch the movers carry the last of the boxes out of the apartment, trying not to think of how I got to this point.
Christ, all it took was two glasses of wine and a few lousy chess moves to sign my freedom away to him. This is what I get for being reckless, but the man was wicked for making a deal with me when it was clear I wasn’t in my right mind.
I kissed him, or maybe he kissed me. It’s all a little fuzzy on who moved first.
What I do remember with clarity is the way his lips felt against mine and the sharp intake of his breath. And his scent, Christ, I could have spent all night with my head against his chest just breathing him in.
“God,” I cry out, dropping to a crouch and burying my hands in my hair, fighting back the urge to scream. I can’t freaking believe I kissed the man, only for him to pull back and create distance between us.
And now, how the hell am I going to face him?
I don’t look up when I hear a set of footsteps step into the shoe-box sized bedroom I’ve been living in for the last couple of months. Still, I recognize Sofia’s scent when she stops next to me. “Sooo…”
“What?” I ask, my voice muffled by my knees.
“Are we going to talk about why you’re moving in with Dante after you turned down my husband’s offer to buy you a condo?”
“I lost a bet!”
“You what?”
I slowly lift my head and meet my sister’s eyes, mouth set in a pout. "I drank a little too much last night and made a bet with Dante."
I can see Sofia’s effort to fight the smile threatening to break. “And what bet was that?”
“He wanted me to move in with him since his penthouse is closer to the theatre, but I told him I didn’t want any handouts, so he proposed a bet. If I beat him at chess--”
“Chess?” Sofia asks before throwing her head back in laughter. I watch morosely as she laughs at me, dabbing at tears at the corners of her eyes. “Are you kidding me?”
My eyes fall back to the floor with its worn, faded carpet that must’ve been a pretty blue at some point in its production but is now faded and gray. “He totally played me.”
“Like a fiddle,” she laughs. "How I would’ve loved to be a fly on the wall when you woke up this morning. I bet it was awkward, wasn’t it?”
