How can she be this perfect for me?
“Yes… so close…” I warn, moving my hips a little, rushing to the end now that it’s just out of reach.“ Get ready, here it… fuck, Giulia!”
It hits me hard, the first rush of euphoria that snaps my head back and pulls a deep, guttural moan from my chest.A moment later, I explode, filling her mouth, hearing her satisfied moans paired with my breathless grunts.I’m drained in the best way by the time she swallows, then carefully lets me drop from her lips.
“What the hell brought that on?”I ask once I regain the ability to speak.
Smirking, she lifts a shoulder.“I just felt like it.Now you have something to think about when we aren’t together.”She kisses the tip of my nose, giggling before opening her door and returning to the back seat, where she’s supposed to be.
By the time I’m put together and my seat is in the correct position, I realize I forgot something.“Thank you,” I tell her, meeting her gaze in the mirror in time to see her grin.I’m grinning, too, as we pull through the front gates and up the driveway.It’s getting harder all the time to say goodbye to her at the end of the day, but she might have made it easier to get through.I will definitely be thinking about that blow job over the next thirty-six hours.And by the time I see her on Friday morning, it’ll take everything I have not to attack her on sight.
“Oh, shit,” she whispers behind me, and soon I understand why when I recognize Dante striding down the front stairs.The less I see of him, the better, but seeing him now isn’t the issue.It’s the way he looks at the car that raises countless red flags, narrowing his eyes, zeroing in on me.
“You’d better get going,” I tell Giulia, careful to maintain a neutral expression as I come to a stop at the base of the stairs.“I’ll see you Friday.”
“What does he want?”she mutters, but no one would guess she’s anything but happy to see her brother when she steps out from the back seat.Her voice is bright when she calls out, “Wow, look at you, stepping outside when there’s still light in the sky.Are you sure you won’t burn up?”
He smirks at her but holds up a hand to signal me.He wants me to wait.Fuck.It doesn’t help that I came down his sister’s throat a few minutes ago.There’s no way he can know, but the timing could be better.She thinks so, too, giving me a nervous look over her shoulder once she’s behind Dante.
“Can you hang back for a minute?”he asks once I’ve lowered the window.“We want to see you in the study.”
A firing squad?Is he marching me to my death?
Apprehension skitters up my spine, but I kill the engine and climb out, removing my sunglasses as I round the car.“Is there a problem?”I ask evenly.It’s incredible, the muscle memory involved in a situation like this one.How many times have I needed to play cool when facing a foe?Never let them see you sweat and all that.It wasn’t merely an old saying in my family.It was a way of life.
That’s why I’m able to walk next to Dante, climbing the stairs together now that Giulia is inside the house.If he’s leading me to my doom, he’s a better actor than I imagined, since he played it off well in front of her.
“How was traffic?”he asks, almost startling me into a disbelieving laugh.
Really?We’re going to talk about traffic?
“Not bad.I’m not looking forward to winter storms.”And now I’m talking about the weather.This is too surreal.
I’m glad when we reach the study, since I’m not sure how much more small talk I can muster.When my phone buzzes in my back pocket, I can only assume it’s a text from Giulia.Now is not the time.I leave the phone where it is, enter the room, and give Luca a curt nod.He would have to be here, wouldn’t he?
And the smug, shit-eating grin he wears tells me why I’m here.No one needs to say a word.He’s going to drop the bomb over Sicily and what happened there, as if he has the first fucking clue.I was never interested in going into the details, and I’m still not, especially not in front of these men.They don’t need to know.I’ll be damned if I beg for forgiveness or understanding.
Rocco is wearing the patented expression that makes him look like a disappointed bulldog.“Alessandro.Please have a seat.”He gestures toward the chairs across from where he’s sitting like a king on his throne.
“If it’s all the same, I can stand.”My hands are folded behind my back when I come to a stop, lifting my chin, deliberately keeping my eyes trained forward.I am not giving Luca the satisfaction of admitting my apprehension.
“Fair enough,” Rocco replies with a shrug.“It seems there’s been a report from Sicily having to do with some ugly business you were involved in there.”
One thing I’ll give him is that he has a talent for choosing his words carefully.Ugly business.It could be described that way.“A report?”I murmur, feigning ignorance for the time being, the way I did when it came to Sophia and her suspicions.The less I say, the easier it is to plead innocence.It’s always the guilty fools who let their mouths run away from them.I’ve questioned enough losers to know that.
“You know what he’s talking about,” Luca mutters.Isn’t he the picture of a spoiled, arrogant little pissant in his crisp button-down and slacks, sleeves rolled up to the elbows, like he was hard at work on something when we both know he’s never worked hard a day in his life?
“I’m not sure that I do,” I reply.My phone buzzes again, this time with an incoming call that will have to wait.“Can you clue me in?”
Dante sighs before dropping into one of the chairs in front of the desk.“There is CCTV footage of you boarding a yacht with an Italian businessman named Frederico Romano.I should say a deceased businessman, since Romano’s body washed up on shore three days later with a bullet hole between his eyes.”
“The yacht was left adrift,” Luca adds.“The authorities out there spent those three days searching for him once the yacht was reported.”
Already, they’re twisting the story, but I can’t correct them or else risk incriminating myself too soon.First, I would like to know how they feel about this, and if they know anything else about Romano.The kind of business he was really involved in.“That’s a shame,” I offer, looking at them one at a time.
“Drop the fucking act.”Luca lunges like he’s about to charge at me, but Dante is quicker, rising from his seat to get between us.
“Get it together,” he tells his brother.
