“You don’t need that,” Nonno said.
“It’s recommended—” Angela began.
“I have one.”
Ramin clamped his mouth shut. He shouldn’t have said that out loud. Everyone turned to stare at him.
“Uh.” He wanted to disappear. If only Maria hadn’t taken the wine bottle away, he could’ve drowned himself with it. Or given himself a concussion. Or thrown it through the window and made a run for it.
So much for politely declining.
“I have a permit? If it helps?”
“Here we are,” Tomaso announced after a sweaty climb up another salita, on which Ramin definitely did not stare at Noah’s ass in his shorts.
Tomaso rested his hand on a tiny silver car. Next to it sat an azure Vespa with a matching helmet on top.
“We’ve got another helmet,” Maria said. She dug in the tiny car’s even tinier trunk, then thrust a plain black helmet into Noah’s hands.
“You’re sure you’re okay with this?” Ramin asked one last time.
“You have to come!” Jake said, yanking on Ramin’s arm. “Can I ride with Ramin?”
“Absolutely not,” Angela spat, so loud Ramin jumped. She looked at him sheepishly. “Sorry, nothing against you, but—”
Ramin shook his head. “I get it.” He knelt next to Jake. “It’s my first time driving one of these, and it’s safer for you in the car, okay?”
Jake pouted at Ramin, but it was so cute it only made Ramin snort. Jake really was like a Muppet in human form.
Jake seemed to realize it wasn’t working, too, because he changed tactics. “Okay, what about next time?”
“He said no, Jake,” Noah said. “You need to respect it when—”
“Fine!” Jake’s face turned red. He spun away from Ramin. “I didn’t want to ride it anyway.”
Ramin blinked and stood, staring after Jake as he stomped over to the car.
“Ah, kids,” Maria said, brushing his elbow. “He’ll be fine.”
She stood next to him as he mounted the Vespa and made sure he knew how to run it. “Just follow Tomaso. It’s not far.”
“Okay.” Ramin took his seat, pushing down the panic mounting in his chest. Not at driving the Vespa—he was fine with that—but about sharing it with Noah.
“Sorry about Jake. Lately he gets mad at me whenever I say no to him.”
“We all said no,” Ramin pointed out.
“But I’m the one he’s mad at.”
The Vespa sunk into its suspension as Noah mounted up behind him. Ramin felt the warmth against his back even before Noah scooted close and brought his hands up to Ramin’s side. Ramin sucked in his stomach as hard as he could.
Noah’s arms were warm and firm and big. The last six months or so, Todd’s embrace had changed, gotten so firm it wasn’t entirely comfortable. But Noah’s arms felt like being cradled.
Ramin made himself unclench his ass as Noah’s powerful chest settled against his back. He breathed in deep. He was fine. Everything was fine. This was for safety, not for cuddles.
“You good?” Noah asked, so close Ramin felt the breath against the back of his neck. He thought about cold water, the lake below,wondered if it had that brain-eating amoeba he’d read was in some lakes in the States. Anything to stop himself getting hard.
Which would’ve been a lot easier if his brain wasn’t trying to calculate exactly how much distance lay between his ass and Noah’s Ark.
