“Doesn’t the mob have rules for this sort of thing? Aren’t you going to make him your… your successor or whatever?”
“There are no rules,” I say, holding her gaze. “Except the ones I choose. And I choose to support my son in whateverhewants to do, not what tradition or anything else dictates.”
She steps forward, leans over Theo, and finds my lips. I kiss her softly at first, then hard when I feel her breathing picking up. I have to stop after a couple of seconds because Theo is in my arms and I’m going to lose it.
We keep going, walking through the shark tunnel, Ava walking ahead with wonder on her face as she gazes around. Her wonder blooms even more beautifully when we stroll through the sea turtle habitat.
Soon we’re in the central room, a dome of glass surrounding us, tropical fish gliding in every direction. I carry Theo to the corner of the room, to his bassinet, and gently lay him down. Ava joins me, showing me how to tuck him in.
After she turns, looking at the table in the center of the room, rose petals are scattered everywhere, a bottle of champagne sitting in a bucket of ice.
“I didn’t know there was a restaurant here,” she says.
I walk up behind her, wrap my arms around her body, feeling her respond as hungrily as me. My length settles against the perfect thickness of her ass, her curves molding to my body as though they were made for me.
“They don’t,” I whisper in her ear. “I hired out the restaurant down the street for the night.”
She leans back against me. I lower my head, pressing my cheek to hers, feeling her smile take shape against my face. “You’re doing good, Rafe, can’t lie about that.”
“I just want to give you everything you deserve,” I tell her passionately. “This is just the beginning…”
She turns in my arms, hands wrapped around the back of my neck, looking up at me with a hint of danger in her eyes. “This is just about tonight, remember?”
“Hmm,” I murmur, not sure I can commit to it.
“That was the deal,” she says. “But… thank you, Rafe, for makingtonightspecial.”
She stands on her tiptoes, kissing me. I groan through the press of our mouths, gliding my hands over her body, every curvemaking me ache and pulse. I try to kiss her like a civilized man, but she moans and trembles against me, and I’m lost.
My hands move to her ass, massaging her voluptuousness as she writhes against me, like she’s seeking desperate friction through our clothes. My dick engorges, aches, roars at me to forget dinner and civility and take her right here.
I almost do it too. Almost tear off her dress, lift her off her feet, fuck her standing like a goddamn savage.
Then Theo makes a cooing noise from behind us, and I’m able to use the brief moment to take a step back.
She stares at me, chest rising and falling rapidly. We can’t stop eye-fucking each other.
I walk to the table and pull out her seat.
“Such a gentleman,” she says sarcastically.
CHAPTER 13
AVA
“So,” I say, as I move my spoon through the vegetable soup. “Did you always want to be a mobster?”
Rafe shoots me a look, his amber-gold eyes swimming. He looks devastatingly handsome in his sleek black suit, shirt open at the collar to hint at his sculpted chest. Now, there’s a hint of danger in him, a spark that could become a blaze.
“What?” I say. “Isn’t this what people do on dates… get to know each other?”
“Maybe you should ask me about my favorite color instead,” he mutters.
I laugh, and, like every single time we laugh together, a surreal feeling grips me.I’m laughing with a mafia Don. The father of my baby. The man who abandoned me.
“Go on, then,” I say.
“Red,” he says.
