Page 10 of Knocked Up by My Dad's Mafia Boss

“Mmhm,” she answers, looking at me with those big brown eyes tinged with dark lashes. I tear my eyes away from her, looking back at the road.

“Do you need me to carry you inside?” I ask dryly as she fumbles with the door handle after we arrive.Please say no.

“Maybe,” she mutters. I bite back a sigh and get out of the car,

I scoop her up as clinically as possible, but she wraps her arms around my neck and leans in close to my chest. I’m acutely aware of her bare skin under my hands.

I sit her down in the hall in front of her bedroom, and she steadies herself with her hands on my chest. Her fingertips feel like fire through the fabric of my shirt.

“Thank you, Dante,” she murmurs, and leans up on her tiptoes to kiss the corner of my mouth.

Then she walks inside. I stand there, touching where she kissed me.

Fuck.

3

SAMANTHA

Time passes in the house more slowly than I would have imagined. I’m practically on lockdown, but on occasion, I sneak out.

Dante’s always there. He keeps me in his vision even if he doesn’t speak to me, offers me a ride home at the end of the night. He’s like my fucking shadow. And as much as I want his hands all over me, that’s clearly never going to happen.

“I wish he’d leave me alone for five minutes,” I complain to my friend Sofia.

She sips her apple martini. “You’re lucky to have a hot bodyguard,” she teases. “Mine looks like he came from a zoo.”

I snort out a laugh. “Yeah, well, looking what you can’t have all the time gets old.”

“I guess it would. He’s never even…” She trails off.

“Never,” I admit, sighing heavily and glancing over at him. He’s nursing a drink. Waiting. Watching me with those too-blue eyes of his.

The reason I snuck out in the first place is that this club is on the South Side, and Papa has forbidden me because that’s Ricci’s turf.

I know I’m chasing adrenaline, but I just get soboredsitting around the house. And the South Side is where all my friends go.

Papa would call me irresponsible. Maybe I am. But when I look over at Dante, there’s no judgment in his eyes.

I can’t read what’s in them. He’s just as much as enigma now as he was when I first met him.

Only now I know my feminine wiles don’t work on him. He’s not attracted to me.

Bummer.

Sofia babbles on about Reese and Vaughn, who have recently gotten engaged. I’m barely listening. I’m staring at Dante.

It’s like he’s gotten even more handsome over the years.

He jokes that I gave him the silver in his temples and at the stubble on his jaw. Maybe I did. I’m not exactly the most peaceful person.

Maybe I would be, if I had someone like Dante to put me in my place.

I bite my lip and turn back to Sofia. “I’m happy for them.”

Out of nowhere, gunshots ring out. Sofia hits the ground, tugging me with her.

Fire explodes along the side of my arm, and I look over to see blood trickling down it.