Page 52 of Diary of a Mafia Princess

Luca folded his arms and watched the team from her side. “We’re watching the bottom of the ladder hockey team I apparently now own and have to somehow make good, so it can make some money.”

Nyah’s gaze ran over his perfectly wrinkle-free suit. How the hell he kept it like that, even though we’d been squished up in the back seat of his car was beyond me. Mine was crumpled to hell. Had to be the expensive material his was made from that mine definitely was not.

Her eyes turned squinty, studying him. “You seem like more of a wine-and-cheese guy than a hockey guy.”

He glared at her. “What the hell does that mean?”

She lifted a shoulder, keeping his attention on her, I suspected because Dax was probably sneaking out behind us.

But then again, she seemed to like verbally sparring with Luca. “It just means you’re kind of…rich. I don’t see you getting your hands dirty. Hockey is all sweat and clashes of bodies…”

He glanced over at her, a smirk lifting the corner of his mouth. “Would you like me to show you exactly what I know about sweat and clashing bodies, Nyah?”

Heat prickled across the back of my neck at the sexual innuendo between the two of them. But if it affected Nyah, she didn’t show it.

She just smiled sweetly at him. “You could, but then I’d just be comparing you to your daddy…”

The face Luca made had me snorting my laughter. I picked up one of the helmets from the pile of equipment kicking around at our feet and handed it to him. “Here. If you’re going to puke, do it in that.”

He shoved it away, and I dropped it back to the floor with a laugh.

I put my arms around both of them, trying to lighten the mood. “I thoroughly love when the two of you are bickering. It’s so entertaining.” I put on my best female, Nyah-sounding voice. “Oh, Luca, you’re so annoying!” and then switched to a deeper, more Luca-sounding voice. “I hate you but really I think you’re super hot and wouldn’t mind getting between your legs.” And then switched back to my Nyah voice. “Oh, yes! My pussy gets all wet for you every time you’re in the room, but no touching! I’m for your daddy only!”

They both shoved me off them and stared at me.

I laughed. “What? That’s exactly what the two of you sound like.”

“I don’t want to fuck my father’s fiancée,” Luca said, though the red-hot blaze in his cheeks told me I’d hit the nail on the head.

“And my pussy doesn’t get wet for him,” Nyah hissed, equally pink in the face.

I put my hand over my heart and made a horrified face. “Oh, my mistake then!” My response was about as sarcastic as they came.

But the two of them put a good foot of space between them and quit bickering long enough for two men to walk over to us.

The taller of the two, probably in his fifties, with a black baseball cap and Saint View Vipers team shirt that had Coach embroidered over his heart, offered Luca his hand. “Luca Guerra, right? I’m Coach Buckle. This is my assistant, Coach Hogan.”

Luca shook both their hands. “Good to meet both of you.”

Nyah, by my side, couldn’t help but whisper, only so I could hear, “Oh look. Luca is being all professional. I didn’t know he had it in him.”

As if he’d heard her and just had to do the very opposite of whatever she said, Luca let go of the men’s hands. “You’re both fired.”

They both blinked at him.

Coach Buckle was the first to regain use of his tongue. “What?”

Luca turned back to the ice. “You heard me. You’re both fired.”

Coach Buckle’s mouth dropped open. “You can’t just come in here and fire us!”

Luca glanced over at him and then pointedly at the ladder on the electronic scoreboard. It announced that four weeks into the season, the Vipers were dead last on the table. “Give me one good reason I would keep two coaches who clearly can’t create a winning team? Sorry, but you’re out.”

Nyah and I just stood there awkwardly while Coach Buckle went red in the face. But eventually he got the idea that Luca wasn’t changing his mind. He and Coach Hogan stomped off in a huff. But it wasn’t quietly.

“This is my team, Guerra! You can’t just come in here and take it from me.”

Except we all knew that as the owner, he absolutely could.