Page 61 of Tailored for You

One kiss. That was all it took to blow every fantasy out of the water.

It was all I could think about. The feel of her lips. Her body under my hands.

Cazzo, nothing was better. The cute moan she made.

Another ball of paper hit me, bounced off my forehead, poked me in the eye, and rolled onto the floor. I glared at him.

“Say it.” He rolled his eyes and closed his laptop.

“What?” I barely comprehended his words, my brain automatically drifting back to Serena.

“What’s on your mind? We aren’t going to get anything done with your head in the clouds.” He motioned to me. “Speak. I’m waiting.”

“Serena,” I started, but didn’t know what I wanted him to know.

“Stop. If you’re telling me you finally got her into bed and you’re here instead of still there with her, I'm going to question your sanity.” Rafael’s incredulous face made me smile.

“Of course not. She’s in my bed, but not with me. Not yet. Soon.”

“Let’s go over it,” Rafael said.

“Go over what?”

“Cazzo,” Rafael huffed. “The plan. I know you have a plan. It may take another year for you to act on it and get her into bed, but I know you have one.”

“I don't have a step-by-step plan on how to get her into my bed.” I rolled my eyes. He made me sound predictable. What I had planned was anything but predictable. The hard part wasn’t creating it; it was getting Serena to go along with it.

We needed uninterrupted time together. Where we only had each other and a bed within easy reach.

“You do. I watched you create a studio for her. Paint a pink princess room for her daughter. Create a second closet from all the suits you paid her to alter so you could find an excuse to talk to her.”

“You’re making me sound pathetic,” I said.

“You are pathetic. Or a simp as I think the kids call it now,” Rafael said. “It isn’t a bad thing. This is how you always wanted it to be. Adrienne said it was good to know a man was more in love with you than you were with him. It gives them power or something.”

I grumbled, not answering him. I pushed a file to him, but he ignored it.

“I’m waiting,” Rafael said. “How am I supposed to help if I don’t know what the plan is?”

“Are you going to hold helping me over my head for the next ten years?” I asked.

“Of course. And it’s fifteen, not ten. So, tell me, what is it you have up your sleeve?” Rafael pressed.

I stared at him. Rafael wasn’t one to offer help with women or anything outside of the Cosa. The brotherhood was his life, and he enjoyed it. He wasn’t the one I would’ve thought to go to for help with a woman.

He didn’t care about long-term relationships.

He liked a challenge, chasing after a woman, but was easily bored when it stopped and moved on, leaving a trail of broken hearts. Those broken hearts would haunt him someday, of that I was sure.

He was also the one who had offhandedly suggested building the studio for Serena. Who purposefully got blood on me after torturing someone and suggested I go back to Serena for a new suit.

The man who poked at me every chance he got about how slowly I was moving with Serena. He didn’t get why.

“Remind me what you’re doing in New York, again?” I asked.

“Bouncing between New York and the West is what I’m supposed to do. I haven’t been around in three months, and look at you,” he waved a hand at me, “a lovesick puppy. So, tell me your plan so I can make sure security is in place for Harper. If I have to play Best Zio in the world, I need to start planning now.”

I tilted my head back, staring at the ceiling. What I wanted required a lot of work. There was still the unknown threat of someone paying to break into Serena’s apartment hanging over my head.