Page 31 of The Mobster’s Nurse

"She's … my girlfriend." The word sounds too small.

"I thought you didn't know anybody here," Dad mutters in confusion.

"I didn't." I step closer to Ellie, wrapping my arm around her. She leans against me instinctively. "But then we met." I laugh gruffly. "And I realized I might be human after all."

When Dad smiles, the years drift away. I feel like a boy again, before I even knew what the mob was. When Dad was just Dad. Not Don Dario. But then the Don returns a moment later.

He looks seriously at Ellie. "Do you feel the same as my son?"

"I care about him," she murmurs. "I've never felt anything like this before."

"Has he told you what it means to be a mobster's woman?"

Ellie looks up at me bravely. I see there's still that glimmer of indecision in her forest eyes. She turns back to Dad. "It means my life will never be the same."

"Are you ready for that?"

Ellie doesn't respond. After several seconds, I cut in, "Dad, it's been a couple days. Give her some time."

He inclines his head. "I'll call you about the Irish."

Soon, I'm leading Ellie out of the villa again. I keep my hand on her back.

In the car, I tell her, "You'll need to stay at my place while we fix all this. We can swing by your apartment for clothes."

"Okay," she murmurs.

"Are you okay?" I growl.

"My life is upside down, Luca. But yeah, I'm okay."

"I had to do what I did last night. No man gets to come at us like that and walk away clean."

She looks at me. Bites her lip. Makes me want to kiss her gently and hold her carefully at the same time.

"When I'm with you," she says after a pause. "It's so easy to forget about everything else. Just me and you."

"Let me run you a bath at my place," I tell her. "Help you relax. You've been through a lot. Too much."

She smiles. "That sounds nice. Thanks, Luca."

I pull my phone and tap out a message:

Is the duffel bag I prepped waiting for me at my place?

Presumptuous, maybe. But I didn't survive in this world by not planning ahead — and more than that, I want to give her something to look forward to. Something that belongs only to us, away from all of this.

I squeeze her leg again. Hoping I can close this distance between us.

Then glance down at my phone:

Casanova () check, boss!

I emerge from the steamy bathroom to find Ellie standing in the hall, the duffel bag open at her feet. She picks up the padded handcuffs and looks at me with a complicated expression — curiosity, but also something warmer underneath it, and a question she hasn't decided whether to ask yet.

"What are these for?"

"That's up to you," I tell her. I close the distance between us slowly, giving her time to read my approach. When I kiss her — the first time today — she whimpers and holds me against her like she's been aching for it, and I feel the knot in my chest loosen. "I know how much you loved it when I spanked you. There are candles in there, too. I thought, if you wanted, we could explore a little further. Together. No pressure and no rush."