Page 137 of Lights Out

I think it was the smile that decided Nico. He shuddered and, with a grimace, finally slipped his hand into mine. “You’re welcome.”

“I truly appreciate all your hard work keeping your niece safe,” I told him, which was true.

He frowned. “You’re pretty fucked up, kid. Aren’t you?”

An indrawn breath announced Aly’s arrival. “What did you just say to my boyfriend?”

In a blink, I came back to myself, my smile becoming more genuine than creepy as I released Nico and turned to face his niece.

“He was teasing,” I said. “I made a dumb joke. Right?” I asked him.

His gaze slid from me to Aly. “Right.”

I clapped him on the shoulder. “Thank Moira again for dinner. It was delicious.”

Aly frowned as she reached us, sensing something was off. “Are you ready?” she asked me.

“I am,” I said before turning back to her uncle. “Can’t wait to do this again next month.”

Nico looked a little green at the idea, but he managed to say goodbye to Aly and see us out the door without giving anything away.

“What the hell did you say to him?” she asked as we made our way toward my car.

“I told him he had a nice arse.”

Aly choked on nothing.

“What?” I said. “He does.”

I unlocked the doors, and we climbed inside. She turned to me as I started the car, her eyes narrowed to slits. “You threatened him, didn’t you?”

“Yes, but in my defense, he started it.”

“What about trying to stay on his good side?” she asked.

“Turns out, he doesn’t have one.”

She punched my arm. “Are you out of your mind? Do you know what he could do to you?”

I turned to face her. “The better question is, do you know what I could do to him?”

That brought her up short. I could see the wheels spinning in her head as she reviewed everything she’d learned about my computer skills. “But the risk…”

I reached out and smoothed her hair back from her face, looking for an excuse to touch her. “I understand the risk, but I don’t think it’ll ever come to that. Nico is a smart guy. He knows a truce between us is preferable to setting his whole world on fire just to prove he has the bigger metaphorical dick.”

She grimaced. “Gross. No relative dick talk.”

“You understand what I’m saying, though. The threat was just a threat. He needed to realize that he can’t bully me like everyone else. And he also needed to know that he can’t push me out of your life just because I’m not Italian enough for his liking.”

Her gaze shifted from my eyes to my mouth and back again. “Did you have to wait until I was out of the room to do it? I would have liked to see you go all alpha on him.”

I cocked a brow at her. “Alpha, huh? Is that something out of your porno books?”

She rolled her eyes. “They’re called spicy romances, and they’ve taught me as much about myself as your masktok account has.”

“Yeah?” I asked. “Like what?”

“Like when we’re at that Airbnb we booked in the mountains, I want you to chase me down and fuck me in the woods like an animal.”

---