Page 197 of Niccolo

I broke out into a huge grin. “Well, well, well – if it isn’t my favoriteconsigliere.”

“I’m assuming you mean beside yourself.”

“Well, naturally! I see your area code is Rome, but I’m assuming that after all your paranoia, you wouldn’t have given away your locationthateasily.”

“Come to Rome and find out.”

“Do you promise to be there? Preferably naked and in bed?”

She laughed.“No.”

“Then I’ll pass. How are you?”

“I’ve been better. How about yourself?”

“I’ve been MUCH better. Particularly when I was in Macau about 48 hours ago.”

“Mmm. Me, too. When’s our next get-together?”

“Come over to our side, and we can get together every night.”

“Tempting… in the meantime, how about a sleepover somewhere neutral?”

“I’d love to, but seeing as your boss is trying to kill me, I can’t exactly step foot out of our mansion.”

“Bummer.”

“Isn’t it?”

I thought about asking about the bank managers who had all met untimely ends.

I wanted to see how she reacted – to ascertain if she had planned their deaths –

But I wanted to see her face when I told her.

Since that wasn’t an option, I just continued to banter. “So – to what do I owe this very pleasant surprise?”

She paused for a second.

When she answered, there was less humor and more sincerity.“I wanted to hear your voice.”

“Oh,” I said, slightly surprised. “Well, I’m glad you did, because I missed hearingyourvoice, too. In fact, I miss alotof things about you.”

“Mmmmm…”she purred.“I particularly miss one BIG thing about you.”

“Is that so,” I said, a little turned on.

“Mm-hmm. Particularly when it’s inside me.”

Jesus CHRIST.

I started to get hard.

“As much as I’d love to have phone sex, I think that would be frowned upon by my brothers.”

“Spoilsport. And here I was, ready to come for you.”

FUCK.

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