Page 43 of Ciao, Amore

“That’s Brizio. Glad you learned so much about Italian suits. Speaking of, I should’ve said it earlier, but you looked amazing coming down those stairs.” The look he gave her made that flame burn brighter, hotter.

From over his shoulder, she could see Lina and Patrick dancing together. Lina’s eyes were fixed on her and Nico, inscrutable as a riddle. Dani smiled and turned her attention back to Nico, the one who mattered here.

“Oh, so I went from ‘okay’ to ‘amazing,’ all in the space of a conversation with one boring but very good-looking blond man. I see how you are,” Dani taunted, giving him the side-eye.

His bark of laughter rang out over the terrace, turning a few heads. “Good-looking, huh? You think I’m jealous?”

“Indeed, I do.”

“Okay, yeah, whatever. What about you? I talked to Steffi all night. Are you jealous enough to come to my room and fuck me so hard I won’t ever dream of being with another woman?”

“Ha,” she exclaimed, ignoring the way his words caused her clit to throb. “It’s going to take more than a redhead draped on your shoulder like a shawl Nonni crocheted for you to get me up in your room tonight.”

“We’ll see about that,bella.” He chuckled. “Now, before I reach the stage where I’m so drunk I look like Shrek, wanna go get our picture taken?”

“I am two drinks away from being Fiona, so sure. Let’s do it while we’re still in human form,” she agreed.

They waited in a short line behind Tino and Vanessa at the photographer’s alcove. They took two pics, one standing with Nico’s arm around her waist and her leaning into him while gazing at the camera with a pout. The second was a ridiculous pose with them back-to-back, holding up gun fingers like dapper spies. Of course, that was Nico’s idea.

“Please take another with my phone?” Dani batted her lashes at the photographer, who blushed and obliged.

Nico gathered her close and looked into her eyes with his lips parted in a smile. She flushed, her body responding to being held against that strong, muscular frame, wondering if her desire for him would be visible to anyone who saw the picture. When the photographer handed the phone to her, she looked at the photo and grinned. Yes, it was obvious. No, she was too tipsy to care.

She attached it to a message destined for Terri, Melody, and Jade, captioned: “Me ’n Nico, ain’t we fly?”

Dani didn’t realize it was still early evening in New York and they would be up. The responses were instantaneous and excited.

Terri: “OMG, you guys!!!! Ow, my heart!” Several heart emoji.

Melody: “This is…” Several fire emoji.

Jade: “Ur fucking, ain’t you? Ur welcome.”

Merelys, Vanessa, and Tori appeared, surrounding them and pulling them apart so they could take her back to the dance floor while the four brothers posed for photos together. Of course their middle fingers were flipped with rock-devil faces. Then another with serious gangster poses, fingers still up.

“Why do they always do that?” Merelys complained, shaking her head. “Every picture I take of them, ruined with those fingers.”

“Holy shit,” Dani said, pointing and slurring her words only a little bit. “That’s it. The pic they took was from here.”

“What pic?” Vanessa asked, dancing her in a dizzying circle. She grabbed two shots of amaretto from a tray offered by a server and practically poured one down Dani’s throat. Vanessa polished off the other herself.

“Middle Finger Dude Bros,” Dani responded. “Oh, wait. No. That was different. Their clothes are different.” She laughed.

Yes, she was definitely going from tipsy to drunk, fast. She needed to watch herself; she absolutely could not embarrass Nico in front of his grandparents and his parents, although he was on his way to doing that himself with those flexed fingers. Another pulse went off in her pussy thinking of the amazing things that finger could do.

She was dancing with the Three Fates when Steffi left her long conversation with Nonno to join them. Her dark-red hair was the color of late sunset, draped in long, loose waves over her shoulder. Her black silky dress had full coverage in front from her neck to her knees, but at the back, it was totally open, showing the creaminess of her skin almost all the way to the line of her ass.

Steffi danced close to her on Manolo stilettos, sizing Dani up while doing a slow shuffle. It was impossible to know what was going on behind those doll-like dark eyes, but Dani still didn’t sense any ill will. It was more of an intense curiosity.

Could Dani compete with this? Steffi was exotic, intelligent enough to help manage a profitable winery, and she seemed genuinely friendly. Fuck it. If Nico ended up marrying Steffi, taking over the business and making lots of redheaded Italian babies, so be it. It was out of her hands.

All at once, it was midnight. The political guests had left, parents and grandparents had departed for bed after wishing everyone goodnight, and the photographer and the band were snoring in a chair, slumped over an empty bottle of Moscato. Tori and Angelo were making out in the photo alcove, while Merelys and Dani hugged each other, talking in Spanish and laughing about funny things that had happened growing up in upper Manhattan, where wealthy folks like this had once feared to tread.

Brizio, who had disappeared for some time, suddenly stumbled over and grabbed Dani by the waist, spinning her away from Merelys and into his octopus-like arms. And like an octopus, he wrapped his tentacles around her in a tight, sweaty embrace, blond locks falling over his forehead into his reddened eyes. Even worse, he planted a wet, sucking mouth on her neck.

“Get off,” she said loudly with disgust, but he wouldn’t let go. Drunk strength was hard to beat when one was also drunk.

Tino came charging over like a blond bull, getting in Fabrizio’s face. “Yo, you’re gonna have a problem workin’ them fields with your legs broke. Get off Nico’s woman.”

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