Page 49 of Ciao, Amore

Fuck.

Alright, so maybe asking her to throw away her pills and give him a baby after a month wasn’t the best way to let her know that he wanted to stay in her life.

He really was the worst at this relationship shit.

When Dani came down twenty minutes later, she might as well have walked over and grabbed him by the balls. Her hair was big and loose, falling in fluffy ringlets that grazed her bare shoulders, made darker bronze by her day at the beach. That “nothing much to look at” white top was held up by one thick strap and the power of gravity, cupping her tits and making her skin stand out even more in contrast. That “basic, who cares” black skirt? It hugged her ass and hips, showing that little belly under the waist that he was dying to kiss and stroke.

Tonight she wasn’t wearing the tall, come-fuck-me heels, obviously ready to dance in her fresh white-and-metallic-gold sneakers. Giant doorknocker earrings, bright red lipstick, and a tiny cross-body wallet purse completed the look.

She was pretty and ready to party.

He was angry and ready to fuck.

Looking at her insolence in the way she flounced downstairs, it made him even angrier that he’d been deprived of being inside her after days of scorching, restrained PDA. Maybe he’d misinterpreted everything that had happened between them, and she wasn’t the right woman for him after all. Not someone to have a kid with, to risk anything for.

What the fuck had he been thinking?

Maybe what he’d experienced in the church wasn’t a miracle so much as a momentary flirtation with a jump over the Cliffs of Insanity. This lust he felt for her was insanely strong but temporary, a predictable response to a vacation fantasy that was fucking with his head and giving him delusions of permanence. That’s all it must have been—all this would be.

Nico decided he was going to take whatever he could get from her during the rest of the trip before they said goodbye.

Starting tonight.

16

HEADSPRUNG

DANI

“You look nice,”Nico muttered, kissing the cheek she offered him in front of Tori, who was checking out her hair and clothes with approval.

God, he smelled delicious.

“Yeah, Dani, that outfit is killin’ it,” Tori complimented her.

“Thanks,” Dani said with a smile at her. “I love your dress too. You look hot.”

“Why, thank you,” Tori said, posing with her hand on her hip.

“You really do look hot,” Angelo said, leaning over his petite wife like a big bear and nuzzling her neck.

Dani looked at Nico, running her eyes up and down his plaid shirt over his white tank and his jeans and sneakers. For the first time since Rome, he was wearing his Yankees cap again. She hadn’t realized how much she’d missed that thing, remembering him looking exactly like this in the first pics of him she’d seen. That felt like ages ago. She’d made herself come looking at those pictures, and the flush of that memory flooded her, stoking that longing for him that never seemed to go away.

Nico saw her checking out the hat and twisted his lips at her. There was anger behind those eyes, hostile desire in the way his eyes raked her body.

“Yeah, I’m wearing my hat tonight. We’ve gotta represent the BX,” he said, his voice sardonic.

“Yeah, baby. I love it when motherfuckers give us dirty looks.” Angelo laughed. He was wearing his hat too, tilted at an angle. “Everybody’s waitin’ out in the driveway. Let’s go.”

They piled into the backseat of the Maserati Ghibli. Angelo got behind the wheel, running his hands over the black leather with appreciation.

“Man, I love this car almost more than I love you, baby,” Angelo crooned to Tori, who slapped his arm.

Behind them, Dani wasn’t speaking, and Nico faced the other way to avoid eye contact. Angelo kept sneaking looks at them in the rearview mirror.

Finally, Tori said, “You guys are quiet tonight.”

“Still a little tired. We walked around the city all day,” Dani supplied.

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