Page 82 of Ciao, Amore

“A place I know. It’s not far.”

Amber’s apartment was in Amsterdam Zuid, the south side of the city. How she’d managed to swing this place in the trendy neighborhood was a story for another time. Within a ten-minute walk, they’d arrived at their destination—a café serving German desserts and coffees that Dani had loved the minute she wandered in during those first disorienting days in town, when Amber was at work and she was alone. It was somber, with dark-red booths, wood tables, and low lighting behind the bar. In short, it matched her new mood. It was the perfect hiding spot from the world.

Now Nico looked around with quick eyes, nodding his approval. “Full circle, huh?”

She smiled. “That’s right. We met in a place like this.”

Dani led him to her favorite booth off to the right in the corner. Unlike the Gemini Diner where they’d had their first coffee, the wood benches that separated them from other diners were high, giving them a measure of privacy from other eyes and ears. The seat was one half-moon cushion. Although she was sorely tempted to slide over and press against Nico’s side, she kept a bit of distance between them to allow her the headspace to think clearly before she spoke.

When the server came, appraising Nico with a once-over, he turned to Dani with a quirked eyebrow. She’d been here almost every day, and they’d chatted enough to get acquainted. Lucas was friendly and a little flirtatious, but she knew he didn’t mean anything by it. Brown-haired and tall, he always wore a friendly smile as he did now.

“Hey, American Antillana girl. You finally brought a friend,” he said in Dutch.

Switching to English, Dani said, “Yes, this is Nico. We’ll have coffee and some of the strudel if you have any.” Turning back to Nico, she said, “I hope you like strudel. If you don’t already, you’ll love it after this.”

“I’m Lucas. Nice to meet you,” Lucas said.

“Hi, Lucas,” Nico said pleasantly, but his eyes were watchful as Lucas departed to get their order.

Nico stood long enough to shrug out of his coat and hang it on the hook on the wall. Her eyes ran over his muscular length while he did. Damn, she’d missed that body, had worn out practically every pleasure tool in her arsenal trying and failing to replicate what he’d done to her.

When she stood to take off her own coat and hand it to him, she could see him surreptitiously checking out her shape, even though the sweater she wore was loose and not form-fitting at all.

“I like you in winter gear. You look like you’re ready for the slopes,” he commented, sitting back down.

Nico edged in closer to her, and she took a quick inhale. Mmm, yes, that sage scent was still there, but not the smell of the sea. He’d lost his tan, and his beard had thickened slightly. He now seemed more suited to drinking cups of hot cocoa in front of a fireplace than ruling as the God of the Sea, lazing in the water at the beach.

She touched that thicker beard with a fingertip, loving the springiness of it. “And you look like a lumberjack in a suit.”

He laughed at her description. Those small details about him may have changed, but not the warmth in his eyes when he looked at her. That hadn’t altered one bit. Her insides dancing with a butterfly revival, she looked away, at anything but him.

“You’re doing it again,” Nico said softly. “Looking away when you start getting overwhelmed. Don’t. We can’t go through our lives like that.”

Laughing softly, flicking away a sharp tear that had managed to work its way to the corner of her eye, she looked at him.

“Alright. I’m zeroed in,” she acquiesced. Taking a deep breath, she turned her body and her face in his direction and stayed there, focused on him, ready for him and anything he might have to say to her.

Before he could open his mouth, Lucas reappeared with their order. “Enjoy,” he said simply, his brown eyes moving between her and Nico. When he took off, she reached for the coffee, prepping it to her liking while Nico watched with a grin.

“What?” she asked.

“I shouldn’t say this, but the first time you poured all that cream and sugar into your coffee, I wondered…” Color spread across Nico’s cheekbones, and that red-lipped, lopsided smile was so sexy. “I wondered if you liked your men light and sweet like your drink. Glad I kept that comment to myself at the time. But I was so…enraptured by you. One hundred percent. You took me by surprise. You blow me away every time.”

God, his eyes. They were spilling over—not with tears but with pure adoration. And Dani fell into them not helplessly as before but willingly. Lucas and every other person in that café grew muffled, muted, and disappeared. Dani wondered if there’d ever be a time being with Nico didn’t affect her this way.

“At the wedding, before my aunt said the party was over, we were talking about what happened that night. You were saying something about being wrong?” Dani asked with a grin.

“Knew that would get your attention,” Nico said wryly. “Before I get into why I was wrong, I need you to understand a few things about me and my history. With relationships. I mean, you know the bare bones. I was with someone for a year, I was going to propose, it ended badly. She may or may not have cheated on me, but I was leaning towards yes, she cheated. It fucked my head up but it’s not because I was in love with her, and I was heartbroken to lose her. I wasn’t,” he admitted heavily, stirring his coffee reflectively. “I never loved her or anyone else in the first fuckin’ place.”

32

AWAKE

NICO

“I dated a lot of women.I almost never had downtime between girlfriends. And I didn’t love any of them.”

Dani’s insides squeezed to hear Nico say there had been a lot of women, harkening back to what Tori had told her that day at the beach. But she didn’t speak, let him continue saying what was obviously difficult for him to discuss.

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