Page 506 of One More Kiss

Paolo

I leanedagainst the wall in the main living room of the Bilotti house. We’d just finished a meeting in the guest house with Vincenzo. Now, the men closest to Vincenzo were mingling in the living area.

A month had passed since I’d started working undercover in the Bilotti organization. The other soldiers were wary of me in the first week. Each wanted to know where I came from and what made me join Bilotti. Knowing so much about the family and how the organization ran, it was easy to pretend to be a fan of Vincenzo, but also, my handler fudged my background, which gave me a whole new identity. I was Paolo Govinazzi, the grandson of a made man who lost his life years ago.

The background withstood the deep dive that one of the captains did on me. Vincenzo’s men were extremely wary of people, which made me wonder how a mole had infiltrated.

Avery glided down the stairs and as usual whenever she was around, every man in the vicinity stood taller. Her beauty radiated off her. Her red hair flowed down her back and stood out against her pale skin. Her pouty lips and deep brown eyes were beautiful.

She was demure and graceful, but she kept everyone at arm’s length. That was probably for the best. She needed to be wary, given that someone was watching her and her father. Only two days prior, someone tried to shoot Vincenzo as he was leaving a sushi restaurant. I shoved Vincenzo out of the way just a moment before the shot went off.

As much as I was focused on my job, I couldn’t stop thinking about Avery. She tempted me in ways I hadn’t even known were possible. When I was around her, I wanted to pull her in my arms just so that I could feel her soft body against mine. The fact I went hard every time she walked into the room was insane. Also didn’t help that all my fantasies were filled with her deep brown eyes. The connection that we had was unlike anything I’d ever experienced, and yet, I couldn’t have her. We came from different worlds.

Falling for the boss’ daughter was a deadly game. Touching her would get me killed without a second thought, whether I was a police officer or not. The principessa was off-limits to everyone, not just me. Vincenzo never said the words outright, but I knew about the unwritten rule.

I’d learned a hell of a lot about the way that she was treated while I’d been here. She was protected by everyone, not just her father and Marco, but every man in the organization. It was not just because she was Vincenzo’s daughter. She captured everyone with her innocence, the complete opposite of everything this world should have produced. Avery showed everyone her soft side, even if she was distrustful of them. She gave every man in the organization a flash of the love that she had for her father. It was why every single one of them was willing to go to hell and back for her.

She flashed me a smile as she sauntered in my direction.

“Good morning, Paolo,” she said politely.

“Morning, principessa.”

Her eyes widened and her lips parted.

It was good to know that she was also affected by the attraction between us.

“I’m going to Sorentos,” she said with a soft smile.

I nodded, then followed her through the house and outside to the waiting SUV.

“You can’t go alone.”

“I know that I’m not allowed to leave the house without a guard, and Leon is coming with me as my personal guard.”

I smiled. She was good; she knew the rules. “Keep close to him, but be vigilant, principessa. You never know who could be following you.”

Her shoulders straightened. “Is someone following me?”

“No, Avery, they’re not. But you can’t ever be too careful.”

She looked up at me, her eyes filled with heat. I had almost a foot on her and she looked so small, precious, and beautiful.

The air around us crackled, and it took everything in me not to pull her into my arms and hold her. Fuck that; I wanted to whisk her away from this world and make sure nobody could ever get to her.

“You know that this is a bad idea and it can’t happen,” she whispered. Her tongue swept across her bottom lip.

“I know,” I said through clenched teeth. Fuck, I knew, but it didn’t mean that I didn’t want it to happen. “I know my duty.”

Pain sliced through her eyes.

“Your duty,” she said, her nose scrunched in disgust. “Right.”

She opened the car door and slid in without looking back at me. It wasn’t until I saw the car exit through the gate that I realized she had taken my words the wrong way. My duty was to her father.

Leon started the engine, and I scrubbed a hand over my face before I jogged to my Jeep. I’d fucked up and needed to fix it. Vincenzo wouldn’t question me and if he did, I would claim I felt uneasy and followed to make sure nobody was watching her.

I stayed five car lengths behind them. I knew where Serentos was; the restaurant was in Little Italy.

---