Total pages in book: 78
Estimated words: 75337 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 377(@200wpm)___ 301(@250wpm)___ 251(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 75337 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 377(@200wpm)___ 301(@250wpm)___ 251(@300wpm)
Eventually, the voices in the other room got quieter, then stopped entirely.
Curious when the silence dragged on for a bit, I popped back out into the hall, finding Anthony half-dozing on the couch.
And Salvatore nowhere to be found.
“He just popped over to the boss man’s house for a couple minutes. He figured you’d passed back out. Hey, since you’re up…”
“What do you need?” I asked, giving him a small smile.
I spent the next half an hour fetching things for Anthony before popping into the bathroom to try to find a spare toothbrush, then spend a silly amount of time choosing between his toothpaste collection.
As I suspected, my face was a mess.
But underneath the bruises, I swear my face had more color than usual. My eyes had a little more life, more sparkle.
It was amazing what some great sex with a good man could do for the complexion.
Done with that, I took another cup of coffee back to Salvatore’s bed, not sure what else to do with myself, and not wanting to invade Anthony’s makeshift bedroom when he didn’t need me to be out there.
It was maybe an hour into my movie when I heard him come in the front door, speak quickly to Anthony, then make his way down the hall.
I won’t lie.
My heart fluttered.
My sex tightened.
Then the door opened.
And there he was.
A man I was pretty sure I was starting to fall for.
“Good. Just where I wanted you to be,” he said, giving me a sexy smirk as he made his way to the bed, climbing up it from the bottom and coming over me. “I could get used to this,” he declared after his lips sealed to mine.
My whole heart, well, it wholeheartedly agreed.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Salvatore
I should have known better than to expect peace and quiet.
There was no such thing when a member of the Costa family was down and out.
It was endless streams of guests in and out of the apartment. And, normally, that didn’t bother me. I liked having everyone around. Especially after so many years of being virtually by myself while in prison.
It was nice to have family around.
Especially when they weren’t there on Family business.
But when I had a beautiful woman in my bed waiting on me, yeah, I was all too happy to just not answer the door.
Anthony, though, wanted some guests to distract himself from being couch-bound and bored, heaving his solid frame off the sectional, and hobbling over to let Brio and Cesare in while I was making coffee.
I still hadn’t figured out how I was going to broach the topic of Whitney to the guys, especially Lorenzo. And while I knew it should have been on the top of my priority list since I was forcing Anthony to be a part of my disloyalty, I couldn’t seem to bring myself to prioritize the confession when Whit was waiting for me.
Then, well, she walked out.
And I had no choice but to explain to Cesare and Brio what was going on. Though, clearly, they understood it the second they saw her.
Because I didn’t do sleepovers.
I didn’t have random hook-ups in my personal space.
First, because I felt it might send the wrong message.
But second, because it was just an unspoken rule around the Family. Strangers in your space presented a unique danger. They had access to your home. Which meant your weapons, your money, and even all the places they could place cameras or listening devices.
That sounded paranoid, but that was the life we lived now that technology had advanced so much. It wasn’t the feds dressing up as cable guys and wiring your house anymore.
It was slicker and more intimate than that.
So to be safe, you went to the woman’s house and kept your space sacred.
That meant that seeing Whitney there told them all they needed to know. That shit was more than work. And it was more than a random hook-up too.
I hadn’t exactly had a lot of time to think that over for myself yet. I’d been fucking beat the night before. So after following the uncharacteristic urge to put my arms around her and pull her close, I’d passed the fuck out.
I think it went without saying, though, that this wasn’t casual. And while I wouldn’t even pretend to understand all that a relationship entailed, I had to admit that it seemed to be heading in that direction.
Because not only did I like having her around, talking to her, being with her, I found myself more invested than I expected in her ability to interact with my people.
She’d probably thought I was a fucking asshole for being so quiet while she talked to Cesare, Brio, and Anthony, but some part of me just wanted to see how she fit in with my family, how comfortable she was with them.
I’d been pleasantly surprised. Even by her wish to help take care of Ant, who really needed a reality kick to the ass to see that not every woman he crossed paths with was going to wait on him hand-and-foot like the women of his family did.