by Penelope Sky
“Well, I’m sure producing and shipping wine is nothing like killing people,” I joked.
“But he says he enjoys spending time with our fathers. They’re a lot more laid-back than he realized.”
As long as the Barsetti men weren’t threatened by you, they were pretty easy to get along with. “That’s good. Griffin had to put up with a lot of bullshit from both of them.” My father flipped out when he saw Griffin just talk to me.
“Yeah, I think they’re putting that behind them, finally.” She finished half her sandwich quickly, scarfing down her food quicker than usual. “This baby is definitely a boy. He needs to eat like Griffin does, which is constantly.”
“You really think so?”
“Oh, I know so.” She chuckled. “Griffin eats nonstop.”
“Because he weighs two hundred and fifty pounds—and that’s all muscle.”
“Which makes me think this is his son.”
“God, you’re gonna have to give birth to that.” She would have to shove a smaller version of Griffin through her little opening, and it might rip her clean in half.
“I know,” she said with a sigh. “But I’m talking the drugs. No doubt about that.”
“I’d do the same.”
When she finished eating, she changed the subject. “I know this is weird, but I had an idea…”
“What’s weird about it?”
“Well, I was thinking about your love life and how it hasn’t been going well lately…”
My love life was a train wreck. But my sex life had never been better. When Bosco was gone, I would compare every man to him, and of course, I would never be satisfied.
She paused before she continued, like she wasn’t sure if she should say it. “Remember when I dated Antonio for a bit?”
“The hot painter?”
“Uh-huh.”
“Yeah. What about him?”
“Well, not only was he handsome, sweet, and charming, but he’s successful, romantic, and passionate. He’s pretty much got the whole package. I can’t attest to his skills in the bedroom because I never even kissed him, but…what if you guys went on a date?”
“You want me to go out with your ex-boyfriend?” I asked incredulously.
“He’s not my ex-boyfriend,” she said sternly. “He can’t be counted as an ex if I’ve never kissed him. But he was a wonderful guy. If Griffin had never existed, I would have fallen for him.”
“Because you two are the same person. He and I have nothing in common.”
“What are you talking about?” she asked incredulously. “You’re both small business owners, and you’re both artistic. He could paint your flowers. It wouldn’t hurt, right? You already said you think he’s hot.”
I wasn’t interested in dating anyone right now, not when I was in a committed relationship with Bosco. Even if it had an expiration date, I was loyal until the end. “I don’t think that’s a good idea. What if we got serious? Wouldn’t be weird for you and Griffin?”
She shrugged. “Maybe in the beginning, but that would fade. Griffin wouldn’t care either.”
I raised an eyebrow.
“He wouldn’t,” she repeated. “I married him. I chose him. He has nothing to be threatened by.”
I knew I was just looking for an excuse.
“Just walk in there and ask him to dinner. What’s the worst that could happen?”
Bosco could murder him. “Uh…”
“Since when did you become this person who overthinks everything?”
I couldn’t stand this any longer. I didn’t want to keep lying to Vanessa, even if I’d told Bosco I would. She would keep my secret, and I didn’t want to lie for the next three months and make up excuses for why I wouldn’t date the guys she recommended. “Don’t get mad… I lied before.”
“Lied about what?” she asked.
“Bosco.”
Both of her eyes widened.
“I’m still seeing him.”
“Oh my god…so he wouldn’t let you go.”
“No, not exactly. I told him I wanted to break it off, but he convinced me to stay.” That was putting it mildly. I glanced around the café, wondering who was working for Bosco. They all looked like regular customers who were living their lives. “We agreed to three months. Then we’ll go our separate ways for good.”
Vanessa stared at me in disbelief. “Wow…are you sure that’s a good idea?”
“Of course it’s not,” I said bluntly. “But we’ve agreed to it. When it’s over, it’s over.”
“And you think he’ll really honor it?”
I nodded. “I know he will. We signed a contract, and his brother witnessed it. And he told me so.”
Vanessa shook her head slightly. “I’m not judging you, Carmen. I mean, I ended up falling in love with a man who kidnapped me and almost killed me. He’s a natural-born enemy to our family. But if this guy isn’t the man you want to love, I would get out now. Three months is a long time. You might feel differently about him at the end than you do right now. You saw everything I went through with our family to keep Griffin. It was totally worth it, and I would do it again in a heartbeat…but it was the hardest thing I’ve ever had to live through. There’s no way your father will ever like Bosco. My father won’t either. Griffin hates him.”
“Griffin hates everyone.”
She rolled her eyes. “He’s not a good example. But you know what I mean. If you get too involved with a man so dangerous, who knows where you might end up? When you get in too deep in a relationship, it’s nearly impossible to get out. And Bosco might change his mind at any time.”
“He won’t,” I said firmly.
Vanessa didn’t challenge me again. “If this is what you want, I won’t try to talk you out of it anymore. I hope everything works out in the end. I don’t want you to get your heart broken—and it seems like that’s the only way this ends.”
“I can’t get my heart broken if I never fall in love with him.”
“Carmen…” She sighed, giving me a look of pity she’d never given me before. “I know you better than you know yourself. You treat men like business transactions, something I’ve always admired you for. When something isn’t working, you don’t hesitate before you ditch them. You’re so smart and pragmatic. But with this guy…you aren’t being smart or pragmatic. You continue to stay even though it’s not working. That can only mean one thing…that you’ve already started to fall for him.”
4
Bosco
I was on the couch when Carmen came home from work.
Drake had already told me about her conversation with Vanessa, that Carmen decided to tell her about our relationship even though we’d agreed to keep it a secret. But that didn’t upset me, not after Vanessa accused her of falling for me.
That information shouldn’t make me happy, not when it didn’t change the course of this relationship. Carmen didn’t confirm it either, so there was no proof she felt that way anyway.
Carmen set her purse on the table in the entryway then pulled off her black pea coat and hung it by the door. Over the course of our time together, she’d made herself at home, leaving her coats on the rack and her favorite boots by the door.
She walked into the living room and stared at me, her guard up as she crossed her arms over her chest.
I rose to my feet and looked at her, standing in my black sweatpants that hung low on my hips. I gave her a look that confirmed her suspicion—that I knew everything.
“I understand you have your men trail me everywhere, but it’s unacceptable that you eavesdrop on my private conversations.” She flashed me a fiery look that made her look angry, but also beautiful. “I don’t overhear your intimate conversations with your brother, so it’s unfair that you listen to mine.”
I didn’t deny her allegation. “I thought we agreed to keep this private.”
“I know, but I couldn’t lie to Vanessa. She’s my best friend. And she’s gonna keep trying to set me up with differ
ent men. It’s a lot easier to tell her I’m seeing you instead of making up a bunch of excuses all the time. She would get suspicious after a while anyway and probably would have figured it out on her own.”
“You trust her?”
She didn’t flinch. “With my life. She would never say a word to anyone.”
“I hope you’re right. Because I would hate to hurt the people you care about.”
Her eyes flashed like an atomic bomb had just dropped. “That shit ends now. Make another threat against my family, and I’ll walk out and not come back. I don’t give a damn about that stupid contract.” She pressed her finger into my chest and poked me hard. “I will put you in the ground, asshole. I’m not kidding.” She smacked her palm against my chest, hitting me with barely enough force to even register the sensation.
Truth be told, I didn’t even want to hurt her family. I just wanted to keep her in line. “Alright.”
“Alright what?” she pressed. “Does that mean you’ll stop?”
I nodded. “I’ll stop. I have no ill will toward your family.”
She breathed a sigh of relief, that confession meaning the world to her.
“But make no mistake, if they ever become a problem, I’ll be forced to do something. I know you don’t want to hear that, but I have to be honest with you.”
She gave me a heated look again.
“I’m sorry,” I said gently. “As long your family never finds out about me, I’m sure nothing will ever happen. If you trust Vanessa, then I’m sure everything will be fine.”
“I do trust her.”
“Then let’s not worry about it.” I used to not care about making her angry, about threatening to hurt the family she loved so much. But now I hated myself a little bit more every time I dropped those kinds of threats.
“No more eavesdropping.” She crossed her arms over her chest as she stared me down. “It’s a huge invasion of privacy, and I think it’s below you to cross that line. If you want to have months of amazing sex, that needs to change.”
“Fair enough,” I said. “I’ll make sure it doesn’t happen again.”
She was visibly surprised I gave in so easily.
“My attention was never to eavesdrop on you. Drake told me about your first conversation with Vanessa because he thought it was important, but I never asked him to do that. Now he’s been doing it ever since…because I didn’t ask him to stop.”
“That doesn’t make it any better, Bosco.” The fire in her eyes turned to ice. “I demand the respect I deserve. I want to tell my best friend about my life without worrying about you listening. I shouldn’t even have to ask.”
She made me feel like shit so easily. Only a truly powerful woman could do that. “You’re right. It’s over.”
Her eyes shifted back and forth as she looked into mine, searching for the sincerity in my gaze. But she didn’t need to look because I was always honest with her. If I wanted to keep spying on her, I would just tell her that. “Okay.” Slowly, the anger faded away. Her eyes didn’t look so belligerent, and her body physically relaxed. Her arms lowered to her sides, and she took a deep breath, like she was truly relaxed.
Even though I was desperate to touch her, I moved my hands into the pockets of my sweatpants. She wasn’t angry anymore, but her aura of hostility still burned bright. “I’m gonna make dinner. Would you like some?”
She sighed. “Fish?”
I grinned. “Chicken.”
“What if we order a pizza?”
I couldn’t remember the last time I had pizza. “You can order anything you want, Beautiful. But I’ll pass.”
She rolled her eyes so hard it seemed like they might get stuck in the back of her head. “You need to live a little. One day, all of this is gonna be over, and you’re gonna regret not eating more pizza and drinking more beer.”
“Or maybe I’ll live longer because I don’t eat pizza and drink beer.”
She shook her head. “That’s not a life worth living, if you ask me.”
I chuckled, loving how real she was.
“Being around you makes me feel fat.”
“I don’t see how that’s possible.” I looked her up and down. “You look perfect.”
“You’re the one with the perfect body,” she countered. “You have like six percent body fat or something?”
“Yeah. Probably.” I didn’t know how to be humble about it. “But trust me, men don’t want a woman with six percent body fat.”
“And what do they want?” she challenged.
Carmen. Every man in the world wanted Carmen. “A woman with tits, curves, and an ass.”
“That doesn’t sound like a lot of criteria.”
“Because it’s not. Men are pretty simple.” There were a lot of beautiful women out there, but Carmen’s fire is what attracted me to her the most. If I saw her in a bra, I probably would have thought she was sexy and got hard at the sight of her, but that wouldn’t necessarily have caught my attention. It was watching her fight off four guys fearlessly that made me stop in my tracks. It was her demand for respect that made me drop to my knees. Those were qualities that had nothing to do with the size of her tits or the perkiness of her ass.
“Well, how about you ditch your strict diet and relax for once? Let’s have pizza and beer tonight.”
I shook my head. “You’re a terrible influence.”
“Like you aren’t?” she teased.
We were both terrible for each other—but in very different ways. “Alright, let’s do it.”
The light brightened in her eyes as the excitement hit her. “Really?”
I nodded.
“Wow. I can’t believe this is actually happening. My hands are shaking.” She pulled out her phone to order the food.
I took her phone from her hand. “My address isn’t in public records so you can’t order anything.”
“Not in public records?”
“It doesn’t exist.”
“How is that possible?”
I wouldn’t bore her with the details. “Tell me what you want, and one of the guys will pick it up.” I never ordered out, so the security team would have a new mission to complete. At least it would give them something to do.
“This is gonna be the best night ever. Pizza, beer, and sex.”
I watched the brightness in her eyes, the way she got excited over something so simple. The other women I screwed wanted a trip to Paris on my private jet and a private, five-star meal at the Eiffel Tower. All Carmen wanted was a casual night in—with me.
She drank three beers in half an hour and devoured half the pizza on her own.
I only had a few slices.
She ran laps around me, handling her beer better than most women. I saw her drink scotch, and it never went to her head. She could even finish a bottle of wine by herself and still hold her own in an argument.
Must be that Barsetti blood.
“That was the best meal I’ve ever had. So much cheese. There’s no such thing as too much cheese.” She finished off her fourth beer.
She was entertaining, sitting across from me in just my t-shirt while she ran her fingers through her hair in such a sexy way. “You act like you’ve never had pizza before.”
“Well, I’ve been here for almost three weeks, and I’ve never seen you eat a decent meal.”
“We have different definitions of decent.” My meals were nutritionally rich, low in fat, and low in carbs. She wanted to eat pizza and pasta all the time. As a woman, that was fine, but curves on a man weren’t sexy.
“You don’t even have a cheat day. It’s weird.”
I shrugged. “I’ve been in this routine for a long time.”
“You have a super-hot body,” she blurted. “But if you ate pancakes for breakfast once a week and pizza for dinner, would you really be that much less hot?” She tipped back her beer again, which was empty.
Now I knew she’d drunk too much. I pulled the glass away from her and made sure she wouldn’t
have anymore. But I liked drunk Carmen. She was more candid than usual, and her openness was sexy. She called me super-hot without being remotely embarrassed about it. Most of the time, she regretted her compliments the second they were out of her mouth. But now, she didn’t think twice about them.
“Can I be honest with you?” She leaned farther toward me, tucking her hair behind her ear. She had a lazy look in her green eyes, the alcohol making her inhibitions lower even more.
“Please.” I set my beer to the side and leaned toward her, our hands almost touching in the middle. I was still in my sweatpants, my chest bare for her to see.
“Alright.” She looked down for a second before she looked up again. “I want you to stop smoking cigars.”
The request caught me off guard, so I didn’t say anything right away. Of all the things she could say right now, my smoking habits seemed to be at the bottom of the list.
“Smoking a cigar is like smoking seven cigarettes. It’s terrible for you. Do you realize how likely you are to develop lung cancer just from smoking? As well as other health complications.”
I stared at her blankly, aware of all the warnings she gave me.
“I don’t like it,” she said. “I know I have no right to tell you what to do, but…” Her hand reached for mine. “But I don’t want anything to happen to you.” She squeezed my hand, the concern in her eyes the sexiest thing in the world.
I interlocked our fingers and stared at her across the table.
She stared back at me as she waited for an answer. “So?”
“You want me to quit that badly?” I couldn’t keep back my grin, turned on by the way she cared about me. In the beginning of our relationship, she wouldn’t give me the time of day, but now she was nagging me about my health like a wife.
“Yes.” She brought my knuckles to her mouth and kissed each one slowly, seductively. She kept her eyes on me the entire time, pulling at my will with those green eyes.
I’d never even considered quitting until now. “Alright.”
“Really?” she whispered.
I nodded.
“Even after I leave?”
