He stared at her with his dark, gorgeous eyes. They looked almost velvet in the dim lighting. “Really? You put arrogance on the ‘con’ list?”
“You put ‘moody.’”
“You are moody,” he pointed out matter-of-factly and took the rest of the salami and olives without a qualm.
She made a face at him. “I suppose that could be true. But I have reason to be. See your number one reason on the con list, Elie. My mother.”
“I have reason to be arrogant. My hot good looks that you left off the pro list. That’s an asset to you at any event we attend together. Think of all the women you can make jealous.”
Emme rolled her eyes. “You just ate the last of the olives. That makes me jealous. You know I love olives. I’ve told you a million times to stop hogging all the olives.” She wadded up a napkin and threw it at him.
He caught it one-handed without even looking up. “You shouldn’t talk so much,” Elie said, glancing down at the pro side of the list. “You’re right, we do like all the same things. That’s a big plus. And I can dance. That’s a plus on my list, too. I like that you can.”
“Pie’s up, you two.” Tito Petrov placed a large pizza on the tabletop. “Need a refill on your wine?”
“Olives,” they both said simultaneously and then burst out laughing.
“The double order of olives on your pie isn’t enough?” Tito asked, one eyebrow raised. When they shook their heads, he sighed. “There’s something seriously wrong with the two of you—you know that, right?”
Elie waited until Tito walked away and then he nudged Emme with his knee. “He’s right. We’re sitting in here like two idiots going over a list of pros and cons to decide whether or not we should get married. Bottom line, we can’t have sex with each other. Where does that leave us? I can’t cheat on you, because I love and respect you too much to do that to you, and I’m not going the rest of my life without sex.”
Emme sighed heavily. “I know. I feel the same. What’s wrong with us, Elie? You are gorgeous. Totally attractive. Hot as hell. Why do I have to think of you as a sibling? It’s just not fair.”
“I guess we’re going to have to marry strangers. That just sucks.” Elie picked up a piece of very hot pizza and regarded her with his expressive dark eyes.
“And then what? We cheat on some poor innocent partner because we don’t love them? How fair is that to them?” Emme asked. She broke off a piece of the pizza as well, picked up several loose pieces of olive and added them to the slice.
“When I go with an arranged marriage, I’m not cheating,” Elie said.
Emmanuelle noticed he was already acting as if he’d made up his mind. Really, what was there left to them? She tried to make a joke out of it. Keep the night fun. “So, have you considered bringing in partners to live with us? It would be horrifying to my mother.”
She danced her eyebrows up and down, a wide smile on her face at that mere thought. “As well as scandalous to the rider community. Can you imagine? It would solve all our problems. They could stay home and take care of the dozens of little shadow rider babies my mother will insist we have. And, we won’t be the good couple. All my brothers have managed to be so deliciously bad that my mother wouldn’t dare go unannounced to their homes. If we don’t do something equally as bad, she would be turning up uninvited at all hours of the day or night. Bringing in lovers for us would be so perfect.”
Elie threw his head back and laughed. “Emmanuelle Ferraro, you are a handful.”
She took a bite of the pizza and nodded her head, feeling very pleased with herself. “I am. I had to be, growing up with all those brothers. Stefano especially. No one crosses Stefano, not even my mother. Not even when he was a kid. Now, of course, she doesn’t dare ‘drop in.’ She’s been banned for being so mean to Francesca, but even if she hadn’t been, she wouldn’t have dared just showed up. When Stefano wants sex, it doesn’t matter where he is, what room he’s in, he’s all over that and he’s very inventive and unapologetic. He’s a crazy man, so Eloisa would never drop in on him.”
Elie laughed again. “I have to admire your oldest brother. It feels like he’s always been in charge of the Ferraro riders. Everyone defers to him.”
Shadow riders meted out justice to criminals who fell through the cracks—those with too much money or power or who were just too dangerous to be convicted. Safeguards were in place to ensure no mistakes, and those they assassinated had committed horrendous crimes—at the end of the day, they were trained killers. They had begun their training as toddlers.