“You just missed the best part,” she pouted.
I let out a dry breath. “I bet.”
We really needed to find a happy medium on movies.
She wrapped her arms around my waist from behind, her touch sending a small shudder through my spine.
“Is this what you do when you go to the bathroom? Stare at your handsome face in the mirror?”
I’d needed to get away for a minute. Couldn’t think with her near—her smell, her smile, the feel of her hands on me. It made my head fuzzy and my throat tight. It made me feel like someone was on the cusp of reorganizing every damn thing in my apartment.
“I was
thinking,” I told her.
“About?”
How to keep you pacified without letting you into my past.
How to make sure you always look at me like this and not with disgust.
“You.”
“Aw, you come to the bathroom to think about me? Why, Officer, I feel honored.” Her hand drifted down my stomach and over my dick. She frowned. “It must not have been that exciting of a scenario.”
A corner of my lips lifted. I turned around, cupped her face, and ran a thumb across her cheek. “I’m always thinking about you, malyshka.”
Her lips parted, a blush rising to her cheeks. She rose to her tiptoes, and breathed against my lips, “I really like you.”
Satisfaction ran hot through my blood, even though I wanted more than that. I wanted everything she had to give and more. I’d take it slowly, I’d make her love me, and maybe then, she wouldn’t leave me when she realized I couldn’t give her everything of me she wanted.
She blinked. “Aren’t you going to say it, too?”
I chuckled. What I felt was so far past that it was laughable. I would have told her right then, but she wasn’t ready.
“I really like you, too,” I said, then leaned in to nip her bottom lip.
She sighed in my mouth.
That was the only scenario I needed.
I picked her up and carried her to bed.
“You fucking Gianna?” Ace gave me a hard look. “I don’t like it. Makes men think they can sample our women.”
I sat back in his office chair. “Correct me if I’m wrong, but weren’t you living with your wife before marriage?”
He ran a thumb across his jaw. “I had that under wraps. You’ve been parading Gianna around like she’s your goddamn mistress.”
“Haven’t heard that term since eighteen-ninety,” I said dryly. “Someday, you Italians are going to have to get with the times.”
“Marry her, Allister, and we won’t have a problem.”
If only it was that easy.
My jaw tightened. “She’s not ready.”
“Tough shit. If I’d asked my wife to marry me, she would have said no. So, guess what? I didn’t fucking ask her.”