“That would be great, honestly.” Wolfe had the experience and autonomy to handle stuff on his own. Whereas my brother needed a lot of direct instruction to make things happen. “Maybe this experience will make him see that.”
“He’s too stubborn for that.”
“Yeah, probably.” I’d washed off my makeup before bed, but he continued to look at me the way he did across the table when we were out to dinner. He had this depth to his gaze, like I was all that he could see. Being fired and kicked out of my home had been devastating, but merging my life with Wolfe had deepened our relationship to a whole other level. It was too soon to talk about marriage because we’d only been together a couple of months…butwas ittoo soon?
I already felt married to this man.
“What do you want to do in Palermo?” he asked quietly.
“I want to go back to that gelato place.”
A slight smile moved over his lips.
“And hook up on your boat again.”
A quiet chuckle escaped his lips. “Below deck this time.”
“No… I like feeling the sun on my skin when we make love.”
“I’ll need to take you to a nude beach since you’re clearly into that.”
I rolled my eyes. “I don’t like to show my body to other people. I just like to love you wherever I want to love you.” I liked kissing him when we stood in line for gelato. I liked touching his thigh when we lay on the beach together. I liked it when he squeezed my ass when we walked down the sidewalk together. It was our world, and everyone else was just living in it. Our relationship had mostly taken place inside my little villa in the heart of the winery, and once it’d been allowed to expand, it had grown into something so much more.
“How about now?” He started to move over me, his hand sliding farther up my shirt to lift it over my stomach. We’d already made love when we’d first come up the stairs. I’d washed my face and changed afterward, getting ready for bed. But a plain face and a baggy shirt didn’t deter his desire for me at all.
“With you, anytime works for me.”
26
FRANCESCA
I was sitting on the terrace in the shade of the umbrella when my father walked over with a cigar in his mouth. He pulled out the chair and took a seat across from me, and right away, one of the staff filled our glasses with wine and placed a basket of bread between us.
My father had asked me to join him for lunch, but the second he sat down, he seemed to be in an angry mood.
“What’s happened?” I asked.
He gave a shake of his head before he put out the cigar.
I didn’t repeat the question. Instead, I took a drink of my wine then ripped off a piece of bread and placed it in my mouth.
A moment later, Leo joined us, and I could immediately tell just by his body language that he was pissed off about something. Apparently, this was some kind of family meeting that I was about to be subjected to. I was supposed to leave the winery early so Wolfe and I could head to Palermo for the weekend, but if this meeting went on too long, it might put a damper on my plans.
“It’s been alongfucking week,” my father finally said. “And I don’t want the next one to be as long as this one.”
I glanced at my brother, unsure what was going on.
He sat there with his arms tucked tightly across his chest.
“Francesca will remain in charge of the business—and that’s final.”
Now I understood how pissed off my brother truly was about the situation. They must have had numerous conversations about it in my absence.
“Now is the time we hash this out,” Dad said. “Together, as a family, and then we move the fuck on. So, Leo, say your piece.”
All the muscles in his face were tense like he wanted to lash out with sharp words that would cut us all. “She chose Wolfe over us, a lying, manipulative, and deceitful asshole. He disrespected us both with this shit. And she’s just allowed to walk back in here and get her job back when she’s literally fucking the enemy?”
I didn’t bother to defend Wolfe. Felt like wasted breath at this point.
