Page 211 of Cara & Gian: The Guzzi Duet

Cara picked up her jacket and purse off the back of a chair. “You don’t have to come for that, I told you. It’s just a checkup to make sure he’s where he’s supposed to be.”

Once she was close enough for him to reach out and grab her, Gian did just that. Cara found herself tugged into his side, his arm wrapped around her lower back, and then he pressed a soft kiss to her temple. Cara’s smile grew as her eyes fluttered closed.

“I want to go,” he murmured against her skin. “And then I would like to take you out to eat, get you home, relaxed and comfortable, and see what happens.”

“That does sound nice.”

Gian’s fingers danced over the column of her throat before he pushed her wayward curls aside. Just the feeling of his fingers against her skin was enough to make heat and lust bloom.

This was heaven and hell.

Cara had been trying to let Gian in more, and not be so guarded. Especially not where his wife was concerned, or even just them in general. She finally understood what he meant about circumstances and details muddling up a situation that most people only saw from the outside, and never what was below the surface.

He made her so happy.

He loved her so much.

Why did she have to give up those beautiful things, and Gian, because others said they were wrong? She wouldn’t. Certainly not now.

“I love you, Cara,” Gian said.

Like he could read her fucking mind.

“I know you do. You can say it in three languages, remember?”

He never forgot to tell her he loved her, in the loud moments, the quiet ones, and all the times in between. He never once forgot.

“And I can mean it in every one of them, Cara.”

No, they weren’t bad or wrong.

“I can’t believe it’s June already,” Stephanie said.

Cara glanced over her laptop, the dissertation she had been working on for the better part of two hours finally drifting from her mind. She welcomed the distraction. “I can’t believe I have one week left to finish this damn paper.”

“You’ll kill it, no worries there.”

“Thanks,” Cara said, smiling.

“But are you going to make graduation, or …?” Stephanie trailed off with a nod at Cara’s stomach. “How far along now?”

“Thirty-three weeks, and I probably won’t make graduation.”

“That sucks.”

Cara shrugged. “Late July ceremony is not going to coincide for me, unfortunately. I mean, I probably could make it, if I wanted to. But I’m going to be really, really pregnant, if I haven’t already had the baby by then. I figure since I already took time off from the shelter for around that time, I should probably use it to chill as much as I can.”

“I get that. And hey, the university does do the mini-ceremonies in the beginning of the new semester for those who took the summer to earn their final grades, or whatever.”

“Yeah, Professor Madele told me about it. She made it clear that if I didn’t participate in the coming one, I had better be there.”

Cara leaned back in her chair, resting her hand to the top of her swelled stomach. She thought the baby boy was already like this father, constantly wanting to move, never satisfied with staying still, and far too restless for his own good. Even in the womb. She could only imagine what he would be like after birth.

Still just like his father, probably.

“Miss Rossi?”

Two men dressed similarly in plain black suits approached the table, one already holding out a badge to identify himself. Not that Cara would have needed to see the badges to know the men were cops, or detectives. Growing up the way she had, cops were easy to detect. They all walked the same, dressed the same, spoke the same, and smelled the same.