Page 100 of Corrado

So, when Dare asked something like that, he was really asking about Alessio and Corrado without outright saying it. Corrado wasn’t stupid.

“Why, so you could send Cree to set me straight?” Corrado asked.

The man had the decency—or gall—to laugh.

“I only send Cree when you give me no other choice.”

“Right,” Corrado murmured. “And no, nothing is wrong. I just need a break. Other things to handle for a bit, and then I’ll be back to work.”

“Noted.” Keys clicked on the other end before Dare said, “That’s it, then. Call me if you need to change something, yeah?”

“Will do.”

Corrado lingered in the library, that also doubled as his office, for a while longer after he ended the call. Staring out at the busy city below, one of the only rooms in the penthouse that didn’t have full floor to ceiling windows, he found a strange comfort in this space.

Designed to be useful to him—he liked the office area—and to Alessio, who needed a million and one books because he could never find enough shit to read, the two of them often found themselves in here more often than anywhere else in the penthouse when they were in the city. It wasn’t lost on Corrado how Ginevra also seemed to favor this room since her arrival here. More often than not, she gravitated to the books, and settled into one of the sitting areas to crack it open for hours on end.

Alessio would enjoy that. Someone to entertain his need for words and knowledge until long after the fucking sun set, and the rest of the world was sleeping …

Not that Corrado needed to be thinking about that at all.

Yep.

Quite enough of that.

Spinning on his heel, he left the office library before he could think better of it. He didn’t need to be thinking about shit that didn’t matter, anyway. Strolling through the penthouse, he rounded the corner at the end of the hallway, and came to an abrupt stop in the entryway that led to the sitting room.

The hint of a smile curved his lips as he found Ginevra standing in front of a television screen that was as tall as her, and as wide as the entire wall. With a game controller in her hands, she pressed a button and laughed when her tank on the screen blew up her opponent behind enemy lines.

For the most part, he tried to give her space. He liked his own, after all, and figured most people were the same. Since she didn’t try to seek him out, he offered her the same respect.

Like now, he would usually walk away.

He should walk away.

Instead, he stood there in the entryway, watching her from the side as she fiddled with the game, and her features lit up each time she succeeded in doing something right. He was reminded again, then, as her bow-shaped lips curved with her happiness, and her brown eyes widened with joy, that she was an exceptionally beautiful woman.

If not innocent …

It was a silly thing, really. Simple, and not at all something that he would find amusement in any other time. That was a game he liked to play to chill a few years back, but he hadn’t touched it in a long while. It had been too long since he and Alessio came back to Toronto for a visit, anyway.

He shouldn’t be watching her at all, or caring. Not that she found happiness in his games, or that she enjoyed spending her time with Alessio’s books.

That didn’t mean anything.

Right?

Except, Corrado wasn’t that simple, and neither was his mind. He was detail-oriented. He liked to know all the things about people, and what made them tick. Ginevra wasn’t an exception to that rule, and if anything, he found himself more curious about her than he had anyone. How did she feel to be twenty-one, and in the position she now was? Who had she left back in New York? What had she wanted to be or do before this?

All those questions, and no answers.

Unless he talked to her.

That could be a problem.

“Do you want to play, or are you going to keep standing there watching me?”

Corrado found Ginevra staring at him from the side, unbothered by his presence. “It’s my home, Ginevra.”