Page 116 of Alessio

“Just enough, maybe.”

“Yet to be determined,” Corrado muttered.

“I’d like to dance,” Ginevra said, peeking up at him.

Corrado made a face.

She laughed.

“What?”

Alessio chuckled. “Someone doesn’t dance.”

“Not unless it’s a waltz,” Corrado said under his breath.

“Why not?”

“Never cared to bother, but …”

Ginevra pouted. “But what?”

“Alessio loves to dance.”

“Yes.”

Corrado’s heady laughter drifted all around them, over the music in the club and the loud people, as he stepped aside so Alessio could take his place at her other side.

“Ah, see, now she’s happy,” Corrado told Alessio. And then to her, “And he likes to make those he loves happy, Ginny.”

The words were said almost carelessly. Just tossed out like they shouldn’t have meant very much at all, and she shouldn’t take them too seriously. It didn’t matter. Their weight upon impact still took her breath away as the word loves kept ringing around in the back of her mind. Not that she could think about it or dwell for too long. Alessio was already pulling her out to the floor.

Later, she thought. She would deal with that word, what it meant, and her own feelings later. Surely, they would have enough time for that. Besides, she thought they should be aware.

They needed to know how she felt, too. That nothing in her life would ever be the same because of these two men, and she didn’t want it to be. There wasn’t a single part of her that wanted to be without Corrado and Alessio. She wasn’t sure how that happened, but she understood why it did.

Them.

Simply put—because of them.

How could someone not love those men?

Yeah, she suspected things would be tricky when she had to go back home, but shouldn’t they at least try? She winked back at Corrado while Alessio pulled her further away, waving two fingers as her silent goodbye.

He grinned back.

Turning her attention on Alessio, she said, “They won’t bother him, right?”

“Who?”

“His father’s people.”

Alessio’s hand at her waist tightened at her words. “Corrado is grown—he knows how to handle that nonsense.”

“Yeah, but still.”

Their walk came to a stop on the dance floor after they had weaved in and out of the moving people, so they were closer to the DJ booth on the other side rather than the tables and bar at the opposite end. Alessio spun around on her, a faint smile playing at the edges of his mouth, although she could still see the wariness in his gaze.

“No, they rarely make it a point to say anything directly,” Alessio explained, shrugging his shoulders under his leather jacket. “Mostly, it’s underhanded comments that people overlook because nobody wants to cause shit for something like that. And never when his father is around to hear it.”