Page 168 of Alessio

Just the girls to be gone.

Alessio closed the distance between him and Ginevra in a flash. She forgot all about the cold December wind, and her frozen fingertips when he locked her in his embrace and dotted her mouth with kisses.

Ginevra hummed against his mouth. “Missed you.”

“Shit, me, too. Congo was good, though … quick.”

That’s about all he or Corrado ever gave about a job for The League, and she tried not to ask for more details. It was simpler that way, and she worried less. Not that she didn’t worry at all because she still did.

Still, the Congo assignment he had just come back from would be his last for a few months. He chose to take time off, a spread of months to spend with Corrado, and her. Corrado had already started his time off, but he’d needed to head back to Vegas for a couple of weeks to do things there.

Her tiny apartment would be full.

This thing of theirs wasn’t easy.

No doubt about it.

They did their best, though.

And she couldn’t ask for more.

“So, when is this surprise?” she asked.

Alessio smirked sinfully, using the tip of his finger to slide along her bottom lip as he murmured, “After your classes at the college today.”

“Damn, I hoped for an excuse to get out of them.”

“I can think of a few,” he replied, “but then Corrado will bitch because you chose education, and you should have it.”

“He’s not wrong, though.”

“But we don’t tell him that, Ginny. It makes his ego grow.”

Where was the lie?

“I can take the job,” Corrado said to his brother on the phone. His voice echoed throughout the empty hall he walked down.

Although, it was partly a lie. He could take the job that Andino Marcello called through to The League, but for one, he didn’t give a fuck about that man. And for two, it meant the break he took to focus on Ginevra and Alessio and their life would have to be put on hold.

Corrado wouldn’t do that.

Les and Ginny didn’t come second.

Not now.

They came first.

No exceptions.

“But I knew you wouldn’t,” Chris said, “and Dare called me with the offer because extractions are my specialty.”

Corrado cleared his throat, coming to the end of the entrance hallway where he would wait closer to the front door for his lovers to arrive. It was just about the time when they needed to arrive, and Alessio had a habit of being on time, if not early.

“How long has it been since you took an independent job from The League?”

“Four years,” Chris said.

“A while, then. Do you think—”