Page 18 of Alessio

It didn’t feel like nothing.

She was sure, to him, it couldn’t be nothing.

“But you shouldn’t—”

“I shouldn’t do a lot of things I do, and here I still am, doing it.”

Ginevra ran the tip of her tongue along the edge of her lips, finding more of his flavor there. “You’re a complex man.”

Perplexing.

And difficult, likely.

She had that feeling.

Alessio hummed low and waved a finger at her. “You’re not wrong.”

Well, at least he knew what he was.

That was a start.

“You should go back to the spot where I had to stop reading, and start from there,” he said, turning and dropping into a nearby chair like his body was water, and it all moved at once. Hooking his combat boots one over the other at the ankles along the arm of the chair, he nodded at her. “Go on, it’s been a while since someone read me poetry.”

“You want me to read to you?”

“Why not?”

Yes.

That was a good question.

Why not?

Ginevra didn’t have an answer.

So, she found the page he’d left dog-eared toward the middle of the book, the last marking he had made, and read. Alessio watched her the whole time, and she felt that, too.

His gaze?

Yeah.

She felt that right down to her bones. Like he was trying to figure her out, or learn what made her tick by staring at her. But what did he think he would find?

That was the better question.

What the fuck are you nervous for? It’s Les. Les.

Corrado’s thoughts were a special brand of his own personal hell as he parked his vehicle along the side of the restaurant that belonged to his twin. One of the few businesses Chris cared to use on his investment portfolio.

Cutting the engine on the black Porsche, he stared at the windows lining the side of the business, but the glare of the sunlight kept him from seeing inside. Where would Alessio be sitting in there? Near a window to watch people—he liked doing that—so did that mean he could see Corrado right then? Or was he sitting nearer to the front?

He drummed his fingers to the leather-wrapped steering wheel, trying to shake off that edginess. It didn’t work, instead burrowing even deeper into his heart. How long had it been since Alessio showed up in Toronto now?

Two days shy of three weeks.

Nearly three weeks Corrado had spent wondering, and worrying, and … too much. He knew Alessio needed his time, but that didn’t make it any easier on Corrado even though he still tried to give his lover space.

And now …