Page 294 of Alessio

“What?”

“I was just thinking you don’t sound at all bitter about that fact. Your mother being spoiled, and loved, I mean.”

“I’m not. It’s all I ever knew.”

Knowing the cobblestone driveway might be a little tricky for Ginevra in her stiletto heels, he wrapped an arm tightly around her side, and pulled her close to him. He didn’t miss the shiver that raced through her body, but he did his very best to suppress his own reaction to it. It wasn’t like he needed to walk the rest of this very long driveway with a hard-on.

Right?

Apparently, he did.

Fucking hell.

“Oh, wow,” Ginevra said softly, her gaze drifting over the pots of roses that lined the middle of the driveway about midway, leading the rest of the way to the mansion. Twinkle lights colored the grass on either side, and hanging from the maple trees were rows of silk and chiffon that matched the white roses and lights. “This is something else.”

“I am sure the inside will be just as … excessive,” he settled on saying with a laugh. “And all for a birthday party, too.”

“Hey, it’s something different than balloons and streamers.”

Right.

Except the balloons were roses.

And the streamers were made of silk and chiffon.

Right.

“It’s the Guzzi way,” he murmured. “And you’ll fit right in looking like you do tonight.”

Ginevra glanced up at him, those brown eyes of hers reminding him of an ocean. Expansive, dark, and deep. Oh, so dangerous, but pretty, too.

Just pretty enough to drown him.

He swore the music filtering out of the mansion, and the low tones of chattering people as they neared the grand, marble entrance faded away. There were far too many things about this woman that continued to draw him in, and ensnare him in her web of trouble. And then there were parts of him that recognized things in her that didn’t fit him at all.

Things that fit someone else in his life far better. Except she didn’t know that, and neither did the man who needed to know what was happening here.

This was a mess.

How many times had he said that now?

It didn’t make it less true.

Corrado cleared his throat, needing to break their connection.

Because they couldn’t have that at all.

That connection.

Not now.

Not ever.

“Let’s have a good time, hmm?” he asked, turning back to face the mansion.

Ginevra glanced down at the ground. “Sure, Corrado.”

The most crucial thing to know about Corrado’s mother?