Page 58 of Alessio

“I did. Today has been long … Alessio needed time alone. I’m giving it to him.”

“Did something happen?”

“Nothing that didn’t need to happen.”

Ginevra wasn’t sure if that was a good thing, but Corrado also didn’t seem like he would give her the chance to figure it out. Not before he leaned in, and found her lips with his own again in a soft, slow kiss that had her entire body heating as sparks lit up all of her nerve endings.

Damn this man.

“And I wanted to spend time with you,” he murmured against her lips, his forehead touching hers, “because I don’t do that enough.”

“We spend all day together. We’re living in the same place, and we don’t leave it often, if at all.”

“It’s not enough. It’s easy to be with you, Ginevra. Too easy.”

Yeah, she understood the feeling well.

And still when she looked in his eyes, she was sure something else lingered there, too. His need to have someone else with them, too, but that person wasn’t there.

Which was also strange …

Because she felt that, too.

What were these men doing to her?

“I want coffee.”

Alessio didn’t bother to look up from a new set of knives Corrado had laid out across the desk for him to admire. “Then, make one.”

“No, from that place down the street.”

Corrado peeked up at Alessio to smile. “Ah, the café down the block. She thought it was cute when we drove past yesterday.”

“Yeah,” Ginevra said in the doorway, “that place. Can I walk down—”

“No,” Alessio said.

“But … it’s a block away. And no one even knows I’m here.”

Alessio turned away from the knives all at once, done with them now that something better had his attention. Ginevra, that was. “If you want to walk down to the café, then that’s what we’ll do. Let’s find your coat.”

“You’re busy.”

“And Corrado’s middle name is Paul,” Alessio said, because it was as ridiculous as her statement. “What does it matter? Now, I’m not busy. Let’s go.”

He didn’t give her the chance to argue it further before heading past her in the doorway with a wave that demanded for her to follow. He wasn’t so busy that he couldn’t come back to the damn knives another day, no matter how nice they were. If she wanted coffee from the place down the block, then that’s what they would do.

“Pick me up one of those Danishes!” Corrado called after him.

“Diabetes in a paper bag, got it.”

“Fuck off, Les.”

“But not a lie.”

“Wait for me,” Ginevra muttered, jogging to catch up with Alessio in the hallway. “I’m just saying, I could have walked down by myself.”

“And then if something happened—”