Page 76 of Alessio

“But with reason.”

She didn’t deny it.

Alessio pulled a white, cotton thong from the top drawer in the dresser, and tossed it to the pile of clothes, too. Coming to stand in front of Ginevra, he found her nerves made an appearance again when she wouldn’t look up at him.

That was fine.

He could fix it.

Sliding his hands under her jaw, he tipped her head up, so she had to look at him. Those wide brown eyes of hers reflected everything she wasn’t saying, and he saw it as clear as day staring back at him.

“Hey,” he murmured.

Ginevra wet her lips. “Yeah?”

“Everything is fine.”

“I know that.”

“Nothing happens unless you want it to.”

She nodded. “I know that, too.”

He grinned. “That’s all that should matter, then. Everything else is details, and noise. Don’t overthink it. That’s my job.”

Her soft laughter had his semi-hard dick perking in his jeans again, making him all too aware that he still needed to go dispose of the condom, and clean himself up. Fuck. He’d much rather stay right here with her and handle whatever she needed.

Still, the bigger deal they made about this, the harder it might be for Ginevra to see this was all normal. Perhaps not for other people, but for them … it was fine.

“I just … what if I mess up?” she asked.

Alessio frowned. “How would you do that?”

“I’m not sure.” Her fingers tittered in the air when she waved her hands. “Maybe I give him more attention, or I sit beside one and not the other. Or—”

“Stop. That’s ridiculous.”

Ginevra blinked, hurt coloring up her expression. “It’s not ridiculous just because you already know how to handle something like this. I haven’t, Les.”

Okay.

“So, that’s the wrong word,” he said, dropping a kiss to her lips that lingered as he continued quieter, “these aren’t things that matter here, I swear. Corrado and I … we can handle each other, or get what we need. Whether that’s from each other, ourselves, or from you. This thing isn’t a tit for tat, sweetheart. We’re not keeping score.”

“So, I can just … keep doing what I’m doing.”

“If that’s what you want. The only things that change are the things you want to be different.”

“Okay.”

Alessio smiled and pressed another kiss to her grinning lips. “Get dressed—you need to eat, huh?”

“Yeah.”

It might not fix her nerves, but he hoped it helped a little. His fingers drifted over her cheek, tucking the wild strands of her dark brown hair behind her ears before he left her side, and headed out of the bedroom. She needed time by herself, he figured.

And he needed to get cleaned up.

After doing that in his own room, Alessio arrived back in the kitchen alone, although Corrado was already there, sitting at the large dining room table with the newspaper spread out in his hands. To his benefit, Corrado didn’t look at Alessio as he came to sit on the left side of the man and reached for the plate of pancakes in the table's middle.