Page 142 of Made in Love and Blood

Her head fell back to the wall, as she shook like a leaf after an orgasm that took her breath away. He followed soon after, spilling hot and deep inside her aching body. She repeated the same thing to him that he’d told her the first time.

He remembered then. Or so she thought...she thought she saw it in his eyes when he said the words, too.

“I’ll love you for the rest of my life.”

The irony? That hurt the worst for Frankie.

18. — a better day...

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Staten Island, New York

Nico, Rose Ridge Community

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Nico laughed at the question Frankie posed him from the passenger seat of his vintage Mustang. He could have upgraded the car to have modern comforts like an auxiliary plug-in and a state-of-the-art stereo system, but something about the lack of distraction made him love the car as it was. Frankie loved it as much as him, sinking into the large bucket seats, something the Mercedes didn’t have, and she swore her father would kill her if she got on the back of his bike.

“You’d make such a cute backpack, though,” he muttered around a crunch of pretzel chips.

She gave him the weirdest look. “That had literally nothing to do with my question.”

“ADHD. My thoughts got in the way, and the question is ridiculous. The answer is none.”

“What’d I ask, then?”

“You think I don’t listen to you,” he accused, only half teasing.

Frankie grinned playfully. “Prove it.”

“You asked—how much trouble do you think I’m gonna be in?” Nico said, enunciating every word clearly while he cleaned his teeth of chips with his tongue. Rolling the bag up and stuffing it in the rear of the car and grabbing a brown paper bag he left there earlier; he then adjusted himself back in the front seat. Winking his girl’s way, he teased, “That’s what you asked, right?”

“Well, what’s a backpack?”

He pointed at her, now leaning against the driver’s window as he did, laughing. “Ah, so you were listening, too.”

Frankie guffawed. “Mean. I totally listen to you. I don’t even have your running internal dialogue to follow along with the random intrusive thoughts that come out of your mouth. I should get bonus points for that.”

“Good thing you’ve got bonus points because you lose credit when you don’t fucking listen.”

Her gaze narrowed. “I do listen.”

“Repeatedly, in fact, you have not.”

“That’s not true, Nico. I do listen when you talk. Name one time.”

That brown bag in his lap, which she hadn’t even really noticed, proved she didn’t listen. He hoped she did this time. He moved right along to explain to her, that way it was very clear between them, why her declaration wasn’t at all true.

“The night I told you not to move from bed because I had an unwanted guest. When I told you to be quiet yesterday because you don’t know Carmine Marino like I do. If I’m speaking up more than once to tell you don’t do something, babe, don’t do it. Both times, it was like you didn’t hear what I said. You just did what you wanted when I promise you, I should’ve been calling the shots in those moments. Also, a backpack, in bike-speak, is the girl on the back of the bike. I mean, put whoever you want back there, but it’s girls-only on mine.”

Her nose scrunched up cute. “How many girls—”

“Don’t ask that, it’s unnecessary.”

She quieted.

Nico just smiled at the sight of her across the way, jealous and hot. He couldn’t help but be glad the two sat just three streets over from her father’s home inside the walls of their gated community. If they were parked anywhere else, he probably wouldn’t be able to control the impulse to show her why she didn’t need to be jealous at all.