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I look over at my parents. Mama nods, shooting me a smile as she takes Papa away.
I don’t know what is going on right now. I spent hours searching though his phones last night and saw that he was still trying to get me to marry Kirill. So why does he want me to talk to this man so badly? I really need to put those phones back. Wait—no, I need to give them to Gio.
I take a deep breath and look up at Marco. His hair can’t decide if it wants to be black or brown. Depending on how the light hits it, it changes color.
“Aren’t you hot?” he asks.
“What?”
“You’re wearing a heavy dress for August.” His chuckle warms my skin even more than this dress does.
“Oh, no.” I laugh with him. “The house gets cold usually,” I lie.
He takes a sip of his drink, clearing his throat. “So, Nina, which game was your favorite?”
“Was? Are you kidding me? I would own you in Scrabble.”
“Then why don’t you show me?” His hand glides along the lower part of my back, the same way Gio’s does.
My eyes roam the room, looking for the man I am scared to see. The beat of my heart picks up when I can’t find him.
Why am I even looking for him? I shouldn’t ever want to talk to him again.
I take a seat on the floor in front of the fireplace that isn’t on, thank God. I think sweat would start to drip out of my pores if it were on. Marco watches me dump the letters out of the bag.
“What? Are you too good to sit on the floor? Or are you nervous to lose?”
His tongue rolls over his teeth as he takes a seat in front of me. “Not nervous at all.”
His eyes find mine, looking deeply.
He takes off his coat as I flip over all the letters so we can pick them at random. “What do you do?” I’m curious to see if he is connected to my family’sactivities, or if he is just a person who ran into the wrong people.
“I do many things,” he says, losing his smile.
So he is involved with my family in the way I hoped he wasn’t.
“A lawyer, as of right now.” He grabs the letters and places them on the stand.
“A lawyer? Is that difficult work?”
“Can’t be that difficult,” a voice says from behind me. He grabs the back of my neck gently.
The touch is all too familiar. A feeling I didn’t want to have on my skin tonight.
“I don’t think we’ve met before.” His free hand reaches over me. “Giovanni Genovese.”
“I don’t think so either,” Marco says, standing up, grabbing his hand, not introducing himself.
The stance Marco has on Giovanni is attractive, to say the least. I have never seen a man threaten Gio, but for some reason, Marco does.
“Madeleine is looking for you,” Gio says to Marco.
“I’ll be back, Nina.” He stands up, shoulder checking Gio as he walks off.
His grip tightens on my neck as he pulls me back to look him in the eyes. “I warned you about talking to other men.” He lets go of me, taking a seat where Marco once sat.
I never thought that I would be wanting someone I hardly know to come back.
