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“What I said earlier, about wanting all of you, still stands, Aphrodite.”
Not knowing what to say, I finished my food and then took our dirty dishes to the kitchen. I went to start washing, but Big stopped me.
“Lidia will take care of those.”
“But—”
He shook his head. “She’ll feel like she’s not doing what I hired her to do. We’ve had this conversation before. She’s proud and will get insulted if I step over the line of what she feels is part of her job.”
“You must pay her a lot,” I mumbled as he led me toward his bedroom.
I had no qualms in climbing in his bed and burying myself under his probably thousand-dollar comforter. The penthouse was cool, and the blanket felt like it was adjusting to my body temperature or something. It was the definition of perfect. It had been years since I’d had a bed, and none like this when I did, and it almost made me want to cry. It was so fucking comfortable.
My eyes drifted to Big, who was propped up against the headboard, reading something on his phone. He wore black reading glasses, and in sweatpants with no shirt, he looked sexy enough to climb on top of, move until the friction…
My eyes closed.
I had the sweetest dreams.
Of him.
12
MR. BIG
A n alarm kept going off. It wasn’t mine. I had a tight schedule. Wake up at 4, exercise till 5 in my gym, shower and eat by 6, then the rest of the day depended on the needs of the casino.
I didn’t mention it to Leonora, but Lidia’s schedule was tailored to fit mine. It worked for me, but I wasn’t sure how it was going to work for her and her brothers. I might need to bring someone on just for them. Or see if Lidia could accommodate. I wasn’t fucking exaggerating when I said she was the best. And her husband ran one of the most famous kitchens in the world like a tight ship.
Portofino’s kitchen—Nervina.
Like most unforgettable Italian restaurants that were built on the backs of the Italians who were proud of their recipes, Nervina’s dishes were from my family. Lidia’s husband took those recipes and brought them into modern day, but he was somehow capable of keeping the roots intact.
That was important to me when I took over.
The alarm went off again, and I knew I wasn’t fucking dreaming it. I also wasn’t imagining the Aphrodite in my bed. Her hair was plastered to the pillow, and she was clinging to me. Her arm was over my chest and her leg over mine.
It was like she hadn’t slept in years.
And…Aphrodite. I’d never given a woman a nickname before. I even gave Gio shit for months when I heard him call a woman he wanted to fuck a little minx. But the name suited Leonora. She embodied the idea of Aphrodite.
She was full of love and beauty, and maybe this was an off trait, but she was loyal. She took care of her brothers, even though she didn’t have to. She could have said let the state deal with them and lived her life.
Most of the world seemed to lose sight of those qualities, but when you went without, the value of those things goes up.
She was priceless to me.
The irritant went off again. It was her phone. I carefully detached her, and she just rolled over, sighing as she pulled the covers up to her neck.
Before it could go off again, and this time wake her up because she was turned toward it, I lifted it from the side table and took it with me into the bathroom.
She’d set an alarm so she wouldn’t be late to go to the hospital to see her brothers. Apparently, the younger one was staying with the older one. I suspected it had something to do with Leonora’s mother being indifferent to her husband’s kids with another woman.
She’d even added a note to the alarm: Get up!!! I know the bed is comfortable, but Angelo and Phoenix are waiting for you!!!
So was the fucking day. It was the anniversary of Portofino’s grand opening, and we had a celebration every year for it. So did Paradiso. We even shared a firework display. It lit up the sky behind both of our casinos with a merger of the American flag and the Italian flag. Our grandfathers thought it was symbolic.
Leonora would be on my arm. The entire city would know she was mine after the night was over. That meant that any man who looked at her twice would be gambling with his eyesight.
