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"Then there's no harm in having a little fun, sending him running, right?" I point out.
"There's always harm in tainting potential future business associates unnecessarily," she says in a clipped tone.
"Oh, come on. You wanted to get out of a bad date, and I helped you. Thank me."
Giulia tips her head back more so that our faces are mere breaths away, and I'm suddenly curious what would happen if I tried closing the space between us that's buzzing with magnetism. Her angry gaze is dark for one long moment as I'm half-sure she'll hide under her composure again and scurry away.
But yet again, the daughter of my family's enemy surprises me. She leans up and forward, making a warm shiver run over me as her breathy whisper brushes against my ear.
"Thank you…fornothing, dickhead."
Her knee slams up between my legs, and I grunt in pain, doubling over and grimacing as I step back. Shit that hurt.
Giulia follows, one of her small hands gripping the front of my shirt tightly as she snarls, "Finish your business and disappear before I send someone to break you and your men's bones. And Don’t ever try telling a Russo what to do again, least of all me. Got it?"
Before I can recover or respond, Giulia tosses her hair over her shoulder and disappears from the hallway, leaving me alone. I groan again and lean against the wall, but a laugh quickly escapes from my throat.
So the "docile" girl on the date is every bit as mafioso as I am, huh?
Fuck. She'sfascinating.
Giulia Russo is far more unpredictable and entertaining than I could have wanted.
Chapter 3
Giulia
Whatapresumptuous,egotisticalasshole.
He didn't look much older than I am, but I still find it hard to believe he's survivedthislong in our particular line of work without getting killed. Usually, the cocky, tactless ones like that guy end up dying young.
I fume as I slip into my tinted black Buick, hitting the button to start the engine and locking the doors immediately out of habit. Then I stretch my neck from side to side and let out a breath fueled by over an hour of pent-up irritation. From a dull, useless date to the possible loss of a future business asset, all thanks to some half-cocked trespassing mafioso with a death wish.
How dare he get so close to me in that hallway? I brush off my arms like it'll wipe away the memory of the goosebumps I'd ignored at his nearness. He'd smelled faintly like cedar aftershave and cold leather, looking down at me with a handsome, devil-may-care smirk.
Damn it, I really should have kneed him harder than that.
With an annoyed scowl, I dial Amanda through my phone, massaging the knots out of my shoulder as I wait for her to pick up.
"Oh, no," she answers with a dramatic groan. "Ninety-four minutes, Giules? It's a bad sign if you're onlyninety-fourminutes into a date and on the phone with me. Please Don’t tell me you're hiding out in a girls' bathroom to talk me through how it's going so far because that is such a cliché."
"First of all," I roll my eyes, "It's creepy that you're measuring the length of my blind date in minutes like a stalker. And secondly, the date is over. It ended a while ago, thanks to Devil Smirk."
"Devil Smirk?You and your nicknames, girl—but what about Curtis?"
"Who the hell is Curtis?"
Mandi groans again, and I hear her slam her car door like she's also sitting in the driver's seat to have this conversation. "You're kidding. Please tell me you didn't forget the name of another guy I set you up with again!"
I buckle and glare at the traffic past the parking lot I'm in, not looking forward to my drive back to the San Francisco office. It's not far from here, but it'll take too long to get there anyway.
"If it makes you feel better, I could tell you about his college pal Eric. In fact, I probably know more about Eric than even Eric does. I could blackmail the hell out of that guy. Also, Curtis was a dud. I called him Dud Date, to be specific."
"To his face?" She sounds alarmed.
"No, but believe me, that would have been less damaging than what actually happened."
Mandi listens as I rant about the date, from the many adventures of College Eric to the group entering to ignoring the guy staring at me in the corner. Finally, I explained how I kneed him in the crotch, threatened him, and left.
