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Raising a brow at her, I mimicked her by leaning forward, placing my hands on the table too, our fingertips centimeters from touching. “Is that right?” I lifted one side of my lips. “And who am I, mama?”
She sucked in a breath at my words, her nickname doing exactly what I wanted it to—to throw her off. But it only worked for a few seconds because she narrowed her eyes at me. “You’re the Mafia, Rafael. Your father is the notorious Antonio Pagani.”
My expression shuttered, my hands slipping from the table. My words escaping me.
She knew. She’d known the whole time, yet… “You still let me touch you.”
Her cheeks reddened. “Yes.”
I tilted my head, staring at her. “There’ll be things I can’t tell you.”
She nodded. “Same here.”
I didn’t like that, but I couldn’t demand of her what I wasn’t willing to give her.
“But I’ll be as honest and open as I can.”
She smiled, her full lips pulling up and causing a dimple in her cheek. Fuck, that was cute. “I will too,” she told me.
“You will?” She nodded in response. “Then tell me, Peyton…” I leaned forward, dropping my voice to a murmur. “Have you thought about what I did to you in the bathroom?”
Her chest heaved, her cleavage on full display as her breaths came faster. “Raf,” she admonished, her eyes wide, but I didn’t miss the way she shuffled on her seat. My words affected her, and I loved seeing it.
“What?” I was acting innocent, but I was anything but that. Both she and I knew what I was doing.
“You’re a fiend.” She shook her head, but the smile on her face couldn’t have been mistaken for anything but happiness. I licked my lips, watching her with my full attention, soaking in the way her cheeks flushed, her lashes fluttered, and her lips pursed. Fuck, she was picture perfect, my very own goddess sitting across from me.
“You’re so damn beautiful, Peyton,” I told her, reaching for her hand, but I was halted by my cell ringing like a loud siren, pulling us out of our moment. I gritted my teeth, ready to give whoever was on the other end hell, when I spotted the name flashing on the screen. Fuck, there was no way I was going to answer it, not in front of Peyton, so I clicked the side button on my cell, rejecting the call.
“Who was that?” she asked, leaning back in her seat with her drink in her hand. Her eyes didn’t move off of me as she took a sip, her full attention almost too much to bear.
“Nobody.” She raised a brow at that, reminding me of the conversation we’d had not long ago. “My dad.”
“Then why aren’t you answering it?”
“Because…” I trailed off, not willing to tell her why I was mad at him. What he’d kept from us growing up. How he’d always made out like he was the bad guy when he wasn’t. Well…he was, just, not in the way we thought he was.
“Because why?”
“It’s complicated.”
“Most things are.” Darkness flashed over her eyes, taking her away from me for a split second, but as soon as it appeared, it was gone again. If I would have blinked, I would have missed it. Everything in me wanted to ask her about that, to switch the conversation and get the heat off of me, but my cell ringing again distracted me. This time it was Romeo’s name flashing on the screen. “Answer it,” she told me, standing, “I need to go to the restroom anyway.”
I cracked my neck to the side, hearing the bones crunch against each other, my gaze attached to Peyton as she made her way to the restrooms, my cell still ringing in my hand.
“What?” I growled as I placed it next to my ear.
“Need you to come to Dad’s house.”
“No way in hell,” I gritted out, holding my cell tighter. “I’m busy.”
“Get here now,” Romeo demanded. “Lorenzo’s order.”
At his last words, I sat up a little straighter, my eyes narrowing on the door that I was watching, waiting for Peyton to come back through it. We hadn’t even ordered any food, and now I had to up and leave…fuck.
“I’m out,” I told Romeo. “With someone.”
“Leave.”
