Total pages in book: 83
Estimated words: 79209 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 396(@200wpm)___ 317(@250wpm)___ 264(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 79209 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 396(@200wpm)___ 317(@250wpm)___ 264(@300wpm)
I stifled the moan that ripped from my mouth…and I was lost.
He fucked me hard on that table, a piston from a semi working furiously to split me clean in two, grunting and moaning like it was the first time he’d gotten to have me.
5
WOLFE
I walked into the office and found Don Mancini seated behind the desk. “You wanted to see me, Don?” The final funeral came and went, and the carpenters were now working on Francesca’s fire-damaged office. Repairs were in motion, and life was starting to move forward once more. Francesca had turned another room in the villa into her office in the meantime.
I helped myself to a seat on one of the couches, arm propped on the armrest as I relaxed into the cushions.
He’d been absorbed in his phone when I walked inside, and without verbally acknowledging what I said, he put it aside with the screen down. Then he left the chair and came around the desk before he leaned against the edge, crossing his arms over his chest just the way Don Russo did. He regarded me for several seconds in heavy silence.
I met his stare with a world-class poker face, knowing exactly what was coming down the pike.
“Why did you growl at Alessandro?”
I almost fucking smiled. Almost. “He was bothering Frankie.” Ugh, I hated calling her that. The nickname wasn’t the least bit endearing to me. It made her seem like a tomboy, when she was very much a woman.
“How so?”
“He made a pass at her, she said no, and then he made a pass again,” I said simply. “No means no—at least in my book.”
Don Mancini stared me down with a poker face almost as good as mine. Perhaps he noticed something was amiss between his daughter and me. Started to grow suspicious of what was right under his nose. Hopefully he was suspicious enough to outright ask me, and I could finally come clean. “I thought they would be a good match.”
Had he set that up? With that fucking pretty boy? I could feel the bluff in my face start to slip away because the rage was too much. He thought that boy was a better match for her than the fucking man right in front of him? I forced a breath and said something far more diplomatic than what I really wanted to say. “A good match for her is someone she chooses.”
His eyes finally shifted away as he absent-mindedly rubbed his arm. “Leo is honest and loyal, but he’s easily distracted by bullshit. Doesn’t think before he opens his big mouth. Doesn’t pick up on the unspoken words in a conversation. But Frankie is smart, keeps her eye on the prize, thinks, plots, and schemes far before she makes a move. She works hard and always does everything right. Never makes a mistake.”
I had no idea where this was going.
“She’s the one who should run this place when I’m gone.”
Did he mean just the winery? Or did he mean both businesses?
“But she needs the right man to run it with her.”
And he thought that could be that little fucking boy? It took all my strength not to throw my hat in the ring. It took all my strength not to tell him she’d already found that man. “Leo won’t take that well.”
“Oh, I know.” He pushed off the desk then dropped onto the couch across from me. “But that’s a problem for another day. I brought you here to discuss something else.”
It wasn’t to talk about the inappropriate way I growled at a potential suitor? “What do you need, Don?”
He stared at me, leaning slightly forward, arms resting on his knees. He was a decade older than me but still had definition all over his body. He could easily pull in a woman his daughter’s age. But I’d never heard him talk about women. Never seen him with a woman. Leo never mentioned anything either. “Why did you meet with Cosa Nostra?”
It was the last thing I expected him to ask, and an uncontrollable grin stretched across my face as I met his stare. A warm flush of pride moved through my chest. I felt like a father who had been outsmarted by his son for the first time. “I’m impressed, Don.”
The only person who knew about that meeting was Francesca, but I trusted her implicitly. She would never betray my trust. If she’d decided to tell her father my plans, she would have said it straight to my face like a man. Nah, it wasn’t her. Don Russo had a further reach than I gave him credit for.
“If you’re impressed, then you underestimated me.”
“Guess so,” I said with the same smile on my face. “So, you want the tea?”
He stared at me.
“I was going to share this with you.”
“Then why didn’t you?”