Total pages in book: 157
Estimated words: 154525 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 773(@200wpm)___ 618(@250wpm)___ 515(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 154525 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 773(@200wpm)___ 618(@250wpm)___ 515(@300wpm)
Her heels clicked on the floor as she left the kitchen. Salvatore took another minute to decide what to do. He opted to give Carina her space and went after Nico. History said he might pull a total one-eighty on his recent achievements given the setback he just faced. Nico was a runner first when it came to emotional pain. History never lied.
Salvatore found Nico quickly enough, and his daughter. In the drawing room nearer to the living room, Nico sat at a small writing desk. With his arm propped up, face resting against his pointer finger and thumb, his knee bounced a steady beat against the floor. He dead stared the wall ahead of him, not even reacting to Salvatore entering the room.
He came in just in time to see his daughter lean down to press a kiss against Nico’s cheek. There, she whispered something too low for him to properly hear what she said. Nico relaxed momentarily, leaning into Frankie for the brief seconds it took before she pulled away. Then she left the room altogether.
Again, saying nothing to Sal.
“Nico,” he started.
His companion chewed on his inner cheek before asking, “How long did you know that?”
“I don’t think I’m the person you should be—”
“How long?”
Salvatore sighed and rubbed his forehead. “Since she was seventeen, and pregnant with you.”
He nodded jerkily. “So, uh, Carmen, too?”
Sal nodded back.
Nico’s gaze darkened. “Can you imagine, I thought she hated me all this time because I’m me, right? That’s why everyone else does. Really, it’s—”
“She doesn’t hate you. She just never got to love you, Nico.”
A quiet noise escaped Nico, but he looked at Salvatore then. “Larkin said you needed to speak with me?”
Salvatore’s heart ached. “No, not anymore.”
“But, uh...”
Salvatore shook his head. “I fucked up enough shit today. We’re going to leave this one for now, okay? Maybe I revisit it with you another day. It’s not important right now.”
“Yeah.” Nico sniffed, and swiped at his mouth before asking, “Did my moth—fuck. Uh, did his first wife even kill herself like they said?”
“No.”
“Marco was four.”
“Yes,” Salvatore confirmed.
“And like twelve or something when Carmen came along.”
Salvatore took a deep breath, but he didn’t respond. That wasn’t what Nico needed him to do, and he knew it.
“This is so fucked up,” Nico breathed into his hand.
“Oh, it gets worse. It always gets worse with Giorgio.”
11. — daddy issues and daddy’s issues...
Lower Manhattan, New York
Frankie, Greenwich Village
“Wake up.” The soft words accompanied gentle kisses against Frankie’s closed eyelids. Nico’s lips found the apple of her cheeks next, the caramel coffee he liked so much whispering across her skin, before he kissed her forehead last. “I gotta go.”
She mumbled unhappily, turning her face slightly into the pillow to prolong the inevitable. “If I say five more minutes, can we just pretend you don’t still run back to the estate before the clock hits three?”
Nico’s hand tugged her back, his palm cupping her jaw and cheek while his thumb found her chin and the center of her bottom lip. He pressed just hard enough to get her attention, that said he wanted to kiss her, but it also made her open her eyes. He didn’t even turn on the bedside lamp Frankie had picked up at a thrift store yesterday, leaving the room cloaked in darkness but for the glow outside from the wall of windows looking out from the penthouse bedroom. On the other side of the place, another glass wall overlooked the waterfront.
She really needed draperies...but goddamn.
He looked beautiful in a dark light.
“Are you teasing me about a curfew?” he asked, grinning.
“Is it gonna make you stay in bed for another five minutes?”
His smile deepened to something sexier.
“You really don’t get it, do you?” he asked her, but his tone remained playful.
“Get what?”
Nico’s knee hit the side the bare mattress sitting on hardwood floors so he could lean in and snatch his next kiss. The slight stubble on his face awakened her tender skin while that mouth and tongue of his did wonderful work on hers. She didn’t understand how he did it. How he kissed her ravenously, his teeth finding her lip to bite and tug every time he had the chance, but he held himself back, too. He never pushed unless she did. He never took unless she gave first.
Even though she wanted him to.
Even though he made her ache.
“Five more minutes,” she breathed against his mouth when their foreheads met. “Tell me no and mean it, Nico.”
He kissed her again, but harder, and he didn’t linger, saying, “You don’t get it. There’s more than one reason I’ve gotta follow your father’s rules. You’re a big one.”
“It’s only five freakin’ min—”
Nico kissed her again, his pointer finger and thumb pinching her chin gently as he pulled away. She tried not to pout as he reached for his black hoodie. “You need to get some furniture in here,” he told her.