Her gaze flashed with an understanding. “You have a point.”
“I understand that my wealth, to others, can seem excessive, and a little overwhelming.”
“It is.”
“So, I won’t dismiss what you think, but I won’t change how I live, either. I would rather you learn to be comfortable with wealth than afraid of it.”
Ginevra let out a light laugh. “Well ...”
“Hmm?”
“As long as it’s not my money that’s being thrown around, I guess.”
Corrado grinned. “Compromise. Now you’re talking my language, kitten.”
Her cheeks pinked, but she didn’t hide it.
“Now, what are we shopping for again? What kind of event?”
Mandy’s voice had Corrado turning to face the woman. She was still standing behind the counter, and Alessio was already looking their way with a lazy smile.
“A club opening for the Guzzis,” Corrado said, “but we can handle finding something on our own, if you wouldn’t mind.”
Mandy waved a hand. “The shop is yours for the next two hours. If you wouldn’t mind, I might take my lunch. You won’t need me hanging around, and I can pop over to the café across the street.”
“We’ll be fine,” Alessio assured.
He left the counter to join Ginevra and Corrado, his hand sliding around her lower back while Corrado turned to check out a rack of large church hats. His mother liked those, and she might like to find a gift here waiting for her when she came to shop the next time.
“Oh, and that royal purple hat,” Corrado said, “box it up for my mother, would you?”
“First thing when I get back, Mr. Guzzi.”
“Merci.”
“That was sweet of you,” Ginevra said as Mandy picked up her coat and purse, readying to leave. “Does your mother shop here often?”
“A few times a month.”
By the time Mandy had locked the shop’s door as she left, the three of them were already closer to the back of the store. Corrado remained closer to Alessio’s side as Ginevra reached up to admire a glittering blue clutch hanging on the wall.
“So, which Guzzi is opening the club?”
“My oldest brother—Marcus.”
Ginevra peeked back at them, her nose crinkling in that way. It only did that when she had something on her mind. “Huh.”
“What?”
“Your family ... they’re Cosa Nostra, right?”
Alessio cleared his throat and gave Corrado a look from the side. One he did his best to ignore because Alessio was quite aware this was a goddamn touchy topic for him.
“The majority are,” Corrado replied tightly. “I expect there’ll be a handful of important made men there considering Marcus is my father’s current right-hand, and while it’s never been explicitly said, the next Guzzi to take over the famiglia.”
Ginevra turned to face him. “What was that about?”
“What? Nothing.”
Her gaze darted to Alessio and then back to Corrado. “No, there was something. In your tone, like it annoyed you.”
“It was—”
“Something,” Alessio put in.
“Don’t,” Corrado warned the man beside him.
Ginevra nodded. “Okay, now I really want to know.”
God.
Why couldn’t people leave him to stew about his issues alone? Not every piece of baggage he carried around needed unpacked.
“Some people in the Guzzi organization,” Alessio said.
“Could you not?”
“No,” the man murmured to Ginevra, “some of them take issue with the fact Corrado didn’t join the family business and went outside of the organization instead. And this is before we deal with the fact that Cosa Nostra isn’t kind to boys who like boys.”
Ginevra blinked.
Corrado sucked on his teeth, annoyed again.
“Thank you,” he told Alessio.
The man shrugged. “Better to just handle it, I guess.”
Right, that’s what it was.
“And they understand you two are ...?” Ginevra asked, leaving the rest of her question unsaid as she raised her brow.
“For the most part, no,” Corrado said. “We’re always very careful about how we present ourselves outside of our private space, and not just because of the opinions of people who might not like we’re together, but also because emotional attachments in this business can sometimes be a target for those who would think to use it. I never wanted someone to use Alessio against me, or vice versa.”
Alessio cleared his throat. “You never explained this to me like that.”
“Yeah, well ...”
Shit left unsaid, again.
“But yes,” Corrado added, shrugging one shoulder, “I didn’t care what people from my father’s famiglia thought about the fact I sleep in bed with a man, either. They’re not the ones living my life, so their voice counts for very little.”
“Oh.”
Corrado smiled at Ginevra’s soft reply. “It doesn’t matter, anyway. If most of them aren’t already aware, they suspect, anyway. I am at a point where I don’t say, and they don’t ask. I no longer care what they think though.”
“Was that another rule?”
Alessio grinned. “Pardon?”
“Like the not sleeping with other men thing, or that women were okay as long as one told the other,” Ginevra said. “Was the whole not talking about your relationship another rule?”
“No, more like an unspoken agreement.”
Ginevra nodded. “Are there still rules?”
Alessio tipped his head to the side. “That kind of got blown out of the water when Corrado broke the important one.”
Yeah.
Ginevra frowned.
Corrado sighed. “We handled that, right?”
“Mostly,” Alessio agreed.
“Well,” Ginevra said, picking a blue dress from a rack she passed before heading toward the back of the shop, tossing her words over her shoulder, “while I’m here, nobody better be fucking anybody else but the people standing right here. Got it?”
The heat in her tone couldn’t be missed.
That possessive glint in her eye?
Clear as day.
Corrado appreciated that.
Alessio chuckled beside him.
“Yeah, we got it,” Corrado said.
“Absolutely,” Alessio agreed as Ginevra disappeared into the back hallway where the large changing rooms were situated. “But that means we get what we want, too, right? And when we want it, yeah?”
Ginevra peeked back around the corner, an eyebrow cocked in curiosity. “What does that mean?”
“How long do we have?” Alessio asked him.
Corrado glanced over his shoulder, his gaze finding the café across the street where Mandy had gone to be full with people lined up close to the door. “A safe while, I’d say.”
“Good.”
“What does that mean?”
Ginevra’s voice was a little higher, now.
Anticipation, Corrado thought.
“You know what it means,” he said.
She disappeared into the hallway again, and they were quick to chase after the sound of her laughter. Alessio darted past Corrado by jumping over a rack. Not that Corrado minded as Alessio had always had the benefit of speed between them. He could outrun Corrado on his worst days, and that was saying something because he sure as fuck wasn’t slow.