Ginevra gave him a teasing glower. “I can’t feel nothing, either, so you get one or the other. And sad was the one you got.”
Alessio chuckled, his hands flexing against her waist again. “I get it, sweetheart. I need to go to Vegas first and grab things I need there. And if I play my cards right—or rather, work the flights right—I’ll have a daylong layover in Toronto before I head out on the assignment, but still, it’ll be soon.”
“Soon,” she echoed. “What kind of job?”
“Better not say for that.”
Ginevra shivered.
“But that wasn’t why I wanted to tell you,” Alessio said.
She met his gaze again. “No?”
“No, more like ... if where you want me to return to is wherever you are, and him, too, that’s where I will be. Is that where you want me, Ginevra?”
Didn’t he already know?
“Yes, this is where I want you.”
22.
Alessio
A bouncer for the club led Alessio and Ginevra upstairs to the VIP section. He suspected that’s where they would find Corrado, considering he no longer lingered on the lower floor of the club.
“Aren’t you hot in that?” Ginevra asked, fingering the neckline of his leather jacket.
“Yes.”
“Why not take it off, then?”
“Discomfort doesn’t bother me that much.”
He thanked The League for that.
And training.
Ginevra looked like she would say more, but he pointed across the room to distract her instead. Her gaze followed Alessio’s movements, and a playful smile curved her cheeks at the sight of Corrado sitting beside Marcus in a booth.
“Better take the principe his drink, yeah?”
“What does that mean?”
“Hmm?”
“Principe,” she said as they crossed the floor.
“Oh, don’t call him that, it makes him pissy.”
Ginevra arched a brow at Alessio.
He shrugged.
“They like to call sons and daughters of mafia Dons principes or principessas,” Alessio said, shrugging one shoulder. “And I only say it when I want to get a reaction out of Corrado.”
“Because he doesn’t like it.”
“Exactly.”
“That’s terrible.”
Alessio made a noise. “Well, it’s not terrible when it ends with him fucking you.”
Ginevra shivered.
He laughed.
“Now you get it,” Alessio told her.
“What are you two grinning about?”
Corrado’s question had Alessio turning to wink at his lover, forgetting for a moment about the people around them, and who. Although, as soon as that thought drifted through Alessio’s mind, it left with one look at Corrado.
He was unbothered.
He grinned back, in fact.
Ginevra had changed more than she realized for the two. Things that had once been a source of discontent for Alessio between him and Corrado now became a background thought because it didn’t factor into what they shared, not when everything they had together proved it unimportant.
He probably should tell Corrado that.
There was never a good time.
“Well?” Corrado asked.
Alessio ignored the other people milling about—the ones at the booth with Corrado and his brother, and the others around surrounding booths. “I told her there will be a lot of principes in this club tonight, yeah?”
Corrado’s features flashed with darkness.
A warning.
Alessio smirked. “All the Guzzi principes, in fact.”
Ginevra smacked Alessio with the back of her hand, but he didn’t even flinch. “That’s enough of that.”
Corrado chuckled and waved two fingers at her. “Come here, you.”
He didn’t mind that Ginevra left his side to slip in the booth beside Corrado because Alessio quickly slid in after her. There, she was between them. He had his hand on her bare thigh, just under the skirt of that short dress of hers, while Corrado slung an arm behind her on the booth.
Conversation turned on the club, and Marcus. An easy, safe topic. It allowed Corrado to join in without having to bring himself into it, which Alessio figured the man appreciated. With Guzzi mafioso, it could go either way.
For now, Corrado relaxed, but Alessio kept an eye on him because that could change in a blink. An offhanded comment from one of the many men who just wanted to point out again that Corrado didn’t wear the Guzzi legacy the same way his brother did, or his other brothers who hadn’t arrived yet. Or perhaps someone who wanted to share their opinion about what they believed about Corrado and Alessio’s relationship.
Although, now, it was different.
A woman stood between them.
Alessio highly suspected a comment would come because of that if nothing else. And if he could shut it down before it turned into something that might cause a problem, then that would be far better for all of them.
He’d become used to this game with these people. They were careful when their boss happened to be around, but other than that ... Corrado became fair game. Like he had been for most of his life.
Alessio wouldn’t stand for it.
For the most part, Corrado ignored the shit they threw at him from people who, as far as it concerned Alessio, didn’t deserve to breathe the same air as either of them. He didn’t want to cause issues for his brothers, or father. God knew Alessio could understand that, but it left Corrado as the proverbial punching bag.
Which he was not.
Anyone else, and he’d cut their throats.
Just not these people.
It irritated Les to no end.
“He’s not wrong, though,” Ginevra said.
It didn’t take Alessio and Corrado long to figure out what she was referring to. Across the VIP section, the rest of the other Guzzi brothers had arrived in a trio. Chris, and the other twins didn’t waste time greeting the people closer to the stairs before crossing the floor, and joining the rest of their family.
Bene and Beni busied themselves with Marcus, congratulating him on the club before turning their attention on Ginevra just long enough to greet her the same way their older brother had earlier. Chris laughed as he leaned over the booth to give his twin a one-armed hug.
“Got them both out tonight, huh?” Chris asked.
Corrado flashed his teeth in a grin. “Careful.”
“I’m just saying you’re in a far better mood when one of them happens to be around. That’s good for all of us, Corrado.”
Alessio glanced at Corrado from behind Ginevra, nodding as he did so. “He’s right, though.”
“Fuck off, all of you.”
Someone had to tease Corrado, but they did it in such a way that didn’t make him the lesser man in the room because his choices didn’t match their own. All in good fun, and Corrado knew, too.
There was no malice here.
Only respect.
And of course, love.
They were simply careful about how they showed it. Alessio doubted they would change that about their relationship. He didn’t want people to see the depth of this thing between them. Oh, he believed Ginevra understood, but that was different.
She should.
She was in it, too.
Everyone else?