The guy arched a thick, dark eyebrow when Corrado stayed quiet. The action made his strong features and stormy blue eyes all the more intense. His thin lips pulled into a sly smirk, making his square jaw, covered with a few days’ worth of stubble, tighten with the movement. A slight shake of his head made the shaggy hair that seemed a little too long around his ears fly in all directions. Corrado tried to shake off the strange hum buzzing over him the longer he stared at the guy. He wasn’t the first good-looking person he’d run into, and he wouldn’t be the last. He didn’t need to feel stupid or speechless just because this guy looked half decent.
Except, that wasn’t it at all.
It was the way the man looked at him. The way his gaze drifted over Corrado with the slowness that reminded him of a predator, maybe. Like this guy had just found prey, and he was considering whether the kill would be worth it.
It irked Corrado.
Irritated him like nothing fucking else.
He wasn’t prey.
“What did you just say?” Corrado asked.
The guy laughed and tipped his head to the side as he pointed at the knife in Corrado’s hands. “Be careful, we don’t need you cutting yourself because you wouldn’t know what to do with a knife unless you were paying someone else to do it for you. Clear enough?”
Okay.
Yeah.
Corrado wasn’t even going to act like that was a comment he could brush off as though it hadn’t been said at all. This guy wasn’t even trying to be subtle about it; he was outright insulting Corrado, and with a fucking smile at the same time.
“Do I know you?” he asked.
The guy peeked over his shoulder, looking at something down the hall. “Not yet, but you will.”
That humming sensation was back again. It kind of pissed Corrado off that the guy could be so dismissive and insulting to him, while at the same time, acting like he had better things to do than stand there and have a conversation with him. He remembered his father’s warning about behaving, but he was very close to telling this guy to fuck off right before he busted his mouth for those comments while he was at it.
“How about,” Corrado started to say, “you go find someone else to—”
“Alessio.”
The guy’s gaze drifted back to Corrado, his eyebrow still arched high like he didn’t have a damn to give, as a new voice sounded right outside the doorway of the room. Almost as soon as the voice spoke, a new face came to the doorway, and clapped a hand on the guy’s shoulder. Right behind him stood Corrado’s father.
Gian stayed back a couple of steps, though.
He didn’t intrude.
“Introducing yourself, Alessio?” the man asked.
Alessio.
Corrado decided right then that he hated that name. And the man it belonged to, as well. The problem was, when Alessio turned his gaze back on Corrado, the humming was back. He couldn’t look away from the ocean of blue that stared back at him, or the way that as much as this guy rubbed him wrong ... he wanted to know why.
Or anything about him at all.
“You’re not causing trouble, are you, Corrado?” his father asked out in the hallway.
“Define trouble.” Alessio chuckled. “Is he allowed to play with knives where someone can’t keep an eye on him at the same time?”
The man next to Alessio smacked him in the back of the head, making him glower back at him.
“Fuck off, Dare,” Alessio muttered.
“Play nice, Les.”
He looked back to Corrado again.
“But why, though? This is way more fun.”
Fuck him.
And the fact Corrado found he liked it.
Yeah, fuck that, too.
The other man, Dare, shook his head. “All right, Les, since you’re feeling chatty today, you can take Corrado around and show him the rest of the complex while I talk business with Gian.”
Alessio scowled. “I didn’t volunteer to be some mafia principe’s babysitter for the day.”
Dare smirked. “I’m sorry. Did I preface that with, if you feel up to it and it pleases your spoiled fucking ass to do it? No, so do it.”
“Fine.”
“Did you introduce yourself properly?”
“No,” Alessio said. “Because I didn’t think there was a point.”
Dare sighed and waved between the two boys. “Alessio, you already know Corrado Guzzi ... or you know what I told you about today. Corrado, meet the pain in my ass, also known as Alessio Sorrento.”
“Thanks for that.”
“But not a lie,” Dare replied. “And now my good deed for the day is done. Gian, do you think these two will be fine alone?”
Corrado’s father smiled a bit, amusement playing in his gaze as he nodded. “I think they’ll be fine while we chat.”
“Good, let’s begin.”
Alessio passed Corrado another look as Gian and Dare drifted away from the doorway, disappearing altogether. “Are you going to stand there all day, or what?”
Corrado didn’t move. “I’m not doing anything with you.”
“Yeah, that’s not going to work. Dare said what he said.”
“Fuck him, and you.”
“Oh, he swears, too.”
Corrado’s jaw flexed with his annoyance. “What is your problem?”
Alessio looked him over again, his gaze slow and deliberate. All over again, Corrado felt that same flare of frustration and interest all rolled into one. It warred inside his mind, clashing together and making him want to punch this guy in the mouth just because.
“Do you like what you see, or ...?”
“Why, because I stare?” Alessio asked.
“Because your stare lingers. So, that means you either like what you see, or you’re trying to decide if I’m a threat. I think you know who I am, and you think you know something about me.”
Corrado replaced the knife on the wall, and headed for the door, only stopping directly in front of Alessio. He knew what this guy was doing—trying to size him up, but also make him feel out of place. Screw that noise. He didn’t know his purpose for being here, but he wasn’t going to run because of Alessio.
He leaned in close to Alessio, but the guy didn’t move back an inch. If anything, he stayed firm in his spot, those blue eyes blazing with the same interest Corrado was sure reflected in his own gaze. “Let me be the first to fix that mistake of yours—you don’t know fuck all about me, Alessio.”
“I prefer Les.”
Corrado tipped his chin up. “And?”
“And right now I’m wondering what your face might look like if I roughened it up a little. Do you box?”
He blinked.
“What?”
Alessio shrugged. “I didn’t stutter.”
He hadn’t.
“Do you want to get your ass kicked?” Corrado asked. “Because that’s what’ll happen if we spar.”
The man laughed.
And all Corrado could think was that he looked fucking amazing doing it. That smirk on his face? Entirely bad for him given the way his chest tightened at the sight of it.
Oh, yeah.
He was in a lot of trouble here.
It all started and ended with Alessio.
He knew it by the annoyance still trickling through his bloodstream, but also the humming that continued to buzz over his skin. A part of him wanted to tell his guy to fuck off somewhere, and another part wanted to find out all he could about him. He had a feeling the more he learned about Alessio, the less annoyed Corrado would feel, and the more interesting the man would become.