Our, he said.
Meaning Dare, too.
That was about as much as Cree gave regarding his relationship with Dare.
“I meant,” the man continued, “that at the same time, did you consider Alessio might be also giving you what you want by staying away?”
“Excuse me?”
“The woman, Corrado.”
“What—”
“While protecting you from him, he may also be giving you the chance to figure that out where he isn’t imposing or making it more complicated. You were clearly in a situation with her before he came into the picture, and by stepping back, he’s allowing you to continue it whichever way you want.”
“I’m not sure that fucking her after all of this is going to make him come back, if that’s—”
Cree made a harsh noise under his breath. “Never understood the appeal of vaginas myself, really.”
Yep.
Great.
This conversation was just perfect, now.
“Could you not?” Corrado asked, pinching the bridge of his nose. “Make your point, or just hang up the phone.”
“Oh, I’m going to do that soon, too.”
Yeah, he figured.
“The point is,” Cree added quickly, “sex is like every other physical thing for Alessio. Eating, sleeping, fighting, or working ... it’s something he does because he either has to, he likes it, or it fills a need he has. He only gets emotional with sex when there are emotions attached to it—like with you. For her, he feels nothing. And he feels nothing about the fact you may or may not be having sex with her—that isn’t his problem, is it?”
Cree wasn’t wrong.
“No, I don’t think that’s his problem. More ... that I kept her presence and my interest from him. He asks for loyalty, that’s all.”
“Because loyalty is what is most important to Alessio, and to him, faithfulness doesn’t fall into that category when that’s not what he asked for, right? When sex is just sex to him ... then, you having sex with a woman is just that to him as well. He’s complicated, Corrado, in ways you are not, although that may not be a bad thing.”
“You know, it’s almost disturbing how you understand people the way you do,” Corrado muttered. “And with very little information to go on, too.”
“Is it, though? I always thought it was like a gift.”
“No, it’s disturbing. Definitely fucking disturbing.”
“To be fair, I have known Alessio since he was ten, and I have a lot to go on in order to make sense of his mess.” Cree made a dismissive sniff. “And it being disturbing to you doesn’t change the fact that I’m right here, and you know it.”
“Well ...”
“Hmm?”
“She’s complicated to me, too,” Corrado murmured. “Like him, but in different ways.”
“I bet. That sounds like something you should figure out. If Alessio doesn’t call me before he comes back to you, then you’re to let me know he’s safe. If he’s gone for more than a couple of weeks beyond this, I want to know so I can make the choice to bring up the tracker data on his chip implant and let Dare decide what he wants to do.”
“All right.”
“Also.”
“Yeah?”
“Stop fucking this up, Corrado. Despite how it used to be amusing to watch you stumble over your feelings and bury your issues so deep that even you can’t find them, it’s no longer funny. It’s time you figured your bullshit out, and fix it. All of it.”
He blinked.
And Cree hung up the phone.
Fuck.
His frustration at everything—this week, Alessio, feeling like he was walking on eggshells, the conversation with Cree—spilled over as he stared at the blank screen of the phone in his hand. Before he could think better of it, he whipped the phone to the side. It smacked the arm of the chaise in front of the large window, causing the back and battery to pop out of place, and fall onto the floor in three pieces.
Good.
Better that than him breaking it entirely.
Because that’s what he wanted to do.
A quiet noise at the opposite side of the office had him spinning on the spot. There, he found Ginevra standing with a book in her hands, watching him. A million and one emotions raged through him at the sight of her there.
Annoyance.
Concern.
Amusement.
Indifference.
Lust.
Anger.
He didn’t know how to deal with it all, but he went to the easiest to handle first, which just happened to be his annoyance. This girl had a bad habit of spying. Being places she shouldn’t and standing there for way too long to listen. Like last week while she watched him with Alessio in this same fucking office.
“What are you doing?” he snapped.
Ginevra’s brow knotted, and she glanced down before lifting the book. “I just ... wanted to get another book, that’s all. I thought it would be rude to interrupt.”
“So, instead you eavesdrop?”
“It’s not like you were being quiet. I could hear you all the way down in my room, thanks.”
Corrado sucked in a shaky breath, willing his nerves to calm. He was snappy because of the shit happening around him, and sure, Ginevra didn’t help in a lot of ways, but it wasn’t her fault, either. She didn’t choose to be here, but rather, she had been thrown right in the fucking middle of it.
This whole blow out between Alessio and him had been years in the making, always one step away from it happening. They hung on together by a thread because of literally everything else in their life except Ginevra.
Sure, she was a catalyst.
She pushed them over the edge.
And it still wasn't her fault ...
She didn't ask for this, but here she was. It also wasn’t lost on him that there was an almost poetic irony to the fact Corrado had realized all the things he’d done wrong in his relationship, what he wanted with Alessio, and that he was ready to fix it ... at the same time he was looking this woman in the face, and feeling something he couldn’t explain for her.
He wouldn’t say he was in love with her.
But it was something.
The only other time he had felt that for anyone was Alessio, and so, he didn’t know how to correlate this thing he felt to anything else.
Koi no yokan, he knew.
Except ... it only made this harder.
More difficult.
Compli-fucking-cated.
Ginevra hadn’t asked for this.
Neither did Alessio.
Corrado didn’t know what to do.
“I’m sorry,” he murmured, “I’m just in a mood lately, is all. It’s not your fault, and I shouldn’t be short with you, Ginny.”
She didn’t smile.
She only shrugged.
“Doesn’t even faze me now,” she replied, “I think it makes sense, actually.”
“I’m sorry?”
“Your moods. I thought it was just you before I knew about ... him. But now I think it’s really you without him.”
Corrado’s throat tightened, a lump forming there.
Why?
Because she was right.
Entirely.
What made it worse was the pain he could plainly see staring back from this woman as she stood just a few feet away from him, hugging that book close to her chest, and refusing to meet his gaze. Her stance, the aura she was giving off, it all screamed one thing.