Page 41 of Knocked Up by My Dad's Mafia Boss

“So that means, what? I can ask you anything and you’ll give me a straight answer?”

He tightens his jaw but nods, his eyes traveling over my face like he’s looking at something precious. My heart might explode, actually. “You get three questions.”

“Do you like me?” The words come out in a rush before I think too hard about it.

He snorts. “That’s a stupid fucking question.”

I pout. “Yeah, well, I want an answer.”

“Yes,” he says flatly. A thrill rushes through me and I grin.

“Really?”

“Yes. That’s two questions.”

I frown. “Hey, that’s not fair!”

He shrugs lazily. “Those are the rules.”

I think about it for a moment. There’s really only one thing I want to know, isn’t there?

“Is this—this thing between us—just physical for you?”

“Fuck,” he curses, shifting on the bed to lie on his back even though his arm stays around me. He throws his other forearm over his eyes.

“Dante? You said you’d answer.”

He doesn’t move his arm. Won’t look at me. “No. I’m fucking smitten by you,tesoro. Don’t you know that already?”

Smitten.

A grin spreads across my face, my heart seeming to swell in my chest. I cuddle up close to him and put my head on his chest. His heartbeat seems fast. He tightens his arm around me, placing his palm back on the dip of my waist.

“Then why do you avoid me?”

“That’s four questions.”

“Oh come on, you totally cheated me out of one of them.”

He moves his arm from his eyes and looks at me, then looks away. “You’re asking the wrong questions, little one.”

“Then tell me what to ask.”

“That’s not how this works.”

I let out a long breath and Dante sighs heavily. “You know why avoid you. I avoid youbecauseI’m smitten by you.”

“I guess that makes sense,” I say slowly.

“How about you?” he asks, glancing at me but not holding my gaze.

“How about me what?”

“Are you smitten?”

My heart jumps into my throat. I could tell him. Tell him that I’m terrified that I’m falling for him, that I wish our circumstances were different.

“I didn’t get any tequila,” I say instead, and Dante laughs, loud and open, looking so much like the boy he must have once been that it makes my heart skip.