Page 56 of Texting My Mafia Boss

After breakfast, Sylvie approaches me with a proud smile. “Can I get ready for school by myself?”

I grin. “Well, sure, as long as you can be done in ten minutes?”

She can technically get herself ready, of course, but sometimes she gets lost in her imagination, and I have to encourage her to move quicker. Or sometimes put her shoes on for her when she’s lost in her own private world.

“I promise!” she sings, skipping from the room.

Ettore stands the moment she’s gone, the moment it’s just the two of us. It’s like he doesn’t want to be alone with me. When he moves for the plates, I tell him, “I can do that.”

“It’s fine,” he says, refusing to look at me.

“Oh, it’s fine,” I murmur.

I grab the plates and take them over to the sink to rinse before I put them in the dishwasher. He brings over a cup, laying it on the counter. I stare stubbornly down at the running water when I feel him looking at me. The first time in days.

“You know it’s better this way,” he says, voice tight.

I turn to him, an innocent look on my face. “What’s better?”

“Us.”

“I don’t think there is anus,” I tell him, in a sweet, unbothered voice.

Am I playing games? Maybe. But so was he.

He winces, like I’ve caused him pain. He steps forward.

“What are you doing?” I whisper.

“What does it look like?” he growls.

Every time, it feels so easy. Every time, no matter what we promise – ourselves, each other – it feels inevitable. His lips crash against mine. The pent-up desire has me melting in his arms. My icy armor slips away, and suddenly I’m digging my fingernails into his back, feeling his firm body against mine.

I think of the near misses we’ve had, the heat, his manhood pushing against my?—

“Really? Here?”

We separate gasping. My heart twitches when I see the emotion in his expression, not just lust, something else, something deeper, fiercer.

Livia finally marches over to us. “What if Sylvie had walked in here instead of me?”

“I know,” Ettore murmurs, lowering his gaze.

“Oh, you know,” Livia says, shaking her head. “Iknow there’s something going on here. And I think it could be a good thing.”

“You do?” Ettore says in shock.

“You don’t?” Livia counters, the idea stinging me.

“It could be the best thing that ever happened to me,” Ettore says huskily, staring at me with that passionate expression again. “It could be… everything. Mara is,youare, Mara, kind, caring, brave, sassy, realistic, intelligent, persistent…”

I swallow, unexpected tears pricking my eyes. “Then why have you been ignoring me?”

“It seemed like the right thing,” he says.

Livia prods me on the arm, then prods Ettore. “Hello? Am I invisible?”

We share a sheepish look. “Sorry,” we say at the same time.