Total pages in book: 83
Estimated words: 79209 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 396(@200wpm)___ 317(@250wpm)___ 264(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 79209 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 396(@200wpm)___ 317(@250wpm)___ 264(@300wpm)
We ate our dinner together in silence for a while, both of us enjoying our food while we exchanged looks across the table.
“I told my father I wouldn’t work weekends anymore.”
“And?”
“He said alright.”
“Attagirl,” he said before he took another bite. “We can leave for Palermo on Friday when you get off work. You think you can sneak away early?”
“Probably. My father doesn’t pay a lot of attention to me.”
“Good.”
“How was your day?”
“Long.”
“Why was it long?”
“I worked out and then worked on the house.”
“Worked on the house?”
“Yeah, just needed to do a couple things.”
The house seemed in perfect condition to me so I didn’t know what he needed to do, but the topic was outside my wheelhouse. I didn’t know how to use a hammer unless it was to bash someone’s skull in. “I feel bad that I’m at work all day while you’re here by yourself.”
“I’m fine, baby,” he said. “Don’t worry about me.”
“Unless you like the break…” I teased.
He smirked. “Not in the least.”
“Because I’ve kind of been all over you since I got kicked out.”
“I like having you all over me,” he said seriously.
“I just feel like we went from being a secret to being together all the time—a drastic change.”
“I like being together all the time,” he said. “I miss you when you’re gone.”
He did not look like a man who would ever say those words to anyone, but he said them to me.
“But I’m happy you’re back at the winery. And soon, I’ll be there too.”
He lay with me in bed, my leg hiked over his hip while I wore one of his t-shirts. He kneaded my ass with his fingers as he stared into my eyes, his look shifting from one of my eyes to the other from time to time. “How are things with Leo?”
“We haven’t really talked since that conversation in my office.”
“Then maybe he’s over it.”
“Things have been so busy. He probably hasn’t had much time to think about it.”
“I wish your father would drop his prejudice so I can help.”
“That would be great, honestly.” Wolfe had the experience and autonomy to handle stuff on his own. Whereas my brother needed a lot of direct instruction to make things happen. “Maybe this experience will make him see that.”
“He’s too stubborn for that.”
“Yeah, probably.” I’d washed off my makeup before bed, but he continued to look at me the way he did across the table when we were out to dinner. He had this depth to his gaze, like I was all that he could see. Being fired and kicked out of my home had been devastating, but merging my life with Wolfe had deepened our relationship to a whole other level. It was too soon to talk about marriage because we’d only been together a couple of months…but was it too soon?
I already felt married to this man.
“What do you want to do in Palermo?” he asked quietly.
“I want to go back to that gelato place.”
A slight smile moved over his lips.
“And hook up on your boat again.”
A quiet chuckle escaped his lips. “Below deck this time.”
“No… I like feeling the sun on my skin when we make love.”
“I’ll need to take you to a nude beach since you’re clearly into that.”
I rolled my eyes. “I don’t like to show my body to other people. I just like to love you wherever I want to love you.” I liked kissing him when we stood in line for gelato. I liked touching his thigh when we lay on the beach together. I liked it when he squeezed my ass when we walked down the sidewalk together. It was our world, and everyone else was just living in it. Our relationship had mostly taken place inside my little villa in the heart of the winery, and once it’d been allowed to expand, it had grown into something so much more.
“How about now?” He started to move over me, his hand sliding farther up my shirt to lift it over my stomach. We’d already made love when we’d first come up the stairs. I’d washed my face and changed afterward, getting ready for bed. But a plain face and a baggy shirt didn’t deter his desire for me at all.
“With you, anytime works for me.”
26
FRANCESCA
I was sitting on the terrace in the shade of the umbrella when my father walked over with a cigar in his mouth. He pulled out the chair and took a seat across from me, and right away, one of the staff filled our glasses with wine and placed a basket of bread between us.
My father had asked me to join him for lunch, but the second he sat down, he seemed to be in an angry mood.
“What’s happened?” I asked.
He gave a shake of his head before he put out the cigar.