Page 33 of Morally Gray Daddies

Not in the eye.

Not after last night.

Thank goodness for the other people around the breakfast table. I’d thought Gio’s mother was scarier than him, but right now, she was my refuge as she chattered on to me about how lovely the wedding had been. She wanted to rehash the whole event, from start to finish, and I was happy to let her.

Because I couldn’t look at him.

He’d watched me use the facilities. He’d wiped me. And then he’d pleasured me to the point of blacking out. I’d fainted, like a doozy girl, from the ecstasy.

My body was still sore, still humming today. I couldn’t sit comfortably, and not just because of the physical ache.

It was impossible to look at him and not think about how he’d literally laid claim to every part of me over the past few days… and I’d loved it.

I wanted him to do it again.

Which made him the most dangerous man I’d ever met.

I’d rather fight Tomas than be alone with Gio again. At least with Tomas, I’d only be fighting the big brute. I wouldn’t also be battling myself.

“We need to make a plan for today,” Jack said, raising his voice so he could be heard by the whole table. The whole table being him, Hailey, his parents, Gio’s mother, myself, and Gio. Beside him, Don DiNardo, his father, nodded his approval of Jack taking the lead. Jack’s gaze cut down to the table to me, and I stiffened. “Clara, we need that note.”

The note I’d found in Leonardo’s room.

“Right-o, daddy-o.” I gave him a mock salute. “I can take care of that for you.”

Gio’s hand came down on my shoulder. I had seen the way he’d stiffened out of the corner of my eye. He did not like me calling Jack ‘daddy-o’ even though it was common slang and not at all the way I called him ‘Daddy.’ Interesting. I wondered if I could use that, yet there was a little warning signal that went off in my brain. After all, I knew how he’d punish me when I was just some dame. What would he do now that I was his wife?

Did I really want to find out?

“Or,” he said pleasantly, though there was an undercurrent of threat to his tone, “you could tell me where to find it.”

Immediately, I shook my head. He wasn’t cutting me out of this. I didn’t care what he did with his hands or his dick. I was the one who found the note in the first place. Hailey was my friend. Lifting my chin, I made myself look at him full-on in the face. My insides tightened as our gazes clashed, his handsome face settled in an expression of bemusement.

Okay, so part of the reason I hadn’t wanted to look at him was because he looked so damn good, it was easy to forget he was the devil.

Devilishly hot with his hands. And mouth. And— Stop it, Clara.

Get a grip.

I was not going to be one of those dizzy dames who completely lost her head over a man.

“I know exactly where it is. I can go get it and bring it back here, easy.” Besides, that gave me a reason to get out of the house for a bit. I needed to go check on my cats. The poor beasties had gone without me for several days now, and even though they could fend for themselves, I liked to keep an eye on them.

“Then I’ll come with you.”

I opened my mouth to protest, then closed it. That might work even better. I could hand the note off to him and find an opportunity to escape. If I had the note, I would feel like I had to get it back to Hailey.

This way, I could leave the house, giving me the opportunity to escape and fulfill my duty as a friend. Plus, from the way Gio made his statement, I probably wouldn’t have been able to convince him to let me go alone, anyway. It would be easier to get away on the streets when it was just the two of us.

I shrugged, as if it didn’t matter to me, though my mind was already spinning with plans. A little sadness, too, which made no sense at all. I shouldn’t be sad to get away from this madness. Maybe I was sad because I’d miss Hailey.

That must be it.

It definitely wasn’t because I would be sad to be away from Gio, my husband, who made my body feel things I’d never imagined.

“I also need to go clear out my desk at the precinct.” There were things there that I wanted. Needed. Like a stash of cash that I kept hidden in the false bottom of my desk drawer. I smiled innocently at his suspicious look. I knew Hailey had tried to come back to work and Jack hadn’t let her.

Pretending to cooperate with that might buy me a little trust on his end, one would think.

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