Page 123 of Smitten with the Single Dad

He was shaking his head as he spoke. “So where else would you go?”

She shrugged. “I don’t know. Gabrielle has not found a safe house yet that she deems safe enough. But she is looking. But we all know that the longer I stay here, the greater the chance that someone will get hurt, or worse—killed—increases.”

Gritting his teeth, and with flared nostrils, he spun away from her to put some leftover fritters into a container then into the fridge. “And if I say no? I mean, youaremy wife.”

Warm, strong, but delicate arms wrapped around him from behind and she kissed the center of his back. “You’re not that type of man and we both know it. You’re dominating in the bedroom, which is wonderful. But outside the bedroom, we both know you view women as equals. You’re just scared.”

He spun around and pulled her into his arms, kissing the top of her head. “Fuck. Of course, I’m scared. If you leave, then who will protect you?”

“If I stay, who will protect you? Who will protect the customers and the children? Who will protect your family? You are one man, Wyatt McEvoy. One strong, wonderful man. But you are just a man. Not a superhero. Not a god. You will bleed if cut. And I can’t have you hurt again because of me.”

“So, I don’t get any kind of a say in this?” His jaw ached from how hard heclenched his molars.

She shook her head and gazed up into his eyes. “We haven’t found me a place yet. So let’s just make the most of the time I have left here.” She swallowed hard.

“You make it sound so ominous.”

“We knew this was temporary. That we couldn’t get attached. Maybe this is for the best anyway.”

“It might be temporary, but I’m fucking attached, woman. And like fuck, is it for the best.” Then he gripped her by the hair, bent her back, and took her mouth with all the force, anger, sadness, passion, and every other emotion he couldn’t make sense of. He poured it all out in his kiss because there was no other way he knew how. She had made up her mind, and she was right. She was his equal and as much as he tried to tell her she couldn’t go, they both knew he wasn’t the boss of her.

She shuddered against him and wrapped her arms tight around his neck, deepening the kiss.

He wasn’t sure when she was going to leave him. But he knew she was going to.

So until then, he planned to make the most of their time together. And if that meant neither of them got any sleep that night, then so be it.

Vica Vitale had brought a piece of him back to life that he long thought had died, and for that, she deserved his eternal gratitude.

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

He was running on fumes, but he was determined to keep his word and make the most out of the time they had left.

After he read the boys a bedtime story and knew they were asleep, Wyatt whisked Vica up to his bedroom and into his bed, keeping herverysatisfied into the wee hours of the morning.

He wasn’t even sure what number orgasm she was on, or if he had anything left in his balls, but he didn’t care. His tongue still worked, so that was all that really mattered.

They were taking a break between rounds, their bodies coated in a thin mist of sweat and the sheets kicked to the floor as she lay beside him, swirling her index finger around the small dusting of hair on his chest.

“You know,” she started, “the world sucks.” Then she glanced up at him. “But you are my favorite person.”

Well, if that compliment didn’t hit him hard in the feels.

He kissed the top of her head. “You’re one of my favorites too.” And that was the honest truth. He hadn’t known Vica Vitale for long, but after his children and brothers, she really was one of his favorite people. Her fiercestrength cloaked a deep vulnerability. Her intelligence and kindness knew no bounds, and the way she’d so easily fallen in love with his sons—and they with her—made it all the more difficult for Wyatt to even fathom having to let her go.

“Has the puzzle piece shown its face to you yet?” she asked, glancing up at him through her thick lashes.

Sighing, he tucked an arm under his head. “No. I just feel like we’re missing something though.”

“You interviewed the front of house staff and all their stories aligned, but what about the kitchen staff?”

He was loathe to believe that one of the people he and Burke hired could have had a hand at introducing a bomb onto the property. But they couldn’t rule out anybody. Some of the kitchen staff were newer too. One of their dishwashers—Francisco—was a summer hire. So were two cold-side cooks, Eleanor and Rahul. They also had a new part-time hot-side cook named Amos, who Burke was training. None of them seemed capable of treason though. Then again, Dom would be the first to say none of his front of house staff was capable of treason either.

“You trust Burke to keep Evie safe?” Vica asked, even though he could see in her eyes that she also trusted Burke, she just wanted extra reassurance.

“I’d trust that man with my life. He is solid gold. Or as you Italians put it, ‘he is as good as bread’. Buono come il pane.”

She smiled. “Si. He isbuono come il pane.”She kissed his chest. “As are you.”

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