Page 71 of This Thing of Ours

She rolled to her back, her eyes lidded as she looked at him. He had hold of his cock as he watched her in return.

“How are you hard again?”

“You, streghetta mia. You cast a spell over me.”

She laughed and poked him with her toe. “I’ve done no such thing.”

He raised a brow and tipped his chin down at his hard-on. “Then how do you explain that?”

She shrugged, tipping her lips into a smirk. “Not sure, but I bet I could Google it.”

“I’ve got menout canvassing the streets every night, but so far there hasn’t been even a whisper of where to find the fucker.” Nico’s voice was low and rough over the phone, and Marco could tell he was frustrated.

Hell, Marco was just as frustrated if not more so. He wanted to go out, beat a few guys up, and get some answers himself, but he knew the most important thing was to keep Gabriella safe. “Someone will slip, and we’ll get a hit. We get Volkov, and the rest of the operation will crumble like a house of cards.”

“Speaking of crumbling houses, let Gabby know Christmas will be held at our house this year. Between the fire inspector and the insurance adjuster taking their sweet-ass time, God knows when my parents’ house will be habitable again.” There was the shortest of pauses before Nico continued, “Will you be spending Christmas with us this year?”

“Gabriella and I discussed it. We’ll be spending the eve with you guys and the day with my nonna.” Marco cleared his throat, “And speaking of Christmas…”

Chapter Twenty-Five

“How did youconvince Marco to let you leave his sight?” Olivia looked at Gabby over the rack of ties she was inspecting.

Gabby laughed. “The better question is, how did you convince Nico to let you out of the house so he, in turn, could talk Marco into it?”

Olivia shot her a grin. “He knows better than to come between me and shopping.”

Which Gabby thought was hilarious because when she’d first met Olivia, Gabby had to beg and plead to get her to go shopping with her.

“Besides,” Olivia continued, “It’s not as if they didn’t send us well equipped.”

Gabby’s eyes did a sweep of the store and the four bodyguards that inhabited it, not to mention the two that stood outside of it. Nope, she couldn’t say they weren’t well protected.

With Christmas only a few days away, last-minute shopping had become a necessity. Oh, Marco had tried to convince her otherwise, even using her love of the internet in his argument, but she’d had a sound rebuttal—items were never how they appeared online, and Christmas was too big a deal to take the chance she wouldn’t be happy with the quality. There was also the fact she needed to talk with a real person to buy his present, but she hadn’t wanted to tellhimthat.

In the end, she’d gotten Olivia on board with her plan and the rest, as they say, was shopping history.

“Do you have any idea what you want to get Marco?”

Gabby nodded as she fingered a purple and black tie she thought would look great on Marco. “Jeans.”

“Like, blue jeans?”

Gabby looked over at Olivia’s questioning tone. “Yeah. Can you believe he doesn’t own a pair?”

Wide-eyed, Olivia shook her head.

“Me either. But after he told me, I scoured his closet and searched through his drawers, and he was telling the truth. Not one pair to be found.”

“If he’s never owned a pair, how will you know what size to get?”

“I know what size his slacks are. I figured a salesperson can help.” Gabby shrugged. “We can always exchange them if they don’t fit.” She cringed at the thought of shopping with Marco again.

Olivia gave her a sly smile. “And do you have any idea what he’s getting you?”

Gabby narrowed her eyes. “No, why? Do you?”

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