Page 76 of King of Obsession

I made us breakfast: scrambled eggs on toast.

Alessio brewed me coffee and finished the foam with a phallic shape, which I chuckled at for many long minutes.

His eyes remained shadowed, but his lips curled at my amusement as the coldness in my heart thawed.

‘Scusa, mia sola, forgive me for being a dick to you.’

This morning, the man’s golden hair hung in unruly waves around his face, giving him a wild and untamed appearance.

His sharp and intense leonine eyes gazed into mine, and I fought the urge to plunge both hands into his gilded tresses and kiss him.

Instead, I gave him a slight smile. ‘Water under thebridge,’ I murmured. ‘We’re good now.’

I might have prolonged my sulking so he’d grovel harder, but the fact he’d revealed how he’d gone over and above to secure Nonna’s care over the years had melted my last reserve.

His freakishly delicious coffee helped.

After breakfast, I nailed him with a keen look. ‘So what now?’

He canted a brow, well aware of what was asking.

His leverage over me had evaporated.

He was healing well and had no reason to hang around.

‘If it’s OK with you, I’d like to stay a few days more until Franco is back and we have a handle on him. Does that work for you, carissima?’

His deep, timbered ask was hard to refuse.

As was the soft heat radiating from his eyes.

I nodded, conscious we’d turned a corner.

Fuck, I’d swept past it and fallen over the cliff.

He jerked his chin at me, and it was decided.

He was staying.

The relief that went through me was palpable, and I rose from the table in a rush.

The scorching heat of his gaze followed me, giving me shivers.

He dedicated a good part of the morning to fixing my piece-of-shit 4X4. He replaced the two wheels he’d shot at with two from my spares in one of my vast container sheds.

I spent most of that time drooling from afar as he worked in the sunlight, tee off, muscles rippling with primal strength.

‘Woman, you’re a hoarder,’ he groused, rolling one of the tires from my storage space when I strolled toward him, holding out a mug of fresh coffee I’d brewed. ‘Albeita neat one.’

‘You never know when the apocalypse will come,’ I chuckled.

We locked eyes, and that sharp lurch I got when I glanced at him hit again.

I was warming to Alessio Calibrese very fast.

Ever since he’d shared about Nonna and then about the bracelet, I hadn’t been able to keep my thoughts from him.

On my birthday call to her, Nonna had confirmed over the phone that she was safe and having a whale of a time with her new capo minders.

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