“Soeverybody’sworried,” I said, finally realizing why Alessandra always looked so nervous and pale.

“They’re trying to keep their shit together, but, yeah – everybody’s losing their fuckin’ minds.”

“You poor thing… you must be so stressed out…”

“That’sputting it mildly,” he grunted.

I stroked his face tenderly with my hand. “What can I do to help you?”

Just a second later, I felt his cock brush against my side. Hehadbeen soft as I laid on top of him – but now I could feel him growing erect, heartbeat by heartbeat.

“Oh,” I said humorously, and reached my hand down and held him.Madonn,he felt so good in my hand… thick and heavy, big and hot, and getting harder every second. “I seesomebodywoke up.”

Valentino grinned and said, “That’s how you can help me.”

“How?” I said seductively as I ran my fingers up and down his rapidly hardening cock.

“By helping me forget all that other shit,” he murmured, then rolled me onto my back.

I helped him forget alotthat night.

Several times, actually.

23

Valentino

No matter how bad things got with my family, I always had Caterina to calm me down.

But then things got a shit-ton worse.

One afternoon, I was about to go find Caterina and drag her away for a quickie when Niccolo intercepted me in the hallway.

“Come into the parlor,” he said grimly. “We need to have a serious discussion.”

Shit.

I figured he’d finally gotten around to chewing me out for that crack I made about the bomb in the panic room.

As I followed him into the room, I protested, “Look, I didn’t mean to…”

I trailed off when I saw Dario sitting behind his desk in the corner.

He only did that when something big was about to go down.

“Mean to what?” Niccolo asked as he shut the door behind us.

“What’s going on?” I asked.

“Sit,” Dario said in his mafia don voice.

Like,Do what I say or there will be consequences.

I sat down nervously in one of the chairs.

Niccolo sat on the sofa and stared at me grimly.

“Why is everybody being so serious?” I asked.