Page 36 of Captivated

“Nico Carfano,” he says proudly, a dark note to his voice. He knows something’s up.

Sean’s eyes cut down to me. “You fucking serious, Cassie?”

Nico takes a step closer, and I can feel the controlled anger rolling off him. “Watch your mouth when you speak to her,” Nico warns.

I can’t take being blocked out like I need protecting. “Hey,” I say sternly, and push Sean out of the way. He winces, not putting up a fight, and I don’t bother apologizing because he’s being an asshole. “Go upstairs. I’ve got this.”

He looks between Nico and me, and then ultimately concedes and goes right upstairs, slamming his door like a petulant child.

I rub my forehead and sigh, then grab my jacket hanging by the door and step out onto the porch, closing the door behind me.

Now that it’s just us, a calmness washes over me that I don’t want to read into.

It also helps that Nico looks too good to be standing on my porch right now. He looks too good to be in this neighborhood. He looks too good in general, and I want to hate him for it, but my eyes enjoy it too much.

“What’re you doing here?” I ask him, shoving my hands in my pockets as the wind gusts a frigid blast at us.

He smirks when he notices my eyes appraising him. “I told you I was coming. And look” – he holds up a bottle of wine – “I brought wine to go with dinner.”

“Whose dinner? Because I didn’t invite you here.”

“I invited myself.”

My jaw hangs open for a second and then I snap it closed. “I’m going back inside and you’re leaving. Shouldn’t you be back in New York already? I didn’t think you’d still be here.”

His eyes roam over my face. “I’m not going back just yet.”

“Why? Don’t you have work?”

“Nothing urgent. Besides, there’s something keeping me here that I’m not ready to leave.”

“Your brother?”

Nico flashes me a sexy little grin. “No, not my brother.” He takes a step towards me and I stand my ground, not wanting to seem like I’m cowering away from him.

“Then what?”

“She’s a who.”

I lift my chin. “Then who?”

Nico lifts a single finger and lightly runs it along my jawline before taking my chin between his fingers. He brushes my lower lip with his thumb and my eyes flutter closed and open again,trying to remain strong when all I want to do is melt into a puddle at his feet.

“You,la mia rossa piccante.”

“I shouldn’t be your reason.”

“Why not? You’re the only reason I need to stay.” He leans in and I forget how to breathe. I forget common sense. I forget that I’m mad at him and the reason why. I forget everything.

With the way we’re standing, the porch light only illuminates half his face, but I can see the need and determination written in his gaze that he means what he’s saying and he wants me to believe him, too.

Nico closes the distance between us by another inch. “You’re the only reason I need to stay, Cassandra,” he whispers, and my brain doesn’t have the chance to argue with him or call him a liar before his lips are on mine, effectively silencing every part of me that’s screaming to not get in deeper with him.

His lips are soft, and it’s the gentlest he’s been with me.

I don’t know how to be gentle. I’ve never had gentle.

But with each time I’m with him, Nico makes me feel like for the first time I can soften, and I won’t be turned into a completely different person when I’m my most vulnerable.

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