Page 5 of Sebastian's Baby

“I almost died when she said she didn’t want to ride you,” Harrison chuckles. “Ever been told that before, Seb?”

“There’s a first for everything,” I laugh.

“I have my doubts that you’ll convince her to sleep with you,” Gabriel says slowly. “She seems too smart for you.”

“Ooh, you hurt me, Gabriel Knight.” I roll my eyes at him. “I’ve never failed to get a woman that I wanted into bed. I don’t see why tonight would be any different.”

“We’ll see, I guess,” Gabriel shrugs.

I see them returning from the bathroom, and Becky seems eager to sit between Hayden and Gabriel. Good, Lita will be sitting next to me after all.

“Welcome back, princess.”

Lita ignores me and doesn’t reply, choosing instead to pick up the menu and begins looking through it. I watch her take it in and wonder what she will choose. I want a reaction from her, so I decide to offer my own favorite from Giovanni’s menu.

“I recommend the osso bucco,” I say as I lean toward her and point to its place on the menu.

Her breath catches, and I’m pleased by it. Yes, I am definitely able to affect her. Lita smells wonderful, flowery, and exotic. I long to taste her and see if she tastes as good as she smells right now.

“Noted,” she says. “But I’m perfectly capable of ordering Italian food for myself, thanks.”

“Of course, you are, Lolita,” I say and wait to see if she’ll react to my usage of her full name.

In my experience, anyone who uses a nickname all the time has some sort of aversion to their name. The only reference I can think of for the name Lolita is the book. Which, to be fair, would have gotten her a few dirty comments in her time, I’d assume. I don’t associate it with that, just a girl I hooked up with in my teens who was named Lolita. She was nowhere near as sexy as this one, though.

“You can call me Lita.”

I’m rewarded with her cool response. Ah, she’s definitely going to be a challenge.

“Well, you can call me Seb,” I tell her, hoping that she will but thinking that it’s highly unlikely.

“I’ll stick with Sebastian,” she tells me, still keeping her eyes on the menu. “And you should know that you can’t force intimacy on me by giving me a nickname and encouraging me to use yours.”

Well, shit. It is a rare occasion that a woman doesn’t just fall into flirting heavily with me. She certainly seems determined not to play.

“I wasn’t aware that’s what I was doing, princess.” I smile and use the nickname that I’ve given her on purpose.

“Maybe not; I’m just saying.” She closes the menu and looks up at the table before announcing, “I’m going to have the spaghetti alla carbonara.”

Gabriel smiles at Lita and says, “The carbonara is delicious. I might have the same.”

I hadn’t even noticed Gabriel watching us until he spoke. He catches my eye and raises an eyebrow at me, to which I roll my eyes back at him.

Giovanni comes over to take our orders, and when Lita orders her carbonara, he says, “I’ll make you a Paolo Maldini to drink, bella. It’s a cocktail perfect with carbonara.”

She thanks him politely before I order the osso bucco with a smile at Giovanni, and the rest of the table makes their orders before he walks away.

“You really seem to have impressed, Giovanni,” Hayden says to Lita. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen him make a drink suggestion before.”

“Maybe you guys aren’t Italiano enough?” She smiles at him.

I laugh because she clearly has no idea. To be fair, I have my father’s blue eyes and last name. Not many people pick up on my Italian heritage, and I don’t really talk about it in interviews since nobody ever asks.

I want to see if I can shock her, so I say, “Sono più che abbastanza Italiano, bella signora.”

I’m amused when Lita’s mouth drops open, and she turns to look at me. “You speak Italian? Wait, Wikipedia doesn’t say anything about you being Italian!”

This comment adds to my amusement. “Which means, of course, that it can’t possibly be the case because Wikipedia has always been one hundred percent correct.”

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