Page 94 of Vicious Little Princess

“That’s really sweet. Thank you.”

I slid a glass of freshly squeezed orange juice into her orbit.

She grinned out at us. “You do know I can feed myself, yes?” As she was in the process of saying that, she almost subconsciously lifted a plate of chocolate pancakes in front of Julian.

Pancakes with dinner? Yeah, that was him.

“You were saying?” Nico teased, as he drew attention to what she’d done.

It had her chuckling and the rest of us joining in.

“I guess we are a team, huh?” she mused.

“Sure are,” I said.

Julian laid his hand on hers for a moment and told her rather intensely, “This is how it will always be. Us taking care of you, and vice versa. Taking care of each other. You won’t ever be alone again. Trust us where that’s concerned.”

Nico and I exchanged a look. Had his need to emphasize all of that to her come about from the kidnapping and what he’d suffered through?

It was hard to tell.

And before I could analyze it further, the subject shifted as Caterina told Nico with a whole lot of curiosity, “All our yearswarringand checking into the other and I still don’t know what you like to spend your time doing outside of Marchetti business and, of course, hanging with your boys.” She smirked. “Well, my boys now too.”

“Something you don’t know about me? I like it,” he teased, as he scooped some risotto onto his plate.

“Nico,” she pushed. “I mean, Julian’s got his social media hobby and his adrenaline-junkie thing, Milo has his fantasy figurines. What’s your thing? What would you be doing if there wasn’t all this three families bullshit going on?”

He smirked. “You,principessa.”

She rolled her eyes. “I’m being serious.”

“So am I,” he said, wiggling his eyebrows at her suggestively, which had the most innocent little giggle escaping her.

Julian and I grinned at each other.

“That Ducati you saw in the garage when we were heading out for our ride is Nico’s,” Julian told Caterina.

She raised an eyebrow. “Really?”

“You thought it was mine?” Julian asked her.

“Yeah. I know Milo is all about his Harley. Although he rides for the freedom and peace of it, not the adrenaline or thrill like you do.”

“Precisely,” I said, impressed that she’d read that so well. “By the way, that also goes for the hot tub in the backyard.”

“He sneaks in there when all is quiet and everyone’s gone to sleep,” Julian told her. “It’s kind of like a meditative experience for him. Fucked in there a couple of times, too.”

“Just a couple?” Caterina queried.

Nico glared between me and Julian. “They tend to prefer the shower when they do go there here. Namely,myfucking shower.”

“It’s a porn shower, N.”

“That was once, and I apologized profusely, Nico,” I cut in.

“It was actually twice,” Julian informed me. “Remember the time I did that thing with the shower nozzle that—”

“Not while we’re eating,” Nico cut in.

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