Page 95 of Vicious Little Princess

Goddammit,Ididremember that.Holy hell.I must’ve blocked it out with how pissed Nico had been about it when he’d found out. “Was that when Nico walked in to see—”

“Stop,” Nico grunted.

Julian burst out laughing. “It was, yeah, big boy.”

Caterina wrapped her arm around Julian and squeezed him to her, then planted a kiss on his cheek. “Little troublemaker.”

I chuckled. He certainly could be sometimes.

I watched him beaming out at her, and it was incredible to see.

I just hoped it was all real.

That he wasn’t shoving down all the rest and fooling himself into thinking that it would stay there, and that he’d be able to actually operate that way for long.

The way he was discussing sex so easily and so soon after what had happened concerned me.

“Yeah, the Ducati is mine,” Nico spoke. “I don’t get to ride it as much as I would like.”

“Marchetti business?” Caterina asked. “Or something else?”

“Mostly Marchetti business. I was focused on earning for the Family.”

“Big time,” I cut in. “Being the top earner consistently isn’t easy. Especially not when so many things can go wrong with the types of businesses we’re running.”

“All the more reason to go legitimate,” she said.

Nico paused on taking another bite of his risotto. “Can we not? We agreed to take a beat.”

“All right,” she muttered. “It’s not going away, though.”

“Yes, you’ve made that abundantly clear.”

She glared at him for a moment. Then I saw Julian slide his hand under the table and give hers a squeeze. It had her drawing in a calming breath, then focusing back on the other conversational track. “Is the other reason to do with you being worried about feeding into your reckless side? That part that links too closely to yourferalstate?”

Nico nodded, his eyes lighting up at her understanding. “Uh huh,” he said, between chewing his food.

As I continued piling my plate high, Julian spoke, “It’s one of the things I’m most looking forward to doing when I’m fully healed. Riding again. We should all do it together.”

“I’ve never ridden a motorcycle before. You know, except for that night on the back of yours,” Caterina said.

“I’ll teach you,” I told her. “Don’t even think about letting Julian do that.”

“Hey!” he cried. “I’m a fantastic teacher.”

“Not with that. Stunting comes way down the road, Sunshine. Not right up front.”

He winked at Caterina.

“What was that for?” Nico asked.

“There might’ve been a tiny bit of stunting from our sexy woman that night.”

Caterina smiled proudly. “I guess I have a knack for it.”

“Orit brings out your reckless side, too,” Nico countered.

“Perhaps,” she admitted, with a glint in her eye. “Do you think you’ll get back to riding once all this is over?”

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