Page 8 of Bite Marks

“Oh, we bumped into each other at a café near my gallery. He struck up a conversation with me while I waited in line, and he just … well, he charmed me.” She shrugged. “What can I say? I enjoy a man who knows his way with words.”

“Words?” Nunzio’s cousin Carlo laughed. “This mook, good with words?”

“Don’t you dare call your cousin a mook!” Vanessa snapped back. “You think I’d be interested in some brain-dead loser? How dare you insultmelike that. You just wish you were half the man Nunzio is. Just because your name means man doesn’t make you one.”

The table roared with laughter, washing out whatever Carlo’s retort was.

“That’s my girl.” Giulia gave Vanessa a proud smile as she patted her shoulder with a hand bedecked in jewels.

Nunzio leaned in and kissed her on the cheek before whispering in Italian. “There’s that fire.”

After dinner, some of the guests moved out onto the balcony deck. Plush outdoor furniture sat atop cherry-stained oak overlooking Lake Michigan.

Nunzio took advantage of everyone wanting Vanessa to be the center of attention and sat in the chair next to Ed. She took to his lap as if he were her favorite seat, and his hands found her hips and knees perfect homes.

Nunzio and Ed spoke quietly while Vanessa held the main conversation at bay.

“She looks good on you, son. You two will do well together, and I’m sure Dante will be very pleased.” He toasted his glass of scotch before knocking some of it back. “He’s already pleased with how well Sinsations is doing. You keep that up. I see you going places. You’re still young. You got a lot more years to climb the ladder. You’re my rising star. Don’t fuck it up.”

Vanessa’s grip on Nunzio tightened like a cat laying in her claws. “I don’t kiss frogs.” Her jaw clenched, and her eyes burned with a raging fire, burning a hole into another cousin, Bianca.

Damn, she’s fierce!Those claws held the same electric tingle that her lips had earlier.

Nunzio gave her a pat on her knee. “You tell ’em, hun.”

“Come on, sweetheart. I want to go dancing.”

His ears perked up at the safe word, but he played it cool, chuckling and glancing at Ed.

The older man gave him a smile and wink of approval.

Holding back from sighing in relief, Nunzio nodded and stood. “Who am I to deny you a dance?”

The two got back to his car, and Vanessa kept her sultry smile on till they were halfway down the street. She sighed and closed her eyes. “Shit. I did not think this was going to be so hard.”

Damn. Hearing her lament over how bad it was to pretend to like him stung. “Hard? I thought we did well together.”

She smiled and nodded. “I don’t mean you. I mean the family. Seeing everyone again, hugging, crying. I didn’t count on that.”

“You aren’t going to call it quits, are you?” His heart raced faster than the engine. He’d need to take some swimming lessons fast if she dropped out.

“No. I just felt so trapped up on the balcony. They were all just jabbering away, and then Bianca said something about how I came back to the family because I kissed frogs, and you turned out to be a prince or something. It wasn’t really that bad, but I just latched on to it. I needed to get the hell out of there.”

“Well, maybe you do need that dance after all.” Nunzio grinned, flashing his pearly whites.

Vanessa sucked her teeth, her eyes narrowing on him for a moment. “E un drink.”

He chuckled. “And a drink. All right, then. I know a club I think you’ll like.”

“I’m not stepping foot inside of Sinsations,” she said, flat as a board.

“No, you are not. I want you as far from that place as you can get.Iwant as far from that place as I can get, but a man’s got to make a living. Gotta earn that dollar so he can take his woman out for a good time.”

FIVE

VANESSA

The nightclub, XO, thumped to a driving beat that could be felt up and down the street. Vanessa couldn’t help but be impressed when Nunzio got them in with as little as a head nod. Only the city’s elite were let through the velvet ropes, and even a made man wouldn’t have that courtesy given to him for that fact alone.

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