Page 56 of Beautiful Desire

“Of course not, cugino. I was in a meeting, busy working. Maybe you should try it sometime.”

His sarcastic laughter comes through the line, and I clamp my teeth down to keep my mouth shut so I don’t say something that causes more hell for me.

“Is that any way to talk to family? I’d be careful if I were you. Heaven forbid thisinformationfalls into the wrong hands,” he taunts before chuckling.

Just ignore him, I keep telling myself.

Not taking his bait, I steer the conversation in a different direction.

“What can I help you with, Nero?” I bite out while rolling my eyes.

“Nothing,yet. This is just a courtesy call to let you know I’ll be in Boston the day after tomorrow. Keep your schedule open. We need to talk.”

Before I can respond, the line goes dead. Bastard. He’s always hanging up on me because he thinks he’s too good to end a call properly.

Fuck. He’s going to be here in less than two days.

Tapping the screen on my phone I’m still holding, I enter in my password and dial Fabi. He’d better pick up. It rings and rings, and just when I think it’s going to go to voicemail, he answers.

“This better be important, Lombardi. Nico is sleeping, and my wife is hungry for my dick,” he snarls into the phone.

The mental image I received after he said that wasnotneeded.

“I didn’t need to know that.”

“Yeah, well, you have two seconds or I’m hanging up on you. Nico’s been going through a sleep regression. I haven’t been able to feed my gattina properly, and she’s starving.”

“Dude—”

He cuts me off before I can finish, and I can hear movement in the background.

“I’m hanging up now.”

“WAIT!” I yell into the phone. “Nero is coming to town the day after tomorrow. Please tell me your guy was able to come through?”

“Why the hell didn’t you start with that? Of course he did. He knew I’d kill him if he didn’t. Stop by the house tomorrow, and I’ll give it to you. Now, is there anything else you need, because my wife is standing naked in front of me, having started without me, and I’m about to come all over myself if I don’t stick my dick in her.”

“For fuck’s sake, Fabi, why don’t you tell the whole damn world?” I hear Gia say in the background. “If you don’t hang up right now, I’m going to finish without you too.”

“On it, dolcezza. You heard the boss. Gotta go, Dom.”

I can hear Gia in the background snap back at him, “Don’t youdolcezzame,” before the line goes dead.

I shake my head and a small chuckle comes out of my mouth as I set my cell on the desk, expelling a deep breath over the thought that Fabi’s guy came through for me. This is huge. Maybe my life can finally get back to how it was a year ago.

Signing into my computer, I pull up my schedule for the next two days and get to work reading over new clients’ files. Sending a message to Becca through our inter-office messenger, I ask her to get me another coffee. It’s going to be a long night.

I’ve read the same sentence on Mr. Okanowa’s file five times, but I just can’t seem to concentrate. My mind keeps going back to the leggy blonde who’s been holding my mind captive for the better part of a year. The fact that she was the one who was able to pull me out of my panic attack doesn’t go unnoticed.

I’m surprised she came to check in on me at all. I’m used to dealing with them on my own.

I take that back. I’m not surprised, because that’s who Elle Parker is. She is a sweet, compassionate, loving woman, and just because I up and left her after our second time together, and having not seen her for a year, she still has a big heart and made sure everything was alright.

Only because you’re her boss, dumbass.

She didn’t seem to think of me as her boss when we nearly kissed earlier, and I believe we would have, too, if the damn phone hadn’t disrupted us.

Saved by the bell. It’s probably best we didn’t cross that line, given our history and the fact that we work so closely together. She said it herself on my first day here: what happened in the past stays in the past. We will be professional toward one another and keep what happened between us behind us.

---