His Prize : A Mafia Romance (Gruco Crime Family) by Nicole Cypher

Author:Nicole Cypher [Cypher, Nicole]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2022-10-05T18:30:00+00:00

14

ALEX

I laugh so hard that I snort and cover a hand over my mouth. Settimo’s grin widens, and he shakes his head.

“You are so easy to amuse."

I wipe a tear from my eye and try to come down from my laughter. He’s right, I’m making this way too easy for him. I’m a schoolgirl giggling at everything her crush says, and as much as I made fun of that girl in high school, I get it. I totally get it.

I wipe under my eyes once more and take a sip of my red wine.

I tried to keep my expectations low when thinking about what this date might look like. The best I’ve ever been on was dinner and a movie, and I can’t even blame the guy for his lack of creativity. When you tell someone you’re holding out for marriage, it takes away the need to try so hard. He settled for making out in his car and never talked to me again.

Settimo doesn’t strike me as the romantic type, so even dinner and a movie seemed far-fetched, but this… I can’t believe he did this.

We’re sitting at a table on the rooftop of one of Las Vegas’s tallest buildings. There’s an exclusive restaurant below us where waiters have been coming from to serve us our food, and a bottle of wine you could trade for my car rests in an ice bucket on the white tablecloth. A candle is in the middle of the table, and several others are lit on the building’s ledge, but the extra light isn’t necessary. The stars are as bright as I’ve ever seen them.

The dessert we ordered a half hour ago has only a few bites left of it and sits between us.

“One more,” I say, taking another sip of my wine. I can tell I’ve had plenty by how hot my skin feels.

Settimo rolls his eyes and throws back the rest of his wine while he thinks. One thing I’m learning quickly about Settimo is he can drink a lot. He’s had at least twice what I’ve had and doesn’t seem the least bit affected.

“Okay.” He wipes his lips and clears his throat. “Why did the sperm cross the road?”

I look up and think for a minute. We’re playing a game. If I can guess the punch line of his joke, he’ll let me paint him nude. Those were his terms, not mine, and I’m pretty sure it was a joke itself. He’s asked a million questions this evening about my art classes. What all am I taking, what do they entail, and what do I hope to get out of them? I was a little embarrassed when I didn’t have an answer for the last question, but I was too happy talking about it to care.

No one has ever taken this much interest in my passion. To my father, it’s been a frivolous hobby he’s disappointed I won’t outgrow. That’s bad enough, but the look in the eyes of anyone who knows how much I owe in student loans is worse.

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