“I think those cavemen were on to something with the whole grab-the-woman-you-want-and-drag-her-to-your-lair thing,” Jules continued. “It loses something when you have to do all the work.
Nico was definitely the caveman type. He’d kissed her like he wanted to devour her. If Frankie hadn’t interrupted them on the street, she didn’t know what would have happened. Once she had a taste of the power and passion he kept so tightly leashed, she wanted more. He was utterly irresistible. Those dark, brooding good looks, his magnificent body, and when he spoke Italian in his deep, sensual voice … Her knees went weak just thinking about him. She’d taken a big risk kissing him on the cheek like that, but when he pulled her into his arms and sealed his mouth over hers, it felt so right.
She didn’t know why she’d run away when he clearly wanted her to stay, only that she’d suddenly felt exposed, open in a way that she’d never been before. He’d breached her walls and she needed to shut them down.
Jules gave her a nudge. “See if I missed anything when I was writing those lines of code to turn our website into an international porn hub and telling the FBI to go fuck themselves.”
Mia startled, and her cheeks heated. “I wasn’t listening again. I’m sorry. I was so busy this weekend, and Sunday after the funeral, I bumped into Nico…” She trailed off, not wanting to say more. But it was already too late.
“Nico? The mob boss dude who caught you in the pen test?”
“Yeah.” She tapped on the keyboard, corrected Jules’ mistakes. “He helped me work on my car when it didn’t start, gave me a ride to my coding class, and then got someone to fix my car while I was teaching and had it ready for me when I came out.”
Silence.
“Jules?”
“Isn’t that the same guy who kidnapped you and tied you up, and you had to escape out a bathroom window? The one you described as the most dangerous and powerful capo in the city and a mortal enemy of your family?”
Mia shrugged, suddenly regretting that she’d finally decided to share the story with Jules. “He was sorry.”
“I’m sure he was,” Jules muttered. “Sorry you got away.”
“It wasn’t like that.”
“Did he say the words?” Jules lifted a quizzical eyebrow? “Did he get down on his knees and beg your forgiveness? Did he say, ‘Mia, I am so terribly sorry I kidnapped you, threatened to kill you, tied you to a chair and forced you to escape out a window and flee for your life. It was horribly wrong of me. I will never do it again. Please, please forgive me’?”
“No. But he kissed me. Outside the community center. I’ve never been kissed that like that in my life. I didn’t even know a kiss—”
“You kissed an enemy mob boss in the middle of the street?” Jules ran her fingers through the pink streak in her hair, her telltale sign of agitation.
“Technically, he’s a captain, not the boss. I don’t know who their boss is going to be. Probably his cousin, Tony, because he was the underboss and usually the underboss becomes boss. And we were on the sidewalk, not the middle of the street. His bodyguard was standing right there. And yes, he’s a Toscani. It was a bit of a risk—”
“A bit of a risk?” Jules voice rose in pitch. “Not that I understand Mafia politics, but I’ve seen West Side Story and Romeo and Juliet. They don’t end well. And the Godfather movies? Even worse. There are no happily ever afters. No running through a field of flowers or riding off into the sunset together. No saying ‘I do’ and nine months later out pops a baby mobster and all the Mafiosos drink champagne together and dance the Macarena at the christening. It’s all bullets and cement shoes and fish in newspapers and horses’ heads in the bed and people killing themselves because their true love is dead.”
Laughing, Mia stabbed her fingers on the keys. “Maybe things will be different now with the new bosses in place.”
“And maybe you’ll get yourself dead, and I’ll be so damn angry because you know I can’t make it without you.” Her voice hitched, and Mia’s heart squeezed in her chest. She’d helped Jules through a difficult situation shortly after they met online, and when Mia finally scraped together enough money to start up on her own, Jules was the first person she called.
“He’s not like anyone I’ve ever met.” Mia gave up even trying to make sense of the numbers on the screen. “He’s strong, powerful, very confident, and very dominating. But he’s got compassion. I saw it the first time I met him, and I saw it when we met again. And he’s got a wild side—he’s a bit of a risk taker. Very intense. He reacts quickly to things. I kissed him and suddenly I was in his arms, and he was kissing me like we were alone. Ravaging might be a better word.”