Page 262 of Alessio

Now he knew what was wrong.

Except he really didn’t have time to do this with Alessio right now, not considering he had a very short window of time to get on the road, and start the drive to New York. It certainly wasn’t enough time to sit here and argue about this.

Again.

“I have to head out,” Corrado said, “so can we come back to that?”

“Right.”

“Les.”

Alessio looked back at him, and shrugged. “Yeah, we can come back to it. Where the hell else am I going to be, Corrado? I’m always here, right?”

He was.

Sometimes, Corrado wondered if he wanted to be, though.

Well, he knew what he wanted.

He always had.

Leaning down, Corrado kept his hands on the arm of the chair as he dropped a quick kiss to the side of Alessio’s jaw, feeling the man’s cheek twitch under his lips. “Cette partie de mon coeur est à toi, hmm? I’ll call you, yeah?”

There were things he should say …

Things he needed to say …

Corrado never knew how to say them without needing to deal with the aftermath of it when for too long, he’d been used to this. Them being like they were, it was comfortable.

Cette partie de mon coeur est à toi.

This part of my heart is yours.

Alessio swallowed audibly. “You know, Kass has been teaching me French whenever I go into the complex, huh? Thought it was hilarious that it bugged me you two could speak, and I didn’t understand, so he started teaching me some things. I didn’t think to mention it, or whatever.”

Corrado stiffened.

Well, then …

Alessio let out a breath, and tipped his head to the door of the bedroom. “Better get on the road if you really need to go now.”

“Yeah, I guess.”

“So, go.”

Corrado’s fingers drummed against the steering wheel as his gaze drifted from the cathedral to his right, and then back to the street in front of him. The NO PARKING ZONE sign two feet away from the still running Porsche was like a flashing warning for him—God knew he didn’t need to get a ticket when the whole point of him being here was to stay under the damn radar.

Not that it mattered.

He had to stay here.

Until someone else got here, too.

Sighing, Corrado dragged his hand down his jaw while keeping a tight grip on the steering wheel, and a foot on the brake pedal. Because yeah, if Andino wanted him to get out of here quickly after he picked up this Calabrese chick, then he planned on doing exactly that.

He hadn’t given her—Ginevra, was it?—much thought during the long drive across country. She was a job, and something he had to do. He didn’t plan on making friends with her, so he didn’t see why it would matter if he considered her or her situation when he was just there to hide the woman, and keep her out of trouble for the time being.

Instead, his mind focused elsewhere.