Page 60 of Bene

“Yet another one of those things that I can’t help you with, son. Bring her to your mother’s party, if she agrees to come, and we can properly greet her. Then, if you want to bring her back around when the rest of us aren’t here, I don’t see the problem.”

“No promises.”

Gian shrugged. “Then, she isn’t welcomed back here when we’re not home.”

Seemed simple enough.

Bene wondered if it would be.

“Oh, and call your twin,” his father added when Bene stood up from the chair, “he’s worried that we’re lying about whether or not you’ve gone on another one of your spells.”

“I’m not—”

“Tell him that.”

Jesus.

“Fine.”

“And say hello to your mother before you leave.”

Bene waved a hand over his shoulder as he headed for the door, but Gian didn’t seem to mind his lack of a verbal response. At the end of the hallway outside of the office, he already had his phone in his hand, bringing up the contact list.

At first, he planned to call his brother.

Like his father said.

Thing was, Bene knew Beni was good, and had his own shit to focus on with work in Chicago, not to mention his new wife—he didn’t need to be worrying about his twin. No doubt, a phone call from Bene would only get his brother worked up again because he wasn’t here to confirm everything that they told him.

Bene was doing fine.

Beni had to trust that.

Instead of calling his brother, he finally replied to that very sexy picture from Vanna that still had him sporting a semi-erection, even if he had been doing his best for the last hour to ignore it. That was a pointless effort, considering nothing about that woman could be ignored.

You home?

Vanna’s reply to Bene’s text came almost instantly with, Yeah.

His fingers flew over the screen of his phone, replying, Mind if I stop by?

Up until that point, he’d not been to her place other than to drop her off at the front entrance. He never asked to go further, and she didn’t invite him. And yet, it was seconds before her reply came across his screen. As though she hadn’t hesitated at all in her answer.

Sure. The penthouse has its own elevator in my building. The girl at the front desk will let you in to come up once she calls through to the penthouse.

That was that.

Bene surveyed the clean, modernly decorated lobby of Vanna’s building while the girl behind the front desk finished her phone call. A resident upstairs wanted someone to deal with his noisy neighbor, by the sounds of things. The man at the front door had let him in with a kind greeting, and a nod.

“Sorry about that,” the girl said, smiling widely as she hung the phone up, “what can I do for you today?”

“The penthouse—Vanna Falco.”

“What about her?”

“She said you would call up, and then let me into the private elevator.”

“Sure, I can do that. Your name?”