STEFANO {Published/Sample Only}

22

I was feeling good, everything around me hazy, a few drinks down, having just had him upstairs, and now him right here, leaning against my side, laughing with his friends at our table.

"Are we boring you with this radiology talk Stefano?"

Huh... I looked over, finding the face that was speaking to me and shaking my head. "No, I'm good."

"Well what do you do? Surely it's more exciting," his friend laughed. "Model?"

"Partner and Chief Strategy Officer for my father's company, Romano Investing. In New York." I shook the beer in my hand, hearing the last ounce swirling.

"So you work for your dad, that must be fun."

"Actually it's just me, and my brothers, my father handed it over about ten years ago."

"He retired?"

I pushed the bottle to my mouth, downing the last few drops as Mark pushed forward, sparing me from answering.

"Speaking of brothers," he yelled over the table. "Sadie is married to Stefano's little brother Gavin. That's how we met- Sadie's his sister in-law."

"You can drop the in-law. Sadie's blood."

"How is Sadie!" The only girl in the group squealed. "The twins turned what... two months this week?"

"Yeah." I pulled out my phone, scrolling to the pics Gav had just sent and flashing my screen over.

"They're so cute!" She was fawning but I didn't blame her, they were beautiful.

"Everyone in their family is so cute," Mark teased, twisting his face back to mine, his eyes looking black now, seductive, my chest heaving in response, wanting to crash into him, suck those lips right into my mouth.

"So Sadie introduces you and then... where was your first date?"

Date... I blinked, trying to clear the whiskey haze. "No, I don't... we... no dates."

But Mark leaned over me, addressing his friends as his hand dropped to my thigh... "Our first date was to the American Museum of Natural History." He flashed his eyes back up towards mine, laughing. "Stefano took me there when I came out to visit him for the first time."

I had, but.. "That wasn't..."

"You paid..." he laughed, throwing his hands up. "It was a date. And he didn't even take me to his apartment which I later found out was only a few blocks away."

"I wanted to..." I dropped my hand to his thigh now. "I just..." couldn't admit to myself that I wanted to- that it was okay to.

"Stefano also plays soccer, we even played a game together." He brushed against me again, teasing me, not realizing how close I was to taking him right here, right now.

I pushed my lips to his ear, grazing just enough to feel the shiver rock his body. "I could go for tackling you right now."

He gulped, that Adam's Apple bobbing so close to my lips... just like I'm sure it did when he was on his knees. "I'm..." he cleared his throat. "Going to go grab a drink."