“So you’re saying you’d say no if I ever asked you to marry me?”
I sent Adamo a warning look as I led him through the lobby. “Don’t you dare pop that question. We haven’t even dated for a year, and even then would be way too soon. I’m not even sure I want to marry at all, definitely not before I’m thirty. There’s really no reason to tie the knot.”
I wasn’t in a hurry to marry and had never really thought about my future in detail. I loved Adamo, but that didn’t mean I wanted to marry.
Adamo and I were allowed to spend the night together in my room, which obviously surprised Adamo judging by his expression when I didn’t give him a guest bedroom.
“Dad knows we’re having sex, so keeping us apart for a night seems pointless.”
The moment I closed my door, Adamo pressed me against it, kissing me. I pulled away. “I shouldn’t reward you for almost getting killed.”
“I’m very alive,” Adamo said.
I slipped past him toward the cabinet with my Fabergé eggs. Adamo followed me.
“You handled my father very well. Few men know what to say.”
“I don’t know your father, but I know men like him. I’ve grown up among my brothers, and trust me when I say no one’s more homicidal than Remo.”
“But Remo is your brother. He wouldn’t kill you. Nothing’s holding my father back.”
“You are,” Adamo said as he wrapped his arms around my waist from behind. “Those eggs are beautiful, but we can’t take them with us to camp.”
I huffed. “They stay here. They are too precious and beautiful to ride around in a motor home.”
“You are as precious and beautiful.”
I nudged him with my elbow. “Compliments won’t get you sex. I’m still pissed that you risked so much. I would have never forgiven myself if my father had killed you. Nor would I have forgiven him.”
Adamo slipped his hand under my shirt, playing with my belly piercing, as he nodded toward the Fabergé egg in the center, the most expensive piece in the cabinet and the first egg Dad had gifted to me. “That’s your belly piercing.”
“It is. It’s my favorite and I love to have it close no matter where I am.”
Adamo nodded then his hand slipped lower. He popped open my button before he glided into my panties. His fingers found my clit and began rubbing small teasing circles.
I bit my lip, leaning back against him.
“I don’t need compliments to get sex,” Adamo said in a low voice before he nibbled on my throat. His fingers stroked open my folds, scissoring my sensitive skin.
“My father might consider it disrespectful that you can’t restrain yourself even for one night,” I panted.
Adamo chuckled. “I won’t tell him. Will you?” He pushed two fingers into me.
“No,” I gasped.
That night I lie awake in Adamo’s arms for a long time, not haunted by worries or fears. I imagined our future together and I was excited about it. Nothing was really holding us back now.
When Dinara and I returned to camp the next day, it really felt like a final homecoming. Crank gave me a wave and a thumbs up when he spotted Dinara. I had already called Remo last night to make sure he didn’t attack Chicago when he didn’t hear from me for too long. I really didn’t want my tentative understanding with Grigory to be undermined. I hadn’t given him details about my agreement with Grigory but knowing Remo, he probably suspected something. My brothers knew I preferred camp life to staying in Las Vegas anyway.
Dinara shone with happiness when we set up our tent between our cars. It wasn’t a splendid home, but it was all we needed at the moment. Once the season was over in two weeks, we’d have time to buy a motorhome for us.
I didn’t miss the many curious or even apprehensive looks from fellow drivers or pit girls.
“Do you think they know why we were gone so often these last few months?” Dinara asked.
“They know something. I should have known that rumors would spread eventually.”
“I think some of them will think twice now before cutting you off during a race. Nobody wants to get tortured and killed,” Dinara said wryly.
“It’s not like I’m a different person.”
“You are to them. Because of your easy-going personality it was easy for people to forget that you’re a Falcone. Now they realize that one of the monsters from Vegas actually walks among them and it makes them nervous.”
I could tell that this amused Dinara a great deal. “I hate that name.”
“But it serves its purpose. It’s better to be feared than to be liked in the mob business.”
I laughed darkly. “Indeed. That’s Remo’s credo. I guess it was inevitable that I’d fulfill my family’s fate at some point.”
“People in camp will get a grip eventually once they see that nothing has changed. Until then you’ll have an easier time to make up points.”