Total pages in book: 158
Estimated words: 144832 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 724(@200wpm)___ 579(@250wpm)___ 483(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 144832 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 724(@200wpm)___ 579(@250wpm)___ 483(@300wpm)
“I tried learning out of a book. It doesn’t work that way.”
“I happen to know people. Real artists, the best at their craft. They’ll show us.”
“Us? You’d do it with me?” There was a note of excitement in her voice.
“I told you, I’m the kind of man who wants my wife for a partner. You do it, I’ll try it at least. I haven’t shown you the training hall yet, but we have a full-sized gym, a meditation room and a pool for training. We have a shooting range, too.”
“I still want to keep studying, Taviano. I can’t fall behind on languages. Fortunately, I learn fairly easily, but I don’t like taking time off.”
“We’ll put together a schedule. I’d like it better if Lucia and Amo would move to the guesthouse now, but I don’t think we’ll talk them into it this soon,” he said. That meant they would have to schedule in time for visits.
“They like being close to Lucia’s Treasures,” Nicoletta admitted. “I can’t imagine them moving this soon, either.”
Taviano wasn’t giving up all hope. Lucia and Amo loved Nicoletta and wouldn’t want to be too far from her. They might consider hiring a manager for the store and just going in later if he could arrange that for them. That way, they could still be close to Nicoletta.
“We could always have a baby right away. They’d give up the shop for a baby,” he suggested, straight faced.
She gasped and swung her head around to glare at him. “I did not just hear you say that. No one has a baby so their foster parents will close down a store and move next door.”
“We could be the first ones.”
Nicoletta stared at him a moment and then burst out laughing. “You’re so awful. I’m going to have to get used to your terrible sense of humor.”
He was going to have to make a list of the pros and cons of getting her pregnant. He hadn’t thought about that. Cons were, no sex all over the house if they had kids right away, and he had to ease her into wild sex. That would take time. Babies meant she would find it harder to keep her running shoes on, and that was going to be a very hard pattern for her to break.
“Taviano, you have that look on your face.”
“What look?” He tried for innocence.
“The one that says you’re up to no good.”
“I think my family is arriving.” Just in the nick of time, too. No one was supposed to be able to read him. It was just his bad luck that his wife saw too much.
CHAPTER TEN
New York cousins are in town,” Stefano reported. “Have you met them yet, Nicoletta? They came right away. Salvatore, Lucca and Geno are here with their bodyguards. The LA cousins are here as well.”
Nicoletta knew Stefano was warning her so she wouldn’t panic when they all showed up. Although she trained with them, she was still unable to overcome that uneasiness when the Ferraros were together in the same room. There were just too many of them and there was too much testosterone, too many alphas, although Stefano was always the acknowledged leader. Maybe it was that even with Mariko and Emmanuelle in the room, there weren’t enough women to balance out the men.
Taviano shifted from his chair to hers, supposedly to make more room for the others, but she knew it was to give her more support and she appreciated it. He didn’t make a big deal of it. Before he sat on the arm of her chair, he made certain everyone had something to drink and he gestured to Ricco and Mariko to take his place, so it looked very natural that he would sit with her.
“I haven’t met the cousins from New York yet,” Nicoletta admitted, “although I did see some of the Los Angeles cousins when we were there.” She hadn’t really officially met them.
“And Elie Archambault? He’s been working as a bodyguard with Emilio Gallo, another cousin. You’ve met him, of course,” Stefano persisted.
Nicoletta nodded. “Yes, we’ve trained together a little here and there.”
Elie smiled at her. “Stefano tells me that your father was an Archambault, a distant cousin of mine.”
“So they say. I can’t keep track of who is related to whom,” she said. It was the truth. Every rider seemed related distantly to someone else. She resisted pressing a hand to her rapidly beating heart. Could they all hear it? They all seemed to have acute hearing, just like she did.
Mariko shifted in her chair, just a minute movement, barely perceptible, although Ricco noticed. His arm slid across his wife’s shoulders, but he glanced at Nicoletta with one of his rare smiles. It was warm and genuine.
“I can barely keep track, either,” he said. His lips, as he spoke, brushed Mariko’s cheek. “And my wife doesn’t ever try. She just smiles at everyone and assumes they’re related in some way.”