Page 64 of Mafia Billionaire's Surprise Baby

She studies me over the rim of her glass. “You have a problem with that?”

I want to ask her the context. We slept in a bed together after Belarus.

But I didn’t make her come before then.

I shake my head. “No. I don’t”

“Good.”

We go through the motions quietly. Brushing teeth. Brushing hair. Gia braids her wild mane into two twin braids that arch down the back of her head, and I desperately want to run my hands over them and feel the softness of them under my fingers.

When we get into the bed, I keep my distance from Gia.

Until she sighs and grabs me, tugging me close.

I wrap myself around her. The top of her head tickles my lips, and I press them gently there, giving her a small kiss.

She doesn’t say anything.

I count my heartbeats quickly. I make it the whole way to twenty, then Gia rustles.

“I needed this.”

I pull her closer. “Why?”

Gia’s fingernails skate over my arm. “You held me like this after Belarus.”

“I did.”

“I needed it then too.”

“Did you?”

She sighs. “Don’t make me beg, Sal.”

“I have no idea what you’re begging for. But if you want to beg…”

She laughs and smacks my arm lightly, cutting me off. “Don’t.”

“Okay.”

We’re quiet for another minute.

“I should have been born before Elio.”

She says the words like they’re rusty. Like somehow, it’s the first time she’s said them out loud.

“What does that mean?” I say finally.

“I want it more than he does.”

I press another gentle kiss to her hair. “That is definitely true.”

“I’m better at it than he is.”

“You’re magnificent, Gia.”

“I’m smarter. I’m better informed. I do everything that he does, but I do it faster and better. And still, he’s the one who gets to run the family. All because he’s a boy. And he was born first.”