Nevio raised his arms and Adamo shook his head. “Go to Nino.”
I picked up Nevio and held him with one arm. Adamo motioned toward the arc. “Kiara is trying to get us to come over. Why don’t you go ahead? I need to go to the bathroom.”
I narrowed my eyes, having a feeling that he wouldn’t join us anytime soon. I decided to give him the space he needed and headed toward my wife and the others. When I stopped beside them, Kiara gave me a worried look.
“Everything okay?”
I nodded, not wanting to burden her with this. She had enough to deal with because of her problems to conceive.
“He’s been pulling back,” Fabiano said, watching Adamo.
Savio grimaced. “He changed.”
Adamo disappeared inside the mansion. I should tell Remo about Adamo’s new habit to burn himself. However, Remo had a certain way of dealing with problems that might not help in Adamo’s situation.
Keeping a secret from him and from Kiara wasn’t something I liked to do, but maybe it was for the best until I knew exactly what we were dealing with.
KIARA
A couple of days after the wedding, Serafina, Leona and I poured ourselves glasses of champagne and settled on the sun chairs. We still had a few leftover bottles from the wedding and now that Fabiano had asked for Leona’s hand, we had reason to celebrate.
“I still can’t believe he asked me to marry him,” Leona whispered, beaming at the diamond ring on her finger.
“The wedding seemed to motivate him,” Serafina said with a smile.
I raised my glass. “See, I told you he would ask.”
Within the first hour we started our second bottle, and somehow we ended up talking about sex. The alcohol helped lower our inhibitions, though Serafina was definitely the one with the least problems to discuss those matters, which wasn’t that strange considering who she was married to—being around Remo all the time, you just got desensitized.
“What was the strangest place where you’ve had sex?” Serafina asked over her glass, her eyes glowing with mischief.
Leona considered that with pursed lips. “The fight cage in the Camorra gym? Or maybe in Fabiano’s car on our favorite hill?”
Serafina took a sip. “Fight cage, that sounds thrilling.” She drew her lower lip between her teeth with a small smile. I had a feeling Remo would soon get another reason why he loved the cage.
“And you?” I asked her, feeling tipsy and warm.
“During our runs in the canyon, in the pool, in an elevator, in the alley behind the Sugar Trap … but my favorite was in the gardens here,” she said with a small laugh.
“That’s not very daring,” Leona said.
Serafina gave me an apologetic smile, and I wondered what it meant. “When I was still a captive, Remo and I made out under your bedroom window—while you and Nino…”
Leona’s mouth fell open and she clapped a palm over it with a giggle.
Acute embarrassment washed over me. “Really?”
Serafina gave a small nod.
“Oh God, what did you hear?” I shook my head. “No, don’t tell me. How embarrassing.”
“I think the ones who should be embarrassed are Remo and Fina for spying on you,” Leona said with a laugh.
“As if Remo would be embarrassed about that,” I muttered. I nudged Serafina’s knee. “How can I face him again knowing you listened to us?”
“It was a long time ago,” Serafina said and clinked her glass against mine. “And from what I heard you’re a lucky girl.” She laughed at my expression. Had she heard when Nino had gone down on me?
“He likes to travel to Down Under?” Leona said, her cheeks flushing even as she giggled.
I drank the rest of my champagne. “Don’t Fabiano and Remo?” I shot back, trying to pay them back, but they weren’t as shy about these topics as me, especially Serafina.
“Oh, Remo loves it.”
“Fabiano as well,” Leona said with a conspiratorial smile.
I let myself fall back on the sun chair and stared up at the sky. I was torn between laughter and acute mortification.
Serafina nudged my thigh. “Come on. No reason to be embarrassed. It’s good that we have men who know how to make us happy, right?”
“Right.” I sat up.
Serafina smiled. “Okay, I’ll tell you about another place to distract you.”
“I swear if you and Remo had sex in our bed, I’m going to freak.”
She shook her head. “We had sex on Savio’s flamingo.”
I burst out laughing.
“I’ve always wondered how that works,” Leona mused. “You can’t really be both up there without the thing turning over…”
Serafina filled our glasses again, emptying the bottle. Luckily there was a third one in the cooler waiting for us. I had a feeling I’d need more alcohol.
“Okay, we had a form of sex on there. It’s really comfy relaxing in that thing with your feet dipping into the pool while a guy is dipping his tongue into your pool.”