Unraveled (Guzzi Duet Book 1)(31)

Her cousin shook his head. “Fine. Whatever.”





The very moment Cara laid eyes on Gian from across the club’s floor, a swift relief coursed through her system. It was a feeling she hadn’t quite experienced before, and she didn’t know what to do about it. She hadn’t realized that from the second she heard bomb uttered alongside Gian’s name, fear had put her back in robot mode.

She’d gone back to that black space in her mind. Things moved around her, she did what was needed, and went through the motions of life amongst the living, but Cara wasn’t really there. Not entirely. Not like she should be.

You’re catching feelings for someone you shouldn’t, her mind taunted. And for no good fucking reason.

Cara ignored her inner voice, her attention snagged entirely by the man across the floor. His gaze caught hers, and time stopped as he smiled. Even surrounded by a group full of men, all chatting with drinks in front of them, Gian looked at her and smiled.

A reddish discoloration marred his right cheek, up to his temple, but other than that, Cara couldn’t see any visible issues that should be a cause for concern. Then again, she wasn’t close enough to tell.

“Wait here,” Constantino demanded.

She glared at her cousin’s back as he crossed the club floor to the sectioned-off table where Gian was currently seated with the other men. Constantino bent down, said something, and then nodded quickly. That was it, and her cousin took the seat that Gian vacated not a blink in time later.

The club was hot as hell, so Cara pulled off her coat as Gian crossed the space between them, and hung it over her arm. She tried to shake off the lingering anxiety, and seem like everything was fine, but she couldn’t quite do it as he came to a stop in front of her.

“You’re not who I expected to see showing up here tonight,” Gian said.

Cara shifted from one foot to the other. “You didn’t answer me back.”

“Something happened to my phone.”

“Something like a bomb?”

Gian shrugged one shoulder. “I mean, we can do details, but it won’t help all that much.”

Cara sighed, trying hard not to meet his gaze. If she did, he would surely see all the crazy worry swimming in her mind, and he would know that she actually cared. Cara didn’t know if she wanted to go down that road with Gian, quite yet.

“Shouldn’t you be in the hospital?” she asked quietly.

Gian lifted his arms, and turned slowly as if to let her look him over. “Mild concussion, which means no sleep tonight. I can’t hear all that great out of my right ear, but there’s no lasting damage. I’ve got a bruised kidney, but I only need one, anyway.”

Cara shook her head in disbelief. “Lucky.”

“Some people do say the Guzzi blood is made of nothing but gold, luck, and dirt.”

“Who are these people?”

He only grinned.

Cara finally met his gaze then, holding firm. “So, a club is where you decided to come after you get released from the hospital then? Not … home, or—”

“To you.”

His voice turned lower, cool and curious at the same time.

“You don’t have to come to me. That’s not what I meant or what I said.”

“But would you have liked me to?” Gian asked.

Cara reached up to ghost her fingertips along the discoloration on his cheek and temple. “That looks like it hurts.”

“Not a lot. Answer my question.”

“Why a club?” she asked instead.

“Dio, you are difficult when you want to be. Do you know that?”

Cara smiled. “I’ve been told. Why a club?”

Gian gestured over his shoulder. “Someone thought I needed a drink, I couldn’t refuse, given a lot of the shit that’s happened over the past few weeks with the family. I’ve got enough problems, without making a certain group feel like I’m shunning them.”

“I don’t understand a word you said.”

“Yeah, I know, but I like that you’re not all that interested in those semantics of my life, anyway.”

Cara let out a shaky exhale, and dropped his gaze. “This—tonight—freaked me out a little bit.”

“I can tell. You didn’t have to come running, though. I was fine, as far as that goes.”

“I was gone before I even knew what was happening, so …”

Gian chuckled.

That was all Cara got—one of his husky laughs—before he grabbed her waist, pulled her in close, and kissed her fast. The bruising force of his mouth crashing against hers took her breath away, and all that remaining fear and worry stopped, just like that. His hands slid up her sides and cupped under her jaw while his tongue darted into her mouth and gave her a taste of the bourbon he’d been drinking.

Cara felt dazed-like, when Gian finally pulled away.

Breathless.

Stupid.

Spun.

“I knew this would look good,” he said.

“Huh?”

His thumbs slid down over her throat, hooking under the delicate lace of the black choker he had sent to her the day before. “This here, it looks perfect, mon ange.”

“It does have a certain appeal,” she admitted.

“There was a white one—”