All I Believe (Firsts and Forever, #10)(9)

Apparently I still seemed appealing though, since the dogs didn’t lose interest in me after their pants victory. They barked happily and jumped at me like I was a giant steak, and I tried to swing my feet up onto the wooden framework above me. A big, brown mutt jumped onto the table, lapped up my cappuccino, and lunged at my dangling backside. I had to arch up to get out of range.

Just as I started to lose my grip, a crashing sound behind me sent all the dogs running. I lowered my feet to the tabletop and watched their retreat. The pants were stretched between the poodle and the dachshund as they dashed from the plaza, the cuffs grasped firmly in their jaws. Apparently my loafers had been carried off as well, since they were nowhere to be seen.

I looked down at myself and realized I’d been left with just that tight t-shirt and the tiny red briefs. I was beyond embarrassed as I jumped off the table and turned to see what had startled the dogs. The incredibly good-looking guy in the suit stood a few feet behind me, holding a couple big pots, which he must have banged together. His light eyes were sparkling with amusement as he asked, “You okay?” He spoke English, though he really looked Italian.

“I’m awesome, and I’ll be even better after the earth opens up and swallows me whole.” I turned and started to hurry across the plaza, the smooth cobblestones warm beneath my bare feet. The guy fell into step with me, and I asked, “What are you doing?”

“Acting as your armed escort, in case the dogs come back.” He twirled one of the pots to illustrate his point.

“Thanks for the assist, since I assume you’re what scared them away.”

“You’re welcome.” When we reached the hotel, he walked me right up to the big door. The doorman opened it for me and managed to maintain a poker face as he glanced at my tiny red underpants, then directed his gaze heavenward.

“There we go. Safe and sound,” the guy in the suit said.

“Thanks again.”

“My pleasure. It’s not every day I meet someone with that much animal magnetism.” I hazarded a quick glance at him. I had to look up, even though I was over six feet tall. He had a good two or three inches on me. Amusement still danced in his eyes and I looked away quickly. The fact that he was so attractive just made it that much more embarrassing, for some reason.

I blurted, “It was the bacon-flavored anal lube. My grandmother hosed me down with it at the airport yesterday, and it got in my computer.” I immediately realized my explanation sounded completely insane, and retreated into the hotel before I could say anything else.

I glanced at him over my shoulder when I was partway across the lobby. He still stood in the open doorway with his arms crossed over his chest and a pot in each hand. He was blatantly staring at my ass, and when he saw me looking, he called, “Red’s a good color on you.” I was grinning just a little when I reached the elevators.

When I got to my suite, I realized my room key had been in my leather pants, so I had to go back downstairs to get another one. Since I’d left my passport in the room and my other ID was in my missing wallet, the desk clerk wouldn’t give me a key. I ended up dropping into an upholstered chair in the lobby to wait for my grandmother and Jessie. When I tried calling them again, it went straight to voicemail. I slid down in my seat and put my bare feet up on the coffee table in front of me. An upscale couple in their twenties stared at me, so I gave them a little wave and called, “Bel giorno.”

Ugh. This day was going great. I shut my eyes and leaned my head against the back of the chair. On the bright side, I was over six thousand miles from home, so I wouldn’t run into anyone I knew while I was dressed like that.

“Nico?”

My eyes flew open and I blinked at my cousin Remy. Technically, we were second or third cousins, or something like that, but just went with ‘cousins’ for simplicity’s sake. I had a lot of relatives who fell under that title, both in Italy and back home. Remy’s grandmother and mine were sisters. Nana’s family had immigrated to the U.S. when she was a girl, but two of her sisters had moved back as adults because they both fell in love with Italian men. All the sisters had had fairly large families and plenty of grandchildren.


Remy was in his late twenties with short, dark hair and a tidy beard. He was a stay-at-home dad, and his wife was a pediatrician. He was wearing his youngest child like an accessory in some sort of carrier that was strapped to his torso. The baby blinked at me and gave me a toothless smile. “Hey,” I said, getting up to shake Remy’s hand. I then ran a palm over the baby’s bald head and said, “Hi there, RJ.” The baby just blinked again.

“Wow. This, um…what are you wearing?” Even though he’d been born in Viladembursa, Remy’s English was flawless. Almost everyone in my family was perfectly bilingual.

“I didn’t go out like this. My leather pants smelled like bacon, so they were carried off by a pack of dogs with a poodle as their ringleader. Now I’m locked out of my suite, because they also took my room key. It was in my pocket.”

“So…you were mugged by a poodle?”

“Basically.” I sat back down, and Remy took the chair next to mine, setting a bulging diaper bag on the floor. “I didn’t know you’d be stopping by,” I said, trying to change the subject. “I thought we were meeting at your grandmother’s house for dinner.”