more days of hanging around the apartment with nothing to do but wait for news on Duke and Clarissa from Frankie was enough to make my feet itch. As enormous as this place was and as many wildly expensive and interesting things that Frankie had bought to entertain himself and us with while we were staying here, I needed fresh air. And so did Winter.
At first, Frankie had been against it, but in the end he had to agree. We couldn’t stay locked up in here forever and I was confident that no one would get close enough to Winter to harm her in any way with me there. I was going to be carrying, of course, a sidearm concealed beneath my jacket and a flick knife in my pocket. But we were just going out for dinner by the marina. Me and my girl. It was a fancy ass restaurant and I’d booked a table up on the top floor with a view across the water so I wasn’t too concerned about anything happening there. It was deep in the Romero part of town and Martello had already spread the word far and wide about my true heritage so I didn’t have to fear an attack from any of them. The Calabresis had fallen apart after Giuseppe died and I disappeared anyway. In the last year, the Romeros had all but taken complete control of Sinners Bay.
I drove Winter in Frankie’s Ferrari F8 right up to the valet waiting outside the restaurant. I cast a lingering look over her in the stunning black maxi dress she was wearing. It had a slit right up one leg and was low cut enough that I knew I’d want to gouge the eyes out of every man who looked her way tonight, but it was worth it for the fact that I got to see her like this too.
Sloan had come over to help her get ready and had styled her deep red hair into a knot of curls pinned to the back of her head, a few loose tendrils hanging down to tickle her neck and draw my eye. In fact, if this car wasn’t so fucking small inside, I definitely would have pulled over in a quiet spot on the way here and dragged her into my lap to show her exactly what I thought of the way she looked tonight. But as it was too cold out for me to even bend her over the hood, I was going to have to wait until I got her back home before I could begin on the list of things I had planned for her body. And as that list was only getting longer every minute I spent in her company, I didn’t imagine either of us would be getting much sleep tonight.
I got out of the car and rounded it quickly, tossing the key to the valet before opening the door for my savage girl who looked anything but wild tonight. She took my hand with a heated smile, letting me help her up in her towering stilettos and instantly curled my arm around her, gripping her hip and tugging her to my side as I led her towards the doors where a doorman opened them for us and ushered us inside.
I didn’t even have to give my name to the girl waiting behind the desk, her eyes widening with recognition as she swept forward to greet us.
“Right this way, Mr Vit-Romero.” She blushed so deeply that I couldn’t even be bothered to mention her blunder. I still forgot I was a Romero myself more often than not so it was hardly a surprise that other people were taking a while to adjust. Fuck knew what they were all thinking. I’d been one of the biggest players on the Calabresi board a year ago and now here I was, firmly in the inner circle with the Romeros, declaring myself to be one of them. Not that it mattered, no one would ever dare question the law of Martello Romero. His word meant more than that of God himself in Sinners Bay.
We were led to a table on the top floor, sitting beside the wide glass window which looked out over the bay and afforded us the illusion of privacy so long as we didn’t look to our other side where the rest of the diners were currently eating their meals.
I told the server to bring us a bottle of wine