He ran across the room and swept them into his arms, lifting Sloan from her feet so that she squealed about the baby in her arms until he placed her down again with a filthy kiss. As he broke away, he stole River from her and went back to his dance with the baby girl, peering about and cooing excitedly.
“Close your eyes, Nicoli,” Sloan demanded, pointing at me dramatically. “It’s time for the big makeover reveal.”
“This isn’t some nineties rom-com,” I muttered but Enzo moved forward to shove me down onto one of the bar stools and Frankie slapped his hands over my eyes to make sure I really couldn’t see.
There was a lot of laughing and then Enzo wolf-whistled, making me want to punch him in the dick and Frankie finally lifted his hands from my eyes.
Winter stood wearing an emerald green dress which hugged her figure in all the right ways and made her green eyes pop from right across the room. Her blood red hair gleamed and had been styled into perfect loose curls which hung around her face, just caressing the low-cut neckline of her dress. She was wearing lipstick the same shade as her hair and her shadowy eye makeup took that innocent edge off of her features. Sloan encouraged her to do a twirl and I swallowed thickly as I took in the backless rear half of the dress, the fact that she clearly wasn’t wearing a bra and the perfect way it hugged her ass.
“Have you got her locked down or is she fair game?” Enzo asked in a voice which was definitely loud enough to carry and I punched him on reflex. Only in the arm, but still.
He cursed me as he started laughing and Frankie groaned dramatically.
“Bad move, fratello, you just gave away your weak spot. He’ll never stop winding you up over her now.”
I glanced at Frankie with a frown but I was already forgetting his comment as I moved towards Winter, wrapping my arms around her waist and backing her down the corridor again as my mouth found hers.
She gasped as I kissed her and I drove her back against the wall once we were out of sight, groaning into her mouth as I ground my dick against her. I’d been hard from the moment I’d opened my eyes and seen her made up like this, but that wouldn’t do at all.
“Let’s go back to your room,” I breathed as she wrapped her arms around my neck, nodding her agreement.
I lifted her into my arms, ignoring the howls of excited laughter and cat-calling that followed us and carrying her back into her bedroom.
“Pick another dress, baby doll,” I growled against her mouth, forcing myself to put her down and meeting her eyes as she frowned up at me.
“Why?” she asked in confusion. “Don’t you like it?”
“Fuck, yes, I like it, Winter. I like it too damn much. None of those assholes out there can keep their eyes off of you. You need to take it off.”
She stared at me for a long moment and then her eyes narrowed into slits. “No.”
“No?” I asked in confusion, irritation prickling through my skin.
“Am I a free girl or am I just in a nicer cage?” she hissed, all out glaring at me now.
“It’s not about that, baby doll,” I promised, not liking the way she was looking at me one bit. “It’s just you...that dress...you’re, well, you’re everything. It’s too fucking much. I can’t stay away from you, I don’t want other men looking at you like this.”
“Am I free, Nicoli?” she asked darkly.
“Of course you are, but-”
“Then I can choose my own clothes. And I like this.” She turned away from me and sauntered out of the room in her red high heels and the bottom dropped out of my gut.
Rage clawed through me and an actual snarl left my lips as I stormed out behind her, wanting to call her name but knowing that I couldn’t. If she didn’t want to change then I couldn’t force her to...could I? Fuck, no, no I definitely couldn’t do that. Gah. I wanted to chase after her, grab hold of her and drag her back into her room and make her change, preferably fucking her senseless somewhere in the middle of that, but I couldn’t. And by the time I caught up to her, she was back in the living room, dancing with Rocco, Sloan and Enzo and there was nothing more that