Upside Down (Breaking the Rules #3) - A.M. Madden Page 0,36

sided with his brother-in-law, there weren’t enough curse words in the Italian language to cover my tirade.

The air-conditioning did little to cool my overheated flesh, and I suspected it wasn’t the Florida humidity that caused it. Voices filtering toward us from the family room silenced the moment Marco and I appeared in the doorway.

“Hey,” Rebecca said through a cartoonish smile. “We were just talking about you.”

Subtle.

“I bet you were.” My gaze connected with Cooper and held. “Cooper.”

“Hi,” he said robotically. Dammit, he looked hot, and it wasn’t because of the plain blue T-shirt or khaki shorts he had on. Not because of the hair peppering his legs, of which he had one casually resting on the opposite knee. And not because of the way his light-brown locks looked like someone had just run their hands through them.

It was how his gorgeous tormented hazel eyes connected and held with mine. It was the sexual tension that radiated off his perfect physique in waves… and fuck if that didn’t suit him. In the past, I’d been used to seeing the guy with a constant smile. But the brooding silent thing he had going on now was my fucking kryptonite.

What the fuck was I thinking?

He’d called me a prick on a nationally syndicated sex show.

“Are we going?” I asked, still hovering between their foyer and great room.

“No, we have time. Reservations are at seven.”

“You said six,” I argued.

Rebecca’s brow furrowed in the way that I knew meant she was indeed up to no good. “No, I think I said seven.”

I startled when Marco clapped a hand on my shoulder, his brows rising. “What?” I responded, but he ignored my narrowed gaze.

“Cosa vuoi bere?” he asked, slipping into his native tongue.

“I’ll have a beer. Thanks.”

But before he moved into the kitchen, a small yelp from upstairs had him detouring.

Eyeing me still standing there, Rebecca patted the cushion to her left. “Sit.” Since my choice was to sit beside her or sit in the chair to Cooper’s immediate right, I accepted her invite, trying my damnedest to appear unaffected.

While her body served as the line in the sand between her brother and me, she flipped her head from side to side while sporting that annoying smile.

It was so much easier to ignore the pangs of lust that came from thoughts of him when he was a thousand miles away. Not so easy being in the same room.

Why the hell did I agree to this night?

“How’s Antonio?” I asked to break the tension, knowing he’d been up the night before, teething.

“He’s napping.”

“Not anymore,” Marco said, holding his mini-me in one arm with no sign of my beer. At seeing all of us, Antonio’s arms stretched for his mom, and once on her lap he tucked his face in the crook of her neck, wanting no part of socializing.

Join the club, kid.

“It’s more than the last of his molars cutting through,” Rebecca announced, rubbing a soothing hand over his back. “He also has a nasty cold and low-grade fever.”

“I feel bad for the little dude.” Cooper leaned closer, focusing on his nephew. “Yesterday, he wanted no part of the toys I brought him.” Antonio’s presence seemed to completely alter Cooper’s disposition… until he glanced at me.

“Anyone want anything?” I asked, getting up to get my beer, because I needed it. A round of noes propelled my steps into their kitchen, where I pulled an icy bottle from the fridge, opened it, and chugged at least half of it down.

I didn’t care how much I loved Rebecca or Marco; there was no need to subject myself to this torture. The entire thing was ridiculous. This was Cooper’s problem, his issue… not mine. Come tomorrow, I’d call Christian. It’d been a while, but our chemistry always made it seem as though no time had passed between our hookups. He had no inhibitions whatsoever… the perfect man to distract me.

“Honey, I’m not sure dinner is a good idea,” Rebecca said to Marco the moment I reappeared. Antonio tightened his grip on Rebecca’s neck, causing her to rock back and forth. “You guys should go without us,” she then said to no one in particular, earning shocked gawks from three men.

Cooper and my reactions were understandable, but my guess was that Marco’s response meant he also thought his wife had lost her ever-loving mind.

“Why can’t Marco come with us?” I asked like a pathetic child.

“With Antonio so clingy, I’ll need his help.” What a liar. The woman refused help every chance