Page 40 of Because I Need You
“It won’t happen again,” she said, voice low. “And I’m not breaking up with him.”
“Suit yourself.” I shrugged a shoulder and walked out, shutting the door behind me.
She would break up with him. It was only a matter of time. She didn’t belong with him. She sure as hell didn’t belong with me, either, but fuck if that didn’t make me want her even more. She was pure, despite the fire that lurked inside. She was good. She was a helper. And that was the problem. I was a sucker for helpers because they rarely had people who helped them in return.
17
ISABEL
It had been two days since that incident, and I hadn’t seen Giovanni at all. I should have been pissed off at him for walking in on me like that, but instead, I’d welcomed it. And he wasn’t wrong. I would have never gotten myself off if I’d continued with Will’s suggestions. I would’ve never gotten off without seeing him touch himself. God. He’d been so hard, so big, so incredible. I should’ve been burning with shame from merely remembering it, but I wasn’t. I felt alive. I felt unstoppable. Sex-timing was something we did often when Will traveled, and every time I’d have to wait until we ended the call to get myself off. Even if Giovanni had just stood there, not touching me at all, just watching me through those dark hooded eyes, I would have come, but he’d touched my legs, and then he’d touched himself. And it was so good. Too good. It could never happen again, though. I wasn’t sure if the space he was giving me had anything to do with that, but I was grateful for it.
In his absence, Nadia was visiting me. She brought her daughters yesterday and we spent most of the day together, though she seemed preoccupied. Today it was the same. She was sitting there, staring at her phone, while the girls played with their dolls.
“I need to go home,” I said. “I know I’m not supposed to leave, but I have to go back. I can’t just stay here forever.”
“What do you need? We’ll fetch it for you.” Nadia looked up from her phone.
Fetch it for me, like it was no big deal. I shook my head. “I need to see my grandmother. And I’m supposed to go to an event for teachers. With Will.”
“With Will.” Her brows rose for a second, then she started typing away on her phone. “When is the event?”
“It’s a luncheon. Thursday.”
“In two days.”
“Yep.”
“And you need to also visit with your grandmother.”
“Yep.”
“Ok.” She set her phone down on her lap.
“Okay, what?”
“Now we wait.”
“For what exactly?”
“Permission.” Her eyes gleamed with amusement.
“Are you all like this? Excited about having people’s lives in your hands?”
She laughed. “Not particularly.”
“How does a person like you even get involved in this stuff?” I asked, then whispered, “You’re a mom.”
“I know,” she whispered back, smiling as she looked at the girls. She leaned forward to fix one of their hair bows. “I’m not involved in ‘this stuff.’ My brother was. He died a couple of years ago.”
“I’m so sorry.”
“Me too. I miss him every single day.” She smiled sadly. I swallowed back tears. I missed my father, too, but I couldn’t imagine losing a sibling. She cleared her throat and said, “Anyway, I’m only in charge of things that pertain to the clubs, the restaurants. That stuff.”
“The legal stuff.”
“What else is there?” She asked, still looking too amused for my comfort.
“I don’t know. Painting houses,” I mumbled. Thinking about it made my heart hurt. “It was what my father apparently did.”
“Gio doesn’t paint houses.”
“Does he have people to do that stuff for him?”
“This is where this discussion ends.” She smiled. “Try not to worry yourself with what he does and doesn’t do. Unless you’re asking because you’re interested.”
“In him?” My eyes widened. A blush creeped up on my neck. I hoped it wouldn’t reach my cheeks. “No way.”
“Good.”
“Why good?” I frowned. “Just out of curiosity.”
“Well, for starters, you’re with William Hamilton. Gio loathes him and vice versa,” she said. “Secondly, you like men like Will, and Gio is not that.”
“I’m not sure how much longer I’ll stay with Will,” I said. “Completely unrelated to Giovanni.”
“Why? You don’t think you’re cut out to be a politician’s wife or girlfriend.”
“I know I’m not cut out for it. I don’t know if I can do the whole keeping up the perfect image thing forever.”
“You’d probably have to give up teaching,” she added.
“I don’t think so, but it would be a possibility, I guess, depending on how far he takes his political career.”
Those were things I’d discussed with Will, but not extensively. Only in passing on our way to events together. Never sitting down, having a heart-to-heart. By the time each of us got home from our jobs, we wanted to eat and go to bed. I thought about what it would be like to be with someone like Giovanni and that somehow seemed worse. Sure, there was undeniable chemistry there, but what would I do? Sit at home all day to wait for him?
