Three days later and I can still taste Princess on my tongue, and my cock can still feel her squeezing it for all its worth.

Fuck. I knew I wanted to fuck her, yeah, but I didn’t think I’d get…

What’s the word? Hung up on her? No, I don’t get hung up on women. She’s just someone I’d wanted to fuck for as long as I could remember, and someone I knew I couldn’t–shouldn’t–fuck, and now I got it out of my system.

Still, I tried to call her two days ago, asking her if she wanted to have dinner again. She didn’t answer, so I texted.

She hasn’t responded.

Fine. Good, even. I shouldn’t be going back for seconds anyway. I’m Luca fucking Gallo, and I can have any woman in this city, so why have the same one twice?

Gio sucks on his noodles. I look up and glare at him.

He finishes slurping, and sauce stains the corners of his mouth. “What?” He asks.

“Do you have to eat like that?” I ask.

He punches his gut, which is bulging against the edge of the table. “I’m a fat fuck, so yeah, I gotta.”

I sigh. Gio is my cousin, so I can’t bust his balls too hard. In “the family” your actual family are invaluable assets. They’re the guys that you are mostly sure aren’t going to fuck you over or change sides. Since I don’t have any brothers or sisters, Gio is as close as I’ve got. He’s the one I trust the most.

If my father had worked half as hard on strengthening our legitimate assets as he did on strengthening our fucking grudges, I wouldn’t have to be so damn paranoid about who I can and can’t trust.

“Where’s Vinny?” Gio asks.

Then Vinny rushes in, he’s panting and has a grease stain on his cheek.

He sits down. “Sorry, had in irate customer. Had to smooth things over.”

He gasps for breath. He’s not as out of shape as Gio, but he’s getting closer year after year.

“Just tell them to go fuck themselves,” Gio says, laughing. His gut jiggles against the table. “You gotta stop taking shit from people, Vinny.”

I move as if I’m going to slap Gio upside the face, but I stop just as he flinches. “You dumbass, that’s why Vinny runs the garages. He knows that we gotta make actual money, do good business, retain customers...all that shit.”

Gio shrugs and slurps at his noodles as if he were trying to murder them.

I look away and shake my head.

“Alright, Vinny,” I say. “We’re doing good. Real good.”

I find myself smiling, probably too much. I keep thinking about Princesses’ tight little body up against mine.

“Thanks, Luca,” Vinny says, nodding.

I point to his cheek and grab my napkin, miming the motion of wiping my cheek.

Vinny smiles nervously and uses his sleeve to wipe the grease off his cheek, then frowns down at the nice linen napkin still on the table.

“It’s fine,” I say, waving a hand. “Just order some food, Vinny, we practically own this place, go all out.”

Gio hands him the menu and starts to gush about various dishes, but I tell the fat fuck to shut up.

“I want to go national,” I tell Vinny. “With the garages.”

“We’re pretty small-time though,” Vinny says.

“That’s why he said we’re gonna go national!” Gio shouts, his mouth full of garlic bread.

I sigh at him, losing patience. “Look, Vinny, you got a real good business model going. We make franchises, go more legit. I want more and more of our money to be stress-free, if you know what I’m saying.”

“Yeah,” Vinny says, “I know, I mean, I don’t know.” He winks at me, reminding me that he’s not supposed to know what we do behind the scenes.

“You’re all smiles, Luca,” Gio says. “You get laid this morning or what?”

Vinny grins. “Maybe more like a few days ago.”

I give Vinny a look, but it must be too subtle, because he keeps going.

“Yeah, that college broad, the one with the tits that look too big for the tiny little body. Bella, right, boss?”

Gio’s eyes bulge. He leans forward, and his big gut shoves the entire damn table forward. “You fucked Bella Riela! Luca, my boy!”

I feel anger surging through me. And I raise a hand as if I’m going to slap him. He just smiles it off since I faked it last time, but I swing my arm and backhand him this time.

“What the fuck?” he says.

“Don’t talk like that,” I say. “I didn’t do shit to Bella Riela, got it?”

I look at Vinny too. “We crystal fucking clear? We don’t need talk like that. No spreading lies about the Rielas, even Bella. Especially Bella! The last thing we need now is Tony Riela having some excuse to come after us again.”

“Alright, alright!” Gio says, leaning back in his chair. He grabs his over-full stomach with both hands, as if he were a pregnant woman cradling her unborn baby.

“Not a word,” Vinny says, miming a zipper over his lips.

I trust Vinny, but I glare at Gio. “Gio!”

“I won’t say nothing,” Gio says, “But come on, Luca, you’d tell me if he you fucked her, right? How long you been trying to fuck her and not managing to do it now? You’d have to tell me!”

“I did not touch her,” I growl.

I don’t know what’s wrong with me. I thought I’d want to brag about fucking Princess once I finally did it, but there’s something in me that makes me not want to. Could it be...respect?

Shit, it could be. I don’t usually respect the broads I fuck, but Bella Riela is no “broad.” She’s something beyond that.

I find myself checking my phone and opening my text messages, making sure she didn’t respond. She didn’t.

I already texted her once, which is more than I ever do, so it’s up to her to respond. I liked playing with her, that’s for sure, but I will not message a woman twice. Even one I respect.