LAUREN

Antonio hasn’t let me out of bed since my eyes opened. Not even to pour myself a cup of much-needed coffee. He pulled me back into his arms and mumbled the word relaxation before he drifted back to sleep.

I’ve been staring at the coffeepot for over an hour, listening to Stefano and Tara laughing on the wraparound deck while I am trapped underneath Antonio’s weight.

I try to wriggle free, but it’s no use. Antonio’s too heavy.

“Don’t go,” he groans and pulls me tighter against his body.

“Coffee.” It’s the only word I can muster, not able to form complete sentences without caffeine in my system.

His palm sweeps over my breast and sends shock waves through my system. I can’t believe my body isn’t numb after the night we had, from both drinking too much and the sexathon after we returned to the main house, leaving Stefano and Tara on the beach.

“I have something better than coffee.” He grinds his hard cock against my leg, and I close my eyes, relishing the feel of him against me.

I try to push him away as the dull pain between my legs intensifies, increasing in severity at the mere thought of one more orgasm. “I’m too sore right now.”

He props himself up next to me and slings his arm back across my chest. “Are you going to be able to relax today with them here?” His head dips toward the patio where they’re still laughing.

“Yeah.” I smile up at him.

When Tara pulled me to the side, she read me the riot act. She reminded me about Vinny, a man she dated last year who wasn’t on the up-and-up. After Tara fell head over heels for the bastard, she almost got herself killed leaving a club on his arm. One of his enemies decided to empty the clip of his gun inside both of them, but he somehow missed after being tackled to the ground by Vinny’s security. After that, Tara ended things with him, but not before she caused a little bloodshed of her own and told him to lose her number.

Tara’s probably the strongest person I know. Any one of Beyoncé’s songs could be about Tara and her fierceness. She puts up with no one and nothing, taking no shit from the people she chooses to have in her life. It’s the only reason I can stomach her hanging around with Stefano this weekend. She assured me that even if she does have sex with him, the things that happen on this island will stay on this island. She said it was like Vegas and I needed to calm down and treat her like an adult instead of my child.

She’s right.

It isn’t my job to protect her, and I probably should be protecting Stefano from her because he doesn’t understand how deadly her right hook is or her high heel.

“I think the weekend will be good for both of them,” I say because how could it be any worse.

They’re both consenting adults. Stefano is a manwhore, but Tara isn’t Mother Teresa either. The woman could probably go notch for notch with Stefano Forte.

“Good.” Antonio grins and finally frees me from his weight. “Let’s grab a cup and check out the weather. I think we need to take the jet skis out.”

I fling myself out of the bed like a pole vaulter and run to the coffeepot, forgetting that I’m not dressed. Halfway across the living room, I freeze and cover my breasts with one hand and my pussy with the other. Way to go, genius. The thought of both coffee and jet skis made me lose my mind and forget the fact that I had a captive audience only feet away.

“Good morning,” Stefano says, turning around as I dance from one side to the other.

“Shit,” I mumble.

Tara’s laughing, almost hysterical at the fact that I’m naked as the day I was born. I’m dying a little inside because their eyes are on me. While she’s the one to show off her skin, basically her breasts because they’re great and she could give two shits what anyone thinks, I’ve always been the buttoned-up one who barely flashes my collarbone in public.

“Turn around,” I screech and back up, knowing I can’t turn around or I’ll show them my very white, sunless ass. “Do it now.”

Tara and Stefano glance at each other and laugh before facing across the sand to the ocean. When I turn, Antonio’s laughing softly and wrapping the sheet around his waist so he doesn’t suffer the same fate.

“You could’ve warned me,” I tell him as he walks toward me with enough of the sheet hanging out that I can cover myself too.

“You took off so fast, I didn’t get a chance.”

“Well, it’s coffee.” I don’t need to say anything else. It’s my lifeblood, and I can’t really form a coherent thought until I’ve had at least a cup. That is even more evident after my little nudie show this morning.

I hide behind the sheet and reach for my bathing suit, figuring I can skip a dress today. The suit covers way more than my hand does, so everyone’s already seen what I have to offer. Plus, we’re going to hit the water as soon as I have enough coffee in my system that I don’t end up killing myself or Antonio. After I get dressed and make a beeline for the coffeepot, Antonio wanders into the bathroom and leaves me alone with Tara and Stefano.

“Sleep well?” I ask as I step onto the deck and take a giant whiff of the piping hot coffee that smells like magic in a mug.

“I haven’t slept that well in ages.” Tara blushes, peering at Stefano under her eyelashes.

“Tara snores,” Stefano adds. “Very loudly.”

I take the seat next to Tara and pull my knees up to my chest as I grip the coffee mug like it’s the most precious thing in the world. “I’m well acquainted with Tara’s sleeping while everyone else is awake.”

Stefano waves his hand and winks at Tara. “I don’t sleep very much anyway. The bed was a little slice of heaven.”

“Oh, I know. Wasn’t it divine?”

That answers that question. I sip my coffee and try not to think about the fact that Stefano and Tara are not only sharing a bed, but probably ended their night much the same way Antonio and I did.

“Morning,” Antonio says as he makes a grand entrance, wearing nothing but his swimming trunks and a smile.

“It’s still so weird that there’s two of you.” Tara’s eyes move to Antonio and back to Stefano. “I don’t think I’d like someone walking around wearing my face.”

“I don’t know any other way,” Stefano tells her and grabs their two coffee cups from the table that’s between them. “More?”

“Please.” Tara bats her eyelashes and is laying it on mighty thick.

“I’ll go get the jet skis ready.” Antonio kisses my cheek. “I know a little ride around the ocean will help wake you up.”

I turn my head and kiss his lips before he walks away. Tara’s gawking at me as we sit alone on the deck, and I can feel it even though I’m not looking at her. “What?” I ask, staring into my coffee mug and avoiding turning in her direction.

“You’re a lucky girl.”

“What?” I can’t help but face her now. “What on God’s green earth are you talking about?”

“They’re identical in every way, right?”

“Yeah.”

Tara waggles her eyebrows and smiles so wide I can see every tooth in her mouth.

“Don’t say it.”

“He’s packing quite the package.”

“Ugh,” I groan and close my eyes. “I didn’t want to know if you’d slept with Stefano.”

“I’m proud of you,” she says.

“For what?” I grumble against the rim of the cup before taking a giant gulp because I will need a refill before we hit the water.

“For getting the guy with the biggest pecker I’ve ever seen and keeping him.”

I roll my eyes. “Thanks,” I tell her just as Stefano walks back onto the deck.

I use his entrance as my cue to head into the house and down another cup of coffee. Besides it being weird that another man walks around with the same face as my boyfriend, it’s even weirder that my best friend now knows exactly what he’s working with.

ANTONIO

I collapse on the shore, covered in sand as I shield my eyes from the sun. “Those girls play hard.”

After two hours on the jet ski, I needed a break, and my brother followed me in. Tara and Lauren decided to stay out on the water to give us a little brother time together.

Stefano sits at my side, watching Tara and Lauren speed through the water, jumping waves and screaming loudly. “They’re quite a pair.”

“What are you doing here?”

My brother doesn’t vacation and hasn’t joined me for a trip in years. When he called, to say I was surprised would be an understatement. But now he’s getting comfortable with Tara, and I’m wondering if I made a huge mistake by letting him join us.

“I needed to get away for a few days.”

“Authorities after you?”

It’s a logical question given his line of work, and I hate that my brother didn’t choose a path like mine. He could’ve headed a major corporation without a problem. The man has balls of steel as well as a mind that never turns off.

“No one is after me. I just needed to get away from it all. The life is wearing on me.”

“Most people in your line of work don’t live long enough for anything to wear on them.”

He lies back and spreads his arms wide. “I think it’s time for me to make a change before I end up six feet underground in an unmarked grave.”

I sit up, surprised by his statement. “You’re really going to quit?”

Stefano has always defended his lifestyle. But no matter how he tried to spin it, I knew exactly what he did. Movies like The Godfather tried to romanticize the Italian Mafia, especially for people outside of Italy, but it wasn’t as pretty or as sexy as the movie studio portrayed.

“I think it’s time to join the ranks of law-abiding citizens.”

“Do they just let you out?”

I know it doesn’t work that way. Not even in the movies does someone just hang up their hat and walk off into the sunset. Stefano knows enough that he could bring down the entire organization.

“No, but I found a way to make it happen.”

“What are you going to do?”

“Nothing. I have enough money to never work again.”

I lie back down, close my eyes, and smile. “I can’t imagine you doing nothing, but it’s better than what you’ve been doing your entire life.”

“I’ll find ways to entertain myself.” He laughs softly.

I turn my head, blocking my eyes from the sun overhead. “And Tara?”

He looks at me, and I almost see a glimmer of humanity in his expression. “She’s fun. I like her.”

“Don’t get too comfy,” I warn.

“Antonio, my life is in Italy and not America. She and I would never work, but that doesn’t mean we can’t indulge a little while we’re here. I promise I’m being a complete gentleman.”

With Stefano, there’s no such thing as being a gentleman, but I don’t argue the point. I refuse to spend the weekend fighting or worrying about what two grown people are doing in private. I have enough on my hands with Lauren and making sure she’s happy and relaxing as I’d hoped.

“You and Lauren seem to be doing well.”

“We are.”

We’re better than well, but I don’t get into details with Stefano. He’s always been on a need-to-know basis, and right now, he doesn’t need to know everything when it comes to my life with Lauren.

“Are you moving to America? Mamma says you’re rarely home anymore.”

“I don’t know. The merger has kept me in the States longer than I had planned. And being with Lauren doesn’t make it easy for me to get away, but once everything settles down…”

“She’s okay with moving to Italy?” he asks before I can finish the sentence.

“I don’t know. We haven’t discussed it. The relationship is still new, Stefano. We’re taking baby steps.”

“You’ve been in American too long. You’re starting to talk like one. What man says baby steps?”

“Shut up with your Italian macho bravado bullshit. Wait until you fall in love, and we’ll see how long it is before you’re on your knees, begging her for a taste.”

“I never beg.”

“Mm-hm,” I mumble.

I hope I can live long enough to see the day that someone makes Stefano beg and puts him in his place.