Elie turned his knuckles and tormented her even more, sliding his fist sideways in between her lips, rocking his fist, finding her sensitive spots and stroking them over and over, but so lightly, he only inflamed them, not giving her anything close to relief.
“Brielle?” Stefano’s voice penetrated her Elie-induced fog brain.
She sat up straight and hoped no one noticed her heightened breathing and the color creeping under her skin. Elie withdrew his hand and sipped at the wine as though he was completely innocent.
She focused her entire attention on Stefano.
“Tell me you didn’t already accept the job Val and Dario offered you, Brielle,” Stefano said, clearly repeating himself. “If it’s money, we can do better than they can.”
Dario made a sound of derision but kept eating. Valentino rolled his eyes. “Everything isn’t always about money, Stefano. Sometimes it’s about interesting versus boring.”
“Please tell me you are not calling our investigative work boring,” Giovanni said.
“Well, actually I am.” Val didn’t deny it. “You already have two teams of investigators. What is Brielle going to do? Twiddle her thumbs? If she works for us, she’s actually going to be doing what she loves. Chasing down leads, not getting the leftovers from your two lead teams.”
“That’s not what would happen, Brielle,” Stefano objected. “Is that the line of crap they fed you? If you haven’t yet given them your word, we need to sit down tonight and talk after dinner. We can throw their asses out and come up with a plan.”
“Stefano,” Francesca murmured. But she sounded on the verge of laughter.
“Asses,” Crispino repeated. Loudly. He tossed pasta into the air. It landed in his curls.
“Far too late,” Dario said before Brielle could respond. “I had to share lavender breath with her. Don’t do that often and there’s no going back. She owes me.” He added more spaghetti sauce to the second helping of angel hair pasta he’d put on his plate without looking up.
There was silence and then Emmanuelle burst out laughing. The others followed suit. “Unfortunately, Stefano,” Elie said, “Dario has a point. There’s no going back from that.”
“There’s a story there I missed,” Nicoletta said.
“Don’t worry, I’ll share,” Taviano told her.
Brielle noticed no one reprimanded Crispino for his language. Stefano calmly removed the pasta from his hair. When the baby went to throw more into the air, Stefano took the plate.
“Are you finished, son?”
Crispino shook his head.
“Do we throw food?”
Crispino shook his head.
Stefano put the plate back in front of him and then leaned over and kissed his temple.
“Dario.” Francesca’s brows came together. “You aren’t eating any of the vegetables. We can get a different recipe if you don’t like this one. Is it all the spices?”
Dario scowled at her but he didn’t reprimand her as Brielle knew he would her had she pointed out he wasn’t eating something in front of others. Probably because Francesca exuded genuine concern that he might not like the recipe and she was willing to change it just for him. There was something about her that made others, Brielle included, want to protect her and please her at the same time. Not to mention Stefano might leap up and kill anyone who dared to swear at his wife. Brielle couldn’t imagine even Dario crossing that line.
“I love the pasta and wanted seconds, Francesca. And I had quite a bit of the salad. Saw Brielle making that dessert so I was saving room.”
Francesca smiled at him. “That makes sense. I just don’t want to serve anything you don’t care for.”
Brielle waited until Dario looked at her and then she rolled her eyes. Emmanuelle did the same. Both women knew he didn’t eat that many vegetables. Emmanuelle because she cooked for him and Brielle because Elie had told her Dario was difficult when it came to food. He gave no indication that he noticed the two of them.
“Stefano, were you aware that Dario owns and operates a lavender farm?” Emmanuelle asked. “He totally runs it. Isn’t that cool? That’s why he always smells so good.”
It was a taunt, pure and simple. Dario flicked his poisonous, vengeful gaze at her, but she appeared completely unfazed. At the very least, Brielle would have moved closer to Elie.
Elie spun pasta on his fork and took a bite. “He does, that’s true. He found the best piece of property on the lake and snapped it up. I wish I’d found it.”