Free That's Amore by Erin McCarthy Page A

Accuse him of assuming too much by being prepared. Or worse, accuse him of being some kind of male slut to carry condoms around all the time.
    Possible answer number two—he could say no. This would mean he would have to stop, go to the store with the biggest erection in the history of mankind and buy another box of condoms.
    During which time undoubtedly his nephew would wake up and ruin all wild and wicked plans for the evening.
    Paige was staring at him expectantly.
    Third option. Act innocent and pretend to find the condoms in the drawer.
    Jeff ran his hands through his hair and stuttered. “I… no of course I don’t, but maybe there are some lying around here.”
    Wrong answer. Paige blanched. “This is my
parents’
apartment, Jeff. They don’t need condoms!”
    There was a visual he didn’t need. “Okay, well, maybe other people have stayed here before.”
    She calmed down a little, relaxing in his arms again. “My cousin Loraine did stay here with her husband over Memorial Day.”
    Jeff gulped in relief. “See? There you go. Loraine was always a big…” he cut himself off quickly, wondering if it were possible to swallow his own tongue. He would be less of an idiot without it.
    “Loraine was a what?” she asked in suspicion. “Did you date my cousin?”
    “No!” Deeper and deeper. Where was a shovel when he needed one?
    When in doubt, seduce her. He leaned forward and kissed her, running his fingers through her long hair.
    She sighed and nestled against him.
    “You go check in the bedroom, Paige, and I’ll look around out here.” Better she find them. More authentic that way. Especially since he was a lousy liar.
    “Okay.” She sashayed off, her tight behind wiggling at him in those naughty little shorts.
    Man, he was one lucky guy.
    He jumped off and pulled out the drawer on the end table to make it sound like he was searching.
    Paige’s cell phone rang, and he jumped. He made a grab for it, not wanting to wake Justin up.
    “Hello?”
    “Jeff? It’s Gina.”
    Oh, yeah, his sister who was in the hands of a dangerous criminal. He was ashamed to admit he had forgotten all about her existence until now. “Gina, are you okay?”
    She snorted. “I’m fine. I’m just ticked off, that’s all. That bastard Frank has not even noticed I’m gone. Sal and Sam found him slugging back beers at a bar, talking to some tart with red hair.”
    Jeff wasn’t surprised, but he was sorry for Gina. “I’m sorry, hon.”
    A sniffle came to him. “Yeah, well, that’s it. I’m done with Frank. I hope he gets what’s coming to him.”
    At the very least, he was out of a job. There was no way Jeff was paying Frank to jerk around all day if he wasn’t dating Gina anymore.
    “So, what now? Is Johnny going to let you go?”
    “Yes. He’s figured out I’m not such a good bargaining tool since Frank didn’t even notice I was missing. Sal and Sam are picking me up in half an hour.”
    Thank God. “Good. He didn’t hurt you, did he? Because he’ll have three Benedettos to deal with if he did.”
    Gina sighed. “Nah, he didn’t hurt me.”
    Jeff didn’t like the way she sounded. It was like she was depressed or something, which was very unlike Gina. But then again she had just figured out the man she had devoted four years of her life to didn’t care diddley squat about her.
    That was enough to depress anyone.
    “You want me to come and get Justin tonight?” she asked.
    “No, you go home and get some sleep. We’ve got it covered.”
    “You can take him to Mom’s if you want.”
    If he was stupid.
    Taking Justin back would mean waking him up and driving over to his mother’s, who was about the last person in the world he wanted to see right now, since he was sporting a major hard-on.
    After dropping Justin off it was possible that Paige would just want to go home, and he was on shaky ground as to whether or not she would want him to join her.
    No, hell no, he was not taking Justin to his