“I like the idea of you dripping in anticipation all day. I could lick all that honey off your thighs when I come to see you.”

She pressed her thighs together, trying not to squirm. “I’m wearing my panties, Stefano, so call when you want them off.” She pulled on a matching blouse, one that didn’t quite hide the necklace he’d given her. She touched one of the dark smudges with her fingertip. “I look like I’m in high school.”

He laughed. “I’ll be calling and texting, bambina, so keep your phone close and fucking answer it.”

“What part of ‘I’m working’ don’t you understand?”

“What part of ‘fucking answer your phone when I call’ don’t you understand?” he countered. “I don’t like you working, but I’m giving you what you want, so you give me this.”

“You are exasperating,” she informed him, pulling on knee-high boots. They were navy blue with three leather ruffles down the backs. They matched the skirt perfectly. “I’m leaving, but I’ll keep my phone close.”

“Wait for Emilio and Enzo. They’ll come up and get you and take you to the other elevator.” He caught her chin in his palm and kissed her. Hard. Perfect. “I’m calling them up to meet you now.”

Francesca felt a little dazed when he released her. She nodded and forced herself to walk out of the bedroom. She got halfway down the hall when he called her. She turned back and he was leaning against the doorjamb, watching her. Naked. He looked gorgeous. Tough. Dangerous. Completely hot. And he was all hers. She quirked an eye at him, wishing she had his confidence. It didn’t bother him in the least to be naked. She knew if the elevator doors opened and a crowd emerged, he wouldn’t care.

“What time is your first break?”

“Around ten.”

“Go straight to the restroom and lock the door.”

Her entire body tightened. It was the way he said it. The look in his eyes. She couldn’t imagine anyone sexier. She couldn’t find her voice, her mouth had gone dry and the air seemed to have left her lungs. She just nodded and turned back toward the great room, to wait for Emilio and Enzo.

She was grateful for the bodyguards as the car she was in drove past the entrance of the hotel. Paparazzi were everywhere, a three-deep crowd laying siege in an effort to get pictures of her or Stefano, preferably both of them. In spite of the tinted windows she ducked down automatically.

“Is his life always like this?” she asked Emilio. She was becoming rather fond of both Emilio and Enzo. She knew they were devoted to Stefano and she liked them all the more for that.

“Yes,” Emilio answered. “Don’t worry, Francesca. We won’t let them near you. Just stay away from the windows and if we warn you, leave the counter and go straight to the back. Pietro knows to protect you. He’ll come out and handle customers. No one is going to talk about you or let on in any way that you’re working there.”

She shook her head. “The paparazzi pay good money to people for information. Don’t count on it, Emilio.”

Enzo snorted. “Seriously, Francesca? Do you really believe anyone would dare cross Stefano Ferraro? Hell no. No one in the neighborhood would be that stupid.”

She frowned. It was back to the “mafia”-type warning. What did it matter if Stefano was upset with someone if they got paid an exorbitant fee for selling information? What would he do to them? Surely no one was that afraid. She shivered, remembering how he could look. One moment he was soft inside, looking at her with such a sweet look and the next, he was cold and distant, without expression. Scary.

The car pulled up behind Masci’s Deli. She reached for the door handle but Emilio stopped her. “Wait until we clear the area. We’ll give you the okay to get out, but you don’t move until then.”

She subsided against the seat with a little sigh. Becoming engaged to Stefano had changed her world all over again. She’d gone from homeless to being engaged to a very wealthy man in a very short time, and she felt like her mind couldn’t quite catch up. She was very glad to get inside the deli, where only Pietro was waiting. Together they put everything in the cases and set up for the early-morning crowd.

She loved that it was so busy, keeping her from thinking too much, but by the time the first wave had come and gone, she found she was having to struggle to keep her mind from straying to Stefano and what he had planned for her ten o’clock break.

Joanna came in around nine, and since there were only a couple of people left to serve, Pietro told her to grab a coffee and visit for ten minutes. She did, slipping into the chair across from Joanna, feeling only a little bit of guilt that her boss was allowing her extra break time, but not too much because she wanted to show off her ring.