Chapter 162

“Seriously, though,” Ivan says, grinning at me. “We’ll just forget about our lives for a couple of hours. Be two totally different people. Leave it all behind. Hi, my name is Rodrigo,” he says, his smile growing as he holds out his hand to shake mine. “Pleasure to meet you.”

I laugh at his stupid little game, shaking my head, hesitating. He reaches out and takes my hand, though, lifting and lowering our clasped fingers in a forced shake.

“Come on,” he whispers. “Try it.”

“Nice to meet you Rodrigo,” I murmur, flicking my eyes up to him, smirking a little.

“I’m a lion tamer,” he says, pitching his voice lower as he takes on his role. “I spend my days taming wild beasts and my nights...taming wild women.

And who are you?” he asks, holding my hand tight. “Come on, Fay,” he urges in a whisper, giving me a little nudge with his shoulder when I hesitate.

“You can be anyone.”

I tilt my head back, giving into it, my hair falling back over my shoulders as I look up into the sky and consider my options. “I’m Sister Mary Alexander,” I say finally, smiling to myself as I decide. “I’m a Benedictine nun. I make fancy marzipan and sell it on the streets of Austria to raise money for the orphans under my care.”

“Fay,” I hear Ivan whisper, snapping me out of my imaginary wanderings and drawing my gaze immediately back to him. I blink in surprise when I see a smile stretched across his face from cheek to cheek. “You’re so weird,” he says, shaking his head at me a little, a laugh starting in his chest.

“What!” I gasp, “you said I could be anyone I wanted –“

“That’s right,” he laughs, his grin growing, “you can pick anything in the world – any fantasy at all - and you pick a nun?”

“What!” I protest, leaning forward and laughing with him, joy running through me. “I liked The Sound of Music a lot when I was a kid –“

“Oh, so did I,” Ivan agrees eagerly, his words overlapping mine as he reaches out to grab me, pressing his hand against my lower back, “you actually hit the nail on the head, Sister Mary –“ he mumurs, pulling my body closer to him so that I’m laying flat on the lounge and he’s curved over me. “This is actually working for me –“

“What!?” I shout, aghast – laughing through my shock - I was going for the opposite of that – the least sexy thing I could think of –

“Oh yeah,” Ivan nods, smirking down at me, moving the hand on my back to graze the side of my ass and move briskly down my thigh, his fingers teasing at the edge of my skirt, “I went to Catholic school – I’ve been fantasizing about this for a long time –“

“What?!”

Fall For My Ex's Mafia Father Chapter 0161 “Mmhmm,” he continues, “do you think you could say the rosary for a little bit, and like, look at me disapprovingly? Or, actually, could you get a ruler and slap me on the wrist – just a couple times -“

I’m laughing so hard now that I can feel tears pricking at my eyes. Ivan goes along with me, our bodies shaking against each other at the ridiculousness of it, and suddenly I find myself a little bit in love with his sense of humor, his ability to take anything and twist it and make it fun.

“Well, Rodrigo,” I murmur a moment later when my laughter fades a bit. I’m smiling up at him, not allowing myself to think too much about what I’m doing as I raise my hands to run them through his blonde hair, my eyes roving over the tattoos on his neck, suddenly wanting, very much, to see the extent of them printed on his arms and his chest. “What do a lion tamer and a chaste nun do next? I don’t have any animals for you to tame. And there are no wanton women here.”

“Aren’t there, though?” Ivan murmurs, dipping his head to press his lips softly against my clavicle.

“No,” I whisper, closing my eyes and letting my head fall back, clearing the path for him to kiss his way up my neck.

A shiver runs through me as he does it, as he runs his mouth over the length of my jaw. “Liar,” he whispers, the word just tender breath against my ear.