I Hid a Mob Boss in the Stacks, So He Claimed My Nights novel · Chapter 23 of 24

Chapter 23: Snow on the Third Step

Zofia's POV

My father went to midnight Mass with his cousin, and he took his cane, and he winked at us in the hall.

I locked the door behind him and went up the stairs with Lucio's hand in mine.

The flat over my father's house has two rooms and a slanted ceiling.

There is a narrow bed under the window, and a radiator that clanks.

One wall is paperbacks I have read aloud to no one.

Snow had begun at dusk.

From the window I could see it settling on the third step.

It lay thick and white on the plank he had cut with his own saw.

He stood in the middle of my floor with his coat on, and his head almost touched the beam.

"It's small," I said.

"It's yours."

"Take off your coat."

He took it off, and I hung it on the hook where my cardigan goes.

I took off my glasses and put them on the sill.

I sat on the edge of the bed, and he stood in front of me with his big hands hanging open at his sides.

"I don't know what to do with them," he said. "I'm afraid I'll break something."

"You won't," I said.

"Zofia."

"Come here," I said.

He knelt on the rug between my knees, and I took his face between my hands.

He closed his eyes.

I kissed his forehead, and his eyelids, and the crooked bridge of his nose.

Then I kissed his mouth, slowly, and he let out a long shaking breath against my lips.

"I wanted to do this slowly," I said. "I have wanted to do it slowly for a month."

"Tell me how."

"Your sweater first."

He pulled it over his head.

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