Pop turned around in the front passenger seat, putting his phone away after sending one of his men a texted order. “Your mom is right, figlio. Don’t spill any blood today. Nova was definitely acting off last night, and I’m fairly sure killing someone she considers family will not make her smile today of all days.”

I turned my head back to look at Nova and stabbed my fingers through my hair in frustration. Her long blond hair fell almost to her waist, the sun shining down on it and making it glow. Her face had only the bare minimum of makeup on it, but she didn’t need it to begin with. She was wearing a pair of jeans that cupped her perfect ass and a long-sleeved shirt that was tight across her chest, making my mouth water at just the sight of those rounded globes.

Fuck, she got more and more beautiful every time I saw her. When she’d arrived in New York at the beginning of the summer, it had been like seeing her for the first time. Suddenly, it wasn’t just my precious little angel standing there.

She had literally stolen the breath from my chest as she’d thrown her arms and legs around me when I’d met her at the airport as I usually did. My body had responded just as powerfully as my heart had. My hands had gripped her hips reflexively and held on tighter than I ever had before.

For years, I’d kept that part of myself buried deep. I had it locked down so hard that my dick hadn’t even twitched once over the years. I knew people thought something was wrong with me, but I had only one goal in mind, and nothing was going to stop me from making it reality. I had to wait for Nova to grow up, and that meant waiting in all aspects of my personal life. She—and our future together—was worth it.

But that day, as she’d wrapped her legs around my waist like she’d done a thousand times in the past, my body had gone from zero to one hundred in the blink of an eye, and I’d been seconds away from exploding in my damn pants then and there. There was no controlling how I felt. The reaction had left me shaken, and I knew if I didn’t put some physical distance between us, I would end up doing something that could ruin all the plans I had for my future with Nova.

I’d promised her the day before her arrival that I would spend the entire day with her, but after nearly nutting off at our normal greeting, I’d made up an excuse about work and quickly got the hell away from there while I still had a thread of control left. Then she’d tried to climb into bed beside me that night, as she’d done since she was three years old, and I realized that no matter how busy I stayed during the day, the nights would destroy everything in a heartbeat if I weren’t careful.