Lust for Danger: A Mafia Romance -- Book One: The Family [Erotic Mafia Romance Book] by Angela Jordan Page B

block against the bright noonday sun.
     
    Time to hit the road , he thought to himself. Fiumicino was an hour away, and from Dominic’s tone it sounded as though there was no time to spare.
     
    And in that moment, lost in his thoughts amid the revving of the engine, Carlo failed to notice the faint buzzing of the cell phone in the pocket of his jeans…
     
     
     

Chapter Twelve
     
     
    Without opening her eyes, Jessica awoke suddenly from a fuzzy dream, aware of nothing except the fact that she was thirsty. Her head was spinning, her eyes were closed, and she was very, very thirsty.
     
    For a brief moment, those were the only conscious thoughts she had; soon after, though, came the realization that she didn’t know where she was or how she’d come to arrive in her present condition. 
     
    Keeping her eyes shut, she tried to piece it together. Bed… headache… thirsty. She reached out with a clumsy hand to try and grab her cell phone, thinking it might hold some clues, but after a few seconds of fumbling around unsuccessfully for it she decided it’d be easiest to just forget about that idea.
     
    Okay, she said to herself,her thoughts arriving slowly one by one. I think I should open my eyes. Cringing, she lifted open one eyelid halfway, groaning as the bright light of the room flooded her vision. She snapped it shut again instinctively, but the brief flash of light was enough to let her get her bearings a little bit more. She was lying in bed, thirsty and with a headache, and it was morning. This scene felt familiar, somehow… And sure enough, suddenly, it clicked. She had a hangover – and one for the ages.
     
    She groaned at the realization, knowing full well that she was in for a full day of feeling like death warmed over. It had been a long, long time since Jessica had gotten drunk to the point of excess – she couldn’t remember the last time, probably sometime in college – and she’d never dealt well with hangover symptoms. Forgetting about trying to piece together her night for the time being, she knew she had to worry about making herself as comfortable as possible so that she could somehow ride this out.
     
    First things first: she needed some water.
     
    She opened both eyes now, forcing them not to shut even though the sunlight felt like it was scorching her retinas. She sat up abruptly, causing her head and stomach to reel like ferryboats in an ocean storm.
     
    “Unhhh,” she muttered, clenching her teeth against the punishment her body was giving her. “Fuck.”
     
    She looked around the room, taking stock of her surroundings and seeing evidence everywhere of a late, drunken night. Her clothes were everywhere; one of her shoes was on top of the mini-fridge, for God’s sake. And she didn’t have to look in the mirror to guess that her makeup was probably smeared all over her face. The one thing she didn’t see, though, was a water bottle anywhere. That was one of the downsides of not drinking very often: she wasn’t an expert at hangover-prevention like some of her friends. In college, she’d seen girls trying every trick in the book, from the one who’d take an Alka-Seltzer just before bedtime to the girl who’d uncap two bottles of lemon-lime Gatorade and set them on a chair next to her pillow before heading out for the night.
     
    She turned her gaze listlessly to the bathroom, where – of course – the light was still on. She saw a glass next to the faucet. Is the tap water safe in Rome? her mind wondered suddenly, and somehow in her current situation the thought of it made her laugh.
     
    Pulling off the covers, she gingerly stepped onto the carpet and walked slowly to the mini-fridge, steadying herself with a hand on the wall as she pulled the fridge open. There before her was a big, gloriously cold-looking bottle of water; in front of it, there was a price tag for €4.99. Fuck, she thought to herself, that’s really expensive. But right now, it was also really worth