Filthy Marcellos: Legacy: A Legacy Prequel Read Online Free PDF Page B

to an end months ago. She had thought he was good with it, but maybe that was just her. Catherine didn’t know what to tell the guy except to move on. She already had.
    She enjoyed her pasta and chicken in peace while she got her textbook out and began to study for an upcoming exam on social conditions and factors of law in the factions of government. It sounded as boring as it read. Catherine still wasn’t sure why she decided to go into law. Honestly, she didn’t know what she wanted to do.
    Law probably wasn’t it.
    She didn’t have a choice, now.
    “I thought I recognized that face.”
    Catherine’s head popped up from her textbook as she withdrew the fork from her mouth. With a mouth full of pasta and wide eyes, she looked in the direction of the familiar voice. Dark, wild hair, broad shoulders, a cocky as fuck smirk, and a lean form waltzed toward Catherine’s direction with a stride that oozed confidence.
    Christ .
    Cross Donati was sex, sin, and hell on two legs. He was arrogant when he wanted to be, difficult on his good days, and sexy as fuck all the times in between.
    Catherine wondered why in the hell Cross was anywhere near a Marcello business. While their families were friendly in the world of Cosa Nostra, territory was still territory. Cross had his own family and territory to be on.
    This was not it.
    “Catherine,” Cross said, his smirk melting into a sensual smile.
    She forced the mouthful of food down her throat just so she could take a breath and speak.
    “Cross. What are you doing here?”
    Cross shrugged, pulled out the chair across from Catherine, and sat down in a fluid motion. He radiated sexuality and coolness with every movement. “Business, bella . Nothing unusual.”
    Beautiful .
    Catherine ignored the shiver crawling down her spine.
    “It’s always unusual when Cosa Nostra families mingle.”
    “And what do you know about that, hmm?”
    “I know enough. I was never an idiot, Cross.”
    “No, that you were not.”
    His assertive posture and easy smile reminded her of what he’d been like back in high school and college as the king of the baseball field and the alpha everywhere else. He was a year older than her, but way back when, the two had been close … So close that he’d been Catherine’s first for a lot of things.
    “How have you been, Catherine?” Cross asked.
    She didn’t have a proper answer for him.
    His question felt laced with a great deal that he hadn’t actually said. Like time was catching up to them with just a few words. Her first kiss was Cross. Her first time with a man was Cross. He’d given her five crazy years full of more memories than she cared to count. Her first love was Cross.
    If she had a checklist handy of things she had done so far in her life, Cross’s name would own every mark.
    Being good together wasn’t always enough. When they were good, they were so good. But when they were bad, they were downright awful. Sometimes, they spent more time breaking up through high school and into her first year of college than they did being together. Young, stupid love wasn’t enough for it to work. 
    Catherine went her way. Cross went his.
    Simple as that.
    Right?
    With him sitting across from her like he was, grinning and looking her over with his dark brown gaze and his fingers running through his hair, she remembered more good than bad. The way his mouth tugged up in the corners when he smirked was enough to make Catherine’s lips tingle with the memory of what it felt like to be kissed all over by this man.
    What was it with this guy that irked Catherine so damned much?
    “You’re terribly quiet,” Cross noted.
    “Thinking,” Catherine admitted.
    “Dare I ask about what?”
    “You know what, Cross. The same thing I always think about whenever you’re around.”
    Like how stupid you make me , she added silently. 
    “You didn’t answer me. How have you been, babe?”
    “I’ve been okay,” she replied.
    Cross smiled as his brow