After a moment, he nudged his head very slightly in the direction of the sound but still kept his eyes on hers.

"Are you going to get that?"

"Yes," she said.

"But only if you concede."

Leo held her gaze for another second, then another until he finally looked away, exhaling.

"Fine," he said.

Vittoria picked up her phone with an expression that was unmistakably smug, but as she looked at the screen, the expression shifted into something more complicated.

It was her mother calling through a video medium.

She accepted it and held the phone up and put her free hand flat against Leo’s chest, the universal signal for do not move and do not speak, which Leo acknowledged by becoming very still.

Her mother appeared on screen, the particular composed elegance of a woman who had never in her life looked dishevelled on a video call.

"Piccola mia, come stai?"

[My baby, how are you?]

"Good, good," Vittoria said, in the tone of someone who was fine and needed her mother to believe she was quickly lest she got too interrogative.

After the usual pleasantries, her mother got to the real reason for the call.

There was an art gallery event the following evening, one of those polished gatherings where influential families drifted between paintings and champagne while quietly arranging introductions they would later pretend had happened naturally.

She mentioned families bringing their children, mentioning it twice, and Leo, who was sitting very still to Vittoria’s left and slightly behind her eyeline, caught both mentions and what they meant.

He also caught, somewhere between the lines of his mother’s chattering, the implication that Vittoria had not, or at least not seriously, been with anyone before.

The way her mother spoke about it, the gallery, the opportunity, the who knows, carried the assumption of someone who believed the subject was still open, and Leo sat with that quietly.

"Can we talk about something else?" Vittoria said, not really liking the direction the talk was going.

"Alright, alright," her mother said, in the tone of someone conceding temporarily.

"But you are coming. Tomorrow evening. I’ve already chosen something for you to wear."

Vittoria sighed.

"Fine," she said and glanced left, catching Leo’s eye.

He was smiling at her, and despite everything, she almost smiled back, but then his smile shifted into something else, something that she recognised too late as mischief as he opened his mouth.

"Tori."

The name came out clear, warm and loud enough, almost like how a lover would call his other half and that made her mother stop mid-sentence.

"What was that?"

Vittoria’s free hand was already moving, covering Leo’s mouth and pushing him back into the cushions as she tilted herself off frame, her voice coming out in the slightly elevated register as she tried to improvise.

"It was uh was the cat," she said.

"But you don’t have a cat."

"I’m considering getting one. Mama, your choices are always perfect. I love you, I’ll see you tomorrow, goodbye."

She ended the call, and when the screen went dark, she turned to look at Leo, who had her hand still across his mouth and was shaking with it underneath her palm.

"What," she said, "was that?"

She lifted her hand, and the laugh that came out of him was deep and genuine but also completely unrepentant.

"So I’m a cat now," he said as his laugh subsided a bit.

"You are the most—" she started, and then she became aware of how she was positioned, lying across him on the couch.

She pushed herself upright and began to get up, but Leo’s arm came around her waist and held her there, even slightly pushing her onto himself.

"Where are you going?" he said, still laughing.

"Let go," Vittoria said, getting all flushed and cute.

"Where are you going, Vittoria?"

She pushed against his chest, still trying to manoeuvre her way out, but then he caught her hand, and then he wasn’t laughing anymore.

But not only was he not laughing, but he also pulled her back down toward him and found her lips before she could say whatever she had been about to say.

She made a small sound of surprise that dissolved almost immediately as her hands found the back of his neck.

She kissed him back, letting herself go and enjoying something that she had been waiting for him to initiate since the first time she did in the confines of that hotel in Manchester.

He pulled her closer, and she let him, her fingers curling against his neck, and it lasted until her hand found his chest and pushed once, twice, not hard but enough, and he pulled back.

Vittoria exhaled through her nose, slow and unsteady as she tried her hardest to catch her breath.

Leo looked at her for a moment and then brought his thumb gently across her lips.

"There," he said quietly.

He looked at her face, at the expression she was wearing that looked like the life in her had been sucked out of her, but she seemed to have enjoyed that.

"Much better," he said as his left hand sank into the roots of her hair, but he had only gone so far when Vittoria dropped back onto him, her lips taking his as she tried to take control of the situation.

Leo let her, but from there, it was full on, with neither side pulling away despite feeling short of breath.

Their hands, mainly Leo’s, roamed around her waist, then her ribs, and then her thigh.

The wandering of his hands was unhurried, appreciative, settling briefly on the soft curve of her hips, and the generous curve of her backside did not escape him.

But that was as far as he went while Vittoria’s hands found the roots of Leo’s curly hair, too.

Then she held it back, pulling her mouth and tongue away from Leo’s.

Leo, with his hair held back, glanced up at Vittoria with a smile before swallowing once.

"I am really glad you like to eat," he said before squeezing the fullness beneath the soft curve of her hips, causing Vittoria’s breath to hitch before it turned into a shy look.

"Why are you teasing me with something I told just you?" Vittoria said, like she’d been hurt while her head rested on Leo’s chest, while the latter’s hands rubbed her thigh and then came back to brushing her hair.

"You’re my first," Leo suddenly said, causing Vittoria to snap up, while a smile formed on her face before she dropped back to his chest.

"And you’re mine!"