Felix let go of the wallet. “Keep it,” he grumbled. “But be careful. The asshole who used to own it is mean.”
Berto nodded and gulped down an enormous mouthful. “He’ll never know where it went,” he said, eyes big.
“Berto,” Danny said sternly as the kid turned to take off.
Berto stopped as though shot. “Sorry, Lightfingers,” he mumbled. Like Danny, he was wearing an oversized sweater, and from the folds of the front, he pulled out Felix’s actual wallet.
“You dropped it,” Berto said through another mouthful, sputtering crumbs.
“Of course I did,” Felix murmured. “Thank you so much for returning it.”
“Berto?” Danny repeated.
Berto scowled and pulled the cash and credit cards out of the pocket of his ragged jeans. “You also dropped these,” he said, with admirable dignity for a kid who looked about seven and smelled like pee.
“Indebted,” Felix ground out from between his teeth.
Berto gave him an unrepentant grin and skipped off into the crowd, and Danny shook his head. “God, you’re an easy mark. I can’t believe you had the balls to lift a wallet when you’re such a sitting duck.”
Felix might have been stung by the words, but this guy had not only saved his wallet—and his money—but he’d also been kind to the street urchin who’d stolen it in the first place. Felix had spent his whole life being told how to act like he had money—and now this adorable pixieish boy was showing him how to act like he had class.
Besides, he had no room to throw a hissy fit when he’d almost been left in a foreign country with no money and no ID.
“What would you suggest?” Felix asked. “I stole that wallet because the guy was an ass, grabbing girls’ butts, talking about all the foreign tits for sale. He was gross. I don’t plan to make a living at it.”
“Good, because you’re shitty at it,” Danny said, rolling his eyes. He grabbed Felix’s hand again and pulled him through the crowd. “But you’re not completely useless. Okay, do you know where we are?”
Felix looked around. “Not the tourist part of the city?” he hazarded, realizing they were toward the outskirts, near the hills.
“Nope. Now something super interesting happens here. You saw Berto? See all these kids around here?”
Felix glanced around and noticed that a lot of them were staring at him with a predatory gleam in their eyes—right up until they saw Danny.
“Yeah?”
“Their parents all work for those people.” Danny gestured with his chin to a series of opulent villas about half a mile up the road from the street they were wandering. The road itself was lined with umbrella pine trees, and the scent of pine nuts was sharp and mouthwatering. “Those people are very rich. And you, it appears, are also very rich.”
Felix eyed the closest mansion, which would probably house the entire block of big houses he’d grown up on. “Not that rich,” he said honestly. “I’m like… less rich.”
Danny snorted. “Yeah, but they don’t know that. Now hurry!”
“Where are we going?”
“Well, one of those rich bastards comes down that hill about once a day to drop his spoiled kid off in the shopping district.”
“So?”
Danny rolled his eyes like Felix was almost too brain-dead to breathe. “So! ‘Gee, mister, I’m so glad I saw you. I lost my wallet and all my money. My parents live in a ritzy place in the States, and if you give me some cash, I can have them wire you a refund.’”
“I’m not going to do that!” Felix protested, repelled.
Danny sighed, his shoulders slumping. “Yeah, I figured. Whatever.” He turned away then and stalked through the crowds of children and residents, and Felix had the sudden fear he might lose this new and interesting person right when he’d found him.
“Hey, wait!” Felix caught up with him and tried not to flinch from Danny’s reproachful look as he drew alongside.
“Why’s it so important? That you screw this rich bastard with the spoiled kid?”
Danny shrugged. “It’s not,” he said. “Forget I mentioned it. Come on, though; there’s a café down by the corner that’s not nearly as crowded as the ones in the shopping district, and the food’s better.” His grin came back then, brilliant and enticing. “Trust me!”
Felix would find out later why Danny hated Julia’s father—“that rich bastard”—so much, and the reason hadn’t been pretty.
But not that day.
That day, Danny bought him a meal of pesto bread and sweet wine, and the two of them sat in the shade of some rich people’s mountain and looked out onto the bustling ancient city. Felix told Danny everything he knew about Rome’s history, and Danny told Felix everything he knew about how to make enough money to live.
“But why don’t you… I don’t know? Get a job?” Felix asked, as Danny explained the finer points of a short sting. “Wouldn’t it be easier?”
Danny’s eyes—hazel, almond shaped, with just the slightest upward tilt at the ends—lit with unholy fire. “Yeah, but it’s not as fun.”
Felix fell into that fire so willingly and quickly he wasn’t aware he’d even stepped into the pit.
That evening, Danny pulled him into a tiny garret apartment that held a twin-sized bed with a plain linen duvet that was mostly clean, a chest of drawers that appeared to hold most of Danny’s possessions, and a bathroom.
“What are we doing here?” Felix asked, although he thought he knew. His experience so far had been with girls—and it had been disappointing in the extreme.
But every time Danny’s pointed features lit with that puckish joy, Felix found himself more and more wanting to taste his full mouth, wanting to run his hands under that loose sweatshirt to feel the lean body beneath.
And Danny hadn’t let go of his hand since they’d left the café.
He wasn’t just holding Felix’s hand to direct him. Their fingers were entwined, and every now and then, during a still moment as they were waiting to cross a street, Danny would rub Felix’s knuckles with his thumb.
And the shiver in Felix’s belly would resonate a little bit harder. At this moment, it was an avalanche in his chest.
No, Felix may have been a little naïve, but he wasn’t entirely unaware of what was going to happen.
Danny closed the door behind them and turned the lock, then spun around to Felix with dancing eyes.
“You tell me,” Danny said breathlessly. “You just followed a thief into his bedroom. What do you think he’s going to steal?”
Felix’s eyes felt heavy, his breath quickened, and he thought of all the things he wanted to do with this wiry little thief and all of the places he wanted to put his mouth. But at the same time, he knew that once he tasted Danny, once they’d put their hands on each other, what had started as a morning’s adventure and turned into an afternoon’s interlude would suddenly be something much bigger than that.
The stirring in his stomach was nothing less than extraordinary.
“Everything,” Felix whispered, taking a step closer to Danny, then another. “You’re going to take everything.”