Total pages in book: 95
Estimated words: 91389 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 457(@200wpm)___ 366(@250wpm)___ 305(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 91389 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 457(@200wpm)___ 366(@250wpm)___ 305(@300wpm)
That seems to silence him. Angelo avoids my eye as I finish up with his arm, making sure it’s tight, and murmuring about still needing stitches in the morning.
“I wanted to see you,” he says after a while.
I stand there looking at him, my hand covering his hand. His fingers lace into mine, and he holds my gaze, his eyes glittering with lust and need, and a shiver runs down my spine as he tightens his grip on my hand. I think of his naked, wet body, of the outline of his big dick, of sleeping with him in the pitch-black darkness of the private room, and I can feel the shape of something strange beginning to form between us. Not a relationship, but not friends either. Not fuck buddies, and not really business associates. Something else, a category I don’t have a definition for yet, and it scares me. It freaks me out how much I like having him here, but also how afraid of him I am.
The kettle shrieks. I jump and he’s smiling at me like he thinks I’m ridiculous. I pour two cups of Earl Grey and we retreat to my couch where I sit with my feet in his lap, my heels practically right on the shaft of his cock. He rubs my toes absently while we drink.
“What happens now?” I ask, watching his reaction.
“Usually, we’d go back to your room, and I’d fuck you into a gurgling, moaning putty.”
I snort and slap his arm. “I meant with that Roc guy.”
“Right. Him.” He looks away as his lips press into a white line. “I’ll find him and I’ll kill him.”
“That sounds really simple, except you tried it already.”
“I didn’t know Vito was going to be there.”
“Yeah, exactly. He surprised you once already. What makes you think he won’t do it again?”
He doesn’t seem to like that, but from my perspective, he nearly got his ass killed twice now because he keeps underestimating his former friends.
“Don’t worry about it. I have a pretty good idea of where he is right now, and I’ll take care of it.”
“Sorry, that’s not good enough. I am worried about it and I want to make sure you’re not going to end up dead.”
“It’s not your concern, okay? I’ll handle Roc. I don’t even know why you seem to care so much.”
I glare at him and pull my feet away. “I care for the same reason you showed up on my doorstep looking like hell.”
He stares back at me, equally annoyed, and slowly puts his tea down. I move away from him, gripping mine with both hands like it’s a shield. He ignores it and comes after me, his face hard.
“I’m here because I want you, Claudia,” he says and his voice is very quiet with a hint of hunger in the way he licks his lips. “There was a second in that alley when I thought it might go wrong, and you’re all I could picture. You, baby, not my family, not my parents, just you.”
“I don’t know why,” I whisper, and that’s a lie, an incredibly big lie. I reach the end of the couch and there’s nowhere left to run. He reaches out, takes my mug away, and puts it down next to his.
“Yes, you do. We’re supposed to be working together. Except I don’t think it’s work anymore.”
“No, I don’t think it is either.”
His fingers brush my cheek. I know what’s coming, and I’m terrified.
It’s one thing to fuck him at Cage. That’s like a whole different world. When I’m there, I can pretend like I’m someone else, like I’m glamorous and exciting and an interesting person. But here, in my shitty apartment on my second-hand furniture, I’m just Claudia, a nobody, a nothing. A girl with no money from a broken family with an abusive uncle and an addict sister. Here, in this apartment, I can’t pretend anymore.
Letting him into my life like this might be a mistake.
But he’s so close, and he’s so gorgeous, and I want him as much as he seems to want me.
My lips part. He moves closer, inches now.
Then the washer buzzes. I jump and pull back, and he only watches as I jump to my feet.
“I should move that over,” I say, trembling with nerves.
He says nothing, and he doesn’t have to. We both know what I’m doing as I hurry to the laundry. It’s tucked into a narrow closet next to my bedroom, and the doors boom as I yank them open and throw all his wet stuff down into the dryer.
This is stupid. I want to kiss him, but I don’t know what it’ll mean if I let myself get involved even more than I already am. I hate guys like Angelo, except Angelo isn’t like Tommy, and really, I just hate Tommy. But I’m afraid that if I get tangled even further into Angelo’s world that I won’t be able to escape, much less pull my sister away when the time comes to save her. Could I give this up if it was the only way to get Serena away?