Total pages in book: 18
Estimated words: 17073 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 85(@200wpm)___ 68(@250wpm)___ 57(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 17073 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 85(@200wpm)___ 68(@250wpm)___ 57(@300wpm)
No one wearing a suit this fancy, driving a car that has so many illegal modifications, and exuding this level of intensity can be on the straight and narrow.
“Full disclosure?” He shuts his eyes and releases his grip on my arm, almost expecting me to pull away when he answers. “I stand as head to a powerful family in Colorado. I’ll spare you the details for your sanity and mine, but let’s just say we’re not blood-related.”
I. Fucking. Knew. It.
Well, I didn’t, but I could’ve guessed it.
“I should’ve seen it coming with a name like Salvatore in our neck of the woods.” I chuckle to his surprise, and he meets my eyes with a furrowed brow and pursed lips of confusion. “Salvatore Lione, right?”
“You’ve heard of me?”
“Everyone’s heard of you.”
His attention travels back to my hand, which hasn’t budged. “And you’re not afraid?”
“Why would I be?” I squeeze his bicep. Goodness, it feels amazing. “You haven’t done anything to show me you’re a bad guy. Where I’m concerned, you’re just another wayward soul trying to brave a stormy night.”
The corner of his lip curls upward, and warmth burns in his hazel eyes.
I know I shouldn’t continue playing this game now that I know who he is. But what good is chasing him away going to do? We’re both trapped here, for better or worse.
More than any moral objections, carrying on as if our conversation didn’t go the way it did is incredibly thrilling.
It’s not every day you happen upon a criminal king and live to tell the tale. And with the way Salvatore can’t take his eyes off me, I’m sure it’s going to be a great story to tell.
5
SALVATORE
Hours drift by, and we polish the remainder of the Old Buck whiskey and play our game. While we sit in the warmth of Silver’s diner, an ice-cold sting lingers where her hand touches my arm.
Fucking pathetic. That’s how it makes me feel. Pining over something as simple as a touch. Never in my life has a woman gripped me so hard by the core that I’ve wanted to derail my entire existence to spend another moment in her company.
And my window is closing, I realize. Silver’s yawning and has been for half an hour, and I’m growing increasingly upset at the idea of her turning in for the night.
“Did you at least have a good night?” she asks, and like magic, her hand returns to my arm and soothes the frozen ache.
Get a hold of yourself. You’re a goddamned Mafia boss. Bringing this pure, beautiful creature into your world is a mistake. You’ll shatter her perfection as you have so many poor souls before.
I can’t even fucking reprimand myself without making it all about her.
“Beats sitting in my car and waiting for the snow to thaw.” I hate how desperate I sound.
A bright smile forms on Silver’s lips and loosens the pit in my gut, if only for a moment.
“Well, I aim to please.” She breaks contact again, this time wobbling unsteadily until she gets to her feet. “But I’ve also had way too much of that engine cleaner, and I need to get out of these clothes.” She giggles to herself and pulls the front of her long-sleeved shirt up to her nose. “I can still smell this morning’s bacon on these.”
“You keep a change of clothes in the back?”
Silver adjusts her shirt, and with my eyes intently following her actions, I’m almost floored by her motion to get it back in place. Without realizing, or maybe it’s intentional, her haphazard tugging stretches the neck hole far enough to expose her cleavage.
Two mountainous peaks held in place by black cotton. I only get a snapshot of her, but I salivate at the sight, and my mind starts drifting to all the wrong places.
Better run, pretty little thing. Otherwise, I might do something I regret.
“Whoops, shit, sorry,” she says, noticing her mistake and covering herself in full. With her first unsteady step toward the short hall leading to the back of the diner, she answers my question. “No, but I do have gym clothes back there. I’ve passed out in them before, so they’ll do.”
The mental anguish of Silver stripping a few feet away from me hammers in my skull, and it hasn’t even started. She isn’t even past the counter, and my mind spirals into unfathomable depths.
Deep breaths and count to ten. Someone told me that works to still anger, and it might do the same for this. Closing my eyes to give it a real shot is a bad mistake. The sight of Silver’s perky tits held together and hidden by a thin covering of black is burned into eyelids. The longer I keep them closed, the more intense the throbbing in my trousers becomes.
She drives me crazy and doesn’t even know it, while she giggles, hums, and talks to herself all the way into the back of the building.