“But…” she whispered.
I fell back on the pillows, running both hands over the stubble on my face. “Just give me a minute.”
“I’m sorry.” She braced her hands on my chest and pushed off me. I enjoyed every bit of her legs rubbing against my crotch.
“Please don’t say you’re sorry. I shouldn’t have done that.” I sat up again, putting as much space as I could between us. Though I couldn’t come up with a good reason to sit somewhere else. She didn’t move either. Maybe she wasn’t appalled by my kiss or whatever the hell that was. She finished buttoning her top in silence. Her long, curly hair covered the side of her face and effectively shut me out. After a while, I let out a breath, feeling more like myself again.
“I swear I had a goddamn point before. What are you thinking?”
She tucked her legs under her and turned to face me. Heat still covered her cheeks, and her breath sounded uneven. “Bad things happen when we kiss.”
I chuckled. “That was just the one time, and I’m pretty sure those guys would’ve shot at us regardless. This is the second time you pushed me away…” My phone rang and I grabbed it. Thankful for the distraction. Though Emilia and I were overdue for the talk.
I smiled when I saw Nikki’s name on the screen. Here was another soul as lost as me. “How you doin’, doll? How’s Paris?”
“Not there yet. Took a little detour. I need a favor, darling.”
Across from me, Emilia threw her long legs off the sofa and strutted to the door. My heart did a quick somersault. I jerked to my feet but stayed put when she grabbed her big-ass suitcase and rolled it to her bedroom. I sighed at her retreating form. “For you, anything. What is it?”
“My sister’s in jail.”
I tore my gaze away from Emilia’s door. Nikki needed me. Though I’d met her just a few months ago, she’d proven to be a true friend when she helped Cole get his company back. Even if her methods were outside of conventional standards, if not downright illegal. “Holy shit. What happened?”
“She killed a man.” Static filled the air. “Or rather, she’s serving time for a crime she didn’t commit. I promise you, she didn’t do it.”
Back when I first decided to go to law school, my life had been a collection of bad choices and bad choices with benefits. My decision had surprised my best friend, Cole. He supported me, even if he couldn’t find the connection between the Dom that couldn’t give a fuck and the Dom who wanted to be a lawyer. The answer was simple. As I got older, the playground got bigger, and the bullies got meaner. It was as Pops had always said, ‘Life isn’t fair. So it’s up to people like us to even it out a little. Do what we can, huh?’
“What do you need, babe?”
“I need to see my sister. Could you help with that? For some reason, her visitation privileges were revoked or something.”
“You got it, doll. Give me an hour. Just text me the details.”
“Thank you, darling. You’re the best. Ciao.” She hung up.
I stared at my phone until her message popped up. I forwarded the information to my assistant and hit the call button. She answered on the first ring. “How can I help you, Mr. Moretti?”
The girl was afraid of me. I’d meant to deal with that before, but with all this Emilia business, I’d had my hands full. “How are you doing?”
“Oh. Um. I’m good. Thank you and you?”
I chuckled. “I’m doing great. I need a favor.”
“Of course, anything.” Her voice still had a shaky quality to it, but it was better.
“I just texted you a case number. Could you print the file and bring it to my hotel?”
“Absolutely. I have it here. As soon as it’s done printing, I’ll bring it over.”
“Thanks.” I ended the call and sat in front of my laptop at the head of the table to get started on Nikki’s visitation request.
A few seconds later, Emilia came out of her room barefoot, wearing short shorts and a sweatshirt with a Harvard emblem. Just below it and written in smaller letters was Just kidding.
I wasn’t ready to let her go.
“Are you finished with your call?” she asked. If I didn’t know any better, I’d say that was her jealous tone. How about that? She cared. “I mean, I only ask because we have dinner on the way.”
“Thank you. I’m hungry.”
She grabbed her computer bag and padded her way to the other end of the table. Her long, toned legs were a big distraction. I glanced down at my crotch. Huge distraction.
Now that she was here safe and sound, the implication of what I’d offered her became painfully clear to me. Until the case with Levi was settled, Emilia would live here with me. Sleeping next to my room, possibly in the nude. At least in my head anyway. How the hell was I supposed to stay away from her?
She fired up her laptop and immediately started clicking away on her keyboard. Jeez, she typed fast. I did the same, doing my best to stay focused on the court order in front of me. I filled in the usual information and the same legalese I knew would get my request fast-tracked. I hit the keys hard and in rapid succession. If she could sit across from me and pretend we didn’t just have the hottest kiss in the fucking history of kissing, I could too. I slanted her a glance. The faster she typed, the harder I hit the keys. I saved the document and created a new email to my assistant, asking her to get my request filed before she came over.
Emilia moved on to scribbling notes in a file she’d laid out on the table. She bit her lip and squinted a little, the way she used to do in school when she’d spend all her free time studying in the library. After last night and everything that happened since we met up again, I understood where all her drive and motivation came from.
She wasn’t at Columbia to please Daddy or to have a title to add to her name. Her reasons were the same as mine. She needed to be a lawyer. In her mind, she had no other choice. She wanted justice, and law school was her means to the end she had envisioned for Levi.
I fisted my hand, catching myself before I hit send. Instead, I scrolled to the bottom of the email to add a “please” and a “thank you” for my assistant. After my application beeped to confirm the email had gone through, I snapped my laptop closed.
“So, why are you so afraid of kissing?” I asked.
I wasn’t about to let her off the hook that easy. Also, if we were going to be sharing a hotel suite, we needed ground rules. Well, I needed ground rules.
“I’m definitely not opposed to kissing.” The apples of her cheeks turned a pretty pink. “I’m just afraid of what comes next.”
I joined her on her side of the table, crossing both arms over my chest to keep myself in check. “Sex, you mean?”
She slapped my shoulder, and I caught her hand. With a smile, she laced her fingers through mine. Emilia needed me. More than the hot sex we could be having right now, she needed my friendship. And I needed hers.
“I mean love.” She met my gaze.
Love? My mind was still reeling from the kiss. Love was something I couldn’t deal with right now. I brushed her soft cheek with the back of my fingers, following the path down to her neck to pull on the curl resting on her shoulder. She was so beautiful. Yeah, Emilia deserved a life full of love. A life full of all those things women want.
I’d had this conversation with many women before. The ones who thought they had feelings for me and wanted to move the relationship to the next step. In other words, do the whole boyfriend and girlfriend thing where we held hands and went to picnics with other couples and such. How could they possibly have any real feelings for me if they didn’t know the real me? How could they possibly love the real me?
“I think your heart is safe with me.” I brought her hand up to my lips.
She smiled, letting me pull her into my embrace. As if I’d held her a million times, she rested her head on my shoulder, and I’d be damned if this small act didn’t feel like home.
“It’s not my heart that’d be in danger. You know t
hat. It would be your life, and now that I’ve met the real you, I’d hate to see you get hurt because of me. You asked why the hell not? That’s why.” She wrapped her arms around my waist.
I held her tighter, wishing I could tell her she was wrong, but that would be a lie. Even if our circumstances weren’t exactly the same, our curse was. To love someone was to hurt them. It was the reason why my relationships were short and sweet.
“You knew that about me in law school?”
She glanced up at me. “I recognized the look in your eyes.”
“What would that be?”
“I don’t know. There’s an intensity in your eyes that warns people to stay away. You can be so intimidating and brutally honest. There was also the way you approached the law. Always from a practical sense. Always looking for a loophole. I realized it was because you already knew how criminals were trying to beat it.”
“You never considered that maybe I didn’t just have the brawn and good looks but also the brains?”
She barked out a laugh. “Oh, wow. I see your ego hasn’t changed.” She slipped her hand up to the nape of my neck, and a knot unfurled inside my chest. Emilia had always known who and what I was, and she didn’t hate me. She avoided me like the plague, but at least she didn’t fear me. “I didn’t care about any of that. Even after that one girl started a rumor about you running around with a crew from Jersey.”
That’d been a particularly tough day. I went home with a girl that rocked my world. During the post-coital high, I felt like we had connected and decided to come clean. In my defense, I was wasted when it happened. Needless to say, she didn’t handle the news well.
At first, she thought I was kidding, and even got turned on by it. When she realized I was serious, she couldn’t get out fast enough. Fear was the last thing I saw in her eyes before she shut the door in my face. We hadn’t connected like I’d thought. If I had to be honest, I just needed a bigger dose of brutal honesty. I hated secrets. The next day, I made an ass of myself and asked Emilia out, hoping for the real thing.
“I knew they weren’t rumors,” she said.
“That scared you? Tell me the truth.” I wanted to hear her say it. Hell only knew why.
“No.” She ran her thumb over my lips, her gaze roaming my face as if she was trying to memorize it. Was she fighting the urge to kiss me again? “I didn’t want to make you choose.”
“Make me choose?”
She nodded. “The way Mom had done with Dad.”
“No one can make a man do something he doesn’t want. Your dad chose to do right by you.”
“His love for us made him weak. It’s what got him killed.”
“Love didn’t get your dad killed. Bad people did. I hope you understand that.” I cradled her neck.
She shook her head. “Not that I thought you’d fall for me back then, but why risk it? I didn’t want for you to have to choose because it really isn’t a choice. No one ever leaves. Not even the great Dom Moretti.”
“My case was different. I had a choice.” I worked hard to ensure that choice was never taken away from me. Vic did too.
“I have a choice too. And we both know the solution is the same.” She shuffled away from me to make her point.
“Killing is never a solution.”
I was an idiot for thinking I could change her mind. I told her about Mickey’s fucked-up test to show her I knew what the hell I was talking about. I knew what it was like to kill someone. To see the years go by and never be able to make amends with yourself. I didn’t want that for her. It could be different for her if she wanted. She deserved better.
“Whether you like it or not, Levi has to pay for what he did. I don’t want to spend the rest of my life looking over my shoulder. It’s time I live my life the way I want with whomever I want.”
“And I agree with you. The asshole has to go. I just don’t want you to be the one to do it. At least let me try.”
“Fine.” She walked to the living room and casually poured herself more of the wine.
“I need your word.”
“You have my word. I won’t kill Levi unless I have to, or if he’s not in jail by the time Jess’s case is closed.”
“That’s the most non-committal promise I’ve ever heard, but I’ll take it.”
9
Good Ol’ B.O.D.
Emilia
A knock on the door made me jump like I’d been caught doing something wrong. Was it wrong that I wanted to keep kissing Dom? Kissing Dom the first time was a bad idea. The second? Well, the second kiss felt like it should never stop. I sipped my wine, hoping to find the answers at the bottom of the glass. I had to suppress whatever feelings started brewing when I let Dom get close because if I didn’t, Dom and my family would get hurt.
“Why so jumpy?” Dom swung the door open.
I recognized the woman from his office, the one who stopped me from leaving earlier today. Her eyes went big when she spotted me across the room. Why did I feel naked? Why did I feel the urge to explain to her that I was here on a temporary basis? That I had to be here or that Dom made me stay.
“Is this all of it?”
“Yes, Mr. Moretti.” She jerked to a halt and faced him.
“It’s just Dom. If we’re going to be working together, there’s no need for reverent bullshit.”
“Oh.” She stepped back and removed the lid from one of the boxes. “Okay.”
“Thank you. You can leave everything there. I got it.”
She dropped the files back in the box as if they’d suddenly caught fire and stepped away. Without another glance in my direction, the girl scurried out of the room and closed the door behind her. Dom got to work on unloading the rest of the manila folders, throwing them on the table in different piles. I picked up a box and set it on a chair.
“Whatever did you do to her? Isn’t she your assistant?”
“Yes.” He shook his head. “She’s scared shitless, and I don’t know why.”
I laughed. He actually cared. “Maybe cut back on the ‘shits’ and ‘fucks’? Just a thought.”
“I’ll try to remember that.” His gaze lingered on my face before he returned to the papers he held in his hand.
“Cold case?” I asked.
“A friend of mine needs help with it.”
“Is that the doll who called earlier?”
Okay, that came out a little too catty. I grabbed one of the files to distract myself. I couldn’t care less if Dom had girlfriends who called out of nowhere to ask for help. If our living arrangements had any shot at working out, I had to assume Dom would need his freedom to do whatever it was he did when he got bored or…dammit.
I hated the thought of Dom with another woman, but I’d made my bed, literally, and now I had to lie in it. I had no right to show up out of the blue at his place asking for help, tell him we couldn’t be involved romantically, and then turn around and also ask him not to see anyone else. Right. We needed ground rules—a protocol book.
“Yes. This is her sister’s case,” he answered in his lawyer voice. To my disappointment, he buttoned his shirt. Yeah, he meant business now.
I put aside my pettiness and grabbed a folder. “Maybe I can help?”
“You’ve done criminal?” He pinched his nose. “Sorry. Of course, you have.”
“Don’t be. What do you know so far? Did she do it?”
“No.”
“You believe her?”
“I believe her sister.” He lowered himself on his chair. “Problem is, it’s been fifteen years since it happened.”
I took the seat next to him. “Oh my God. Poor woman.”
“And she was practically a child when she was sent to jail. This is the kind of bullshit I can’t stand.”
His phone rang again. I sat back and braced for his “Hey, doll,” instead he only placed the speaker to his ear. After a few seconds, he glanced at me. “Yeah. I’ll let her know.”
“What is it?” I asked when he threw the
phone on the table. “You ordered pizza?”
“I was hungry. I ordered an extra-large in case you wanted some. Oh…” Shit. I hadn’t thought when I ordered.
When Mom and I had to leave Phoenix many years ago to hide from the cartel, she was meticulous and never lost sight of her goal—to keep me safe. She did her job so well. Back in New York, I never would’ve made such a stupid mistake.
“I’m sorry.”
“Don’t worry. Your call was intercepted by a friend.”
A single knock on the door broke the silence. Dom pushed himself off the chair and strode to the door. He slanted a glance in the peephole before he swung the door open. A stocky guy with dark hair and a darker stare shoved my pizza into Dom’s hands.
“I’ll have a talk with her,” he called after the man, who’d already disappeared from the threshold. “Good talk.” Dom slammed the door and set the box on the coffee table.
“I’ll do better. You don’t need to school me.” I jerked to my feet and flipped the box open. The pizza looked like it’d been shaken and then thrown across the room. “Maybe your Uber guy shouldn’t quit his day job.” I picked some melted cheese and pepperoni off the paper, rolled it onto a slice of bread, and bit into it like a burrito.
“He’s not my Uber guy. That was Vic. The reason I’m still alive.”
“Oh.” I chewed on my pizza, feeling like a six-year-old. I’d messed up bad. In my defense, though, I’d never let my guard down before. Not at home in New York, at school, or at work but between being back in Phoenix and Dom, I felt like I was home.
“You’re not to leave this room or order any more clothes or food. You understand?”
I tossed my pizza back in the box and wiped my hands on a paper napkin. “I agreed to let you help me with Levi, but let’s be clear, I’m not your prisoner. I survived the last ten years just fine without you. I can take care of myself.”
“That was when Levi thought you were dead. Now he knows the truth, and the only reason you’re still here and not in some ditch in Nogales is because he doesn’t know where you are. How ’bout we keep it that way?”
Ignite You: A Second Chance Mafia Romance (Cole Brothers Series Book 0) Page 7