by Mia Taylor
She wants me just as much as I want her, he thought, nuzzling his nose against the curve of her neck.
“You want romance?” he murmured. “I can romance the shit out of you.”
Teresa purred against his lips, her hands resting against his waist as she ground toward him, her dress rising higher.
“That sounds hot. Are you going to do it right here in the parking lot?”
As if to answer her question, he slipped his hand around the front of her crotch, his fingertips teasing against her and Teresa gasped at the boldness of the move.
Still, she didn’t try to push him off, despite the fact that they were in plain view of cars coming and going down 12th Avenue.
She doesn’t care, he realized and the understanding only made Luca want her more.
She hardly seemed like the same girl he had met a couple of weeks earlier as her breath quickened against him, grinding her damp center toward him with a mounting urgency.
To his surprise, Luca suddenly felt conspicuous, even though he could see that she would have been happy to continue their afternoon tryst right there in the middle of the parking lot.
Still, he couldn’t stop himself from pressing a finger inside her.
Teresa gasped, her grip around him tightening.
“Does that feel good?” he murmured from his spot at her throat. “Do you want some more?”
“Yes, please,” she breathed, arching herself as if to force him further inside.
His mouth suctioned around her skin as it prickled with gooseflesh.
She fell back against the car, raising a leg around him to encourage his thrusting fingers higher inside her and Luca felt a burst of sweat erupt over his brow.
“Come for me,” he ordered her. “And then I’m going to take you so hard, they’re going to hear you scream inside the restaurant.”
His words had an immediate effect on her and her slender frame tensed, a gush of hot spilling over his hand.
Teresa moaned softly, a spasm of quivers wracking her and Luca knew that whatever modesty he had been experiencing had dissipated as he freed himself from his pants.
He spun her around, her hands spread onto the roof of the car as he hiked her dress up.
She bucked backward and Luca needed no further encouragement as he drove himself inside her.
“Oh my God…” she moaned, gasping, and Luca saw her knuckles whiten against the car.
“Do you like it, cara?” he murmured.
“Oh God, yes,” she choked, her words escaping in short breaths.
Inside her he dove, filling her as deeply as he would go, and beneath him, Teresa’s body shook with her climax.
His lips laced around her ear, his breathing erratic, inhaling her pheromones, the scent of her bringing him closer to the brink.
She spasmed, bucking back again and yelping. He was seized by a rush of tension through his groin.
“Oh shit!” he cursed and Teresa squealed as he exploded inside her in streaks.
Teresa giggled shakily as he withdrew slowly, turning to look at him with hazy eyes. She gazed past him and cleared her throat.
Casually, he looked over his shoulder at where she was looking and caught the eye of an elderly couple gaping at them in contemptuous shock.
“What?” he barked at them. “You’ve never watched porn?”
“Luca!” Teresa hissed, dropping her head in embarrassment, but he only laughed, pulling her away from the car.
“Come on,” he told her, brushing past the couple. “I’m starving all of a sudden.”
She followed him without argument but through his peripheral vision, he saw she kept her gaze averted.
“Have a good day,” he chirped at the couple, who continued to gawk at them in disgust.
This woman brings out the beast in me, he thought, squeezing Teresa’s hand affectionately. When have I ever wanted to do anything like that before?
It was as if nothing else existed when she was around and Luca could see he had the same effect on her.
It’s time to bring her in on the real me, he thought and the idea filled him with apprehension.
Teresa was a good girl, after all. How would she handle knowing the truth about him?
I guess we’ll find out. It’s better to know now than a year from now, he reasoned. I didn’t find out what Mara was up to until it was too late and look how that worked out for me. I don’t want there to be secrets between us. If she doesn’t like who I am, she is free to walk away.
He hoped that wouldn’t be the case, but he knew she needed to know sooner rather than later.
“Are you embarrassed?”
Teresa’s words danced him out of his deep thought and he cast her a quick look as they made their way back to their table.
“About what?” he replied nonchalantly, holding out her chair for her to sit. She giggled, reaching for her napkin.
“I guess that is something you do regularly,” she joked but he could read a certain spark of worry in her eyes as if she suspected he might agree.
Sinking into his own seat, he stared at her closely.
“Are you asking if I’m in the habit of banging my girlfriends in public places in broad daylight?”
A wry smile formed on her lips but the look of concern in her eyes didn’t falter.
“Maybe? Do you have more than one girlfriend?”
Luca’s dark eyebrows shot up and a rush of pleasure slid through his body.
She’s worried that I have other women.
“You are my only girlfriend,” he told her gruffly, his face growing slightly warm. It sounded so damned cheesy saying the words aloud but he wanted her to know that she was the only one who consumed his thoughts day and night.
Her eyes brightened and again, her face flushed.
He loved how expressive her face was, as if hiding her emotions was a completely foreign concept to her.
Why can I picture her on a beach in Sardinia right now, wearing nothing but a pair of bikini bottoms?
A spark of excitement filled his loins as he seriously considered it. Maybe it wasn’t such a pipe dream after all. What would it take to sweep her up, for them to ride off into the horizon in their dragon forms and live in Italy? Leave it all behind.
Good God, what have I become in my old age? A romantic?
Teresa cleared her throat and glanced down at her menu as if she was pretending to read it.
“I have a job offer for you,” he told her, eager to change the subject. He was surprised by the barrage of intense emotions which overcame him and talking about his feelings was not his strong suit.
There had never been anyone around to listen to them anyway.
She raised her head to look at him, cocking her head to the side with interest.
“You were saying that in your text,” she replied, sitting back in her chair. “What is it?”
“Do you have any experience bartending?”
Her face shifted into a look of wariness.
“I served a bit in college,” she replied slowly. “Picked up a couple bartending shifts. Why?”
“I spoke with the owner of La Perla. He’d like to offer you a job bartending there if you want it.”
Her mouth fell open and Luca could read her thoughts before she spoke them aloud.
“At the restaurant where I almost…”
She couldn’t finish her sentence as she shook her head.
“August DiFranco is in the equivalent of Siberia right now,” Luca told her softly, reaching for her hands. “You won’t see him again, I swear.”
She didn’t pull away but he could almost see the wheels turning in her head as she contemplated the offer.
“The pay is competitive and the clientele is upscale, despite your past experience,” Luca continued as she stared pensively at him in silence. “The tips are great. You can ask Tanya to be sure.”
He waited a moment before swallowing his disappointment and speaking again.
“Listen, I
understand if you don’t want to take the offer but—” he started to say but she cut him off.
“No, I’ll do it,” she said quickly and Luca was taken aback by her change of heart. He was sure she was going to refuse.
“I wouldn’t suggest it if I thought you were in any danger, but you need a job and it’s a stomping ground I know well.”
The truth was, Luca liked the idea of having her where he could easily find her.
Whether it was possessiveness or the need to protect her, he wasn’t sure.
Probably both, he reasoned, but he didn’t think about it much more.
“Tanya is looking forward to having another woman in the mix. She calls the staff a sausage fest and you made an impression on her.”
Teresa snorted.
“Did I? Was it that I caused a scene or ran out on the bill?” she replied dryly.
“She likes you,” Luca assured her. “And I told you not to worry about the bill. After what happened, the least they could do was comp you.”
Teresa nodded quickly and forced a smile on her face.
“Thank you for arranging it,” she told him sincerely. “I do need a job and it will be good to work in a place where I know someone.”
Luca nodded slowly but he could tell there was something else bothering her.
Am I making a mistake by allowing this to happen? he wondered. She is going to be in our business now.
But Luca admitted that was entirely the point.
He wanted Teresa to be a part of his world and that was the subtlest way he knew how to bring her inside without sitting her down and explaining who he was.
I wouldn’t even know how that conversation would go. “Hey, baby, I’m a caporegime in the Menotti family. That means I run drugs, launder money, and oftentimes inflict bodily harm. But mostly, I just give the orders, so don’t worry about anything.”
Luca had a feeling that the words would not go over well with a sweet Southern belle.
He needed to bring her in gently and the best way he could think of was through the restaurant.
“You can start on Thursday,” he continued, his emerald eyes fixated on her face. “If you don’t like it, you can bow out any time.”
An indecipherable expression fell over her eyes and Teresa was quiet for a long moment.
“Why?” she asked quietly. “Why are you bringing me in?”
The question sent an inexplicable chill through him, as if his subconscious was warning him about something, but he dismissed it.
“You need a job—”
“No, I heard that part,” she said softly. “I mean… why are you doing this?”
He maintained his hold on her hands but the feeling of alarm grew in his shoulders and he drew back slightly, his mind beginning to race.
Maybe she already knows more than she’s letting on, he realized.
“Because I trust you,” he answered simply. “And I want you close to me.”
Teresa swallowed visibly and nodded slowly. Then, lowering her eyes, she smiled weakly.
“I trust you too,” she told him earnestly. “And I’ll take the job. Thank you, Luca.”
He grinned and raised her hands to his lips, kissing them.
I wonder how mad Giovanni is going to be knowing I hired someone without his approval, Luca thought, but that was a matter for another day. Right now, he was still basking in the aftermath of having made love to his girlfriend.
“We should order. The waiter is starting to look annoyed,” Luca laughed and Teresa nodded. They both turned their attention to the menu.
He owes me, Luca reasoned. He had my father set up to be murdered. This is the least he can do.
But Luca could not help but feel that he was constantly pushing his luck with the don and that eventually, that luck would run out.
He just didn’t care.
Chapter Ten
The Truth About Mara
“You have no idea what you’re doing, do you?”
Angela’s head jerked up and she stared sheepishly at Tanya, shaking her head in admission.
“It’s been a while,” she confessed, but the truth was, she wasn’t paying attention to the drink orders piling up at all. Her mind was on fire as she scoped out the bar, the Rolodex of mobsters making her memory shift into overdrive.
There were soldiers and associates milling about, night after night, their conversations wrought with innuendo about their criminal enterprise. It was shocking to Ang how little discretion they were using, as if she wasn’t a new face in their world.
She reasoned that she wouldn’t be there at all if she hadn’t been properly vetted, and not for the first time, she wondered what the hell Duggan had done to give her such a good backstory.
Or maybe Luca is so well trusted that they didn’t even bother to do a proper screening of me.
Her ears were honed to all the words she could hear but it was overwhelming.
Which one of these guys is Duggan’s guy? she wondered, her hands shaking slightly at the idea that she was being carefully monitored by another agent. That was her number one concern, not so much the operation that she’d been sent for. Her main worry was that her relationship with Luca was going to be exposed and Duggan would yank her out of the fold as quickly as he had dropped her inside.
She had not told Duggan about her new job, despite having been there for three shifts. At some point, she knew she’d have to, but every time she’d had the opportunity, she had made up a mental excuse not to say anything.
On one hand, she knew it was because she wanted to protect her secret, but on the other, she wasn’t sure how much she trusted Duggan at all.
As promised, she touched base with the agent every night, but he did not seem to be any wiser to what she was doing than he had been before.
The more Angela spoke to the FBI man, the more she realized that she was nothing more than a pawn in a game she didn’t understand.
She had also come to realize that Luca had nothing to do with Val’s disappearance, although how she knew either understanding as fact, she couldn’t say.
You’re falling for a guy who could be a killer, was the refrain that constantly played in her mind, but Angela knew that it was her instinct which had enabled her to become a detective when others were still earning their pross collars in El Cajon.
Luca is not deceiving you. Terry Duggan is. But why?
It didn’t take her long to figure out that the agent knew much more about her cousin’s fate than he had let on. There was a reason he had sought her out and not someone with more experience in undercover work. It was up to Ang to figure out what that reason was exactly.
On some level, Angela knew she was playing with fire, working both sides of two potentially corrupt organizations.
At least the mob doesn’t pretend to be something it’s not, she thought bitterly. I know exactly what’s happening here.
The gig at La Perla was an undercover dream, but Angela didn’t know if she was a cop anymore.
Her feelings for Luca had likely clouded her judgment, but the need to know the truth about Val still overwhelmed everything.
I need to step up my game here. But how?
It also begged the question what she would do with any knowledge she gained with Duggan possibly being the enemy.
She knew why Luca had brought her to work at La Perla; he trusted her and wanted her to see him for who he really was.
That shows he cares about me more than just some one-night stand, she thought and the realization filled her with guilty pleasure, even though she’d already known it. The more time they spent together, the more she realized that the man was her mate. The fact that they were both dragons had never truly surfaced, but Ang was sure he knew about that part of her life.
It was the UC part that worried her terribly.
If he ever learned the truth about her, he would feel betrayed—and rightfully so.
But who says he has to learn the truth?
“Why di
d you take this job?”
Tanya’s voice brought her back to reality and Angela glanced at the blonde nervously.
“I need it,” she replied honestly but Tanya smirked, not buying the explanation.
“You don’t need this job,” she countered. “There are hundreds of bartending gigs in Miami. This one is different—as I’m sure you’ve already figured out.”
Angela didn’t know how to respond to that and instead said nothing, pretending to busy herself as she poured yet another concoction from the never-ending list of chits. Tanya, however, was not letting her question go so easily.
“Did you accept it because Luca insisted?” Tanya demanded, a slight edge in her voice. The tone surprised Ang and she looked at Tanya blankly, shaking her head.
“No,” she replied. “He just suggested it and I needed—”
“Cut the horseshit, Teresa. You know what these guys are and you’re trying to learn more, aren’t you?”
Her heart began to pound in her chest and she stared at the bartender nervously.
Oh God. Tanya is onto me. I should have seen that coming. She’s smart and observant. Why wasn’t I more careful around her?
“I don’t know what you mean,” Ang mumbled, turning back to her drink orders. “I—”
“Horse shit. You’re coming back to the scene of the crime for a reason.”
Angela’s back became a steel rod but she kept her gaze averted.
How does she know?
Her mind whirled with what she might have said or done to arouse Tanya’s suspicions, but she couldn’t quite pinpoint what she’d done.
“He’s not coming back,” Tanya continued. “DiMarco sent August to Jersey.”
Angela blinked several times, trying to make sense of what Tanya was thinking.
“Okay,” she replied evenly, her mind whirling. She willed herself not to say anything more.
I’m getting better at this, she realized. Keeping my mouth shut. I wonder if it’s going to help me in the long run or if my goose is already cooked.
“So any thoughts of revenge are not going to happen,” Tanya told her and Angela suddenly understood what she was getting at.
Oh. She thinks I’ve come back to avenge my attack. Damn. I kind of wish I’d thought of that.