Dating A Hitman (The Dating Series Book 4)

by Love, B. T.

  I let her go and got the original letter out of my desk. “Here,” I said, turning around and sticking it out in her direction. “You might as well read it now because you’ve stuck your nose in my business like you were told not to and I have no other choice but to explain myself.”

  She read the letter, and then I had to explain to her the person I really was: a killer. My heart ached when she stepped away from me and left the house in fear; it was a reaction I both expected and dreaded. So I was even more surprised when she came back some time later and threw her arms around me, thanking me for taking away the boogeyman.

  In all my years of doing what I did, there was never a thank you that meant more to me than hers.

  She asked me to tell her her story, and I agreed because she deserved to know business that had to do with her. I told her how I killed Jimmy Rolofo, and how Machete was originally his dog, although I would never fully agree that he ever really truly belonged to him. It surprised me when she wanted to know the details of Jimmy’s kill. She asked if he had suffered and when I told her that he had she agreed that he deserved it. But the most unexpected event was when I showed her the machete I used to kill him with. She actually slid it out of its sheath and held it in her slender hands. It was the most unreal experience. There she was, the girl I set out to protect when I was younger, holding the weapon I used to slay her attacker. I never thought I would see that image right in front of me. I felt a renewed strength standing there and watching that; I felt I had done well by her. And by the end of our conversation and after all the truths about me were revealed, she actually wanted to stay. The monster other people saw in me was somehow nonexistent when she looked at me.

  So as I sat across from her in the hot tub, it was a surprise that her attitude had seemed to change.

  “I told you before, I’m no good for you.”

  “Yeah, you keep telling me that. But do you want to tell me why?”

  “Are you serious right now?” I asked, pulling my head back at her ridiculous question.

  “Of course I’m serious.”

  “Scarlett,” I hushed as I leaned closer, “I kill people for a living.”

  “I know,” she said quietly. “But, are you going to kill me?”

  “What?” I asked, baffled by her question. “I spent a lot of time searching for a man to destroy so I would be sure that he would never hurt another hair on your head again. Why on earth do you think I would do the same to you?”

  “I don’t. Which is why I’m still sitting here across from you, and why I’m not in fear for my life as I go to sleep each night. I trust you.”

  I relaxed back against the wall of the hot tub. “I’m not a good man for you. I do things most people aren’t capable of doing. When those things happen, sometimes I just need my space. And on a side note, I can’t talk about what I do anyway. I close up; I’m non-emotional. I have to be to do what I do. Women don’t like that. That’s why I’m better at having fun relationships with women, not serious relationships. So you need to just drop the subject, okay?”

  “Well you’re definitely not lying about being non-emotional . . .”

  Her sarcasm annoyed me. “No, I’m not,” I agreed.

  She scoffed and looked over at the bushes beside us, setting her bottle of beer down on the concrete. “It’s just unbelievable.”

  “What’s unbelievable?”

  “You. You and your occupation.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “My dad was right,” she said, looking back over at me with annoyance. “I should stay away from you.”

  “And you want to listen now all of a sudden?”

  “Yeah, because I realize that I shouldn’t have anything to do with you. You’re a murderer. I mean, what’s wrong with me, associating with someone like you. People pay you to take innocent people’s lives; it’s morbid.”

  Now that pissed me off. “Hey, I don’t kill innocent people,” I said, trying hard to keep my angry voice quiet.

  “And how do you know that, huh? You just see the dollar signs that they offer you.”

  “That’s not true.”

  “Oh yeah? I’m sure it’s not just some one-hundred-dollar bill they’re giving you. You probably make thousands. That’s incentive enough to take out anyone they ask.”

  “Enough of this bullshit,” I called out while leaning forward and pointing a finger at her. “I know what you’re doing.”

  “What? I’m just calling it like I see it.”

  “Well for your information I only do hits on people who are known for doing horrible things.”

  “We all do horrible things, Troy; we’re human.”

  “Most people don’t do things like the people I take out do.”

  “Yeah, whatever.”

  Man, she really irked me. I took a deep breath and grabbed my beer from behind me, tilting my head back and letting the liquid flow freely down my throat. When I finished it I threw it as hard as I could, breaking it against the concrete. Against my better judgement I felt I had to tell her more. But that was just what happened when I was around her; she was the only person on the planet who could bring me to my knees. “The night you got here,” I said with irritation.

  She looked away from the area I had thrown the bottle to and settled her eyes back on mine. “What?”

  “You asked me earlier when I did my last hit. It was the night you got here.”

  Her shoulders slumped down until they were almost completely under the water. “Is that why you were out here drinking in the dark?”

  “Yes.”

  “Oh.”

  “You wanna know they type of person I killed?” I asked.

  “You, you would actually tell me that?”

  “Without detail, yeah, I will. He was a sex trafficker; he specialized in young girls.”

  “Oh,” she said quietly. “Well that’s good; you did the world a service then.”

  “Yeah, I did. And you wanna know who I took care of before that? A rapist. And before that was a man who killed his wife from beating her head into the ground. And then there’s jolly ol’ Jimmy Rolofo who shot a little girl three times and strung a puppy up by its neck to die in his bathroom. That’s who I agree to take care of, none of that I got beef with this guy so please get rid of him bullshit.”

  “So, you’re a hitman with a heart?”

  I shook my head with annoyance; I couldn’t tell if she was being condescending, or if she was just asking an honest question. “You really piss me off, you know that?”

  “What? Why?”

  “Because I’m not my normal guarded self when I’m around you. You make me act different, and . . .”

  “And what?”

  “And it pisses me off.”

  “Well, you piss me off too, you know.”

  “Yeah, I’ve figured that out.”

  Now she looked mad. She stood up and came over to me, her sleek body dripping with droplets of water, the assertive look on her face turning me on in an instant. My eyes widened as she placed her hands on my shoulders and straddled me with her smooth legs. We had been in a similar position as this on the grass when I was teaching her self-defense, but this was much different; there was a different feeling between us, an undeniable attraction that we both knew we wouldn’t be able to pull away from this time.

  “What are you doing?” I asked as my fingers explored the outside of her thighs, not at all trying to resist the urge to touch her.

  “I’m taking the initiative since you won’t,” she said as she leaned down to kiss me.

  “No,” I stopped her. “I’ll be damned if I’m going to let you initiate what were about to do in this hot tub.” My hands gravitated from her thighs to her womanly hips and I pulled her down harder against me. She sucked in a pleasant breath as I looked into her eyes. “If you start this with me there’s no going back.”

  “I don’t want to go back; this is what I want.”

  “You want to sleep with a killer?”
I asked, bringing my hand up out of the water and tucking her hair behind her ear.

  She nodded yes, unable to speak from the force of passion that was brewing between us.

  My fingers spread through the side of her hair and gravitated to the back of her head; as my level of excitement grew I found myself struggling with wanting to pull at her strands. “Do you want me to touch you?” I asked, my voice nearing a whisper.

  She nodded again.

  “Where?”

  “Everywhere,” she begged me.

  My eyes dropped to her lips. “Everywhere?” I asked.

  She nodded.

  I couldn’t take it anymore; she just looked too spectacular in the glowing light of the hot tub. I carefully pulled her head down and brought her lips to mine. My body lit up as my tongue parted her soft lips and stroked against hers with a delicate motion. Her mouth quivered as I touched her; I knew she felt other parts of me that were ready to explore her body as well.

  I ended our kiss and looked up at her. “This is your last chance to tell me to stop. Because once you get me started, I won’t want to.”

  “You’re the one that’s the tease, remember?” she said with a smile. “If anyone’s going to pull out on this it will be you, not me.”

  I smiled. “I don’t pull out.”

  I brought her mouth back down to mine again, the kiss more intense than the one before. I could feel her relax her body weight on top of me and I loved every bit of it, because this woman was finally right where I wanted her to be.

  She broke away from my lips and looked up at the house. “When will they be back?”

  “Not for a while.”

  She pushed herself up and leaned over me, pressing the button on the panel behind me to turn off the light to the tub. Her belly button ring dangled in front of my face and I took the opportunity to pull her closer so I could run my tongue along her stomach and take the ring into my mouth, something I had been dying to do ever since I saw it that first time we had been in the hot tub together.

  “You’re good with your tongue,” she complimented me in the dark

  I was skilled at much more than killing. “You have no idea,” I told her. I pulled her back down on my lap and untied the strings to her bikini top, taking it away from her body and tossing it onto the concrete. “Perfection,” I said as I ran my hands up and smoothed over her breasts. They really were perfect, and I found myself jealous if anyone else besides me were to ever see them. She placed her hands on the backs of mine, joining us yet another way, stirring up lost feelings inside of me. I wanted this woman so bad, in many more ways than just the one.

  I moved my hands down to her thighs and held her tightly against me as I stood up in the water and turned her around, setting her gorgeous self down on the edge of the concrete. My fingers traced up the outside of her thighs and found the sides of her suit and she leaned back on her hands, allowing me to pull it off of her.

  “You have no idea how long I’ve wanted this,” I said as I stared at her naked body glowing before me beneath the moonlight.

  “Tell me,” she begged. “How long have you wanted this?”

  The corner of my mouth pulled back with a smile; I loved how she craved my words. “Ever since your finger first touched that doorbell.”

  * * *

  I crossed my arms and looked Vladimir square in the eyes. “You sure about that?” I asked.

  He nodded. “Nicoli Sabatini has been upset for a while now; he wants what’s owed to him. It’s my understanding that he’s been having Mitch’s house watched.”

  My tongue traced along the front of my teeth as I digested the information. “You want me to do something about him?”

  “That’s not for me to decide, Troy. After all, he’s your problem; not mine.”

  I nodded, my eyebrows drawing together as my mind went immediately to work on a plan. “Why are you telling me this, Vladimir? What’s in it for you?”

  His shoulders shrugged beneath his expensive suit. “I like Scarlett.”

  The words irritated me. “Yeah, I know you do.”

  He chuckled deeply. “Yes, well, I would hate to see her harmed in any way. And when you’re involved in our line of work this kind of thing comes with the territory, as you well know.”

  I nodded and looked down at the ground before meeting his face once again. “Well, thanks for the heads up.”

  “My pleasure.”

  After his tinted window rolled up and his limo drove away, I turned around and went back inside, my mind distracted by the events at hand. I could literally feel my heart ripping out of my chest when I saw Scarlett’s face laced over with worry. That was exactly what I didn’t want to see when I looked at her. It pained me that she was involved in the family so much so to be a target to someone her father had screwed over. And even though I was falling in love with her I knew I had to break her heart in order to keep her safe, because her happiness had to take a back seat to her safety.

  But as selfish as it was to do, I needed to feel her body once more before I led her to safety. I pulled my shirt off over my head and made sure not to display any form of emotion as I stared at her. “You wanna take a shower with me?” I asked.

  “Sure,” she answered without hesitation.

  Without any words spoken between us we walked back to my bathroom and stripped down naked. I held out my hand and when she took it I pulled her against me. “I want you,” I said as I pulled her arms up and placed them over my shoulders.

  “Then take me,” she breathed as her mouth met with mine.

  I obeyed immediately and pressed her back against the glass wall of the shower as my tongue explored her mouth. I worked hard at committing her taste to mind so I could recall it in the future when I was missing her, which was something that I knew would happen over and over again, eventually driving me into a self-inflicted state of madness. I shouldn’t have ever taken her as mine.

  She held on tightly as I pulled her legs around my waist and pushed my weight against her, feeling her body for what I knew would be the last time. I was angry. I belonged to her; she wanted me for who I was. And now that I had her I had to break her to pieces and destroy the love story we were just beginning to write. It was unfair. But, such was life for a man like myself. Maybe because of who I was I wasn’t meant to be happy.

  I only wished I could talk to her, but I couldn’t. I didn’t want to scare her, and I just needed her to leave so she would be somewhere safe. If I were to tell her what was going on she would insist on staying. An explanation wasn’t going to happen, but I was talking to her in my mind, speaking to her with my body. She felt it; she recognized that I was trying to tell her something.

  I ended our kiss and breathed heavily with her as I touched my forehead to hers. This was it, the last time I would have her in the water with me; the last time I would hold her naked body against mine.

  “Are you okay?” she asked as she lowered her legs down to the floor.

  I pulled my head back to better see her. “I’m fine.”

  “You don’t seem fine.”

  “Please don’t start asking questions, Scarlett.”

  She hesitated before finally nodding and laying her head down against my shoulder. “Okay, Troy,” she whispered.

  I wrapped my arms tightly around her, securing her against me as the hot water rained over us. “Don’t say it like that.”

  “I’m just respecting what you’re asking me to do.”

  I lowered my head and rested my lips against the top of her wet hair; it smelled like flowers. “Something was brought to my attention. I have to go deal with someone today.”

  “Is it dangerous?”

  “Everything about my job is dangerous,” I sighed.

  * * *

  “How much you owe him, Mitch?” I asked.

  “Two hundred.”

  “Two hundred thousand?”

  He looked defeated. “Yeah. And he’s not the only one I owe.”

  �
�Yeah, I’m aware of that.” I looked over at Eli. “I’ll pay it.”

  “Pay what? The two hundred thousand?”

  “Yeah,” I shrugged. “I’ll get it together and arrange a meeting with him.” Mitch and Eli eyed each other. “What?” I asked.

  “That’s, that’s wonderful Troy,” Mitch answered. “But I’m afraid that I’ve been made aware of some other chatter regarding the money I owe to others.”

  I crossed my arms in front of me. “What do you mean?”

  “He owes Vladimir three hundred thousand alone,” Eli said. “Not to mention what he still owes Matt Freely, Tony Bulton, and Dimitri Bardin.”

  My eyes widened. “Are you kidding me right now Mitch? What the hell were you doing when you were in prison?”

  “I was trying to secure business deals from the inside and, well, I made some bad decisions.”

  “Yeah no shit.” I pulled out the chair from the table and sat down. “I knew you owed people money but I didn’t know it was that much.”

  Eli sat down beside me. “If you pay off Nicoli that will help some, at least it will take one man out of the game.”

  “But I can’t afford the rest,” I confessed. “I don’t have that kind of money available right now.”

  Mitch nodded. “And it’s not your job to get me out of this anyway.”

  “Yeah, it is,” I said, looking up at him. “Because I’m involved with Scarlett’s safety and I really feel like it’s at risk.”

  Mitch sighed heavily and looked me square in the eyes. “Then you know what needs to be done.”

  I leaned back in my chair and looked over at Eli. “Yeah, I know what I have to do.”

  * * *

  I was dreading the conversation all day. But I knew I needed to get her to leave the city as soon as possible. I didn’t want to be a dick and treat her bad, but unfortunately it was the only way I knew she would leave me without looking back.