by Bethany-Kris
It made things hard.
“Nope,” Bene eventually said, pushing off the wall to step closer to her, “it’s just the only place I like to play pool, and it happens to be close to my neighborhood.”
“Mmhmm.”
“Not your scene?”
Vanna eyed the entrance to the bar, taking in the gold detailing around the doors, and the sign hanging above. “Not really, but if you can make it fun ...”
Bene grinned. “I can make anything fun.”
“Oh?”
“That a challenge?”
He was a lot closer now.
Just a foot away.
In a blink, before she had even been able to take in a breath, he closed the distance between them. One of his arms wrapped around her back, hugging the loose fabric of her t-shirt tight to her body as he dragged her into him. His head tipped down, and those smirking, sexy lips of his met hers.
The kiss was soft at first.
Seeking.
Testing.
And then he found it.
The answer she gave back to him—the way her lips parted for him to get that taste. She didn’t even think about it, simply wanted to have him kissing her because she swore no one ever kissed like this man did, and she wanted more of it.
Even if a part of her still hated him because of the people he came from, and the last name he sported. It didn’t matter. A kiss wouldn’t have her handing over her heart to him—surely not. She had more self control than that, didn’t she?
Well, it was hard to say.
And she didn’t have a proper answer when he was still kissing her like he was. As though he couldn’t get enough of the way her lips worked against his, and how she was more than willing to let him dominate her with a kiss on a sidewalk in the middle of a city where anyone could see.
Fuck anyone else.
They could look.
She was still getting hers.
All too soon for her liking, Bene pulled away, that smirk still playing at the edges of his lips while his dark eyes looked her over. My God. His face was just as bad for her body as the rest of him, honestly.
“Was that too much?” he asked.
Vanna grinned. “Why would it be?”
“I didn’t ask first.”
“You don’t have to ask.”
“I should, though.”
Vanna shrugged. “I wouldn’t have come tonight if I didn’t plan on having fun, Bene.”
“Good to know. Do you play pool?”
“A few times. I’m sure you’re better at it than me, though.”
He chuckled. “I’ll let you whoop my ass, if you let me take a bite of yours later.”
Yeah.
Hell.
That’s where she was going. Straight to hell. Because a part of her liked this man. Another part hated him. She was making him like her, too. And yet, she would also ruin him when her plans finally came together.
Vanna pushed those thoughts away.
At least, for now.
Pushing up to her tiptoes, she kissed him and winked. “That sounds like a deal.”
• • •
Vanna leaned over the pool table, feeling Bene’s gaze firmly stuck to the way her pert ass lifted a bit over the wood edge as she readied on her next—and hopefully, final—shot. He was such an ass man, and she didn’t mind using that to her advantage while playing this game of theirs. After all, she’d just used his attention to her ass to her benefit for his last shot, making him miss to give her the next round which left her with one final ball to sink.
“Eight ball to the far right,” she said, “and that’s game.”
Before Bene could reply, Vanna took her shot, easily sinking the eight ball into the pocket she called. He let out a low whistle behind her as she stood from her leaning position, resting the pool cue to the floor as she stayed looking over the table still scattered with Bene’s solid-colored balls.
“Played pool a few times—wasn’t that what you told me?”
Vanna laughed lightly, the sounds of the bar fading in the background as she spun around to face Bene. His heated gaze met hers, and she couldn’t help but grin. “There was a billiards table in my father’s basement. Apparently, he used to play a lot when he was younger, and instead of getting rid of it, it just found its way into the basement. He taught me how to play, and a few tricks. We used to play a couple of times a week.”
Bene’s stare softened, and she saw that dawning flash across his face as he leaned forward a bit on the pool cue. “Used to, huh?”
Shit.
“Yeah,” she said, knowing she should lie but finding that she didn’t want to, “my dad passed away just before I turned sixteen. I buried him on my birthday.”
“That must have been hard on you and your m—”
“Don’t have a mom.”
Her tone came out clipped, and a little strained, despite the fact that she tried to hide it. It was almost impossible for her not to have that reaction when it came to talking about her estranged—missing, too, because she had no idea where the bitch was—mother. It wasn’t Bene, and it definitely wasn’t fucking personal to him. It just was.
Bene’s brow lifted high. “Sorry.”
She shook her head. “Don’t apologize just because you pity me or anything.”
“Nah, I’m sorry I asked. Wasn’t my business unless you wanted to tell me, you know?”
Vanna swallowed hard, shifting in her tall, strappy heels. She could have gone for something simple to dress in, and comfortable. She seriously doubted Bene would care seeing as how he looked at her the same in her t-shirt, strappy heels, and boyfriend-style jeans that were rolled up at the ankles, as he did her sexy two-piece, crop-top dress from their first meeting. But she didn’t do simple, and if heels were always a choice, then she would forever pick them.
“I ...” Vanna sighed, glancing over her shoulder and across the bar to stare at the gleaming bottles lining the cedar shelves behind the bartender. It was easier to admit something when she didn’t have to look someone right in the face while she did it. “Sorry, it wasn’t you or what you said that made me sharp—just my mom does that, in general. She was gone before I could even sleep through the night, I guess.”
“So when your dad died ... shit.”
“Yeah.” Vanna chewed on her inner cheek, wishing it hadn’t been as easy as that just was to spill some of her deepest secrets—even if they weren’t the kind of secrets Bene could use to hurt her—to tell him that. She looked back at him, arching a brow and offering him a small smile. “Can we just ... get back to talking about pool, or literally anything else but all that? A little too deep for a second date, is all.”
Bene chuckled. “Anything?”
She nodded. “Yep.”
“What were you doing when I texted?”
That was random.
It kind of made her smile, too. It wasn’t the question she expected him to ask, but it shouldn’t really shock her at all that Bene could keep her on her toes. He consistently did that, right from the moment they met. She expected him to be one thing, and he turned out to be something different. Even if he was still a Guzzi.
She couldn’t forget that.
“Cleaning up after a meal I cooked, actually. Showing off what I learned last year at George Brown College.”
Something appreciative and approving colored up his handsome features. “A chef?”
“That’s what I’m trying to be.”
Another one of those low whistles split through his lips.
“And she cooks ...” He pressed his hands together in front of his chest as though he were praying while glancing upward. “Killing me here, Jesus.”
Vanna’s laughter lit up their small corner of the bar again, and Bene grinned lazily as he moved to drop his hands to his sides again. It was then that she noticed the bandage on his right palm, covering most of the surface.
“What happened there?”
Bene didn’t even glance down l
ike she did. “Nothing.”
“Doesn’t look like nothing.”
He used the injured hand to grab the pool cue he’d rested against the wall before doing his fake prayer, nodding to the table as though his next words would make her forget that she had even asked her question. “So, since you whooped my ass, and not the other way around, does that mean I still won’t get to take a bite out of yours later, or ...?”
His tone dipped suggestively.
Vanna blanked.
Damn him.
His words did make her momentarily forget about her question, but only because her mind was suddenly filled with the image of this man biting her ass before he ate her pussy on his knees like a king kneeling for a queen at her throne. It was quite the picture, and she gave her mind credit for its efforts.
Bene smirked as he pushed away from the wall, the one stride between them closing in a blink as he leaned forward to put one hand somewhere behind her on the pool table. It was kind of hard to know what he was doing with him close enough that his chest pressed against hers, and the slight scruff on his jaw tickled her cheek when he tipped his head down to let his lips brush against her skin.
Then, she heard the telltale sound of the coin slot on the pool table being pushed in after he’d tossed in a couple of quarters.
“Another game?” he asked.
Vanna let out a shuddering breath. “Who’s killing who here?”
Because this man ...
He was something else.
Bene winked when he straightened. “Good to know I’m not the only one, then.”
“Definitely not.”
And she hated that was the case.
Even if she would never say it out loud.
Right then, though Vanna had no doubt it would be bad for her—if not for her body, then for her heart later—she stood up on her tip toes and pressed a kiss to his lips. That’s all it took—one soft, innocent kiss for his hands to find her waist, the wood of the pool cue biting into her hip as he pushed her against the edge of the pool table. His tongue darted into her mouth, slashing against hers in the best way while she was once again made to forget where they were because they’d simply kissed.
She didn’t mind it at all.
Until, of course, she heard someone mutter, “If you’re gonna do that, could you fucking move it outside to the alley like every other bitch that’ll get on her knees does, and give someone else the table?”
Vanna stiffened the second Bene’s lips stilled against her own. She physically felt the change in his posture, and sensed it, too. Like his playful, sexiness had left him just like that, and the heat in his gaze suddenly burned with more rage than it did lust when his stare met hers.
She didn’t know why she thought to speak to defuse the situation, but she still did. Or at least, she tried. “It’s fine. Just ignore him. It’s o—”
That was all Vanna managed to say before Bene pushed away from her. He spun sideways, as though he had just known the asshole came up to his right without even looking that way when he had been distracted with her. His fist was already flying, crashing into the face of the man before Vanna even had time to think about what was happening.
And then as fast as it happened, it was over. Bene spun on his heels, a dark grin tugging at his lips when her wide—slightly amused, but also terrified—gaze met his. Yes, she’d seen a man hit another man over her before. But no, she had never quite liked it the way she did right then.
The man hadn’t even hit the floor before Bene’s hand found hers, and he pulled her off the pool table, grabbing her bag from the floor at the same time, and moved them toward the back entrance of the bar. She peeked over her shoulder in just enough time, right before they darted out the back doors, to see the bartender coming around the bar.
They were already gone.
It was over.
That’s how fast it happened.
Her hand stayed tucked tightly with Bene’s as he pulled her through the back alley behind the bar, and through the maze of another three. He didn’t stop until they were one block down, and she recognized the familiar brick design of his building. Except it was the side, and not the front. Not that it mattered to her when he pressed her into the brick, his body crowding hers in the best way, leg slipping between her thighs to give her pussy something to grind on while he kissed her harder than ever.
Until her lungs burned.
And all she saw was him.
His hands skimmed over the front of her jeans, unsnapping the button and pulling down the zipper before sliding underneath. She stared down the alley to the busy street where people bustled on by. Not to mention, all the windows around them. What were the chances that this alley would be empty at this time of night? And still, anyone could see them there, if they just thought to look.
Vanna still didn’t care.
“That was crazy,” she breathed against his mouth.
Bene chuckled, lips curving with hers. “Worth it.”
“Shouldn’t make a woman run in heels, Bene.”
“Can I fuck one in them?”
Vanna groaned. “Yes.”
That was all he seemed to need. Her consent. Like the fact she was willing to say—out loud, and clearly—yes, you can fuck me in this alley, almost got him off. He wasted no time turning her around to face the brick, while yanking her jeans down her thighs until they pooled at her heels. His hot left palm drove up under her shirt, smoothing over her spine while his other worked at the zipper and button on his jeans.
She saw stars when he finally freed his length, asked if she was good with bare, and then stretched her full with that first thrust. There was no mercy, no slowness, in the way he fucked her. Just rough, fast flexes of his hips snapping against hers while her palms scrapped against the brick.
He tucked in closer behind her, hands flattening to the roundness of her ass, so he could clench his fingers into her cheeks while his teeth grazed her jawline. “Fucking love that cock, huh? That hot pussy of yours can’t get enough, Vanna.”
He wasn’t wrong.
And his dirty words only edged her along.
The funny thing was ... the guy at the bar hadn’t been wrong. She was doing exactly what he said in an alleyway with a man she’d only met once before in her life. It was fucking crazy. And yet she didn’t care that nothing about this was sane.
She just wanted to come.
Even better that Bene would make her do it.
Was that a betrayal to her cause?
Probably.
Vanna would deal with it later.
“Come on, come on, give me what I want, baby. Fucking love it that you’ll let me fuck you like this, yeah.”
His harsh moan filled her ears, and she swore she felt that right in the center of her bones. Deep in her stomach. Aching in her pussy. Even her damn toes curled because God ... this man was sin to her. Pure, but so good, sin.
She came hard.
And it was bliss.
Bene followed soon after, his lips sucking against her throat and then his teeth biting into the same spot as his hips stilled against hers. He was quick about pulling out, and fixing her pants, but he didn’t seem to care about moving them away from the wall, or even turning Vanna around after he’d fixed himself.
Instead, he nuzzled his face against the side of her throat. “What are you doing this weekend—anything important.”
Vanna cleared her throat, trying to let the emotional war inside her head calm as she replied, “Nothing, really.”
“What if I asked you to spend it with me?”
“Oh, where?”
“I don’t know. How about a mansion?”
Vanna smiled over her shoulder, and he grinned back when he tipped his head up to stare at her. “Really?”
“My penthouse is a mess, that’s all.”
“You know, I didn’t really mention that you clearly have money, but now you say mansion ... and I don’t want to make it awkward by not acknowledging it, but als
o it might because I say something and—”
Okay, now she was rambling.
Vanna stopped that abruptly.
“You don’t have to mention it at all,” he said, “I’m just used to wealth ... was born into it, basically, so it’s never me showing off as much as it is me just stating my life.”
“It’s not the wealth ... well, not really. My dad left me money, not a lot, but enough to give me a few comfortable years, and it bought me a penthouse.”
His dark laughter soothed her overheated skin. “Oh?”
“But you said mansion and it took a second to sink in.”
“I get it. Point is, I want you to spend the weekend with me if you want to.”
Vanna didn’t even have to think about it.
She knew it was crazy.
Stupid.
Mario would probably wonder where she was ... he liked to stop by on the weekends. She barely even gave him a thought, though.
No, she didn’t think at all when she said, “I would love to.”
7.
“Is this yours, or—”
He put the Lambo into park. “My parents’ place.”
Vanna nodded slowly, her appreciative gaze taking in the Swedish-style eaves of the mansion before drifting to the large trees lining either side of the driveway. “They’re not home, right?”
Bene laughed. “Hell no. My father would kill me for bringing someone here like this.”
Not a lie.
Gian had rules.
For the most part, Bene tried to follow them. One of those rules centered around the Guzzi brothers bringing home women. To which, they shouldn’t bring one to their parents’ home unless she was the type of woman they intended on keeping. The respect of the matter, his father would say, as if that made any fucking sense at all.
Thing was, his father and mother headed to their vacation home in Quebec for the weekend, wouldn’t be back until Monday, and Bene knew just enough about his parents’ security system to make sure everything was deleted from the security cameras. Any enforcers that stayed posted at the house while his parents were home always left when the owners did, usually to follow them to wherever, not that one of them would say anything, either.