by Alexa Land
I grinned at that and started to reach across him for my dessert, but he stopped me by lightly grabbing my wrist. “You can’t have that yet. You can have this.” And he put the bottle of vodka in my hand.
“Control freak. You’re really not going to let me have the dessert until you say so?”
“Nope. And here’s why. I’m going to make the argument that this is, in fact, the world’s most perfect cheesecake. But you won’t believe me unless you let it come to room temperature first, so you can taste it at its absolute best.”
“I suppose you had it flown in from Italy,” I quipped.
“Brooklyn, actually,” he said with a smile as he hit a couple buttons on the remote.
“The world’s best cheesecake comes from Brooklyn?”
“Turns out yes.”
I looked at the vodka bottle in my hand. “Oh, here’s a surprise – it’s all in Russian.”
“Naturally.”
I glanced at him. “Am I meant to drink straight from the bottle?”
“Yup. This is an informal slumber party.”
“Alrighty then.” I took a long drink of alcohol. Normally straight vodka wasn’t my thing, but this one was undeniably good.
Dmitri pushed another button on the remote and the lights all around the room dimmed as the theme from Star Wars enveloped us in brilliantly clear surround sound. “Ok, you’re officially awesome,” I said, then took another swig from the bottle before handing it over to him.
He laughed and took a long drink as well, then put his arm around my bare shoulders and pulled me close to him. “Does that mean you approve of my taste in movies?”
“Absolutely.”
“Well, good,” he said with a smile. “There’s still the cheesecake test, but it’s looking like I’m going to have to keep you.”
“Promises promises,” I said as I snuggled against him.
We’d both seen Star Wars way, way too many times, so after a while we started reciting the dialog along with the characters. He took all of Princess Leia’s lines, and I took Han Solo’s, with pretty hilarious results. And then maybe halfway through the movie, he hit pause on the remote and said, “It’s time.”
“Great! Are you finally going to fuck me?” I joked.
“Almost as good.” He reached for a plate and broke off a bit of cheesecake with a fork and fed it to me.
It was insanely delicious. “Oh my God,” I murmured as my eyes slid shut. “How can anything be that good?”
“Yup. Definitely keeping you,” he said happily. “More?”
“Please.” He ended up feeding me the whole piece, and being fed like this was equal parts sweet and surprisingly erotic. And then he turned the movie back on and fed me most of his slice as well as we snuggled under the blanket.
He finally fell asleep partway into the third movie of our Star Wars marathon, his arms around me and his head on my chest. I turned my attention away from the screen and just stared at him. Dmitri was stunningly beautiful, but he was so much more as well. He was sweet and kind and fun and smart and a million other good things.
How the hell could this man be a criminal? How was that even possible? There was nothing about him that was cunning, or ruthless, or cold – all of which seemed to be job requirements for a drug lord. Unless he had a serious split-personality disorder, I just didn’t see how he could possibly be guilty of the things he was suspected of.
But then, maybe he wasn’t really a criminal, I told myself hopefully. After all, the reason I’d been sent in undercover was because the department had no real evidence against him. Ok, there was plenty of circumstantial evidence, but nothing concrete. So maybe they had the wrong guy.
Yeah, I should be so lucky.
I sighed and lightly ran my hand over his silky dark hair, and he made a little sound of contentment in his sleep and snuggled against me. First thing Monday morning, I was going to resign from this assignment. I didn’t want to spy on Dmitri, and I didn’t want to lie to him. Even if he was done with me after tonight, I already felt too much loyalty to him to continue this deceit. Captain Halpern was going to be pissed, but I didn’t care, even if it meant spending the next ten years in uniform working swing shifts.
And after I quit, the department would send in someone else undercover. That really bothered me, for a number of reasons. I didn’t want someone lying to Dmitri, deceiving him. I felt protective of this man somehow, and I knew why.
Already, unbelievably, I was falling for him – even in just a few short hours.
He was everything I could want, and far more than I could ever wish for. Yeah, I barely knew him. But I felt drawn to him with a raw, undeniable intensity that I’d never imagined possible. It felt like, no matter how much I had of him, it would never, ever be enough.
So basically, I was totally setting myself up for heartbreak. He’d probably be done with me by morning. He’d move on to the next flavor-of-the-moment, the next blonde or twelve.
What a depressing thought.
Chapter Three
“Jess, I’m in big trouble.”
“Jamie, what is it? What’s wrong?”
“Can you meet me for Sunday brunch? I’ll tell you everything then. How about Halloway’s in thirty minutes?”
“Yeah, of course. What’s this about?”
“It’s about a guy.”
“Holy shit! See you at Halloway’s – and make it twenty.” And she hung up on me.
I grinned as I slipped the phone into my pocket and went and located my orange flip flops, which would of course go perfectly with the baggy vintage Hawaiian shirt and camo cargo shorts I was wearing. Jess was going to love this outfit.
“What the fuck are you wearing?” Jess demanded, standing over me with her hands on her hips as I took a sip of coffee at our usual table in the little patio behind Halloway’s.
“You like it? I put this outfit together just for you.”
“I’m burning that shirt next time you leave me alone in your apartment,” she told me, sliding into the chair across from me. She was wearing a black fitted t-shirt and jeans, her long, dark brown hair pulled back in a ponytail. And somehow she looked perfectly elegant.
“So how are you?” I asked. “How’s Fernando? Did he already call you four times today? And how are the ducks?”
She leaned back in her chair and glared at me. “Ok, A, they’re not ducks. And B, yes, of course he’s called me four times already. And C, if you don’t quit stalling and start talking about this guy that’s gotten you ‘in big trouble,’ I swear to God I will scream until your ears bleed.”
“Ok, ok!” I grinned and took a deep breath. “Jess, I met someone.”
“Yeah, I already cleverly pieced that much together out of your ‘it’s about a guy’ statement. Did you meet him Friday at that club?”
“Yes.”
“So who is he?”
“Well, he’s kind of…the subject I was sent to investigate.”
“He’s the – oh holy shit!” She stared at me in abject horror. “No. Do not tell me you’re talking about Dmitri Teplov!” At least she had the decency to say that in a loud stage whisper, instead of yelling it at the top of her lungs.
“You have to meet him, Jess. He’s nothing like you’d imagine.”
Now she was staring at me like I was batshit crazy. “Oh yeah. I definitely have to meet him. In fact, just the other day I was saying to myself, you know what my social circle needs? More drug lords.”
“Could you stop judging him for like, two seconds and just listen?”
“I doubt it.”
“We sat up all night Friday watching a Star Wars marathon.”
“What?”
“And then we spent all day yesterday together. We drove down the coast to Santa Cruz in his Maserati – he let me drive. He tried to buy me a surfboard, because the waves were excellent. I wouldn’t let him, of course. And then we went to the Boardwalk and ate cotton candy and rode the Giant Dipper eleven times in a row, just
because I said it was my favorite ride when I was a kid.”
She blinked at me and said, “You’re kidding.”
“He’s fucking amazing, Jess.”
“Did you sleep with him?”
“Not technically.”
She raised a well-shaped eyebrow. “What the hell does that mean?”
“It means that even though he gave me the most intense orgasms of my life at least half a dozen times between Friday night and this morning, none of them involved actual sex,” I told her.
“Well, at least you had the sense not to fuck him.”
“Oh believe me, I would have fucked him, or let him fuck me – whichever. It was Dmitri that wanted to wait. He didn’t think we should rush into it, because he knows I’m inexperienced.”
“Well, Christ, that’s good at least.”
Our friend and waitress Molly, who we’d known since freshman year of high school, appeared then and greeted Jess with a cup of coffee and a big hug. “Hey girl. The usual?”
“Hey Mol. Yeah, my usual and a mimosa. No, scratch that. Make it a screwdriver.”
“Really? Hitting the hooch before eleven a.m.?” Molly grinned at her.
“Oh, based on what our boy Jamie here is telling me, I should be asking for a bottle of Jack Daniels,” Jess told her.
Molly looked at me inquiringly, and I gave her my most innocent smile. And then she said to Jess, “Well whatever it is, I’m all for it, if it means he’s finally gonna quit moping and be happy again.” She smiled at me fondly and went off to help another customer.
I had been moping after Charlie dumped me, she was right about that. And then I grinned. “You know, that’s the first time Charlie even crossed my mind today.”
“Which is great,” Jess said. “You need to move past him. Just not like this.”
“Dmitri is so good to me, Jess. Like, so good. He’s sweet and kind and funny, and generous to a fault, and beautiful and mind-blowingly sexy. I can barely keep my hands off him. And I feel like I’ve known him forever. I’m so totally comfortable with him.”
“And for fun, he sends people to sleep with the fishes.”
I sighed and leaned back in my chair, crossing my arms over my chest. “No he doesn’t. But granted, his career is a little…problematic.”
“Problematic! Ya think? He’s a fucking criminal, and you’re a cop! In what universe could this possibly end well for you?”
“I know, Jess.”
“Quit the assignment, Jamie. To hell with undercover work. Just tell Halpern you can’t do it. And then for God’s sake, stay the hell away from Teplov!”
“I am quitting the assignment, first thing Monday morning. But I can’t stay away from Dmitri.”
“Why not?”
“Let me rephrase that: I won’t stay away from him. I want him like I’ve never wanted anything in my life, Jess. And I have so little time with him anyway. This thing with him, it’s just temporary. He’s marrying a girl in a few months, so I don’t get to spend forever with him. But in the mean time I just…I need to be with him.”
Jess plunked her elbows onto the table and dropped her face in her hands as she muttered, “Oh Christ, Jamie. It’s not enough that he’s in the mafia? He also has to leave you for a girl, just like Charlie did?”
Molly reappeared then and deposited not one, but two screwdrivers in front of Jess. “Here, girl. You look like you’re going to want seconds. And I’ll go see what’s holding up your breakfast.” Molly shot me an appraising look and was gone in a flash, and Jess downed the first cocktail without coming up for air.
“It’s not the same thing, Jess,” I told her. “The thing with Dmitri, at least he’s honest about it. He told me right away that he’s engaged.”
“Awesome. Oh, and speaking of honesty: does he know what you do for a living?” Jess hit me with a sharp stare.
“Actually…no.”
“And why haven’t you told him?”
“I just…I don’t think it’ll go over big.”
“Meaning you know you’ll end up at the bottom of the bay once you tell him?”
“Meaning I think he’ll break up with me, not murder me.” I rolled my eyes.
“Yeah, because it’s totally unheard of for a gangster to off an undercover cop.”
“He wouldn’t hurt me, Jess. There’s no way.”
She leaned forward and grabbed my hand. “Jamie, what if you’re wrong? This is your life we’re talking about here. It would be bad enough that you’re totally setting yourself up for a broken heart by getting involved with a guy that’s engaged. But given who and what this man is, it could end so much worse than that.”
“It won’t.”
“How do you know?”
“Because I trust him. I know I haven’t known him very long, but I trust him. Literally with my life.”
She dragged her hands over her face with obvious exasperation. And then she said, “Ok, so according to you, everything is hunky dory. No reason in sight not to date a suspected felon. Then why did you tell me you’re in trouble?”
“Because I’m falling in love with him, Jess.”
She grabbed the other cocktail and slammed it back, then banged the empty glass on the table and yelled, “For fuck’s sake, Jamie!”
That got quite a few heads swiveling in our direction. Molly swept past the table and deposited a bottle of Jack Daniels in front of Jess, not even breaking her stride on her way across the patio.
Jess splashed an inch of whiskey into her empty glass and tossed it back, then leaned forward and grabbed my hand. “Jamie, you’re on the rebound. You’re really vulnerable right now. And he’s a gorgeous guy, I get that. But oh my God, don’t let yourself get reeled in by a goddamn criminal!”
“I kind of already have.”
“Christ, Jamie! You’re barreling straight into such totally obvious disaster. And you know this. But you’re doing it anyway.”
“If you met him, you’d understand.”
“Why? Because he’s handsome? And charismatic? And tells you everything you want to hear? That’s just what I’d expect from a mobster.”
“What he is, is real, and kind, and sweet, and gentle. He’s good to me. He treats me like I’m the most important person in the world.”
“And then he turns around and sells heroin to kids.”
“We don’t actually know that.”
“Actually, pretty much everyone knows that. Why do you think the police department sent you to investigate him? Because he ran a couple stoplights? Or because he’s a drug dealer?”
“He can’t be a drug dealer, Jess. There’s absolutely no way.”
“Yeah, keep telling yourself that.”
I sighed and reached for the bottle of Jack, and splashed some into my coffee. And then I said, “You can’t pick who you fall in love with, Jess.”
“How can you throw the word love around like that? You haven’t even known him forty eight hours!”
I stared at Jess incredulously and asked, “How soon did you know you loved Fernando, Jessica?” She broke eye contact with me, and I asked again, “How soon?”
She mumbled, “Pretty much…immediately.”
“Exactly. You told me you knew within two minutes of meeting him that he was the man you wanted to marry. So please, don’t be a hypocrite and try to tell me this isn’t real because it hasn’t been long enough.”
“But that was different. Fernando’s not some lowlife criminal.”
“And if he was? If you found out five minutes after meeting him that he was a criminal, would you have walked out of Liam’s party and not fallen in love with Fernando Garra?”
“I….”
“Would you have done that?” I pressed.
She sighed and admitted, “No.”
“Ok then.”
She stared at me for a long moment before saying, “You’re completely fucked, Jamie. You know that, right? Even if I’m wrong and he’s not actually dangerous, you’re still totally f
ucked. This is going to destroy your career. And your entire family is going to turn on you. You think your family of cops is gonna give this guy the benefit of the doubt? I don’t fucking think so.” Jess leaned forward and held my gaze. “So, you destroy your career and you destroy your relationship with your family, and then what happens? He turns around and marries some girl. And you’re left with absolutely nothing.”