by Penelope Sky
Dancer in Lingerie
Lingerie #13
Penelope Sky
Hartwick Publishing
Dancer in Lingerie
Copyright © 2018 by Penelope Sky
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
1
Carmen
We finished dinner at the restaurant then walked out into the winter air. The frigid temperature struck my skin the second we were outside, and I buttoned up my long black coat to protect my skin in the tight dress I wore. Knee-high boots were on my feet, protecting my skin to my knees. My stomach was warm from the wine and hot food, so that acted as an extra buffer from the nighttime chill.
Griffin had his arm around his Vanessa as we reached the sidewalk. In a black blazer with a V-neck on underneath, he didn’t look like the psycho badass who had ink all over his body. The only thing visible now was the black ink on his left hand—his vow of eternal love.
He took off his jacket and immediately wrapped it around Vanessa, even though she was in a long-sleeved black cotton dress. Her baby bump was noticeable, even when she wore all black.
“I’m not cold,” she said quietly to him as the jacket sat on her shoulders.
“Don’t care.” He wrapped it around her and stood behind her, keeping the jacket secure around her body as his hand moved to her bump. His hands were enormous, and it was easy for him to span her small pregnant belly with just a single palm.
She rolled her eyes, but the love was written all over her face. Her annoyance wasn’t real, and right before my eyes, she fell in love with him even deeper.
Seeing them together only convinced me of what I wanted someday. I wanted a passionate love like theirs, a man who loved me so much that he would die for me—a thousand times. And I wanted a man I would take a bullet for—because I couldn’t live without him. As a woman in her midtwenties, I was having fun and meeting new people every weekend. But now that I’d witnessed their love, I was starting to crave something more. Real love wasn’t something you just found on the street corner—it found you. My time would come eventually, but it might not be for years.
“That bump is so cute, Vanessa.” I smiled at her, seeing my cousin glow in the height of winter. “I can’t wait until we have another little Barsetti running around.”
She rested her hand on his as she leaned against him. “Me too.”
Griffin kissed her on the cheek. “I love this bump. Sexy.” He kissed her neck before he pulled away. “I’ll get the car.” He never cared about his overwhelming public display of affection for her, even in front of her family.
But that only made me like him more.
Vanessa stepped closer to me, keeping his jacket wrapped around her. “Dinner was nice.”
“The bread they have here is the best. I was on a date here last weekend, and I ate the whole basket by myself.”
Vanessa chuckled. “What did the guy think?”
I shrugged. “I don’t care.”
She smiled. “Good answer.”
Griffin pulled up in his truck, then came around to the passenger side and got the door open. “Come on, baby. The car is warmed up.”
“Let’s go,” Vanessa said to me as she let Griffin help her into the seat.
“I don’t need a ride. My apartment is just two blocks away.” It would take me less time to walk there than it would for them to drive me.
Griffin looked at me like I’d just insulted him. “Get. In.”
“No. Thank. You.” I smiled, loving the way he got so worked up so quickly. “It’s a one-way street. You’re gonna have to loop back around, which seems silly since my apartment is literally right there.”
His nostrils flared like a provoked bull. “Don’t make me ask you again.”
“I thought you told my father I could handle myself?” Griffin had always respected me as a person, not just a woman. But ever since he married Vanessa, he’d started to behave like an overprotective big brother.
“Yes,” he answered with a clenched jaw. “That has nothing to do with this.”
“Get your pregnant wife home. I’ll be fine.” Before he could keep the argument going, I turned away and headed up the sidewalk, my heels clacking against the frozen sidewalk.
Vanessa’s voice was audible from behind me. “Let her be, Griffin. Take me home.”
His door shut a moment later, and they were gone.
I felt perfectly safe in this city because I always stayed on the good side of town. I walked everywhere, and not once did I have a problem with anyone. If someone tried to mug me, I would just stab their dick with the heel of my boot.
I crossed two blocks then turned right to take a shortcut to the next street, a cobblestone alleyway next to a coffee shop. A couple of bicycles were leaning against the wall, and light chatter came from inside the fogged windows. I turned right and kept going.
That was when someone grabbed me.
One hand was flung across my mouth while the other gripped me around the waist. “She smells as good as she looks.” A creepy voice spoke directly into my ear, the calmness of his tone more terrifying than the hand that silenced my mouth. He ripped off my jacket, leaving only my skintight dress behind.
“I find that hard to believe.” A man emerged from around the corner, dressed all in black with a beanie over his head. Approaching forty with a thick beard along his jaw, he looked like the devil spawn that roamed the streets late at night. He held a long piece of rope in his hands, which told me they didn’t just want my clutch.
They wanted something else.
My survival instincts kicked in. I bit hard on his middle finger and bucked my hips hard at the same time.
“Bitch!” His hand loosened on my mouth as he jerked backward, his other arm releasing my waist.
I turned around and kicked him as hard as I could right between the legs.
“Fuck!” He gripped his balls and fell to the ground, so winded he couldn’t even move.
I spat on him—just because he deserved it. Then I reached down and pulled out the knife I noticed sticking out of his belt.
“Get her!” The guy with the beard moved in behind me just as two other guys joined the fight.
I got the knife and turned around. “Touch me and see what happens.” I held the knife just the way my father taught me, my other hand held at the ready while the rest of my body maintained a defensive posture.
“Oh, I will touch you.” He nodded to one of the other men, telling him to move in behind me.
I was surrounded and outnumbered, but I’d rather die than let them take me. I would fight my way out of this, never giving up.
I heard the sound of a cocking gun behind me. “Drop the knife, bitch.”
I didn’t turn around, keeping my eyes on the guy with the beard and the rope. “Stop calling me bitch. You three are the ones acting like bitches.” I turned around, my knife still held at the ready. I came face-to-face with the black gun pointed at my face.
I kept a neutral expression, but I was terrified. A barrel was pointed directly between my eyes, and my life depended on the finger squeezing the trigger. Just ten minutes ago, I was dining with my family, getting fat off bread, and having a great time. Now I was fighting for my life, unsure what to do and how to survive.
But I wasn’t gonna let these men take me. They didn’t want my shit. My clutch was on the ground, and they could have snatched it and taken off by now. No, they wanted me—and that was something I would never give.
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“Drop the knife, bitch.” He took a step closer to me, the gun shaking in his hand.
Like the rest of the Barsettis, I was temperamental. Not to mention, insanely stubborn. “Don’t. Call. Me. That.” I threw the knife, hitting him right in the shoulder.
He immediately fell back, gripping his shoulder as the blade stuck out of the wound. “Jesus Christ!”
The man with the beard jumped on me and quickly wrapped my wrists in the rope. “Got her.”
I used all my strength to push him off, but the rope was too tight.
He pushed me onto the ground, not caring that my dress had risen over my ass and now they could see my thong. “Damn, that’s a fine ass.”
I tried to kick him. “Let me go! Do you have any idea who I am?”
“Nope.” The guy pulled out a piece of white fabric to bind my mouth. “But our dicks are about to find out.”
“I’m Carmen Barsetti.” My name was all I had. I came from a powerful and wealthy family, a group of men who would stop at nothing until they had me back. “And my father will butcher all of you.”
“Shut up. We don’t give a shit.” He kicked me in the back.
The pain made me lurch forward, but I refused to cry out. “Well, you should. Because Bones is my brother.”
That made them halt in their tracks. It turned quiet, and they all looked at each other because that name obviously meant something to them.
His name was my lifeline, so I kept using it. “And he won’t stop until he gets me back. You know exactly what he’ll do to all of you once he tracks me down. So let me go, and get the hell out of town.”
They all looked at each other and seemed to come to an agreement. “If we let you go, we’re as good as dead. That means we have to kill you when we’re done—no tracks.” The man shoved the fabric into my mouth and gagged me so all I could do was make muffled screams.
This couldn’t be happening.
This couldn’t be my ending.
My life had been so perfect just minutes before. Now I would be raped and killed.
My parents would never recover from it.
Carter would be haunted by it.
This death was a death to all the Barsettis.
“Let her go.” A deep, masculine voice filtered through the alleyway, the baritone powerful and innately sexy. Full of authority and a hint of fearlessness, it was the voice of a man who wore an invisible crown.
The men turned silent, their shuffles absent because none of them was moving.
It was so quiet, I could hear the man’s footsteps.
The men were still frozen in place.
I couldn’t see the man because I was facing the other way. All I had to go off was the sound of his voice, the way it was rough like sandpaper but hard like steel. He sounded young, maybe a few years older than me. It wasn’t Bones or one of my family members to save me. This man was a complete stranger—and he was provoking four armed men.
He spoke again. “Now.”
The man with the beard released my wrists. “Bosco—”
“Not her.” He snapped his fingers, commanding them like dogs. “Leave.”
The rope was yanked off my wrists, and the gag was pulled out of my mouth. The only thing they left behind was my black clutch that had fallen to the ground at the beginning of the fight. Their footsteps were audible until they turned the corner in the alleyway and disappeared.
My dress was still yanked over my ass, so I stood up and pulled it down, reclaiming my dignity after it had been taken away. Even though I was safe now, I was more afraid of the man who’d saved me than those idiots. All he had to do was say a few words to get those men to leave. That was an absolute kind of power—and that scared me.
I knew I was safe from those monsters, but I wasn’t stupid enough to think I was safe from him.
Once my dress was smoothed out, I faced the mysterious man named Bosco.
He was looking me up and down, checking me out without a hint of shame. His blue eyes started at my legs and slowly made their way up, following the curves of my figure until he settled on my face.
“Are you done?”
Amused, he gave a lopsided grin. “I’ll never be done.” He stepped closer to me, his black leather jacket tight on his thick arms. His muscles stretched the fabric, showing the physical representation of his strength underneath the clothing. He wore a black t-shirt underneath, and that was just as tight across his hard chest. He had narrow hips that led to dark jeans. He didn’t seem to be armed—and that made his power even more impressive.
He stopped a few inches away from me, so tall that he had to bend his neck down to look at me. He still wore the same smile of amusement as he met my gaze. When he shifted his eyes downward and looked down the top of my dress, his expression turned serious once more. “They made a good choice.” With stubble across his hard jaw and blue eyes like Griffin’s, he was a handsome man who didn’t belong in a dark alleyway. He belonged on a billboard or in a magazine. He didn’t need to kidnap a woman when he could sink himself into any pussy he wanted.
Like every other woman in the world, I wasn’t immune to his charms. He was a panty-soaker, a man I would take home in a heartbeat. Even if he told me he was a playboy who would be gone the second he was finished, that would have been fine with me—because he would make me come.
I didn’t like his arrogance, the way he thought he owned me just because he chased away those assholes. Without knowing a single thing about him, I knew he was from the underworld. He was the biggest predator in the food chain, the great white in the ocean. I didn’t underestimate his power, but I didn’t get on my knees and thank him either. “What do you want?”
He cocked his head slightly, his amusement increasing. “What makes you think I want anything?”
“Because you’re worse than they are.”
His eyes narrowed, and he stared at me for several heartbeats. He held my gaze without blinking, absorbing my words well after I’d said them. Long stretches of silence didn’t affect him at all. He seemed to thrive on it. “You’re a smart woman.”
My heart started to beat harder. I considered crying for help, but I suspected he would rip out my throat before I got the chance. His killer good looks didn’t mask the dangerous undertone he possessed. I’d been around powerful men long enough to recognize it from a mile away. He had the same aura as Griffin, the sort of man that could be equally evil or kind depending on the mood he was in. “What do you want?” Did he want to drug me and throw me in the back of a van? Or did he want me to get on my knees and suck him off as a thank you? It didn’t matter—he wasn’t getting either.
“I didn’t want anything until I got a good look at you—and that mouth of yours.” His eyes flicked down to my lips, and he stared at them for a while, his own jaw hardening with desire.
A shiver moved down my spine. I was both aroused and terrified at the exact same time.
“I don’t do this often.”
“What?” I whispered.
“Save a damsel in distress. Normally, I just keep walking.”
“I’m not a damsel,” I shot back.
“But you were certainly in distress until I came along.” He took a step closer to me, bringing us in together until our mouths were practically touching. “Or would you rather me hand you back over?”
This man was certainly more dangerous, but I preferred his company over the others. I didn’t like him, but I was still affected by his sheer magnitude, his gravitational pull that rivaled the sun. “If you think I’m gonna suck your dick as a thank you, you’re wrong. I would rather fight my way to freedom than submit to any man.” My pride would get me killed someday, but I would rather die with honor than submit out of fear. As a Barsetti, I held my head high and bowed to no one.
That slight look of amusement was there again. He stared into my face like he was transfixed, mesmerized by the backtalk coming out of my mouth. “You know how to make a man hard, sweetheart.”
&nb
sp; “Don’t call me sweetheart.”
He sucked a breath in between his teeth again, like my mouth was only making him want me more. “Carmen.” He said the name slowly, feeling it across his tongue as if he were tasting it.
I hadn’t told him my name, which meant he’d been listening to the confrontation for minutes before he intervened. Why did he wait so long? Did he consider walking by and ignoring it?
“I didn’t want anything in exchange for saving you. But I changed my mind.”
“You aren’t getting anything.” Somebody else would be thanking him from the bottom of her heart, but I wasn’t that stupid. I knew this guy was bad news.
“I want that smartass mouth on mine. I want a kiss, the kind packed with as much fire and spunk as your words. Give it to me, and I’ll let you go.”
After all that, he just wanted a kiss?
He kept watching me, waiting for me to give my answer.
“A man should save a woman because it’s the right thing to do.”
“I’m not a man—I’m a monster.” He said it casually, like he was even proud of it. “As I said, I don’t do this. I normally would have walked by and ignored this confrontation in a heartbeat. I don’t give a shit about a stupid woman who walks home alone at night. If you were smarter, you wouldn’t be in this situation.”
“A woman should have the right to walk wherever she wants, whenever the hell she wants. Don’t blame this attack on me. Blame the assholes who wanted to rape me. They’re the problem, not me.”
“Spin it however you want, sweetheart,” he said coldly. “That’s the world we live in—and you know it. As a Barsetti, you know better. Imagine the disappointment of your father if he knew.”
“Don’t talk about my family.” This man didn’t know anything about me, and I wouldn’t let him bring my father into the mix. “If you don’t care about saving an innocent woman, why did you save me?”
His broad shoulders looked muscular in his jacket, and the thick stubble on his face matched the nighttime shadows. It was cold that night, but there was so much adrenaline in my bloodstream that I’d forgotten about it until now. Now that I could see the vapor coming out of his nostrils as he breathed, I remembered it was a freezing night in winter. I was still standing in a small piece of fabric, this man growling at me like a hungry wolf. “Bones is your brother?”