Then again, I’d never contemplated it. Something like that would be exciting but dangerous.
“For sure, but you know me. I’m fearless that way.” She giggled.
“Well, you’re a better journalist than me.”
She laughed. “Don’t say that, Billie. I’m just crazy and looking for a mobster story to get in with the cool kids. It is interesting though. The main guy is Alessandro Salvatore. He’s the current don. He was last seen on US shores eight years ago, then disappeared. This report is about someone who saw him here in Chicago, but guess what?”
I straightened up, eager to hear. “What?”
“The guy who made the report to the police was reported missing, and this morning, his head was found in a dumpster.” Her eyes widened.
“Jesus Christ. Really?”
Zoila nodded.
“Zoila, do me a favor and stay far away from anything like that. Just shelve that story idea to the back of your mind.”
She laughed. “Don’t worry. I may be fearless, but I’m not crazy. These guys are out of my league. I would have to be crazy to put every living person I know in that sort of danger. I just think it would be cool to do a mobster story.”
I looked back to the TV as a picture of Alessandro Salvatore flashed up on the screen.
He had very sharp, distinctive Italian features and a composure that screamed mobster. I could have easily placed him in a movie like The Godfather or The Goodfellas.
But he gave off a creepier vibe with the Egyptian ankh tattooed on the edge of his neck.
It gave me the creeps.
“Hey, are you all set for your date?” Zoila squealed.
I looked back to her and shrugged.
“Should I be going?”
“Yasss.” She looked at me like I’d just spat in her drink, and her shoulders slumped.
“I want to go, and I want to allow myself to be excited, but this could blow up in my face.” What if Miranda found out?
Zoila joined me on the sofa. “Okay, I can see where you’re coming from and your reasons to think that. Believe me, I can see it, but I don’t think that should stop you.”
“Zoila, if you understand my concerns, then you should be telling me I shouldn’t go.”
“No.” Her lips arched, revealing the tiny beauty spot just above her upper lip. “Billie, it’s because I understand your concerns why I’m saying you should go. For as long as I’ve known you, you’ve always put your fears first. For example, we all know you’re better than the Chronicle, but you worry about applying somewhere that’s worthier of you because of your grades. However, you failed to consider that employers often request your transcript and other info that relates to extenuating circumstances. That would be your chance to tell them your father died in your senior year and that for the bulk of your freshman and sophomore years, he was seriously sick.”
Sometimes I hated how right she was. I did worry about that.
“It’s scary how insightful you are.”
“I know, but as long as a potential guy treats you right, you won’t hear me tell you not to give him a chance. No matter who he is. Besides, it’s been a while for you. Don’t think I haven’t noticed your lack of dates since Eddie.”
I pressed my lips together. She was right again.
Eddie was a great guy. He just didn’t have time for me. He played for the Chicago Bears, and that was where his focus was.
I’d met him by accident at a game.
He was the kind of guy who was just for fun. The kind who didn’t want serious because he was very career focused and didn’t want anything or anyone to get in the way.
That was where I went wrong because I wanted serious. I wanted a relationship that I wanted to grow into more.
We’d been together for two years before I realized it wasn’t going to work out. It was him who broke up with me though.
It crushed me, and I think I’d closed my heart off to anyone ever since.
That was close to three years ago. And for the last three years, I’d thrown myself into work trying to focus on my career.
I figured if I had that in the bag, then it was all I needed.
Right now, I was probably taking a massive risk on that, and I didn’t even know how I got to this point. On Monday, I’d started out wanting to expose Arnauds, and by Friday, here I was contemplating dating one.
“Chad’s so different from me, and different from anyone I’ve ever been with.”
Zoila smiled. “Different is good.”
I giggled. “Different is good.”
“So, just enjoy it and worry when you have to.”
God, could I do that?
Chapter 10
Billie
* * *
Warm, strong hands smoothed around my waist.
I smiled and leaned into the wall-like chest that pulled me against it.
The music in the club was pumping, the place was heaving with people, but as far as I was concerned, we could have been the only ones here.
Here at the Glass Globe, one of the most sophisticated clubs in Chicago.
I’d almost fainted when I got here. As usual, he’d sent a limo for me and told me to meet him at the bar.
Having never been here or dreamt of setting foot inside the place because entry for the night was the same as what I’d pay for a week’s worth of food shopping, I looked around completely mesmerized.
Chad had just arrived. I hadn’t been here long and wasn’t surprised he hadn’t kept me waiting.
He bent down low and whispered into my ear. “Hello, beautiful.”
By the bar, the music had been turned down, so people could place their orders. I loved the warmth of his breath on my skin.
I turned into his embrace and met his awaiting lips, lips that pressed to mine and cleaned my mind of everything. Just like the other night.
He pulled back with that wicked smile on his face and looked me over with satisfaction.
Tonight, I wore a black bodycon with a diamonds splashed all over it. This dress I liked because it really made a show of my cleavage, and he seemed to like it too.
My hair was swooped to the side in loose waves that cascaded down to my elbows.
“You look amazing.”
“Thank you, so do you.” He damn well did. Like always.
He wore full black. Black long-sleeved T-shirt that he’d rolled up his thick forearms, revealing tattoos, and black pants that displayed the athletic definition in his legs.
His hair was ruffled in that just-got-out-of-bed style, and he’d trimmed his beard, giving the edges definition.
“Come on.” He took my hand and pulled me away before I could answer and ask where we were going.
He pulled me through the crowds and up the stairs to the VIP area, which was separated from the rest of the section by a curtain.
A guard acknowledged Chad and pulled back the curtain for us to enter, and God, I couldn’t help it. My mouth dropped as we walked into a room that was made of glass.
Mesmerized was just the beginning of how I felt.
Jesus Lord, the whole room was made of glass and seemed to float above the crowd. But that wasn’t the only thing that was great about it. The best thing was, the ceiling was black glass like the night sky and sparkled like someone had spilled diamonds across it.
It reminded me of the lake at Chad’s house. I’d thought the same thing when I’d seen it.
Chad smiled when he saw my reaction.
“You like?”
“I love,” I beamed.
He stepped back and looked me over. The look he gave me instantly made me nervous.
The burn of his gaze made my skin flush, and I brought my hands together.
“You’re giving me that look again.” I tried to act cool, but really, the inner turmoil that coursed through me just wanted him to take me wherever he wanted.
“Because you’re the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen in my life.”
I had to
laugh because no way was that true.
Look at him. Tall, handsome, beautiful, and strong. He could have any woman he wanted, and I’m certain he must have had some of the most beautiful in this world. Women with beauty little old me would never have, even if I used the most expensive beauty creams or bought the very best clothes.
“You don’t think it’s true?” He narrowed his gaze at me.
“Of course not.” I giggled. “But you’re sweet.”
He stepped closer and smoothed his hand across my cheek. “It’s true, Billie.”
When he said that, and the way he said it made me believe he did, even if I didn’t believe it myself. My belief in it didn’t matter because that was what he thought of me.
He bent down to kiss me again and moved with me to the soft leather sofa, where he pulled me down into his lap.
A crackle of energy passed between us. Hot, raw, and carnal, stirring sexual hunger to life. Warmth pooled between my thighs, and an explosion of pleasure erupted deep inside me.
Our tongues slicked together as he ravished my mouth, kissing me like he wanted to taste me and savor me. I could feel his hunger because it matched my own.
This kiss was unlike the one we’d shared the other night. It was one filled with demand. Demand for more. And his mouth was merciless against mine.
My awareness vaguely returned to me when his hand slid up to my breasts and squeezed. A soft gasp fell from my lips as he ran his fingers over my tight, taut nipples and moved from my lips to nuzzle my neck.
“Fuck,” he breathed against my skin, breath hot with sexual fire.
I could barely catch my own.
“I can’t control myself around you.” His eyes met mine. “I want you.”
“I want you too,” I confessed before my brain could process what I was saying. I realized in that moment it was the first time that I’d been open with my feelings for him. Up until now, I’d held back and resisted.
I couldn’t do it anymore.
“Then come home with me.”
“Okay.”
* * *
We’d gotten a head start in the car on the journey over. I couldn’t remember his lips leaving mine for more than a few seconds or less.
He picked me up when we got out of the car and carried me inside the house. I loved how he didn’t care who was watching. And neither did I.
I didn’t care. I just wanted him to kiss me and touch me everywhere.
I was vaguely aware of him climbing more stairs and then the lights coming on automatically when we entered a room. His room.
His bedroom.
He set me down on plush cream carpet and backed me up against the wall, where he continued to devour my lips.
Possessing me, filling me with lusty pleasure. I giggled when he nuzzled my ear and cupped my breasts. The seriousness returned when I saw the sea of emotion deep within his blue gaze.
“You’re so fucking gorgeous, Billie. I don’t know what part of you I want first.”
Possession. I was right to think that because this was exactly what was happening here.
It was sheer possession, and I wanted him to take me. Screw the damn consequences.
“All of me,” I told him.
“All of you.” He moved in and pressed his forehead to mine.
In that moment, it was if we had known each other all our lives. Time didn’t exist.
“Do you want all of me too, Billie?” He spoke against the bridge of my nose. “Tell me you want me.”
“I want you, Chad. I want you. All of you.”
“You have it.”
His lips came crashing down on mine for an earth-shattering kiss, filled with greed and savage heat. I could have kissed him forever, but he cut the kiss short to pull away and turn me around to undo the zip of my dress.
It floated down my legs and pooled around my heels.
Then, in one fluid motion, he undid the clasp of my bra and took that off too, exposing my breasts to the cool air that filtered into the room from the window. Before I could blink, his hands were on my breasts and he shuffled me around to face him.
“Wow.” His jaw went slack as he looked at me and filled his palms with my breasts that bobbled invitingly toward him.
He squeezed, then rolled his thumb over my nipples, making me wet with each stroke.
When he squeezed harder, I moaned, and all thoughts evaporated from my mind. Pushing me into the wall, he leaned down, running his tongue over the top of my breasts. Leaving a trail of fire as he moved. I gasped for air at the intensity of the emotions that sparked all over me.
His mouth closed over my nipple, and nothing but a whimper came out as his tongue grazed across the taut, tight peaks, sending streaks of molten pleasure into my being and right down, down, down into my core.
Chad grazed my skin with his teeth, and I moaned again, arching into him with my breath shuddering in gasps and a combo of moans. He knew what to do and how to do it to make me react.
He moved to my other breast, and my knees turned to water. Instead of nipping, licking, and sucking like he had done with my right breast, he took as much of the flesh into his mouth as he could, until he was full. Then he sucked.
The sight was so hot I nearly fainted from the heat that washed over me. It was as hot as standing too close to a building on fire. Stifling and insurmountable.
I hardly noticed his hands creeping down the flat of my stomach.
I looked down as he tugged on the edge of my panties and rolled them down my legs.
He stayed down, crouched low, and the look on his face as he watched me naked before him sent a tremor through me. Those blue eyes held me in place, and that wicked smirk told me I was in for one wild time.
He chuckled as if he could hear my thoughts. It was possible, since everything about this man seemed unreal. Right from day one. Right from that moment when I had first laid eyes on him at the civic center.
Then, with the unspoken promise in his eyes, he smoothed his hands down my thighs and pushed my legs wide, so he could nuzzle his face in, right there between my thighs.
Before I could get over the shock, his tongue pushed across my core, and the only thing holding me up was his hands on the tops of my thighs and the wall behind me.
I could no longer support my own weight.
His devastating tongue stroked across the hard, sensitive nub of my clit and the outer lips of my core.
My orgasm rose with each stroke, climbing quickly. Hot and insistent, pulsing with the rhythm of his tongue as he sent blasts of pleasure to every cell in my body. I pushed back into the wall unable to control the mindless sounds of pleasure that fell from my lips. I shook, desperately trying to brace myself, but I was powerless against the insatiable pleasure he gave me.
Wetness rushed down from my core, and he drank me up, licking, sucking, and tasting as if he wanted to savor me. Like I was something exotic to relish. That was how he made me feel.
Wave after wave of pleasure slapped me with such an intensity, I had to close my eyes and cry out. I needed to reach for something. I grasped at the wall, but there was nothing to hold. Then my fingers found the blunt spikes of his hair, and I tangled them through it, holding him there as I came on the wave of an insane orgasm.
I forced my eyes open as he stopped his wild suckle and pulled back.
The wicked grin, now with an air of menace, filled his face as he gazed up at me. It was hard not to fall apart. Again.
“I’m going to feast on you all night, Billie,” he promised.
He stood and watched me with hot eyes while he shrugged out of his T-shirt, revealing an artful display of Japanese characters tattooed down the right side of his torso.
I didn’t know what each meant, but I would ask later while I explored him.
I smiled, reaching out to touch the hard peak of his left pec, and he returned my smile.
Then he undid his belt and took off his pants and boxers at the same time.
My eyes turned
to saucers as his massive cock sprung free, and I stared at it with lips parted.
“That’s not going to fit inside me.” I couldn’t believe I said that. The words just fell from my mouth before my poor brain had time to process the thought or keep it inside my mind.
He gave me a crude chuckle and ran his hand down the full length of his cock.
“Let’s try.”
He didn’t give me a chance to comment. He turned me again to face the wall, and I pressed my hands against the cool cement.
The sound of a condom wrapper being torn made me look back, and I watched, nearly drooling as he sheathed himself.
I returned my gaze to the cool cream wall and grasped at it when he took hold of my hips and pressed the fat head of his cock against my ass and slid down to my core. He pressed against my entrance and eased inside me. I gasped and moaned, clutching at the wall as he pressed deeper and deeper, an inch at a time, slowly making his way inside.
“You’re so tight, Billie,” Chad groaned and thrust in a little deeper.
My hair fell over my face and cascaded down before me in wild tendrils.
I contracted around him, and with one last thrust, he pushed and slid right in. Right in deep until he was buried to the hilt.
It was too much. The impact made me wince like I was in pain, but I wasn’t. It was hard to describe. It felt like pain, but the overwhelming pleasure filled me and overrode the discomfort. He slipped his hand around my waist and leaned into my back.
“Good girl, it’s okay. I promise to make you feel good.”
I didn’t have the strength to tell him I already did. I felt so good I couldn’t talk, but when his hips started moving, I realized that what I’d felt before was nothing.
As he moved in and out of me, it was as if the world shifted around us.
“You feel so good, baby.” His voice was rough but warm at the same time. I came instantly as he sped up faster and heat burned me from the inside out.
Faster and faster he pumped, and every thrust sent a new wave of pleasure into me. Each one different and better. Better and better. So much better I got lost in him. I got lost in him and the raw, primal sensation that coursed through my being. Together we found the tempo that bound our bodies together.
The Billionaire’s Girl Page 8