Reformed (Gangsters at War #5)

Chapter Eight

Jane

I looked up at the shop’s clock—again. It’d been five days since I’d seen Alessandro and my anxiety and self-doubts had gone through the roof.

He said he’d wanted to see me again. Perhaps he’d meant in a week—a month? Perhaps I’d gotten ahead of myself and imagined seeing each other had meant one day, maybe two, tops!

I shook my head and refocused on the task of taking the vintage shirts from the opened box and hanging them on the rack I’d cleared for them.

The bell on the shop door tingled and I looked up. My heart immediately pounded. “Alessandro,” I croaked.

His smile only accelerated my heartrate. “You’re a sight for sore eyes,” he said huskily.

I blinked. Though he was handsome beyond words, the dark shadows beneath his eyes were obvious on closer inspection. He looked like he hadn’t slept for the entire five days he’d been away.

I dropped the shirt back into its box. “Is everything okay?”

He grimaced. “As good as it can be.”

My legs moved even while I put up my guard. “Is that why I didn’t hear from you?”

He closed the distance even more and pulled me into his arms. “Believe me, I would have been here three days ago if it wasn’t for my work.”

“Your work?” I lifted my head to focus on his enigmatic stare. “What exactly do you do that you couldn’t have some time off?”

“It’s...complicated.”

I frowned. He was being evasive. But his business really wasn’t my business...was it? I wasn’t used to relationships, if what we had could even be called that.

His eyes held mine. “I’d like to see you again tonight.”

I lifted my chin. I wasn’t sure being with him was in my best interest. Not when I’d physically and mentally ached from missing him so much. I shook my head. “I don’t think—”

“Please,” he rasped. “Don’t make me beg.”

I huffed out a breath. “I get the feeling you’ve never done that before.”

“Then you’d be right. But I would for you.” His eyes softened. “I’ve never met anyone like you. You’re unique. I can’t stop thinking about you.”

Then he understood how I felt. “Really?”

“Really,” he confirmed huskily.

I sighed and nodded, my actions belying the anticipation unfurling inside. “What time?”

“I’ll pick you up at six.”

“Okay.” I smiled. “We’ll go to my fine dining place this time.”

“Perfect.” He leaned down, his lips brushing mine. “I’ll see you then.”

A customer, a svelte young woman with bright red lips and her blonde hair in a fashionably messy bun—a woman who was likely just his type—glanced at me with envious eyes. I smiled as I approached her. “May I help you?”

“Not unless there’s more of your boyfriend to go around?” She clucked her tongue when my smile dropped and I glowered. She shrugged. “I guess I’m cursed to always want the bad boys.” She sniffed as she looked me up and down. “He’s going to eat you alive.”

“He already has,” I countered.

She looked as taken aback as me. Apparently I’d stepped out of the shadows and become a force to be reckoned with. With a louder, disdainful sniff, she stalked out in her heeled boots, the bell tinkling violently in her wake.

I wilted, my bravado disappearing as quickly as it’d come. Was the gorgeous blonde an example of how easy women were for Alessandro? One look at him and they were his? I shivered. I was so inadequate as his plain Jane girlfriend it wasn’t even funny.

I shook off the negative thought, my smile forcibly sunny as a group of shoppers walked into my store. “Welcome. Let me know if I can be of any assistance.”

I ended up having a productive day when I finally closed and locked my vintage shop door, my bangle sliding up and down my arm as if to remind me of where I really wanted to be and who I wanted to be with.

I ran upstairs and had a quick shower, then wrapped a towel around me before I flicked through the clothes in my closet.

Nothing seemed right, my usual wardrobe choices all wrong. I finally settled on a white boho skirt with lace wraparound and a ruffled white blouse that showed glimpses of my midriff. Strappy white heels completed my outfit.

Brushing my hair out, I left it long and loose before spraying some of my lotus and dark orchid perfume on my wrists and throat, my bangle glinting under the light.

The doorbell rang just as I was gathering up my clutch bag. I ran downstairs, my heels clattering. Stalking through the storeroom with the faintly musty scent of aged fabrics, I swung open the door.

Oh, dear Lord.

I swallowed hard. He was sinfully delicious in his black suit with his red dress shirt beneath and his hair slicked back. That he’d forgone a tie just made him even more mouthwatering in my eyes.

“Wow,” I breathed out.

“Wow, yourself.” He reached for my hand and lifted it to kiss my knuckles, my bangle sliding up my arm.

I didn’t have time to process the electricity burning through me. Seconds later he was drawing me out of the door and toward a dark town car with a driver standing beside its back passenger door.

The driver smiled at me as he opened the door. “Good evening, Miss.”

I giggled. “Please, call me Jane. And you are?”

“I’m Anthony, though you can call me Tony.”

“Hi Tony, it’s so lovely to meet you.”

The driver looked at Alessandro and nodded. “Your taste has sure improved.”

Alessandro chuckled. “Hasn’t it?” His hand tightened on mine even as he asked the driver, “How are Mel and the kids.”

“My wife is still giving me curry, but I wouldn’t have it any other way. As for the kids, they’re flagrantly ungrateful and my wallet has never looked emptier.”

“And you still wouldn’t have it any other way?” Alessandro asked.

Tony nodded. “Got it in one.”

I grinned at their exchange before I gave Tony the address of my so called gourmet restaurant and climbed into the luxury town car. But I was floating on air at being seen and approved of. Alessandro slid in beside me seconds later.

Sudden nerves tore through me as I clipped on my seatbelt then smoothed out an imaginary wrinkle in my skirt. “I wasn’t expecting you to use a driver tonight.”

“Tony often drives me around. I can get a lot of work done in peak hour traffic. Even better, I can concentrate on you now instead of dodging cars and cabs.”

I leaned back in the seat, my head angled up toward his. “You know how to make a girl feel special.”

“Others might argue with you on that sentiment,” he admitted. “I might know how to please a woman in the bedroom, but outside of it is another story all together.”

My stomach tightened. It was one thing to wonder if he was a player; it was another thing entirely for him to confess it. “Really?”

He nodded. “I’m not known for my romance. But then, I’ve never liked a woman enough to want more than a night with her.”

“So what makes me different to those other women,” I asked, more aware of my too breathless voice than I was of the neon lights outside.

Nothing could distract me from the man beside me.

His teeth glinted white behind his designer stubble. ”Everything about you intrigues me, little sparrow. You’re like a diamond in the rough, except I see every shiny facet inside you. You’re priceless.”

I should have been flattered, if only an insecure part of me didn’t feel so exposed by my plainness or by the fact he noticed what everyone else saw.

“You’re beautiful,” he said huskily. “Don’t let anyone else tell you otherwise.”

I nodded, but was far from convinced and I felt his gaze on me as I stared out the side window.

The driver slowed the car and pulled into a rare parking bay, right beside the pizzeria shop I’d been dining at for years—the same pizza place my gran had once taken me.

My vision blurred as memories piled on top of one another even as I climbed out of the car and thanked Tony. I was only half-aware of the men exchanging looks, then Alessandro took my hand and escorted me into the shop.

The scent of cooked pizza dough, meat and garlic along with melted, golden cheeses assailed my nostrils, the all too familiar scent triggering even more memories of my gran and I coming here, sharing pizza and lots of laughs.

“I hope you’re not disappointed,” I said.

“On the contrary, this is perfect. I love pizza.” He shrugged. “I’m Italian, it’s in my veins to love it.”

We ordered some cokes and a pepperoni pizza to share. It was odd how easily we fell into talking, how natural our conversation was along with our shared interests in the most mundane things.

From the outside—Alessandro in his suit and me in my bohemian chic outfit—we probably looked like an odd couple, but we really did mesh perfectly together in every other way.

Our pizza came and we laughed as we ate while strings of cheese hung from the edges of our slices and threatened to splatter on our clothes.

Nostalgia hit me yet again and I said huskily, “I used to come here with my gran, we used to talk and laugh like this.”

His eyes warmed. “You took me here, where you have such good memories with your gran. Thank you. I’m honored.”

We leaned in and kissed, our mouths slippery from cheese and pepperoni. It didn’t stop yearning from moving through me, and I shivered at what I knew would happen when we returned to my place.

As if reading my mind, he pulled back and said, “Let’s go home.”

I blinked. “Your place or mine?”

“I don’t mind. You choose.”

I bit my bottom lip, troubled by my instinctive need not to go to his home. “Mine.”

He nodded. “Then yours it is.”

We shut the lid of the pizza box and decided we’d eat the leftovers later.

“I’ll pay,” I said.

“No. I insist paying this time.”

I sighed fitfully. “If you’re sure? I don’t like being indebted to anyone.”

He frowned. “You’re in no way indebted to me just because I paid for a pizza.”

I scrunched my nose. “Sorry, I didn’t meant to imply—“

“I know you didn’t,” he interjected. He grimaced. “We all have habits that are hard to break.”

I looked at him with new eyes. “What are yours?”

He snorted. “Where should I start?” He stood then, his chair scraping back and effectively putting an end to our conversation.

I followed him to the counter where he pulled free some notes from his wallet to pay for our dinner along with a very generous tip. But not before I noted his exclusive black credit card.

I almost laughed. It was ludicrous that I didn’t want him to pay when he clearly had more than enough money to splash around. That I didn’t have a clue what he did for a living sobered me up as I walked with Alessandro to the town car.

Tony didn’t notice us at first, he appeared to be on high alert as he scanned the surroundings opposite us, as though waiting for trouble to pounce at any moment.

“All good, Tony?” Alessandro asked.

He turned to face us, then nodded. “No sign of trouble, captain.”

I gaped. No trouble ? Captain ?

I looked from one man to the other, then Tony cleared his throat and opened the back door. “I hope you had a nice night, Jane.”

I paused from climbing into the car. “It was wonderful, thank you. Would you like a slice of pizza?”

No, thank you all the same.” He patted his flat stomach. “I’m trying to work off a few extra pounds.”

I grinned as I ducked my head and slid across the backseat, Alessandro following me. Then Tony shut our door before he took the driver’s seat and gunned the engine, merging into the traffic.

Alessandro leaned forward and said to the driver, “Take us back to Jane’s.”

“Of course, captain.”

I blinked up at him. “Why does Tony call you captain?”

Alessandro shrugged. “All the men who work for me do. It’s a respect thing as much as anything else.”

I fluttered my lashes. “Should I call you captain, too?”

“That’s your choice,” he said throatily.

Tony accelerated the car through some amber lights. I giggled, and murmured, “Well then... captain. I think Tony knows we want to get home fast.”

“I think so too.”

My face flushed and my mouth dried. That I was wet elsewhere wasn’t lost on me. My body zinged with arousal, like an addict wanting another round. But I needed to know one thing before I got my heart completely broken. I held his stare as I asked, “What about after tonight?”

His eyes darkened. “Little sparrow, if you think I’m leaving you at first light after we’ve had our fun, you can think again.”

“You’ll stay all night?”

“Try keeping me away.”

My body thrummed as I gave him a tremulous smile, my face no doubt an open book. “I’m going to hold you to that.”

Tony got us back to my home in record time. After he opened our back door, he doffed his hat and winked. “Have a good night, I’m sure you both will.”

“Thanks Tony,” I said over my shoulder as I hurried to keep up to Alessandro’s long stride. I giggled. He was as eager as me to get inside and down to business!

I handed him the key, my hands too shaky to unlock the door myself. I’d already leaning his hands were deft...at everything.

Slamming shut the door behind us, he grabbed my hand and stalked through the storage room. I was pulsing with excitement, my breasts already heavy and my nipples rigid.

We stopped on the second step to kiss and I shoved off his jacked while he peeled off my top. After clambering up a few more steps, we kissed again. I fumbled with his shirt and he drew back to allow me to take it off before he took off my skirt, leaving me in just my underwear and strappy shoes.

It was only once we half-stumbled into my kitchen, our mouths fusing once again, that I reached for his pants button and fly.

Briiing-briing. Briing-briing .

We broke apart.

“Fuck,” he said savagely.

“Ignore it,” I whimpered. I was desperate for him to take my body to another realm again, desperate to have his mouth on mine again along with his hands. I was desperate for his full attention, period.

“I can’t ignore this call,” he said, frustration filling his voice. He grabbed his cell from deep inside his pants pocket. “Ethan,” he growled. He paused, his brow furrowing. “Of course. I’m leaving now.”

When he disconnected I could do nothing but gape, hurt overwhelming me. He’d all but given his word he wouldn’t be going anywhere...wouldn’t be leaving me.

After re-buttoning and zipping his pants, he reached out and cupped my chin. “Don’t look at me like that. I don’t have a choice. I have to go.”

“Do you?” I asked. “Who is Ethan?”

“He’s my brother.”

It could have been the queen and pope all rolled into one and it still wouldn’t have stopped the betrayal eating me from the inside out. I crossed my arms. “Life or death, is it?”

He leaned in close for one final, almost desperate kiss. When he pulled back his eyes were stark, glinting with an emotion I couldn’t quite read. “Yes, it is,” he said gruffly. He shook his head. “I don’t have time to explain, just...believe me when I say it’s urgent.”

I was left stunned, speechless, when he pivoted and jogged down my stairs, grabbing his clothes as he went. Seconds later the door slammed shut behind him before my legs finally unlocked.

I hurried downstairs and into my storeroom. Dragging open the door, I was just in time to see the taillights of Alessandro’s town car disappear around the corner of the block, taking my trust with it.