Chapter Six
Valentino
I cooked on automaton, flipping the two steaks on the grill while the thick-cut fries bubbled away in oil. How had Chantilly gotten under my skin so fast? She was making me second guess everything!
I ripped the lettuce leaves into pieces and threw them into a glass bowl, along with cherry tomatoes I’d cut in half, sliced cucumber and red onions. Was she right in suggesting that lying took priority over killing?
I cubed some cheese and added it to the salad, then made a simple olive oil, mustard, honey and lime dressing. I shook the glass jar a little too vigorously. She was doing my damn head in and I hadn’t even taken her to my bed yet!
Movement caught the corner of my eye and I looked up as the woman of my thoughts walked into the kitchen. My bathrobe swamped her, the white fabric a stark contrast to her dark hair that fell down her back almost to her waist.
I swallowed hard, my dick jerking convulsively. What I’d do right now to have that same dark hair spread out on my pillow while I thrust deep inside her.
“Anything I can do to help?” she asked.
I nodded, and handed her the bowl of salad and dressing. “That can go on the table, along with some cutlery.”
She did as I asked while I took off the steaks and seasoned them, then let them rest as I made peppercorn gravy, then removed the fries from the hot oil and put them onto paper towel. Sharing them out on two separate plates, along with the steaks and gravy, I placed them on the table, then pulled out a seat for Chantilly.
She eyed me strangely, then said, “Thank you,” before she took the proffered seat.
I frowned. Hadn’t Sean treated her like a lady? Didn’t he know how to at least act like a gentleman? I took a seat opposite her and asked, “Salad?”
She nodded. “Please.”
I placed a decent amount on both our plates before she drizzled some dressing onto her salad, then mine.
“Do you always eat dinner so late?” she asked.
I automatically glanced outside the windows. It was pitch black with no lights in sight. It was as if we were alone in the world, living inside our own bubble where no one could interfere.
Not that I’d care if someone heard her scream out my name. I’d make her orgasm so hard she’d wonder why she’d been with anyone else.
I wouldn’t think about her being my victim sooner rather than later. I prided myself in my work and did whatever my don, Ethan, asked of me. That his request to kill a woman—an innocent one at that—was so out of character for him meant the mission was more important than ever.
The turf wars between the Agostinos and Costas had settled—at least it appeared that way from the outside looking in—with Sabrina and Ethan getting married, along with Isabella and Salvatore. Now the O’Malleys were quickly becoming a burr in our sides, with their shipments of inferior drugs and firearms competing with our own.
Ethan no doubt wanted to send a very strong, clear message that the Irish mobsters wouldn’t be tolerated.
“I eat when I’m hungry,” I said finally.
A pity my hunger wouldn’t be appeased by food.
I stared at the woman opposite me, my chest tightening. She was beautiful. With her high cheekbones and inky black hair, her dark, intelligent eyes that sometimes glinted with gold and her smoking hot body I was beyond desperate to fuck.
She was any man’s wet dream.
She put her fork down, her eyes flashing. “Just like you kidnap women when you’re bored?”
My heartbeat accelerated. “Who said I was bored?” I smirked. “You’ve captivated me, Tilly, and I’m not sure how I feel about it.”
She clenched one hand until her knuckles whitened. No doubt she was ready to throw her fork at my face. “If you hadn’t been captivated, would you have left me alone?”
“If I hadn’t you’d now be dead.”
Her face drained of color, her voice low and intense. “So you were sent to kill me.”
I nodded, regret a short, sharp twinge inside of me. It was pointless to lie.
“By who?”
“It doesn’t matter,” I bit out. Nothing would matter when she was six feet under. That the mental image affected me on a deep level made my tension escalate.
Her face was bleached white now, her eyes dark. “If you must kill me, at least do me the honor of giving me a name. If its n-not Sean, then who else c-could possibly want to end me?”
I stuck a chunk of steak in my mouth and chewed slowly. The delicious, tender meat might as well have been cardboard. I swallowed. “Not Sean,” I conceded. “Another don.”
Her shoulders drooped, and it took everything I had not to pull her into my arms and comfort her. She dragged in an unsteady breath. “My death is meant to hurt Sean, isn’t it?”
She really did know how the mobsters’ minds worked. Though the truth made me a little uncomfortable, I couldn’t deny it. “Yes.”
Her hands shook as she dabbed at her mouth. “So you’re the enforcer for another don?”
“When I’m needed.”
She closed her eyes. “Let me guess…you’re the Agostinos enforcer.”
I waited until her eyes reopened, then held her stare as I said, “I guess you’ve heard all about me.”
“I have,” she said softly. “You’re one of the best in the business, the most feared. Little wonder you warned me I was better off not knowing.”
“That’s quite a reputation to uphold. I hope I can live up to all those…expectations.”
She pushed back her chair, her dinner barely touched. “If you’ll excuse me, I need some air.”