Chapter 6 Tilly
TILLY
“Look who decided to join us,” Izzy says, twisting a red straw between her fingers and wearing a smug grin. “Thought you two would never come up for air.”
My cheeks heat, and I realize everyone around the table knows exactly what we were doing.
The embarrassment only lasts a moment until Angelo squeezes my fingers. “Shut it, cousin,” he tells her, but she throws him a wink.
“I think we have another Suzy Sunshine on our hands.”
I snort. “I’m far from innocent, and so is she.” My gaze moves to Suzy, who’s draped across her fine-ass husband, looking just as frisky as I felt before Angelo showed up.
“Are we enjoying ourselves?” Slate, the owner of the club, asks as he steps closer to the table.
Angelo’s arm snakes around my waist like he’s claiming ownership and needs to mark his territory. “It’s an interesting place.”
We’re in the public bar area, and a majority of the people sipping their fancy drinks probably have no idea what’s going on on the other side of the wall.
I’ve passed by this building at least a dozen times since I moved to Chicago, and never in my wildest dreams would I have imagined what was going on inside.
Slate moves closer to me, and Angelo’s arm tightens. “You’re welcome here anytime. If you’d like to experience the club in a more personal way—” his gaze dips to me and then to Angelo “—I’d be more than happy to make your fantasies a reality.”
Oh shit. This can’t be good.
Angelo shifts, moving me to his other side and putting distance between Slate and me. “My woman enjoyed herself, but I’m not sure we’ll be coming back.”
My skin tingles at the way he says my woman. It’s a little barbaric but hella sexy, especially with how hard he’s holding me against his body.
“Slate,” the man sitting next to Izzy says. There’s a warning in his voice, and the glare he’s giving Slate is so icy cold.
Slate throws up his hands, but there’s a smile on his lips. “I mean no harm, James. You know damn well she isn’t my type either. Well, I have a club to run. Drink up. Everything’s on the house. By the way—” he turns his attention to Vinnie “—it’s nice to see you back again.”
That statement earns Vinnie a quizzical look from Bianca. She stares at her man’s profile with her mouth hanging open and her eyebrows furrowing, moving like she has so many questions she wants to ask, but she stays quiet.
“Thanks, man. It’s nice to be home again,” Vinnie tells Slate before he disappears through the velvet curtain and back to the front of house.
Angelo pulls me into his lap as he sits. “I don’t like that man.”
James laughs and swipes his hand across his face. “He likes dick, so he’s more interested in you,” he says to Angelo, “and not Tilly.”
Roger quietly excuses himself and heads toward the same door Slate just walked through. Everyone’s so busy talking, they don’t even notice his sudden disappearance, but I do. Does he know Slate, or is he interested in the man?
“Now what?” a man asks as he kicks back, sliding his arm around Angel’s chair. I assume the tall, sexy drink of water is Thomas, her badass private investigator husband who used to work for the DEA to bring down biker gangs.
Angel rests her head on Thomas’s shoulder, staring up at him, batting her eyelashes. “I know we were supposed to party separately, but we’re childless tonight. I don’t want to waste this opportunity. We should all party together,” Angel says, looking around the table for backup.
“Everyone feel that way?” the man with Suzy in his lap asks.
I stare at him, taking in his chiseled features, handsome face, and tattoos peeking out from underneath his shirt. I can see why Suzy Sunshine went from an innocent to a dirty girl in a hot second. The man looks like sin and sex, dripping confidence and swagger.
“Yes, Joe.” Suzy bounces slightly, and his hands move to her waist, stopping her movement.
“Sugar, don’t do that, or I’ll have to take you in the other room and finish what you’re starting.” There’s a small smile playing across his lips, but I bet he’s not joking.
Suzy waggles her eyebrows. “Is that a promise?”
I laugh, enjoying their lightheartedness and the love that comes off them in waves. It’s like that with everyone at the table. Every couple is connected in some way—holding hands or touching each other somewhere. There’s no distance. Only love.
“Let’s go back upstairs and drink,” Race says with a wicked smile. “You know…and watch some people fuck.”
“My girl wants to let her freak flag fly tonight?” her guy says.
“Fuck yeah. It’s hot, and how many times do I get to experience something like that?” she replies.
“I’m sure we can make this a regular occurrence,” he tells her, sweeping his thumb across her wrist as he speaks. He looks at her with such adoration and love, my heart swells.
That’s the way in this family. The men, just like Angelo, are completely and utterly in love. There’s no doubt who they belong to or that they’re taken. No one’s eyes wander to the women with very little clothing wandering around the bar space, prowling for men.
“It’s more private and easier to talk in that room,” Max adds, tracing the lines of a tattoo on her husband’s hand.
“Among other things,” he replies with the most wickedly sexy smirk I’ve ever seen.
“Anyone against going back upstairs?” Izzy asks, and she’s looking right at me because earlier, I was the only one to object to coming to this place.
“It’s your night,” Mia’s guy says and looks at Angelo and me.
I shake my head, leaving no doubt about how I feel, and gaze over my shoulder at Angelo. He smiles, running his hands up and down my arms, causing goose bumps to scatter across my skin.
“I don’t care where we are as long as we’re together,” Angelo says, taking the words right out of my mouth.
I’ve lost track of the number of drinks I’ve consumed. My face no longer feels like it’s attached to my body. Every inch of me tingles, not from the nearness of my soon-to-be-husband, but because of all the alcohol running through my veins.
I’d never thought of myself as a lightweight drinker. But tonight, I feel like it’s my twenty-first birthday party with the way my body’s humming, while everyone else around seems more sober.
“What are their names again?” I whisper into Angelo’s ear, still trying to memorize the names of everyone here.
At this point, I’m so drunk, I know I’ll never remember, but that doesn’t stop me from trying between giggles.
“Joe, Anthony, Thomas, Morgan, James, and Mike.” Angelo points to each guy as he says their names, but he’s talking too fast for me to keep up.
“Were you all bred in some hot-guy breeding farm?” I giggle again, so unlike myself, before hiccupping.
Angelo’s hand comes to my face, cradling my cheek in his palm. “Are you saying my cousins are hot?” He raises an eyebrow.
“I’m saying no one got hit with the ugly cart.” I smile. “Even the women are drop-dead gorgeous.”
Angelo laughs and looks around the room at his cousins. “Baby,” he whispers, and my heart flutters. “There’s no one more beautiful than you.”
I blink a few times, trying to get the two images of Angelo to melt into one, but I fail. “How did I get so lucky?”
“Oh. My. God,” Mia says. “Look at this crazy shit.”
Izzy and James don’t move. They’re too busy smacking lips across the table from us like two teenagers free from their parents for the night.
I’m too drunk to move, and Angelo’s still holding my face and all of my attention. But the rest of the room gravitates toward the windows, staring out across the public area with their hands against the glass.
“You want to look?” Angelo asks.
I shake my head. “I’m perfect where I am.”
To be honest, I’m not entirely sure I could even walk over to the window without falling on my face. My legs feel like rubber, nowhere near stable enough to support my body weight and make it to the glass with any sort of grace.
A server walks in, and the light from the hallway momentarily blinds me.
Everything is amplified. The light, his touch, my need.
She places two more bottles of champagne in the buckets near our table.
She lingers a little longer than the last girl, her eyes roaming across the room.
No doubt she’s taking in the hotness factor of the men filling the tiny space because that’s what I would do if I were her.
“Vinnie?” she asks with her mouth practically hanging open. “Vinnie Gallo?”
Bianca turns first. Her eyes narrow as she takes in the scantily clad woman holding the tray and looking at Vinnie like he’s prey. Her breasts are so large, they’re practically spilling out of her corset.
Bianca steps forward, holding out her hand to the woman. “I’m his fiancée, Bianca,” she says, driving that point home and basically telling the woman to back the fuck up.
The woman’s eyebrows practically touch her hairline as soon as the words are out of Bianca’s mouth.
“Uh oh,” I say, watching what could very well be a train wreck happening right before my eyes.
“His past had to catch up with him sometime,” Angelo says with a hint of laughter in his voice.
Vinnie turns, not from hearing the exchange, but after he reached for Bianca at his side and she wasn’t there. “Melinda?” Vinnie says in disbelief. “Is that you?”
Bianca’s arms are folded in front of her chest, and her head’s tilted. I know that look. Have seen it before when some of his rabid fans try to stake their claim on her man. She’s about to throw down.
Vinnie slides his arm around Bianca’s waist. Again, not hiding where his heart belongs, just like every other man in this room. “Baby, this is Melinda,” he says like Bianca’s suddenly going to realize who she is and be okay with her and her mighty big breasts. “We went to Sunday school together.”
I don’t know why, but I snort. Not a ladylike laugh either. The thought of Vinnie in Sunday school, praying to Jesus and learning the bible, has me in a complete fit.
Before Bianca came along, he had to be one of the biggest ladies’ men I’d ever met. There wasn’t a skirt he didn’t chase, especially if it was attached to two killer legs and an even bigger rack.
Bianca doesn’t seem to be buying his story because she doesn’t drop a shoulder and her hard stare doesn’t falter. “It’s nice to meet you.” The smile on Bianca’s face is tight, almost painful to look at.
“I wish I had time to catch up, but I have customers waiting. It’s nice to see you,” Melinda says, her eyes moving between Bianca and Vinnie. “I’m so happy for all your success.”
“Thanks, Mel.” Vinnie smiles, watching as Melinda spins on her heel and walks back through the door, shrouding the room in darkness again.
“Thanks, Mel,” Bianca repeats, mocking him. “Seriously, is there a girl in this city you haven’t banged?”
Vinnie’s arms tighten around her body as he places his face in the crook of her neck. “Baby, are you jealous? I mean, we can read bible verses together if it’ll make you feel like it evens the score with Melinda.”
“You never slept with her?” Bianca’s point-blank with her question.
It’s one of the reasons I adore her so much.
At her age, I was nowhere near as comfortable with myself to be so forthright.
I’d dance around topics, hoping Mitchell would get the hint.
Typically, he didn’t, and that was entirely my fault for being too scared to ask him directly.
But that isn’t Bianca’s style. Now, I’m that girl.
Never afraid to say what I mean, but I wish I’d had the balls to do it sooner.
Vinnie peppers her skin with kisses. “Never,” he murmurs into her neck. “Didn’t actually think about her that way at all.”
“You think about every woman that way,” Bianca shoots back, but she tilts her head to give him more access to nibble her flesh.
“I used to think about women that way, baby. Now I have you, and there’s no one else on my mind.”
My heart melts a little at his words. Damn, I love every man in this family. They know when and how to say the right thing to make any girl putty in their hands.