Ruin (Demonio Brotherhood #3)

Chapter 1

Iforce myself to nod like I’m listening to whatever the fuck it is that Matti is saying, but my attention is over his shoulder, and focused on her to the exclusion of all else.

She is all I see.

She was wearing dark pink lipstick at the start of the night, but drink by drink, it faded.

She must have reapplied because it’s bright again now, contrasting against her olive skin and white teeth that she keeps flashing in a brilliant smile, her hazel eyes sparkling.

The other problem is that she’s smiling at Tony the Hack.

He shouldn’t even be here right now.

We took out two men earlier today, the now former owners of Lumina & Co custom jewelry design house, and he should still be dealing with the bodies.

I wish it was his body being left in a dumpster.

Even though they were stealing the money my father was trying to launder through their business, I liked them much better than Tony the Motherfucking Hack.

But he’s not in a dumpster with them. He’s here.

With her.

I don’t like the way his eyes keep straying to Giovanna’s tits every 12 to 13 seconds like he’s on a schedule.

Like she’s wearing nothing at all. I’m about two seconds away from carving his fucking eyes out.

“You alright, man?” Matti asks, brushing a piece of confetti off his suit jacket.

Matti is my brother, four years older than I am, about the same age as my brother by birth, Vin.

Even though I call Matti my brother, technically he’s not.

Vin brought him to live with us when we were kids, and Aurelio let him stay.

He’s a lot quieter than Vin, though, less impulsive, less angry, so in a lot of ways I feel more comfortable talking to him about personal issues than anyone else.

But I’m not in any mood to talk tonight.

I flick my gaze in his direction and then back over his shoulder.

“Fine.”

Matti raises an eyebrow as he takes a sip of his drink and turns, following my gaze behind him.

When he turns back to me, he is holding back a smirk.

“Why don’t you do something about it already?

”

“She’s 18,” I bite out.

I’ve wanted Gi for years, but I’m not doing the underage thing.

I’m 22, and it doesn’t seem right to fuck with her when she’s just starting out on her own in college and I’m about to enter law school.

She has some growing to do, and I’m not interested in parenting her.

Far from it.

But there’s more to it than that, issues that complicate the equation.

Her father hates our family—hates me specifically, though I’ve never understood why.

My father sees her as a distraction from family business.

Plus, the age gap feels bigger than four years when you factor in life experience.

And then there’s the issue of what I can actually offer her in terms of a home and a life.

Or more specifically, what I can’t.

Matti shrugs.

“18 is 18. It’s not illegal. And isn’t she about to be 19?

She’s a freshman at NYU, right?”

“It’s not about what’s legal,” I snap.

“If it were, I could have fucked her when she was 17 legally.”

“So what’s holding you back then?

”

I shift my gaze back to Giovanna, watching her hand settle on that asshole’s arm.

The biggest thing holding me back is that I don’t have anything to offer.

I’m second in line to run the Demonio family, and in this game, if you’re not first, you’re not shit.

Yeah, I’ll be consigliere one day, and yes, I have access to my family’s money, but I don’t have anything of my own to offer her yet.

Her father is wealthy, so she’s going to have expectations.

Her current lifestyle plus my future potential minus my current resources equals insufficient.

I need to balance that equation before I can make her mine.

Officially, at least. As far as I’m concerned, she’s been mine for a very long time.

When I don’t respond, Matti steps in close to me, both of us watching her flirt with that douchebag.

“If you don’t make your move, someone else will.

”

He clinks the ice in his otherwise empty glass at me and nods toward the bar, gesturing for me to follow.

When I shake my head, he takes my empty seltzer bottle out of my hand, and I cross my arms over my chest and lock my stare back on Giovanna.

When Matti walks away, there’s no one standing between her and me anymore.

She’d have to be wasted not to see me standing here in a wide stance, ball cap pulled down low, glaring at her.

She must not be that wasted, because she catches my eye almost immediately and smirks.

Tony follows her gaze to me and grimaces, then moves so that he’s standing between us, his back to me, trying to keep her attention on him.

Literal cock blocker. I hate this fucking guy.

She’s not having it though, keeping her eyes on me over his shoulder as she presses her empty glass into his chest. “Get me another drink while I go talk to my friend.”

Tony grabs her wrist, stopping her.

“Hey, why not come sit with me at my table? I’ll get a waiter to bring you a drink.

”

His hand on her triggers a violent surge through my nervous system.

Every muscle in my body coils tight, my vision narrowing to that single point of contact.

I close my eyes for a few extra seconds to regain control.

Giovanna hisses at him through her teeth, breaking eye contact with me long enough to give him a withering look and then stare pointedly at his hand on hers.

He lets go of her wrist, and her sassy smile immediately returns.

“Do what you’re told like a good boy, and I just might come back.

”

I bite back a grin, proud of her. But if she ever talks to me like that, she’s going to find herself over my knee.

Tony takes it in stride. He grins back at her and angles his head so he’s blocking her view of me.

“Good boy, huh? Miss Marino, I can be very good if that’s what it takes to make you come.

”

The urge to grin evaporates immediately replaced with the urge to pull out my knife and carve him up like a Christmas turkey.

She brushes past him as he heads to the bar and swings her hips as she closes the distance between us, her short dress clinging to her upper thighs.

I imagine how the hem of her dress would ride up over her bare ass if I were to bend her over my knee right now, and my cock twitches.

Fuck, I’d love to see that. The angle, the pressure required to leave a satisfying red mark on her ass, how those variables would change with a belt versus my hand.

The mechanics all shuffle through my head like a deck of cards until I force myself to stop.

Her eyes sparkle and her smile is wide as she stops in front of me, so close that I have to look down through my lower lashes to see her beautiful face in order to avoid moving to accommodate her.

My sleeves are pushed up to my elbows because of the heaters Matti has all over the roof to fight off the NYC cold, but when she drags her dark pink fingernails lightly over my skin, goosebumps pop up all over my body.

The sensation sends an electric shock through my system.

Most touch feels wrong to me—too much, too intense, too overwhelming—but her touch is different.

It’s like she’s speaking directly to my nervous system in a language it understands.

I clench my jaw to keep my face passive, glowering down at her as she peeks up at me under the brim of my ball cap.

“Hey, handsome. Buy me a drink?”

“Looks like you’ve already got one coming.

” I jut my chin in the direction of Tony the Hack at the bar, keeping my eyes on her.

She ignores my comment and stands on tiptoe in her heels, the same shade of pink as her lips and nails, and slowly turns my baseball cap backwards, tucking a stray hair behind my ear with her nails.

Again, a shiver shoots through me, but I don’t budge.

I don’t even blink. But I can’t stop my blood pressure from spiking.

Her touch threatens to short-circuit my control, and I cross my arms over my chest and grip my biceps to ground myself.

“Much better,” she purrs in appreciation, leaning back to admire her work.

When I don’t respond, she throws her thin arms around my neck, going back up on tiptoe and tilting her head back fully, her face just inches from mine.

“Are you going to kiss me at midnight, Tommy Demonio?”

I keep my arms crossed over my chest. “No.”

She frowns slightly and cocks her head, dragging her nails lightly along the hairline at the back of my neck.

My jeans are tighter as my dick stands at attention.

Grinding her body against me, she feels it, her eyes widening like a kid on Christmas morning.

“Are you sure? Seems like your cock has a different opinion on the subject.”