Chapter 12
Emma
I thought the second week at the Tropican was hard, trying and failing not to notice Luke. The third week—all these tortuous days after I kissed him in the alley—was infinitely harder.
Because now I knew.
Tormenting myself with the memory of how well he could turn me on and drive me insane, I sought him out again.
I didn’t have to wonder what his hard lips could feel like as he demanded a brutal kiss. I could replay the sensation in my mind.
I no longer fantasized about how gritty and urgent his hands would seem on my skin. I could think back and relive the experience mentally.
It wasn’t enough. The more I thought about him, the less confident I was in my ability to stay rational.
Just like the first two weeks here, Krista and I hung out at the Tropican. Lounging at the pool, lying out at the beach, and walking along the shore. We ate at the restaurants on site, but we stayed out of the clubs. In other words, we were right here. Available.
He remained elusive, though, either working less hours or going out of his way to avoid me. When I did spot him in the distance, he turned and headed in a different direction. If I saw him talking with another member of the staff, I lingered until they left altogether.
“You’re clinging.” Krista smirked, not looking up from scrolling on her phone while we lounged by the pool. We’d given in and turned them on after that fight at the club. If my father didn’t know that we were at this resort before then, he’d be able to piece it together now.
“I’m not clinging,” I sassed back at her, furrowing my brow when Luke turned and headed in a different direction.
“Okay. You wish you could be clinging to him.”
I sighed. “I think he’s avoiding me.”
“Correct.” She set her phone down. “Are you that bad of a kisser?”
I gaped at her. “Hey.”
“Well, you are a virgin,” she teased.
“Oh, that’s a low blow.”
“Bet you can’t say that you’d be too high and mighty to stoop to sleeping with the hotel staff now, huh?”
I flipped her off.
“You can’t doubt that he would want you.”
“What?” I damn near screeched it. “He’s been avoiding me all week.”
She pursed her lips and shrugged. “Maybe it’s a male version of playing hard to get.”
I was hard to get, namely because I “belonged” to Antonio. I shouldn’t be on the market to be gotten. When Luke kissed me and shoved my back up against that wall, though, he’d taken charge to show me how much he intended to have me then.
At least, how much he intended to have my lips. In his kiss, I felt all the need and desire he contained. If Krista hadn’t interrupted when she had...
“He told me to go away.”
“Bah.” She waved me off like I was ridiculous. “A man doesn’t take on someone like that street fighter without wanting you.”
“Street fighter?” I raised my brows.
“Yeah.” She waggled her phone. “Justin was texting me. I guess that guy Luke beat the shit out of is a street fighter that the Marcheses sponsor.”
“Oh, shit.” I grimaced, sitting upright. I worried that those Marchese soldiers would cause issues for Luke, but then again, I wasn’t Antonio’s wife yet. If my father cared, assuming he’d heard about this, he could’ve fought in my honor for those Marchese men trying to mess with me.
“He attacked one of their fighters?” I swung my legs over to face her. I didn’t try to keep up-to-date with a lot of what my father orchestrated. Besides the drug and gun trading, they also acted like a monopoly in real estate. And, of course, the illegal fighting rings. I was aware of all of those things, but I never got involved in the details. I was born into this mafia life. That never meant I wanted to stay in it.
Krista lost her teasing smile. “Maybe that’s why he’s avoiding you.” She cringed. “Because he realized what he’s getting mixed up with.”
I narrowed my eyes. Her comment triggered something in my mind to click. “Or not.”
She frowned.
“If that guy was a skilled fighter and Luke could take him on so easily, he had to have been trained somewhere.”
“Yeah.” She furrowed her brow. “He almost killed the other guy, too. Where’d he learn to fight like that?”
“Somewhere. So maybe he already knows about who’s who in the street fighting circuit.”
She shrugged. “You just had to find the wrong man to kiss.”
“I—” I never intended to kiss him. Something in me just snapped.
“Like I was originally saying... you’re not so high and mighty that you can’t sleep with the hotel staff anymore.”
“I didn’t pick him as someone I’d want to sleep with,” I lied.
I couldn’t stop obsessing about how he fried my brain with that kiss. I was a molten puddle of need when Krista interrupted. I would get naked with him in a heartbeat. Feeling the push of his hips against mine turned me on, so I imagined the full effect of his dick hard and jutting out at me would make me a crave him more.
“But he is the wrong man to kiss.” I could desire him, but it wouldn’t go anywhere. “He’s made it clear he wants nothing to do with me.”
She barked out a harsh laugh. “Sis, are you not seeing the same thing I’m seeing? He almost killed a man for you. Beat a trained fighter for you. If that doesn’t fit in the hot-as-hell category of burning down a world for you, I don’t know what does.”
“But he’s... He doesn’t want me. We sort of lapsed. The chemistry between us is there but that doesn’t mean we should or will act on it.”
“Because... you’re not trying to lose your virginity before it’s taken from you against your will?”
I shut up, daunted by the truth she spoke. My phone rang, preventing me from speaking up, anyway. Out here at our exclusive pool, toward the side, no one could overhear. A festival was going on today and most of the resort guests had left to see that.
I sighed at the name on the screen. “My father.”
“Time to face the music?”
I shrugged. “I’m not ready to leave here until I absolutely have to.”
“Hello,” I answered.
“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” he bellowed.
I winced, holding the phone from my ear.
“I heard that you were out at a club last week.”
Gee. It took that long?
“And I didn’t realize it was the same fucking club where one of Vincent’s men was attacked.”
I pulled the inside of my cheek between my teeth. I wasn’t saying anything. It wasn’t like he was asking. Just calling to yell.
“I knew the moment you left that you wound up at the Tropican. They alerted me.”
Dammit. That figured. Then again, he hadn’t bothered to order me home until now. If that’s what this call is about.
“But I didn’t think that you would’ve been at the same fucking place where the Marcheses were attacked.”
“They were attacked?” I tried to keep the sarcasm out of my tone. They weren’t attacked. Luke merely intervened and fought to defend me when Antonio’s new recruits thought they could share me.
“You see anything?”
I rolled my eyes. Oh, I saw it all. But I wasn’t saying a single word. “Me?”
“You stupid bitch.” He growled, frustrated. “Like you’d notice anything. Stuck in your little fantasy world all the time.”
What the hell? I loathed it when he made me out to be some brainless twit. He called my interest in nursing a joke. A stupid pastime and worthless hobby.
“Vincent and Antonio aren’t happy.”
I can’t imagine they would be. If that guy Luke beat so soundly was supposed to be some sort of an elite fighter, he sure proved them otherwise. Luke was supposed to be an ordinary stranger.
“They’re accusing Marlo Rossini of setting up one of their fighters to go after theirs.”
I furrowed my brow, considering this carefully. Marlo Rossini? I hadn’t heard his name in a while. The old boss was halfway to the grave according to the rumors I’d heard over the last few years. All three of the families—the Rossini, Giordino, and Marchese—ruled supreme in this area of Florida, but no one was ever close with Marlo.
“You see anyone else around there? Any Rossinis?”
I huffed a single laugh. “I don’t even know any Rossinis.” No one did. They were a secretive group, unlike the Marcheses, who liked to remind everyone of how powerful they were. They got high on others’ fear and respect. Power hungry like no other.
He was after information about that Marchese man who was taken down. I could fill in the blanks, but I wouldn’t ever explain that Luke was the one who’d fought that man.
I have to talk to him.
My father didn’t order me home. He’d known where I was all along, but he wasn’t going to tell me to come home or else. Until it was time for my wedding, it seemed he preferred me to be out of sight and not aggravating him.
After I disconnected the call, I grabbed my coverup and set out to find Luke.
I’d been keeping tabs on him so well now that I knew when his usual daytime shift was done. And I was in luck. My hustle to reach the simpler building that looked like an employee facility showed him walking out with another man. I recognized him as the first man who showed up when I complained about that faulty lock.
“Evening, miss.”
I acknowledged the Black man with a nod but focused on Luke. “Hi.”
He rolled his eyes. “I’ll see you tomorrow, Randy.”
“Yeah.” He did a handshake, clap on the back thing, volleying his gaze between me and his friend. He was curious, and confused, which had me wondering if Luke didn’t talk about me with him.
Then he left. Without replying to me, without a look my way, Luke continued walking away.
“Luke?”
Nothing. He didn’t turn back to me, striding away.
I sighed, annoyed and slightly worried that he’d really meant it, that he wanted me to go away.
Then why go to such extremes to defend me? It had to signify something. He had to care at least a little bit.
The next time, I tried to find him and tag along until I could get him alone.
By the third day after my call with my dad, I improved my technique, waiting for him in the staff breakroom I had no business being in. Then standing out my condo at night, waiting for him to walk by.
Each time I approached, he stalked away before I could speak. I saw how annoyed he was. I heard the irritation in his exhales. But his attitude and resistance only made me want to fight back and try harder.
Sooner or later, I’d have to get catch him in place so he could hear me out. My desire hadn’t faded at all, but I could put that on the back burner until I emphasized how much trouble he might be in by fighting that man.
Because deep down, I really didn’t want to see him be hurt—all due to him standing up for me.