5. Dante
5
DANTE
Dante
C atch up?
Talking was the last thing on my mind.
Something about the intensity of her grip on my hand bothered me. She wasn’t clinging—all right, she was . But it wasn’t with the same cloying impatience that Vanessa showed me.
I seldom welcomed women to come on to me. I preferred the chase. The challenge. All the ups and downs of suspense and working for what I wanted to better enjoy the spoils and rewards.
Henry’s daughter clutched my hand desperately, boldly, but with a degree of determination that brokered on fear.
Before I led her through the room, I scanned my surroundings. Giving up on looking for Romeo, I noticed Franco dealing with some men. Then other capos in charge. All was well here. Franco could handle that MC idiot who was cheating.
As the boss, I could come and go as I pleased, and right now, I wanted to get the hell out of here with Nina.
“Let’s go,” I told her, firming my hand around hers. She was dainty, small, and delicate, but I felt the rawness of worn skin on her fingertips.
She didn’t reply, and as I guided her through the room, towing her with me, she offered up no sign of resistance to how speedily I ushered her away.
Catch up?
With her hand in mine, I was electrified with a strange, instant zing of lust. If the mere sensation of this minimal contact, her hand in mine, could wake me up like this, I imagined a fuller, more bare touch of her against me would be even better.
Catching up with her was a lie. I’d never really known her before. I congratulated Henry and his ex, Alison, when Nina was born. A couple of times when Henry was home between tours, we visited and I had passing glances of the quiet, bookish girl Nina was then.
I didn’t know her. Not back then as she grew up. And I wouldn’t assume to know a single damn thing about her now other than recognizing her as Henry’s daughter. Reconciling the girl I barely remembered with the exquisite young woman she was now… I couldn’t. It was impossible.
“This way,” I offered when she seemed to hustle right behind me.
It hadn’t left my notice that she was eagerly agreeable to this sham of “catching up”. I doubted she recalled anything about me, other than the fact that her father once knew me, yet here she was, ready to go along with leaving with me.
“Where—” She cleared her shaky voice, and I was immediately on edge with how uneasy she sounded. “Where are we going?”
Her common sense prevailed, but perhaps too late. We were already outside, striding toward my car.
I shrugged. “Want to cruise around for a while?”
She lifted her face toward mine. Illuminated in the streetlamps behind the Hound and Tea building, she was cast in shadows and faint golden light. And fucking gorgeous. I caught the wariness in her eyes, and I didn’t know how to interpret it. She was willing to escape those crowded rooms with me, but she had her guard up.
Is she mad that I didn’t go to her father’s funeral?
That was the only recent thing she could possibly hold against me. We didn’t know each other. We’d known of each other, indirectly.
And I wanted to change that in the worst way as I slowed near my car.
I wanted to familiarize myself with every decadent inch of her sexy body. Every curve. All the smooth, soft skin of her generous tits, her tiny waist. I stared at her lips, fighting the urge to taste them and bite them for the reward of her gasp. And her hair, that thick, glossy braid. I resisted the need to grip it and hold her in place as I shoved my cock into her mouth and?—
She cleared her throat, narrowing her eyes with suspicion. The sound jarred me from staring, and I chastised myself for showing how badly I lusted for her.
Watching her raise her brows as we paused at the passenger door, staring each other down in a silently brewing tension, I reached over to grip the handle for her.
“After—”
The door to the building clanged open behind us, and as a group of rowdy men all tried to exit the narrow space at once, I rolled my eyes. Franco and the security guards sure had their hands full tonight. It looked like more of those Devil’s Brothers idiots, and I wondered if it was past time to give them a warning to fuck off around here. On my turf.
Nina wasn’t as distracted. While I turned to look at the door, she slipped away and opened the door for herself. Her fingers closed over mine as she wrenched on the handle. In the next moment, her body eased away, prohibiting me from enjoying the warm, slender curve of the small of her back, where I’d put my other hand.
She was in the car, already tugging the door closed by the time I looked back at the men exiting the building.
Huh.
I wasn’t imagining it. Nina was a little frosty with me, not letting me be the gentleman and open the door for her. It was no matter for now, though. She was in my car, and as I rounded it to get in the driver’s side, I considered the sheer stupidity of asking her to spend any time with me.
I lusted for her. From the second she’d bumped into me, a deep, carnal need filled me. But this was Henry’s daughter. My best friend’s kid. This wasn’t right, no matter how much Henry and I had drifted over the years.
But I got in the car, anyway, not wasting a second to speed off with her riding shotgun. In the limited space of the car, her scent overpowered me. Something clean but sweet, and mixed with the scent of her , altogether intoxicating. I’d been around countless attractive women before, but something about Nina captured me.
“Interesting running into you there, of all places,” she quipped.
“How so?” I arched a brow at her as I pulled into a lot near the gambling rooms. I wasn’t sure where to take her. The only thing that crossed my mind was bringing her home and fucking her hard, but that wouldn’t solve anything other than scratching a stubborn itch, this quick-to-form and strong desire for her.
“I just learned tonight that the Constellas owned that building.”
I set the car in park, eyeing her uniform. “ I own it.”
She turned to look me over. “So, you’re my boss. That’s the business that kept you so busy that you couldn’t stop by at my dad’s funeral?”
Rubbing my jaw, I considered whether she was playing dumb or she was really that ignorant. “Henry and I used to be best friends back in the day.”
She snorted. “Before he gave up staying in touch with everyone, you mean.”
“We drifted apart,” I agreed.
“That’s no excuse not to come to his funeral.”
I kept my stern gaze on her. “It’s not.” If she was trying to pick a fight with me, it wouldn’t go far on this topic. I did feel bad that I hadn’t gone to Henry’s funeral. “I feel bad that I wasn’t informed.”
She rolled her eyes, sassy yet not childlike with that juvenile gesture. “Too busy owning the Hound and Tea. I got it.”
“Do you?” I asked. Before she could reply, I gave up on resisting her allure. In the privacy of the parked car, smelling her sweetness and wishing I could lean over and touch her, I was weak. Too weak for my liking. I didn’t allow women to have power over me, ever, so I got out and walked around the car to open her door. She joined me, standing outside the car and enjoying the quiet and fresh air of this empty lot.
“Do you get it?” I studied her. “We’re not strangers?—”
“How are we not strangers? I haven’t seen you since Romeo and Ricky shared a birthday party.”
I did the math. Thinking back to the one time my son shared birthday celebrations with Henry’s son, her brother, I calculated that almost twenty years had passed since the memory she referenced. Their birthdays were close together, and we combined efforts to celebrate the boys that one time. Eighteen years. It felt like too long ago. But I exhaled in relief that Nina wasn’t the jailbait she looked like. She was twenty-two now, fully grown into her womanly figure.
“But Henry knew what kind of businesses I oversaw.” I let the silence linger between us, prompting her to agree or argue that point. She merely pursed her lips and looked away.
“I’ve preferred to lean on the principle of ignorance is bliss.” Lifting her face to smirk at me, she added, “And it’s not like I’ve run into you over the years.”
I nodded. “Interesting that we’d crossed paths tonight though.”
Her brow furrowed. “I wasn’t up there to work.”
It was news to me that she worked in the restaurant down below, too. “I have my hands in many businesses, Nina. I didn’t know you were an employee in the steakhouse.”
She shrugged, dismissing that detail. “Not like I’ll be going back now.”
I stepped closer, confident that my first hunch was right. When she slammed into me and then jumped at the chance to get out of there, I wondered if she was trying to hide. Hell, I was too. I’d been eager to get away from Vanessa and Stefan. Now, with Nina’s bitter quip, I wanted to know why she sounded so upset.
“What’s wrong?” When she opened her mouth, I cut her off. “And don’t tell me you’re upset about my absence at Henry’s funeral.” I doubted that was it. Something else was up, and I demanded to know what.
“I—” She clamped her lips shut and shook her head. As she crossed her arms, I advanced toward her. The hell with that defensive bullshit.
“I asked you a question.”
I took her hand and lowered it, physically altering her stance as I urged her to backtrack toward the car. She leaned against the closed door and stared up at me. Only a fraction of fear shone in her eyes, and I hated how her lower lip trembled.
“My brother…” She hesitated, licking her lip and lowering her gaze. “Ricky lost me in a bet.”
“He what ?” I’d never cared for Henry’s spineless, dull-witted son.
“Ricky was in debt and he thought he had a ‘genius’ idea to bet on me , like I’m some kind of possession to—” She inhaled a quick breath. Her eyes opened wide as someone neared the lot. By the sounds of the throaty engines, it had to be bikers.
Furious that Ricky would do something so stupid and dangerous at the worst place, at my gambling rooms where illegal deals were struck, I waited for her to finish. “To?”
Her hand lifted toward me. She grabbed the lapel of my jacket, but she had yet to look away from whatever captured her attention behind me. “He lost me in a bet to someone in that motorcycle club. Someone named Reaper.” Her throat tensed as she swallowed, fisting her fingers as she curled them around my jacket.
Fuck. You fucking dumbass. Ricky would answer for this bullshit. I had my answers. I knew why she wanted to run from there now.
An idea struck, and even though it was rash, nothing could stop me from wanting to step in and help her.
“Play along,” I ordered.
“What?” Lines formed on her brow as she frowned up at me. “What do you mean?”
“Play along.” I didn’t wait. Those engines could only mean that the MC men had followed and were coming for her.
Too bad for them. They wouldn’t get near her now.
But I did. With a possessive hunger I couldn’t understand, I stepped closer until she was caged against the car. Sandwiched between me and the hard surface, she gazed up at me and opened her mouth to argue. To demand an explanation. To ask what I wanted her to play along with.
Ignoring her reaction, I lowered my hands to her hips. Flipping up her skirt, I pushed against her.
I had her pinned, panty-covered core rubbing against my growing erection as I wedged her legs apart.
I had her silenced as I leaned in more.
I quieted her protests—all laced with utter confusion—and kissed her hard.