7. Shaw
CHAPTER SEVEN
SHAW
Ihad been on edge all day. Our business psychology class dragged on, punctuated only by Jace’s predictable outburst when Trent made yet another joke at his best friend’s expense.
Dante remained disturbingly quiet in our shared classes. He offered no acknowledgment of how he’d made me fall apart beneath him the night before. To him, I was another client who’d paid for his services.
I wanted to be special to him, though. Fuck.
When my last class ended, all I wanted was to crawl home and sleep off my obsession. Instead, I had to endure an evening of hanging out with Jace and Trent. Maybe I could claim illness. My brain was busy calculating how soon I could empty more of my trust fund to buy another night with him.
Dante waited for me outside the classroom. When he stepped closer, his body blocked my path.
“You seem tired,” he murmured. “Did I wear you out yesterday? Or were you up all night remembering how incredible it felt to be buried inside me?”
“Since when do you care?” I walked away, feigning indifference. He followed.
Once we stepped outside, he caught my wrist, his grip tight enough to remind me of how easily he could pin me down. “Did you jerk off while thinking about me last night? Did you try to make yourself feel as good as I made you feel?”
“Will you stop?” I hissed, glancing around the crowded campus. “Someone might hear you.”
“That’s not what you wanted last night.” His voice dropped lower. “You begged for it, if I recall correctly.”
“Damn it, Dante! Why are you doing this?”
“Because no matter how much you pretend to resist, we both know you’re counting down the hours until you’re buried balls-deep inside me again.”
When I looked up at him, the malicious delight in his expression made my stomach flip. “You’re enjoying this, aren’t you?”
“Immensely. You make the most interesting sounds when you’re trying not to scream my name.” His fingers slid up to my neck, resting there with just enough pressure to threaten. “I wonder what sounds you’d make if I fucked you right here where anyone could see.”
I knew what Dante was and the world he belonged to. The Gennaro name carried real consequences. Getting involved with someone connected to them was suicide.
Yet I tilted my head up, silently begging him to kiss me. If he did it outside the brothel’s walls, maybe it would mean something real.
“What the fuck is going on here?” Jace’s voice shattered the moment, his tone sharp with suspicion.
I jerked back from Dante, but he didn’t release me. Instead, his fingers dragged down my neck before dropping away, the gesture deliberately provocative.
“We’re being rudely interrupted,” Dante said, his voice cold enough to frost the air.
Jace’s eyes narrowed, his fists already clenching. “That’s not what I’m talking about, asshole. Get your fucking hands off him!”
“Look, Jace,” I started, desperate to defuse the situation.
“No, I want to know what’s going on.” His face flushed with rage. “There’s no reason for you two to be all close. What the fuck, Shaw?”
Dante stepped even closer and snaked his arm around my waist. “Does this bother you, Jace? Seeing someone else touch what you want but can’t have?”
“Yeah, it fucking does.” Jace grabbed my arm, yanking me away from Dante. “Stay away from my friend, you sick fuck.”
I wrenched free. “Back off, Jace.”
Dante’s smile turned vicious as he circled Jace. “Is all your hatred fueled by jealousy?”
Jace shoved at him. “Eww, don’t be fucking gross! I’m not a fa—”
“Stop it!” I snapped at him to prevent him from using such a hurtful word.
Dante didn’t move. “Your actions say otherwise.”
When Jace’s hand curled into a fist, I wedged myself between them. “Knock it off, you two!”
Jace ignored me, glaring at Dante over my shoulder. “What the fuck is your problem?”
“You.” Dante pressed against my back. His hardness brushed against me, and I bit my lip to suppress a gasp.
The bastard was getting off on doing that to me.
And damn if it didn’t make my cock stir with interest. The last thing I needed was to get an erection in front of Jace in the middle of a fight.
“Yeah? Well, tough shit! Deal with it,” Jace snarled.
“I doubt you’d like the way I would ‘deal with it,’” Dante warned.
“Is that a threat?” Jace’s voice dropped, his stance widening.
“No, it’s a promise if you keep trying to interfere.” Dante’s fingers grazed my lower back, hidden from Jace’s view.
“Interfere with what?” Jace’s confusion was tinged with suspicion.
I needed to end things before he connected the dots. “This is accomplishing nothing. Jace, aren’t we supposed to be meeting Trent?”
“He can wait. I’m not leaving you alone with this prick.”
Dante’s lip curled. “Do whatever you want. I have better things to do than waste my time on you.”
“Running away?” Jace taunted.
“No, I simply see no reason to continue wasting my time with you.” He dismissed Jace with a contemptuous glance before turning his full attention to me. “As for you, I’ll see you later.”
I shivered. “Yeah.”
“This isn’t over, asshole!” Jace shouted as Dante walked away.
Once Dante disappeared around the corner, my friend rounded on me, his face twisted with fury and betrayal. “What the fuck was that?”
“Nothing. I’m so sick of you two always blowing things out of proportion,” I complained, hoping my voice didn’t betray how affected I still was.
Jace grabbed my shoulder, his fingers digging in painfully. “Why did he say he would see you later?”
“We have a few classes together.” The lie came a little too easily when I knew Dante meant meeting him at Gennaro Corporation. “Of course he’ll see me later.”
Jace’s tone had a dangerous edge I rarely heard directed at me. “It felt like he was talking about fucking you.”
“You’re reading too much into it.” I tried to pull away, but Jace held fast.
“You remember what Dante did to Melissa, right?” Jace’s voice dropped lower. “He stole my younger sister’s virginity, then dumped her the next day like she was trash. No calls, no texts, wouldn’t even look at her in the hallway. She cried for weeks.”
In his protective fury, Jace also overlooked the fact that Melissa had been into Dante from the start, so he hadn’t stolen anything that wasn’t already offered.
“I’m not letting him do that to you, too,” he continued, his grip tightening. “Dante doesn’t get to hurt anyone else I care about. You’ve been through enough hell. The last thing you need is him adding to your misery.”
When I tried to protest, he interrupted. “He’s using you to get at me. That’s what he does. He finds the people I care about and destroys them.”
“That’s ridiculous,” I said, finally wrenching free of his grip. “Not everything is about you, Jace. Dante and I have some classes together. That’s it.”
“Just watch yourself around him,” Jace warned, his anger subsiding into something more like concern. “He’s not who you think he is.”
I sighed. “Look, he shouldn’t have antagonized you, but you didn’t have to take the bait.”
“What else was I supposed to do? Let him keep doing whatever the hell he was doing to you?”
“He wasn’t doing anything to me, Jace.” Not yet, a treacherous part of me added silently.
Jace’s jaw remained tight with suspicion. “It sure as hell didn’t look that way.”
“Stop being so paranoid,” I said. “Why are you making this into something it’s not?”
Before Jace could answer, we spotted my cousin waiting ahead. He gave us a friendly wave.
Jace dropped the subject as we approached. “Hey, Trent! You ready?”
He glanced between us, sensing the tension. “Ready for what?”
Jace’s expression shifted to excitement. “Ready to have a good time. We’ve got big plans for tonight.” His eyes locked with mine, challenging me to object.
Dread churned in the pit of my stomach. “Really? That’s news to me.”
“Oh, I think you already know.” Jace’s smile didn’t reach his eyes.
Shit, he was taking us back to the brothel.
Back to Dante.
“Idon’t know why you’re in such a bad mood, Shaw,” Jace commented as we walked to Gennaro Corporation after dinner.
I dug my nails into my palms, forcing my voice to remain steady. “I’m not in a bad mood.”
“Even if you are, you won’t be by the time you’re finished tonight.”
What I was concerned about and what he thought I was worrying about were two separate things. “Sorry, I’ve got a lot on my mind.”
“About who to pick this time? I’m with you on that one, man. I can’t decide if I want to go with Secretary Dominique again or try someone new. She was so damn good, but I’m sure they all are when you’re paying them enough.”
I made a noncommittal noise, trying to tune out Jace’s graphic description of what he wanted to do to the women at the brothel.
“You’re never going to believe how much this fucker looks like that asshole Dante from class,” Jace said to my cousin, his voice loud enough for me to hear.
“Will you stop with that already?” My voice came out sharper than intended.
Jace’s eyes narrowed. He leaned toward Trent to say in a stage whisper, “He’s embarrassed because he went to see for himself if it was that bastard.”
“Damn it, Jace! Shut the hell up!” I snarled.
A flicker of dark satisfaction crossed Jace’s face. “No need to get all worked up about it. You know I’m joking. Besides, we’re almost there. I hope you have someone better picked out this time than Dragon.”
Trent and Jace resumed their conversation, but I kept quiet as I tried to calm myself. Part of me wanted to walk away from Gennaro Corporation and never look back. Another part that had been consuming me since that first night couldn’t stand the thought of not being intimate with Dante again.
Islumped in my chair, pretending to study the profile book while avoiding Dante’s page. The glossy pages blurred before my eyes as I flipped through them. The weight of Jace’s gaze burned into me from across the room.
“You’re not thinking about booking with that guy, are you?” Jace’s voice sliced through my thoughts, sharp with disgust.
I glanced down, realizing I’d stopped on a male escort’s page. “What? No, of course not.”