40. Sneak Peek Tommy - New Year’s Eve, 10 Years Ago
I take a sip of my beer and 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.
Giovanna’s long black hair is so shiny that it reflects the string lights strung from post to post around and across the wet rooftop, and her short white slip dress is so thin that I can see her nipples poking the fabric.
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 dark eyes like charcoal.
The problem isn’t what she’s wearing or that she’s smiling, but that she’s wearing that when the rooftop is packed with Demonio family friends and associates for Matti’s New Year’s Eve party.
And that she’s smiling at some douchebag associate by the name of Tony the Hack who shouldn’t even be here tonight.
The Demonio family is very private and generally we only socialize with each other and those in politics and other power positions who do business with us. Somehow, though, this low level guy who’s not even made or sponsored by anyone in the family made his way in here.
And I don’t like the way his eyes keep straying to Giovanna’s tits. Like she’s wearing nothing at all. I’m about two seconds away from carving his fucking eyes out.
“You alright, man?” Matti asks.
This is his New Year’s Eve party on the roof of his building, Dragovari Tower, that was just finished a couple of months ago. He’s like a big brother to me, four years older, about the same age as my brother by birth, Vin.
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.
A couple years ago, he started wearing suits and drinking whiskey at social events, but I’m still wearing the black jeans, boots, hoodie, and ball cap that I’ve always worn.
Maybe when I start law school in the fall, I’ll have to start leveling up my fashion, but until I graduate from college in May, I’m sticking with what I have.
When Matti turns back to me, he looks like he’s trying to hold back a smirk. “Why don’t you do something about it, already?”
“She’s 18,” I bite out.
I’m 22, and I’ve wanted Gi for years, but I’m not doing the underage thing. I’m also not going to fuck with some girl who’s just starting out on her own in college when I’m about to enter law school. She has some growing to do, and I’m not interested in parenting her. Far from it.
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 that, I could have fucked her when she was 17 legally.”
“So what’s holding you back then?”
I shift my gaze back to Giovanna, her hand on that asshole’ s arm. What’s holding me back is that I don’t have anything to offer. I’m the second in line to run the Demonio family, and in this game, if you’re not first, you’re not shit.
Yeah, I will 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, and she’s going to have expectations.
And she should. She deserves better than my little house on the Demonio private island or the suite that Matti hooked me up with here at Dragovari Tower.
I need a building, like Matti has, better yet a fleet of buildings, a collection of businesses to keep her living the life she’s accustomed to when I eventually pull out of the family business.
When I don’t respond, Matti steps in close to me, turning so that we’re both 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 beer 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 I anymore. She’d have to be wasted not to notice 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 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.”
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.
His eyes widen and 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.
She 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.
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, it sends electric chills shooting down my spine.
I grit my teeth 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 tip toe 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.
“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 feel tighter as my dick stands to 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 wants to kiss me.”
I swallow back a groan, trying to ignore how good she feels and uncross my arms. The back of my hand brushes against the bare cleavage of her perky tits in the process, and her lips part as she breathes in sharply, her pupils dilating.
I can’t help but flash on the image of pressing my hard cock into her soft, open mouth, smearing her pink lipstick on my dick.
I’m so fucking hard that it hurts, but I push the thought from my mind and bring my hands up to hers clasped together behind my neck, prying them apart, and pushing her away.
“You need to put some fucking clothes on,” I say sharply.
She snaps her lips closed, her olive skin flushing pink. Cocking her hip to the side, she balls her hands into fists and brings them to her hips. “What’s your problem tonight?”
“It’s 40 degrees outside and wet,” I point out. The sky is thick with clouds and the fact that the cold rain broke in time to set up for the party was lucky, but it is threatening to pour again at any minute. “And you’re wearing a fucking see through handkerchief.”
“It’s more like 80 degrees up here with all these heaters, and who the fuck are you, anyway, my father?” The corner of her lip turns up in a sneer, and her voice rises.
People around us are starting to notice, but they’re pretending not to.
“If I was your father, you wouldn’t have made it out of the house looking like that.”
The way she is standing under the lights, I can fully see her dark nipples through her dress now.
As much as it makes me want to break the skinny straps barely holding the fabric up and suck one of those nipples into my mouth, I’m fucking furious that every other man here is probably thinking the same thing.
Grabbing her shoulders I turn her, blocking her from view of the other party goers, and back her into the corner of the rooftop.
She hits the concrete wall, then smooths her hands over her dress, and I’m not sure, but I think she purposefully drags the hem up an inch higher on her thigh .
“I’m fucking 18, asshole. My “daddy” doesn’t tell me what to do anymore.”
“Well, maybe you need a new daddy then. One who will stop you from showing your ass all over town.”
I pull off my ball cap with one hand, and reach back behind my neck to grab my hoodie with the other hand, pulling it off over my head. Blocking her in the corner, I drop my hat and toss my hoodie up, grabbing it by the hem then pull it over her whole body.