The Hitman's Dancer: A Bad Boy Mafia Romance (Snake Eyes Book 2) (9 page)

“People like him are how I stay in business, young lady.”

“Then you
do
admit to taking advantage of him.”

“I never denied it,” he says. His amused eyes bounce up to me for a brief second. “And besides — the last I checked, your father’s debt had been paid-in-full.”

“Yes. By me,” she says, lying through her teeth. “And I would appreciate it if the next time my father wanders into your casino, you have the decency to throw him back out.”

Zappia chuckles for longer than necessary. “I’m not in the business of turning away paying customers, my dear. Especially not ones as eager to lose their money as your father is…”

Lucy leans forward an inch but I guide her back with my firm grip on her neck. “It’s disappointing to hear you say that, sir. I somehow expected a man of your status and means to be less of a coward.”

I dig my nails in.
“Lucy…”

“Young lady…” he says with seething eyes. “I believe I’ve entertained you long enough.”

I grasp her arm to pull her out of the chair, eying the men around us all too willing to do the same. “I apologize, sir,” I tell him. “I’ll see to it that she never addresses you again.”

“I’ll gamble for him myself.” Her voice makes everyone pause. “I’ll take on your best poker player. If I win, you bar my father for life. If I lose, you can continue bleeding every last dime he has.”

Zappia rubs his silver beard as the amusement returns to his eyes. “Well, now…”

Marty leans forward in his seat. “I’d be happy to take on her challenge.” His eyes linger far too long on her breasts and I fight the urge to pluck them out of his fucking skull.

“Ms. Vaughn…” Zappia chuckles softly. “I find your offer
intriguing
.”

“I thought you would,” she says.

“Stop by my casino and we’ll continue this little chat…”

A quick movement rushes through my peripheral vision, alerting me to the three men piling out of a dark sedan on the street outside.

“I’ll do that,” she says. “Thank you, sir.”

Black metal glimmers beneath street lamps as they each raise an AK-47 and point them at the window.

“Get down!” I force Lucy to the floor and kick Zappia’s table onto its side to shield her from the windows.

Marty dives behind it and Zappia does the same as bullets come firing in, shattering the glass into a thousand pieces. I throw myself over Lucy, covering her completely as screams ring out behind us. Many men do as I did and topple their tables over to block the hits. Our table lurches with each blast but the bullets don’t penetrate through.

“Dante!”

I hold Lucy closer to me, wrapping my arms around her head until the firing ceases and tires squeal down the street.

Enzo leaps to his feet and withdraws his sidearm, shouting obscenities as he races out the front door with a few other men to try and catch up with the bastards that shot up his new place.

“Lucy…” I hold her pale face in my hands. “You okay?”

She nods and I feel her heart racing even faster than it did when she called
Antony fucking Zappia
a coward to his face. I kiss her forehead and look out over the table to make sure it’s safe before pulling her to her feet. She clings to my jacket with both hands as I check her from head-to-toe for any spots of blood.

“Nice reflexes,” Marty mutters at me. He reaches down and helps his father to his feet.

Enzo rushes back in, rage turning his face a bright shade of red.
“Motherfuckers…”

Marty stares out the broken window. “The Lutrova brothers…” he speculates. “Who else would it be?”

Enzo kicks the fallen table and fires an annoyed glance at his little brother. “And
you
didn’t want me to splurging on the bulletproof tabletops…”

Marty turns away while smoothing his jacket down. “Wouldn’t have needed them if you got the bulletproof
windows
instead like I told you to.”

Zappia throws up his hands. “Quit bickering,” he barks at them. “Go smooth this shit over.”

Enzo and Marty step off the platform together, firing soft arguments back and forth while they help frightened patrons to their feet.

“No one’s wounded…”

Lucy’s whisper reaches my ears and I look around as she does. She’s right. Not one stray bullet hit anyone. In fact, most of the bullets struck Zappia’s table only. There was one obvious target here and he’s staring back at me with wrinkled, gray eyes.

Zappia nods, his way of saying thank you for knocking over the table just in time to save his brains from splattering the wall but I didn’t do it for him.

I take Lucy’s quivering hand. “Come on.”

We gather her clutch from our table and I get her out of here as fast as I can move.

***

I take Lucy home with me. Her body language — a mixture of silence and soft trembling — easily tells me she’s not in the mood to go back to her apartment alone and I don’t want her by herself anyway based on the shitty neighborhood she lives in. She’s more than capable of handling herself, obviously, but getting shot at is hardly the norm for her.

She walks in around me and I do my usual quick scan of the block before following her inside.

Lucy pins me to the door before I even get a chance to lock it behind us. Her lips crush mine; a hard, life-affirming kiss. I hold her against me, feeling the tremors shaking her body. I realize that she hasn’t been trembling from fear since the moment we walked out of that restaurant.

She’s turned on.

I grip her face in my hands and steal a few delicious kisses for myself before I force myself to stop and breathe.

“Thank you,” she whispers to me.

“For what?”

She laughs. “You saved my life!”

I drop my arms from her body and shrug my shoulders. “It was nothing.”

“Throwing your body over mine in a hail of bullets doesn’t exactly count as
nothing
.”

“Hey, I saved Antony Zappia’s life, too. You don’t see him getting hot and bothered on me.”

Lucy slaps my chest with both palms.
“Dick.”

I snatch her wrists and pull her back in. “And what the fuck was with that stunt you pulled at his table? If we’re really going to keep score here, I saved your ass
twice
tonight.”

“Oh,
please
.” She jerks free. “I had that taken care of.”

“Did you?”
I bite with sarcasm.

“The only thing an old prick like him gets off on more than money is the chance at putting a woman in her place,” she says. “I think you know better than anyone that besting me at poker isn’t going to be so easy for little Marty...”

I suck on my lip as my cock twitches in my briefs. “Goddamn, Ms. Vaughn…” I push off the door, flick the lock, and step around her towards the kitchen. “Color me impressed.”

She follows me down the hall. “Is your butler here?”

“No, it’s his night off,” I answer, speaking fast. Spencer should be looking into the incident with the Lutrova brothers right now. “Why?”

“Well, I
do
feel a little cheated out of dinner.” She drops her onto the counter. “I don’t suppose you cook.”

I throw open the refrigerator and peek inside. “I might…” I scan the shelves, dismissing items as they neglect to entice me enough. My eyes land on a small, transparent box of bright red strawberries and my lips twitch. “But I prefer something a little faster…”

“Ohhh,” she smiles as she sees them. “Me, too.”

I pop the box open and drop it on the counter between us. She instantly snatches the largest one off the top and sinks her teeth into it. I grow harder just listening to the soft suckling sound her lips make around it.

“Mmm,
perfect
,” she says, swallowing.

I take a piece for myself to enjoy and I watch her do the same for several long moments, completely at ease around her. My stomach purrs in satisfaction as the night’s adrenaline wears off and I realize how hungry I am. Her eyes shift about in silence, noticing the small details of the kitchen I honestly know very little about. She’s steady and calm, almost as if the last hour of her life never even happened.

“Lucy.”

She turns back to me and wipes a bit of moisture off her chin. “What?”

I swallow a delicious bite down. “You don’t seem nearly as rattled as I expected you’d be after dodging bullets.”

She licks the pink juice off her lips. “I… guess you make me feel safe.”

It’s a good answer — truthful, too, if I’m reading her face right — but ridiculously naive as well. Guilt overwhelms any hunger I have inside. She’s a sweet girl; smart, talented, and incredibly beautiful. What the hell is she thinking?

What am
I
thinking even letting this happen?

“Mr. Hart…” she says, quickly sucking a sticky fingertip to lap the juice off. Her eyes drop and she pauses for a long moment to gather her words. “What did you mean when you said I tasted like a good kill?”

The recent memory of her spread eagle on my bed, screaming my name, overwhelms me. I turn around to grab a dish towel from the drawer and hand it to her to wipe her dripping fingers clean. “Have you ever taken a life before?” I ask her, already knowing the answer.

“No,” she replies quickly, out of reflex alone.

“It’s…
intoxicating
,” I say, keeping my voice low. She doesn’t realize it but she leans further over the counter. “It isn’t so for everyone, of course… but for
me
, it is. It’s why I get up in the morning.”

Her eyes narrow but not from fear. She’s fascinated. “Why?”

Now is the moment. I could easily scare her away right now. I could frighten her to point where she’ll never want to see me again. She’ll race outside into the night, screaming for help, swearing to never speak to me ever again. It’s honestly the best option for both of us. It’s the
right
option; the shiny, white end of an impossibly gray moral spectrum.

But I don’t want to.

I’m selfish prick.

I lick my lips, tasting the sweet fruit on them but it’s not nearly as delicious as she is. Her eyes drop to my mouth and little speckles of passion shine through the green color.

“Put your palms on the counter,” I tell her.

Lucy rights herself, standing up tall as confusion spreads across her little face. Still, she doesn’t move and does as I told her to while I circle the counter and stand behind her. I sense the shivers taking hold of her body as I press against her back. I lean over and slide my fingers up her legs, drawing her dress upward to settle above her sweet, tight ass.

She glances back with teasing eyes. “You aren’t going to tell me?”

I wrap my fingers around her neck, feeling the quick pump of her pulse on my thumb. “I’d rather show you,” I whisper in her ear.

She quivers in my grasp as fear mixes with the adrenaline in her veins. I reach my other hand between her thighs and I draw a line across her panties to feel the wet pool gathering along her slit. Her body is begging — practically screaming — for it and it probably has been since the moment I kissed her in her apartment tonight. She sighs with pleasure and I slide my zipper down to free my hungry cock.

I lay a hand on her back to guide her forward and she sinks onto her elbows. Leaning in, I let her feel my swelling hardness push against her ripe folds.

“There’s a moment…” I say, “right before the light disappears from a person’s eyes when I feel utterly invincible.”

She goes stiff as I slide her panties aside and push my hard cock inside of her. Honestly, so do I. She’s so tight and slick, I almost shoot inside of her but the promise of more of her keeps me together.

“It’s powerful and warm — like a damn womb. I’ve scavenged the whole earth in search for a better feeling.”

I fuck her slowly, feeling every inch of her stretch out around me. She moans with every thrust, each one sounding louder in my ears. I reach around and wrap my fingers around her neck again and she falls silent, holding back the noises begging to cry out from her throat.

“I found it inside of you, Lucy Vaughn.”

Her pulse explodes against my fingers. The dangerous cocktail of ecstasy and fear take her over and she falls even deeper into my embrace.

“I could snap your neck right now,” I whisper in her ear. I squeeze, feeling the wild thump against my fingertips. “Does that frighten you?”

“Yes,” she answers on her breath.

“Do you think I will?”

“No.” Her answer is immediate like she didn’t even have to think twice about it.

I quicken my thrust, burning a hole right through her. She cries out even louder, bucking her hips back to send me deeper inside.

“Be mine and I’ll make you feel this way every night.”

I slide my hand up to her lips and she instantly parts her mouth to take my finger inside. Her tongue tastes my knuckles and she sucks it hard and fast.

“Do as I tell you and I’ll give you everything.” I grunt as her inner muscles tighten around me.

She moans around my finger, vibrating it down to the bone. I slide it out and press my fingertip against her lips.

“Say my name and I’ll be yours.”

“Dante!”

I smile. “Again.”

“Dante!”

“Come for me, Lucy. Do it now.”

Her body obeys, gripping my cock so tight inside I see red. I let her enjoy it. She throws her head back, screaming with irresistible lust, and I lay kisses along her neck until she falls against the counter again.

I slide out of her and twist her around to face me. She kisses me, hard and wet, tender moans still slipping out of her throat.

“Get on your knees, Lucy Vaughn.”

She lowers down, her hands on my body the entire time, licking her thin lips as she goes. Her tongue gets to work, lapping at my tip and shaft, cleaning her own taste off of me.

I reach out and grip the counter as the force of her mouth takes hold of me. She knows what she’s doing and she takes great pleasure in proving it to me.

I lay a hand on the back of her neck as she takes me inside, all the way into her fucking throat. I clench, feeling her sharp teeth tease me. It’s pure, blissful torment and it will bring me to my fall faster than the damn Roman Empire.