Tough Enough (Tough Love Book 3)
Page 20
“Why did you get on that train?”
He glanced over at her. “I wanted to make sure that you didn’t hurt my informant.”
She barked out a laugh. “Fair enough.”
He glanced at her again, a small smile on his face.
God, she wanted this man. His gestures, the sheer force of him, his smile.
Who cares where we’re going, she thought.
“Thank you,” she said and took his arm.
Chapter 11
She’d said she lived in the Bronx, but she didn’t seem willing to share her address or have him walk her home. In the end, she convinced him to drop her at Mastrelo’s.
“It’s my grandparent’s bar,” she said.
“No kidding? That’s your family’s? I’ve been there. It’s more than a bar.” It was an excellent Italian restaurant. Getting a good table there used to be one of his favorite perks of being wealthy in Manhattan.
“Not anymore. They divided the business up a few years ago. My brother’s wife bought the other side of the restaurant and uses it for catering. So they just have a small kitchen and some short-order food. We make pizza there. Better than the stuff you had the other night.”
She smiled at him and directed him into the alley behind the bar.
“You can drop me off here. I’d offer to feed you, but we just ate. Unless you want a drink?”
He shook his head. He shouldn’t be here. Her family shouldn’t see her with him. “You’re not married, are you?” he asked.
She looked at him funny. “What?” She looked pissed and a bit ashamed. His gut twisted. “I’m trying to think why that’s relevant to you.”
“Come on. What do you think almost happened back there?” he asked. They’d almost kissed on the street, she was too smart not to know that.
“I live with a man,” she said.
“What kind of answer is that?” He stepped closer to her. “Are you married?”
“No.”
“But you’re living with a man? I’m assuming not platonic.” God, he was just torturing himself. Leave. Leave now. His feet remained planted.
She shook her head. “I think he’d like for us to get married.”
When she answered him, he felt himself exhale.
“You think?” A feeling of frustration churned inside him.
Why was there never anyone for him?
“Come on, Sophia. I expect better of you than that.” He turned her face to him. Where he got the right, he didn’t know, but that was the problem with him, wasn’t it? He didn’t hold back when it came to invading someone else’s space. All that cool and ivory perfection was blemished by the force of her feelings writ large on her too beautiful face. His breathing picked up, the blood rushed in his veins.
“Where the fuck do you get off having expectations of me?” She leaned toward him. “What makes you think you can touch me?” She advanced on him, pushing his chest with the flat her palm. He held his place and laid his hand over hers, trapping it against his shirt. Could she feel his heart thundering beneath her smooth palm? Through the thin cotton, understand the meat and muscle of him? He could hammer nails for her with the force of his very blood.
“This is what makes me think it.” His chest heaved, and he felt it under their shared fingers. “This is what makes me think I have the right. I have the right because it’s what we’re doing.” Then all thoughts of himself and his body fled. All he understood was her. Sophia. With the unflattering emotion on her face, her plush mouth spoiled by her lips pulled back in her anger, one unruly strand of her hair caught on her cheek, her eyes flashing and her leg, oh God, that leg. She was leaning forward, pushing into his space, one knee against the outside of his thigh as she pushed him away. She was a creature of emotion and drive now, no longer following a script or set of rules. This was the wild counterpart to the gorgeous and ebullient woman who yanked her chair next to his, this was the same Sophia. He did this to her. He laid both his palms against her cheeks and pulled her into him, crashing his mouth into hers.
There was just enough time for the entire universe align as her mouth molded to his, and then the heat of her was gone as she twisted out of his grasp. He heard the explosive crack before his ears filled with the crisp snap of his teeth jolting together, followed hard by the feeling of bone on bone. He clapped his hand to his jaw and stared into her wide mahogany eyes.
“What...” he gasped out. She’d punched him? He opened his mouth just to see if he could.
Her elegant hands with their pale fingernails flew to her mouth, hiding her expression, but her eyes told it all. They stared at each other in astonishment. Then she launched herself at him, gently laying her hand over his, her other palm against his unmolested cheek.
“I’m sorry...” she was saying even as she laid her precious mouth on his, her lips moving over his.
“So sorry...” She slid her tongue over his lower lip and his groin responded. He reached around and pulled her into him, their legs intertwined, their height so perfectly matched, hands moving everywhere. He heard them hit the side of the dumpster before he realized she’d driven them both across the damn alley. Sounds...so many sounds, cars, the clang of someone pressing on a bar to open a steel door, their gasping and her apologies flooded in. He gripped her and swung them both around. Now he was the one moving them farther behind the dumpster of all forsaken things. The odor of the garbage and the smell of her hair assaulted him and now her hands had left his face. Gripping the front of his shirt, it was Sophia moving them now, tugging him after her as she stumbled farther into the alley, into the dim recesses. They came to an abrupt stop, mouths desperate in their explorations, still kissing and kissing as she came up against a cinder block wall. He took a moment to witness her, with her hair in wild tendrils stuck on the concrete and in his beard, her lips swollen and her eyes squeezed shut before he launched himself back into the fray. Never in his life had he felt this desperate drive; it was as if he was trying to push his whole body into hers and all the while his only thought was Sophia.
Dimly she knew they should NOT be doing this here. What if one of her grandparents saw them? She gripped the front of Doug’s shirt and tugged him farther down into the alley. She’d hit him. She couldn’t believe it. All the practicing she’d done, only to wind up decking a man she actually wanted to maul her. He’d barely batted an eye. Sophia felt her back collide with the cinder block wall beyond the dumpster. She didn’t have a minute to even gasp out an ouch and he was on her, breaking over her like a wall of water, surrounding her and pulling her under, his muscular chest heaving and pressing against her, her leg caught between his and she didn’t have a second to think about it before his hands were in her hair and they were both caught in the power of the undertow.
He was pressing himself into her chest, his thick muscular thigh wedged between hers, his hands in her hair. She felt his lips leave hers and slide down to that place behind her ear, the one that made her crazy. She clung to his shoulders, and his hands finally went where she wanted them, traveling down the sides of her. He licked and sucked at her neck while his big hands worked at the belt to her coat. He was pressing the sides open; she was bending her arms at the elbows, her palms on the back of his head, pulling him into her. The sound of his ball cap hitting the asphalt registered briefly. She felt the rough block wall against her cheek as she turned and gave him more, more of her neck, more of her.
Nerve endings between her legs ignited to life, and she instinctively clenched her thighs together, but his damn leg was there. Frustration flooded her. And then, yes. The solid feeling of his hand between her legs, pressing up, into her. She dropped an arm. She wanted to feel him, lay her palm on that bulge. She couldn’t get her arm between them, and she struggled. He huffed against her neck as she pulled back, finally some daylight between them. Terrible light. She wanted their ruckus back.
For a moment, they were looking into each other’s eyes. On his face was that same smile, slow and teasing, the one she loved
, the one from the kitchen.
“Is this the bottom of the ninth?” she asked.
“What?”
“I thought you only bat for the other team in the ninth.”
Amazement and understanding dawned on his face like a sunrise.
“You think you’re the other team?” he asked.
Embarrassed. She was embarrassed. With a man. So off balance. When had she ever had to ask these things?
She could only bring herself to nod.
His arms wrapped around her, bringing her closer into the warmth of him, banishing the light between them.
“Sweetheart, this is just the first step, batting practice, and you are definitely on my team.”
“You’re not gay?”
He choked. “Me?” Did he look a bit offended? She pushed him back.
“I’m not ridiculous,” she said. She hated this feeling of foolishness, the sense of uncertainty.
He brushed her hair from her face, the roughness of his palm a surprise.
“No, you’re never that,” he said. She felt a bit better.
“Sophia,” he said, moving his hips forward. There it was, that hard, hot evidence of his attraction. His erection slid against her thigh, she widened her legs, and he pushed into her. “Sophia,” he started to speak, but she heard the amusement in his voice. “Damn.”
She couldn’t let it go. “You prefer women?”
“Sophia.” He looked at her. “I prefer you.”
She shook her head, frustrated. She needed this to be precise.
“But before you knew me, you preferred...”
He looked at her, head tilted. “Yes, women.”
“Not men?”
Now he looked pissed. “Yes. Not men.” He waited, not patiently, but he waited. “Do you want to tell me why you thought otherwise?”
She considered that. She did NOT want to talk about Tom Kretlow or the rape of Ed Walker. “No.”
He leaned forward and whispered against her mouth, “Good.”
She wrapped her arms around his waist, pulling him in when the sound of a door opening washed over her.
“Sophia!”
Ben’s voice. Her heart jackrabbited in her chest and she tried to pull out of Doug’s arms but he just held on to her. He was looking into her eyes. She saw disappointment. Was he disappointed with her? Was that what was on his face? And then he was turned away from her with the force of Ben’s shove.
“Ben!” She reached after Ben, as he shoved Doug hard, making him stagger back. And then she saw the worst thing she could imagine. Derrick, coming out of the back door to Mastrelo’s followed by Allison, Dorothy, Marley, and then…Ed Walker.
Her stomach clenched; her attention immediately pulled back to Ben and Doug. Doug let out a grunt as Ben’s fist plowed into his abdomen, but Doug kept his footing and brought his fists up before his face, his legs planted widely apart now, weight forward. There was no hesitation from Ben. The punch he threw at Doug was headed right for his face, but this time, the redhead was ready and he dodged, but still, he didn’t make a move to fight back.
A low cry of anger erupted from Ben, and he flung himself at Doug, arms grappling the shorter man around the waist, his shoulder hitting low and deadly. He took Doug right off his feet and the two men thudded to the asphalt, Doug twisting away like a cat. Sophia grabbed onto the back of Ben’s shirt, then his waist, his belt, her fingers scrabbling, anything to pull him off of Doug.
“Fuck off me, Soph.” Ben barely turned his head before his attention was back into the fight, but Doug had gained his feet, and Ben was a bit slower to rise as she used all her weight to pull him backward. She looked up and saw Doug looking not at Ben but at her. He shifted one foot and it was clear to her Doug had an open shot at Ben’s face.
“No!” she yelled, although only she and Doug knew what she meant. She struggled to pull Ben sideways but the kick never came. Instead, Doug turned and for the first time, her family and friends saw who this man was.
Ben was looking at her now. “Are you all right?”
Doug had time to raise his eyebrows at her as if to say, Well?
Dorothy was the first of her friends to react, launching herself at Doug even as Derrick caught her by the waist.
“You!” Ed bulled past Dorothy as Derrick passed Dorothy to Allison, who pulled the other woman back.
Allison’s voice rose above the melee. “I’m calling the police.” She pushed Dorothy behind her, the other woman surprisingly resilient on her stilettos, since she didn’t miss a beat, trotting right after Allison.
“No!” Sophia felt her heart triple time. All of her family, her friends and now, if the police came, her work colleagues would hear about this. “No! He didn’t do anything wrong!”
“Nothing wrong!” Ben bellowed. “He was mauling you!”
Sophia just looked at him.
Derrick, calm and giant, gently pushed ahead of everyone.
“You should go,” he said to Doug.
Doug nodded once, but made no move. He looked past Derrick to Sophia, legs spread, fists at his side. On his jaw, a purple welt was rising beneath the glimmering stubble of his beard. The punch she’d landed was starting to show. As if he knew what she was thinking, he opened his mouth, squinting a bit and worked his jaw slightly. She saw the tendons in his neck shift and she noticed his breath had already returned to normal. He looked entirely self-contained except for the expression in his eyes.
“He wasn’t mauling me,” she said. Inside, she wanted to crawl away, to turn back the clock, anything but this public humiliation but it wouldn’t be right. So she kept speaking. “I was kissing him.”
“Girl!” Marley’s exclamation caught Sophia’s attention, but her friend wasn’t talking to her. Karito has slipped past Marley and flung herself into the alley, pink sneakers flashing, hair flying. In the sunlight, red glinted in the little girl’s long hair.
“Ben!” Karito raced to Ben’s side, crashing against his thigh and anchoring herself there as she stared at Doug. “Who’re you?”
“Marley?” Doug asked, recognition on his face and jealously screamed through Sophia, catching her off guard with the force of it.
“You!” Marley said, smiling. “You smarter than to come here now!” She flung her arm, gesturing at Ed and Dorothy. Derrick had a hand on Ed’s shoulder and Allison had her arms wrapped around Dot’s waist. Somehow Dot had gotten past her friend. Every now and then Dot’s heels danced on the blacktop as she tried to break free.
“Ben is not your big problem. You need to stay away from these two,” Marley said.
“Oh, don’t stay away,” Dorothy called. “Start a fight with us, please. The civil suit starts next week. This is perfect timing.” She flung her hips left and right. “Get off of me Allie!”
Allison just grunted and planted her boots farther apart.
Sophia couldn’t take her eyes off of Marley, Karito, and Doug. Doug was smiling at Marley, his face honest and open, like he’d been in his kitchen.
“You’re still here?” he asked. “And this is your daughter?”
A flush washed over Marley’s face and she yanked Karito back from Ben. “She shouldn’t be out here.” And with that, Marley marched her back into Mastrelo’s.
Ben wasn’t watching. He was staring at Sophia.
“You were kissing him?”
Her stomach clamped down tighter. She glanced at her brother. No need to wonder what he thought; his face was thunderous. Who was he to judge her? He was her brother. Of all people, he should always be on her side. She felt a rise of stubbornness.
“Soph. What did you do?” Derrick asked.
“I met someone I like!” The words exploded from her, shocking herself, and apparently, shocking Doug too. “And I kissed him.”
“Out!” Ben’s voice sounded like a bullhorn. “I want you out of our house!”
Dorothy and Allison both gasped. “Ben, you can’t...”
“Don’t worry! I wouldn’t
stay there tonight if you paid me!” Sophia spat back.
Doug hung his head. Sophia had to look twice. Why would he do that?
“You’re staying with him?” Ben said.
She glanced at Doug again. He was shaking his head. Was he saying no? Anger rose up inside her. Both of these men were just fighting over her and now neither of them wanted her? #MenSuck.
“No. She’s not staying with me,” he said.
Sophia felt her eyes widening. Incredible. The gall!
“I wouldn’t stay with you if you paid me!” she yelled, pain flooding her. Derrick coughed.
“What?” Sophia rounded on her brother. “What the actual fuck was that? You think I’m a prostitute? Because I kissed a man?” She couldn’t believe it. She spun around. Not one face in that alley was sympathetic. She’d lost everything. Sophia pushed past Allison and Dorothy, just as Rose opened the back door.
“Fuck you all,” Sophia said and marched inside.
From behind her she heard Rose announce that the alley was not a playground and somebody better start acting like an adult out there.
Too late, Sophia thought.
Post-adrenaline jitters washed through Ben, making his knees tremble slightly. Lloyd was still in the alley but he’d backed himself closer to the street. That didn’t mean that Ed was staying put though. Even with Derrick’s hand on his shoulder, Walker was advancing. Nothing good could come of having Lloyd within ten feet of Ed Walker. There was a civil suit pending betten Dorothy’s father and Lloyd for damages related to the kidnapping attempt. Ed was a witness to the crime. A back alley brawl between the two might wind up setting the case back, especially since as of this moment, Lloyd hadn’t thrown a single punch.
With Sophia out of the alley, it was easier for Ben to think. Lloyd could obviously handle himself. In fact, he kept himself positioned more like a boxer than a brawler. That, plus the fact Lloyd had a clear opportunity to kick the shit out of him and hadn’t taken it, made Ben suspicious. One thing was dead certain, he wasn’t a good guy who didn’t like to fight.