“I am.”
“Well you know you’re going to have to follow that talk with evidence right?” He smirked, looking impressed. It was good to see the look in association to me.
“I’ll do a painting for you.” I promised. “As a thank you.”
“I’m not going to say no to a thank you from you. What happened? How come you never went to Italy for art? Sounds like it was in the cards for you well before now.”
The question brought the gloom of the answer with it.
“I was on track to do it and really thought it was going to happen. Then my father started acting weird. He just got more protective and demanding. Had me in his line of sight more and basically controlling.”
“Any reason why he just changed like that?”
“Not specifically. Do you know how my mother died?” I asked.
He nodded slowly. “I know. I was told.”
“He freaked after and I wasn’t allowed to go anywhere.” It was better to put it that way. “If anyone came to see me he needed to know about it. As time went by he calmed down some but never became the way he was back then. Not ‘til now. But I don’t know of any threat that would make him behave this way. He seems more powerful now than ever with so much money. There’s so much wealth and it’s all legit. All of it. With all the wealth at his fingertips I can’t imagine what had him worked up so much to treat me this way.”
“It’s a mystery.” He looked at me like he wasn’t sure what more to say to me.
I couldn’t blame him. I wouldn’t know what more to say to me given that we were talking about my father.
He looked out to the blue expanse of the lake before us and smiled.
“Here’s what we’re going to do today,” he began.
“What?”
“This.” He pointed ahead. “We’re gonna do nothing and pretend nothing else matters. We’re just going to talk and walk around the place and not give a shit about anything else.”
I considered it and smiled, liking the idea. I tucked a lock of hair behind my ear and straightened up. “I can do that.”
He opened the door and got out. I opened my side too but he insisted on taking my hand and helping me get out of the car.
He kept hold of my hand when I went to let go and held it up.
“You’re wearing heels on a quarry, don’t want you to fall over.”
I looked at my feet in the little three inch heels that were a tamer version of the stilettos I usually wore.
“Are you sure that’s not some excuse to hold my hand?” I teased.
“No.” He pressed his free hand to his chest. “Don’t get the wrong idea, remember I’m off limits to you?”
I smiled. “I remember Xander.”
“Good.”
I liked the sparkle in his eyes and the warmth of his hands on mine. It amplified the safety of being with him.
Chapter Eleven
Jia
Night fell and Xander made a fire in the bonfire pit near the car.
We’d gone for a long walk where we’d talked, like he said and didn’t give a shit about anything.
Sitting by the fire with him reminded me of camping in Italy with my cousins who were all so crazy with their ghost stories.
I’d learned that Xander served in the marines when he started telling me all about his adventures.
We sat practically side by side by the fire.
I couldn’t help my fascination with how the orange flames highlighted the outline of his face. It was the artist in me that took note of things like that. The woman in me didn’t fail to notice either because the man was what you’d call mouthwatering gorgeous.
Xander Cage was thirty six years old, a whole ten years older than me but looked more like he was in his mid to late twenties. He had the body of a god, the kind that you knew right off the bat he worked out and took complete, regimented care of.
I doubted the man ever ate anything sugary in his life, or anything that could be classed as fattening. Basically, none of the typical stuff Anya and I would stuff our faces with on a girls night in, or out.
He shuffled to face me when he rekindled the fire and I took in the way his muscles bulged every time he moved his arm. Most men I knew would actually have to tense and flex. His arms just did it naturally.
There was no way he was single with a body like that. Or, maybe he was and the kind of guy who kept himself open so he could have all the women at his beck and call. I was pretty sure he could choose whichever and it would be fine.
“Jia?” He said my name like he’d asked me something previously.
Too busy checking him out and ogling him, I hadn’t heard anything.
I widened my eyes and was grateful for the cover of darkness to hide the blush that crept up my cheeks.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t hear,” I confessed. I couldn’t even think up some lie or excuse on the spot to say.
He smiled at me and that sucked me in too. “You mentioned camping in Italy. I was asking if you did that a lot.”
“Oh, not so much and more when I was a kid.”
“Before the heels?” he teased.
“Before the heels.”
“Well you seem more like an indoor girl.”
I frowned. “What? I’m here aren’t I? And I haven’t complained once about being outside.”
“This is hardly outside, we’re just sitting by the river.” He chuckled.
“Do you want me to go camping with you?”
He looked at me and didn’t answer.
“Well?”
“Not sure how to answer that.”
“It was a yes or no question,” I pointed out.
“Well, I’m pretty sure if I say yes and do it, it would be one sure way to get my dick chopped off.”
I burst out laughing.
“What? You think it’s funny? Me with no dick… Jesus.”
“Oh my God, just stop talking.” I gasped trying to contain my laughter. Once I had I swallowed hard. “What on earth would make you think that?”
“Well your Pa isn’t exactly St. Peter so I’m gonna have to go with a no on the camping, or anything overnight related.”
We were joking around but it wasn’t exactly a joke, and a little bubble of disappointment fluttered into the pit of my stomach at the confirmation that there would be no camping or anything overnight related.
I looked at him and gave him a pointed stare. “I’m not a child you know. I don’t have to get my father’s approval for everything.”
“And there’s that fiery personality of yours again that could get you in trouble.” His eyes in the flicker of the flames looked darker but I could sense the desire. It reminded me of that night at the club.
“What now?” he prodded. “You tend to stare at me a lot and I don’t know what you’re thinking.”
“I’m thinking of the massive coincidence of seeing you at the club. It’s the only thing that doesn’t fit.”
“Why doesn’t it fit?”
“Everything so far has been about my father, but not that. He wasn’t at the club.”
“No, he was not.”
“So, are you going to tell me it was a coincidence. Seeing me there?”
He gazed at me and gave me that sexy half smile that made my nerves scatter.
“No, it wasn’t.”
“Did you follow me?” I asked because that was the obvious question.
“Maybe.”
“Maybe again? Why would you follow me? It wasn’t me you were working for.”
“Curiosity.”
My focus went straight to his lips as he leaned closer and said that.
“You watched me that night.” The same way he was watching me now.
“You weren’t exactly hard to miss. Is that the way you dance for all the guys you flirt with?”
I shook my head. “Nope, just the ones I like.”
My inner desire had made a return despite the shit from this morning. It was him. He brought it out of me no matter how
forward I sounded.
He shook his head. “No Jia, you shouldn’t like me.”
“Because you don’t like me?” I wouldn’t ask a question like that if I didn’t already know the answer and I wouldn’t ask it if I thought he might tell me he didn’t.
“Never said that.”
“You seemed to like me well enough when you watched me dance. Unless you got in trouble with your girlfriend later for the obviously sexual way you stared at me.”
He chuckled and focused on me, his eyes seemed sharper. “Wow, I’m not sure if I should be impressed with your over confidence or thrown.”
“It’s not confidence, it’s truth. Except the girlfriend part. I don’t know if that’s true yet.”
“No, I don’t have a girlfriend, Jia,” he stated in a matter of fact tone. “That’s the question isn’t it?”
I nodded. “I can’t be blamed for my creativity.”
“No you cannot.”
I straightened up and stared at him. In the spirit of forgetting the shit from today I homed in on my inner self. Who knew what tomorrow would bring or what I’d be going home to? The way things looked it could be a human girl sized cage just for me.
Maybe Pa would lock me inside and I’d never see anyone again.
So right now I didn’t care if I was forward.
“What were you thinking when you looked at me? Back at the club I mean. It was the only time over the space of days that you’ve seen me when I was me.”
Unlike the camping question he seemed to be thinking a lot more carefully about his answer.
“I thought a lot that night,” he replied.
“Tell me one thing.”
Again he stared, holding my gaze and capturing my attention. “I …wanted to touch you.”
The declaration stilled my heart and drew me in to the allure of him even more. It was the first sign he’d given away of any sort of interest in me.
“You can… touch me,” I told him.
We just stared at each other.
He was the first guy I’d been around that didn’t hit on me. The first guy I’d been around that I wanted to hit on me and hadn’t.
“I shouldn’t touch you Jia.” He sounded like he was saying that more to himself than to me.
“Why not? You said you wanted to.”
“I want to, but that doesn’t mean I should.”
“Because you’re off limits.” I thought I’d lighten the tension that had filtered into the space between us.
“No… because you’re off limits.”
It was good to hear that because I figured the only person who made me off limits was me.
We were sitting close, but I moved closer until I was right next to him.
Right next to him so that the bare skin of my thigh brushed his jeans.
His eyes practically drank me up as I did so. His gaze raked boldly over my body from my eyes, then down to my breasts, my hips and down my legs.
Since he wasn’t off limits and I wanted to touch him too, I decided I’d make the first move.
I pressed my hand to the hard muscle of his chest. Hard like rock, and solid like it too. The skin never even gave under the weight of my palms.
Guiding my hand over his t-shirt, I felt the rigid planes, peaks and valleys.
When I touched the trace of his bare skin in the deep v of the shirt, he cupped my face and I smiled.
I met his gaze and saw the longing in his eyes. I was moving to kiss him even before he moved to me.
When our lips met in the middle, a blast of heat washed over my skin, sweeping through my soul. It started with the brush of his lips and flushed over my body in a full sweep that made all my nerves tingle from the inside out.
I moaned into the hot, wet kiss he gave me and he took advantage of the moment to sweep his delicious tongue into my mouth and smooth his hand to the back of my head, angling me so he could kiss me harder.
Harder and deeper, giving me a taste of him and luring me to accept the invitation to get lost in him. I took it. I took the lure and the invite and rode the flames of emotion that coursed through my body into my soul.
I’d never felt such want and desire, not from anyone. It beckoned me to take more so when the kiss turned hungry, I found myself tugging on his shirt in a desperate need for him to take me.
Claim me the way he claimed my mouth. I wanted to feel it all over my body. Everywhere.
His hand moved down my neck, down my shoulder and cupped my right breast. The touch made me wet instantly and intensified the ache for him to touch me everywhere.
Through the silk fabric of my camisole top he ran his finger over the taut peak of my nipple while he caressed my breast with his palm.
I pressed into his hand, arching into the tender, yet needy touch, savoring and enjoying him touching me in such an intimate way.
Then he pulled away from my lips and released me, dropping his hand.
“It’s okay, you can touch me,” I assured him when I noticed the worry in his eyes.
“I can’t,” he answered breathlessly. He ran a hand over his beard and stood up.
“Why?”
“Jia, I should take you home now.” His eyes became guarded and he resumed that reserved look, as if the last few minutes had never happened.
I stood up too, feeling foolish. “What’s wrong with me?”
“Nothing… I just can’t.”
Before I could say another word he put out the fire, extinguishing the break I’d had in my time spent with him along with it and the doom came rushing back on me.
Chapter Twelve
Xander
I was such an idiot sometimes.
Sometimes I got myself in all manner of shit because I didn’t think first, or at all.
And, here was the fruit of my lack of thought. Reality.
My good friend reality was always there, knocking on the door.
We drove to her place in silence and I swear to God when I pulled up at her house and saw the men waiting outside I nearly, very nearly, continued driving past.
Like fuck, I very nearly did and I worried what I was bringing her back to.
It was late too, so not good, but it would have been much later if I’d lost my mind by the lake and taken her on her hands and knees like instinct told me to.
I wouldn’t have taken her to her home if that had happened. No way.
Right now though, it felt like a bad idea regardless of what had happened between us.
I was about to get out of the car when I pulled up but she got out and Armand came and took her, giving me a hard stare as he took hold of her arm.
She didn’t look back to me. I never expected her to because I’d shot her down the way I did.
“You can go now,” Vinny barked. He came up to my car and fisted the door.
Idiot. One of the worst things about this stupid job was having to put up with the shit.
If I didn’t have to, I would have gotten out of the car and rammed his face down his fucking throat. These guys – all of them – were complete pricks. Lucky for me I was a prick too. Just one who had to wait.
As soon as I drove off the phone rang on the dashboard.
Giovanni again.
I answered.
“Is she okay?” he asked. His voice seemed calmer now than earlier when he was barking at me.
“No,” I replied.
“You’ve been gone all day. Did something happen between you two?”
I had to laugh. This guy was something else. He really was. “You strike her down so hard it leaves a mark and you’re worried I defiled your daughter. Really?”
“Did you?” he asked, ignoring the rest of my comment.
“No,” I answered flat and held off saying that I wanted to and enjoyed the good feel I had of her tits.
That fucking asshole. I nearly blew this mission out of the water when I saw him hit her. If so much hadn’t been at stake I would have. If I’d had some damn idea about where he was keeping t
he fucking prints I would have given him a taste of his own medicine and knocked him back. No matter that the man was twenty years older than me and I was twice his size, he would have deserved it.
“What did she say about me?” he asked. “She upset with me?”
“Look Giovanni, you haven’t exactly shared much with me but asking me if your daughter is upset with you because you hit her is very stupid. What do you think the answer is?”
“Fuck, Xander, I know what the fucking answer is. Of course she’d be upset with me, but I was hoping you’d share more of what she might have said.”
“There is nothing to share. I suggest you ask her yourself if you want to talk.”
He sighed. “There are things I need to be mindful of and Jia needs to know I live in a dangerous world. I rule with a heavy hand but be assured it’s with love.”
Now it was my turn to assert my authority. “Giovanni, I don’t give a shit what type of hand you rule with, if you use that hand on her again I’ll cut it off.”
I actually meant that.
He gave me a crude laugh. “You know what kid, you have some balls, but I’m gonna tell you I’d allow you to cut my hand off because I should never have hit her.”
Good for him to come to that conclusion without me having to guide him to it.
“No you shouldn’t have.”
“Goodnight Mr. Cage. Make sure you’re not late for work tomorrow.”
He hung up and I sped up down the road, pushing my car twenty miles faster than the speed limit. I wanted to get back as quickly as I could.
Wes was waiting for me at my apartment. He looked worried.
“Man where the fuck were you?” he asked.
“Don’t ask.” I just wanted to roll into bed.
However when Ethan stepped out from the sitting room, I knew bed might be a long way away.
“Jesus Ethan. It’s been a long day. I can’t tonight.”
Ethan held up his hands. “Just come to check in. This is an off the record visit. I won’t even stay long.”
I nodded. That seemed okay.
“I ordered pizza,” Wes chimed in with a smile. “It should be here in about ten minutes.”
Game of Love : A Mafia Romance Page 10
