Player

by Staci Hart

  “I have dinner with my family.”

  I frowned.

  She frowned, too. “I know. But we have dinner every week. My whole family goes, brothers and all.”

  “How many brothers do you have?”

  She sighed. I tried ineffectively not to pay any attention to her naked breasts against my ribs.

  “Four. Dante, Alex, Max, and Franco.”

  “Are they as crazy as Dante?”

  “Crazier.”

  I laughed.

  “Okay, that’s a lie. He’s the eldest and thus the head of the wolf pack. Although I will say that all four of them together is much more terrifying than Dante on his own.” I must have been making a face because she added, “Together, they’re a hurricane.”

  “I should go to dinner with you.”

  Her face fell. “Did you hear anything I just said?”

  “Sure, your brothers are either a scary natural disaster or a pack of hairy wild animals. Is there any circumstance that dictates whether I’ll get one over the other?”

  She laughed, rolling her eyes. “I get it. You’re already regretting the whole boyfriend thing and looking for the sweet relief of beyond. Is that it?”

  My jaw flexed. “I want to go because that’s what boyfriends do. Isn’t it? Meet the parents. Charm the mom. Take licks from the dad. And thunder-wolf brothers.”

  Val worried her bottom lip. “I don’t know, Sam. I mean, you’ve only been my boyfriend for twelve hours. Are you sure you’re ready to meet my entire family? That’s not something people who are casually dating do, is it?”

  “Who said I wanted to be casual?”

  A pretty flush rose in her freckled cheeks. “Well, I…I don’t know. I’m still trying to math how I’m here, in bed with you, never mind that you were serious about being my boyfriend.”

  “Of course I was serious. One of these days, you’ll trust me.”

  Worry passed over her face. “No, I didn’t mean—”

  “It’s okay. I’m patient. I’ll earn it.” I slipped a curl between my fingertips. “But just so you know, I don’t really do things a little bit or even halfway.”

  “Well, what if…what if things don’t work out? They’ll ask after you. They’ll know you, see us together, and when…if you…if we part ways, I’ll have to answer for it.”

  “That was a lot of amendments.”

  She sighed. “Sam…”

  “I get it. I do.” I brushed her pink cheek with the backs of my knuckles. “But I’m not going anywhere. I’d like to meet your family. I’d like them to know me, to see us together. I’d also like to eat your abuela’s paella.”

  “I hope that’s not a metaphor.”

  “I don’t know what I find more disturbing—the allusion to your grandma’s lady parts or the comparison of it to a seafood dish,” I said on a laugh. “Maybe I can even convince Dante that I’m not a total piece of shit.”

  She snorted a laugh. “I mean, good luck with that. That’s what I’m saying. What if he…I don’t know…gives you a wedgie or something in front of everyone?”

  “How about I don’t wear underwear, just in case.”

  “Oh my God.”

  At least she was smiling.

  She watched me with eyes so big and brown, so soft and deep, her lashes impossibly long. “Are you sure? If you really want to come, I won’t say no. Abuelita might actually drop to her knees and thank Saint Anthony for you.”

  I chuckled, my fingertips thirsty for her skin, tracing lazy lines up and down her arm. “I’m sure. What’s the worst that could happen?”

  “You could end up with your head in a toilet bowl. Or with a black eye. Or a broken arm. Or a—”

  “Okay, okay, I get it. But I promise, that won’t happen. I’ll be on my best behavior, break out my prep-school charm and winning smile.”

  She didn’t look convinced.

  “It’s a good smile,” I assured her. “I’ll have you know that smile won over Oprah.”

  Her eyes widened. “Oprah? As in, My aunt has a dog named Oprah, right?”

  “No, as in the Oprah.”

  She blinked once, slowly. “May I ask how in the ever-loving fuck you know Oprah?”

  “My mom is Hadiya Haddad.”

  Her eyes widened even more. It was a little alarming. “Your…your mom is Hadiya Haddad?”

  I nodded, trying to keep my smile in check. Ninety-eight percent of the time, I loathed this conversation. With Val, I only found myself amused.

  “As in Be You and Finally Me?”

  Another nod.

  “I cannot believe that. I watched her Oprah special about failure and cried the entire time. Does that…” It dawned on her, and her face softened. “Your family. They gave up everything…everything for their lives here. For your future.”

  My smile was gone, but it hadn’t turned to a frown. It just simply wasn’t anymore. One more nod. I brushed her hair over her bare shoulder, my fingers skimming the curve.

  “Can we eat dinner at your house instead?”

  The sound of my laughter surprised me. But that was one of the many things I loved about her—surprises. “Another time. Tonight is your family, my charm, and hopefully, a night without wedgies, swirlies, or any other ies.”

  Her face quirked. “Analogies?”

  “Those are okay. Maybe no maladies though. Or tragedies, I hope.”

  “Definitely none of those.” Her smile climbed lazily. “So we have all day, and you promised me we could lie here like wastoids.”

  “And you promised me I could touch you wherever I wanted.” My hand found her breast and fondled it without shame.

  As she laughed, I twisted us until she was beneath me, her face in my hands and her naked body soft beneath mine. And I collected payment in full.

  26

  Player

  Sam

  I waited behind her on her stoop, shamelessly staring at her ass as she unlocked her brownstone door.

  The things I’d done to that ass. The things there were left to do. And I wanted to check every one of them off my list. Twice.

  My phone buzzed in my pocket again, and my mood soured instantly. Ian. Ian giving me shit.

  I turned my phone off and returned it to my pocket without thinking of it again.

  The only person I wanted to be able to find me tonight was Val.

  She glanced back at me, and we shared a secretive smile before she pushed her door open.

  I followed her in to the thundering sound of footfalls on the stairs.

  “Oh my God, Val, what the hell? You didn’t come home last night and I was worried to death and why didn’t you call and did you sleep with Adam because—oh!” Amelia came into view, skidding to a stop so fast, the rug almost slipped out from underneath her. She went pale just before all of her blood rerouted to her cheeks. “Sam?” she squeaked. Her big blue eyes bounced to Val, then back to me.

  I draped my arm over Val’s shoulders, smirking. “No, she did not sleep with Adam. She slept with me.”

  Val laughed, but she pinched the tender skin of my ribs and twisted evilly.

  “Ow!” I said on a laugh of my own. “What? We slept.”

  She rolled her eyes.

  I kept on smirking at Amelia. “I’m her boyfriend.” I rolled the word around on my tongue, felt the shape of it.

  “B-boyfriend?” Amelia blinked, her brows sliding together in confusion.

  “Boyfriend. As in I’m going to dinner to meet her family. And she’s packing a bag because she’s not coming back for at least two nights.”

  “T-two nights?” she stammered. She blinked again.

  “At least.”

  Val laughed again, swatting at me as she ducked out from under my arm. “Stop it, Sam. You’re gonna give her a stroke.”

  “I…I can’t…you left…you were on a date with Adam,” Amelia insisted.

  I stuffed my hands in the pockets of my peacoat and nodded. “She was. I interrupted and told her what a fool
I’d been and asked if I could be her boyfriend.”

  “Well, you didn’t really ask,” Val said over her shoulder.

  “No, I guess I didn’t.”

  I stepped into her with an over-the-top look of earnest devotion—she didn’t need to know the feeling was real. I took her hands, and with a dramatic flair and a stiff back, I got down on my knees at her feet. It was where I belonged anyway.

  “Val,” I said somberly, looking up into her laughing face, “will you do me the honor of being my girlfriend? I’ll promise to always call when I say I will. I’ll never forget your birthday—”

  “It’s tomorrow,” she said on a giggle.

  “I’ll watch any sappy movies you want, even the period pieces where the guys wear those stupid neckties.”

  “Don’t you dare make fun of cravats!” Amelia gasped.

  I schooled a smirk. “And I swear to always leave you the last Oreo. Wait—you like Oreos, right?”

  “Please,” she said, rolling her eyes, retrieving a hand to gesture at her hips. “Body by Oreo.”

  “Thank God. I’d hate to have to end this thing before we really got started. So, will you? Twerk once for yes and booty pop twice for no. That way, no matter how you answer, I win.”

  With another laugh, she turned, and from my spot on my knees, I had a front-row seat to the show. Her back arched, her ass close enough to touch. Her hands dropped to her knees as she glanced over her shoulder with a smirk.

  And then she properly blew my fucking mind.

  I was momentarily stunned by the shape of her ass popping and shaking and opening and closing and moving in a way that broke some physical law of the universe. Which one, I had no idea, and I couldn’t have cared less. When she rolled her hips and galloped her ass like a fucking pony, I almost had a heart attack.

  In fact, in my stupor, I’d sat back on my own far less talented ass, riveted with the intensity of observing the moon landing.

  I blinked up at her when she stopped, turning to me with a satisfied smile and her hands on her hips. “How’s that for a yes?”

  I stood and swept her into my arms. “Please always say yes, just like that.”

  I kissed her before she could say another word.

  Amelia’s small hands were over her mouth as she giggled. “I…I can’t believe this.”

  “I almost realized it too late.” The twist in my chest at the thought stung.

  She chuckled. “Little dramatic, Sam.”

  “What?” I asked. “I set you up with the perfect guy. If I hadn’t stopped it, you probably would have ended up marrying him, and where would that have left me?”

  She laughed fully at that.

  “Luckily, I have long legs. I got there pretty quick once I figured it out.”

  Val tugged me toward her room, still laughing. “Come on. Let’s get going, or we’ll be late.”

  I waved at dumbstruck Amelia, following Val through the house. When we reached her room, I shut the door and flopped onto her bed, boots hanging off the edge.

  “So, Franco is nearly your twin,” I recounted, hooking my arm behind my head. “He’s probably the most likely to be on my side. Max and Alex defer to Dante, who’s the shot caller. Right?”

  “Pretty much.” She pulled a weekend bag out of her closet and dropped it next to her dresser.

  “So if I can win Dante over, I should be in. Easy enough.”

  She glanced over her shoulder with a laugh. “Right.”

  “You doubt me?”

  “Trust me, I don’t at all doubt that if you set your mind to win over my brother, you’ll do it. But I’m a hundred percent sure it’ll be anything but easy.” She tossed a couple of lacy swaths of fabric into the bag.

  “You underestimate me, Valentina.”

  “You underestimate him. Dante is the most stubborn ass on the planet.” She moved to her closet and pulled out two dresses. When she turned, she held them up one at a time. “This one? Or this one?”

  “The red one. Always the red one.”

  “Oh! And look at what I found.” She rummaged around in a basket on her dresser, and when she turned around, two hair combs were in her hand. “Look! I can put them in my victory rolls.” She turned around again, holding them up to her hair. They were gold, dotted with red glass. “They’re just cheap little things, but I saw them and thought of you.”

  I smiled at the sight of them in her hair, at the hope in her smile, at the knowledge she’d gotten them with me on her mind.

  “I love them. Bring them, too.”

  Her smile widened, and she dropped them in her bag.

  “You know, my mom has a million of those.”

  “Does she?” Val asked as she picked out panties and pajamas, tossing things into the dark mouth of the bag.

  “She gets them everywhere she goes, always has. I’ll have to show you sometime.” I switched gears, feeling inexplicably sentimental. “So, your grandma is making paella, right?”

  Val laughed, tossing the red dress on the back of her chair. “Always. Tonight is arroz negro. Hope you like squid.”

  “Black paella is my favorite,” I said stupidly. I couldn’t think of anything else to say. As I watched her unbutton her blouse, I found my mind devoid of any other thought.

  “Don’t worry. Everyone will love you. I mean, with the exception of my brothers, and I know they’ll come around.”

  The V of her shirt opened up, the sliver of her breasts becoming a wedge, then her top was gone completely. I stared at the lush curves of her breasts, the dark circles of her areolas, visible beyond the lace. My hands tingled imagining all the things they’d like to do.

  “I’m not worried,” I mumbled in a trance.

  She didn’t seem to notice, just went about undressing. She unzipped her skirt, slid it over her hips and ass. It hit the ground in a puddle of fabric. Everything she did was sensual, and she had no idea. The curve and point of her feet as she stepped out of the circle of her skirt. The hook of her thumbs as she slid her panties off. Her fingers as she picked up a new pair and stepped into them, giving the briefest flash of the valley between her legs I’d become so well acquainted with last night. The elastic of her waistband snapped when she let it go.

  “…know what I mean?” she asked, turning to me for an answer.

  “Hmm?” I hummed, tearing my eyes away from her ass to meet her eyes.

  She blushed, laughing. “Wow, Sam. Really?”

  “What do you mean, really? You realize you just stripped down naked, right? I can’t be expected to listen when I can see your nipples, Val.”

  She made a face. I made one right back at her and stood, pacing toward her.

  “So you’re telling me that if I were to strip down right now,” I said, shrugging off my coat and tossing it back in the direction of her bed, “you’d hear everything I said?” My hands moved for my belt buckle and unfastened it, and her eyes followed hungrily. “If I were to tell you the secret of the universe with no pants on, cock in hand, you’d hear every word?”

  Pants unzipped and hanging off my hips. Her eyes on the dark sliver of hair, the straining bulge of my cock.

  I stopped a handful of inches from her. Her eyes were down, her breath shallow, her breasts rising and falling. I palmed one like I’d been imagining a moment before. Her hands seemed to have a mind of their own, her fingers tracing the shape of my cock, hooking in the opening of my zipper, slipping between the denim and my skin.

  “No, you wouldn’t hear a word. I could tell you all the great mysteries of time, and you wouldn’t catch a single one. Would you?”

  “Would I what?” she muttered absently.

  I laughed and kissed her, the weight of her breast in my hand, her fingers grazing my shaft. But before she could wrap her hand around me, I picked her up and carried her to bed where I told her a few mysteries of the universe in a way she couldn’t help but hear.

  “Okay. Are you sure you want to do this? Now’s your last chance for escape.”r />
  She stood on the sidewalk under a gigantic elm whose leaves had burned to russet and amber. With every rise in the wind, a few let go and swayed, twirling to the ground. Her eyes were as dark and soft as freshly turned earth.

  “I’m ready. There’s squid and noogies waiting for me upstairs. Now, let’s go face the wolf-nado.”

  She laughed softly, and I bent to kiss her nose.

  “Come on,” I said as I took her hand.

  And with a deep, fortifying breath, she turned for the door.

  A shock of nerves zipped through me when her hand grasped the doorknob. Because despite my bravado and determination, I was worried. But only a little and only for that moment. I shoved the feeling back down where it belonged and lifted my eyes to the stairs.

  The noise was the first thing to hit me. Laughter. A conversation in Spanish. Acoustic guitar, plucking an exotic tune. More laughter. Male voices chanting something in Spanish and another burst of laughter. Val’s shoulders rose and fell with another sigh, her spine straight. Her hand tightened on mine.

  I squeezed back.

  She let me go as we stepped into the kitchen. It seemed to be the hub of the house, the center of everything, a room full of people and sizzling food and the sounds of togetherness.

  Their faces turned to Val and lit in smiles. A tiny woman with deep lines in her face, a crimson scarf tied around her head. Another woman who looked to be an exact copy of Val in twenty-five years, with curves and chestnut hair and eyes like a baby deer. A tall man with black hair and broad shoulders, a friendly smile but suspicious eyes. A small man in a straw fedora, his aquiline nose hooked like his back, his dark hands weathered but his eyes glittering coals.

  And four brothers wearing matching dubious expressions of discontent. Their arms folded across imposing chests in identical postures.

  Dante I knew, the tallest of the four. His gaze was the heaviest, black as midnight’s asshole. Max and Alex I deemed to be the two just behind him, the three standing like the head of a formation of bowling pins. Angry, immovable bowling pins. Franco looked younger than the other three, though it might have just been that his eyes shone more with amusement than a desire to decapitate. He stood just off to the side, as if he didn’t want to commit.