“Please,” I whispered.
With his arm still over his eyes, as if he needed to keep them covered to tell his story, he began. “My name is Dino Affini, and my family owns Affini’s, the Italian restaurant next to Nasta’s where Angel plays once in a while.” Well that was certainly a surprise, and I don’t know why he would keep that a secret. But somehow, knowing Dino’s real last name made me feel special, and a warm glow started building in the center of my body – radiating out to my arms and legs. I lightly ran my fingertips over the arms covering his face, light tickling motions, casual touching. Urging him to continue wordlessly.
“I told you I had family here, but I didn’t grow up in Toledo. At least I didn’t live here. My dad knocked up my mom when they were just past twenty years old. He didn’t want to get married and they weren’t even dating. Apparently, they were a drunken one-night stand and my mom didn’t even really like him that much as a person. Imagine that. My grandmother though, to her family is everything. My grandfather had passed a few years before I was born, and she wasn’t going to let a child of Affini blood be brought up without knowing his family. So I got the Affini last name and court scheduled visitations even though I don’t think my mom or my dad was really into it. My Nonna though, she loved being a grandma, and I spent all my time when I visited my father with her.
“Dad couldn’t keep his dick in his pants though, and he knocked up another woman when I was five or six years old. He did marry this one, and I got a stepmom and a sister all in one go.” Dino sighed and moved his arm from his face, but only so he could turn on his side and snuggle in closer. His face was awfully close to my crotch, but what we were doing was not sexual in any way, so I tried not to be uncomfortable about it.
“He couldn’t pretend to be anything other than a piece of shit for long, and when he couldn’t take any more of the married life, he split. I don’t mean he filed for divorce. I mean one day he took off, cleaned out the checking account and ghosted the whole family. It didn’t mean much to me because I lived with my mom, but it had to have killed Vanessa and Shelly, my sister and stepmom.” Dino’s mouth grew into a thin hard line. “He took everything from them and left them with nothing. My Nonna took them in, Shelly ended up helping with the restaurant for a few years while she went to school and got a degree. Nonna helped raise Vanessa and was happy to do it. Partly because family was so important, but also, I think she felt responsible somehow, for raising such a piece of shit for a son. He was her only child, and she expected better.
“I didn’t have the best relationship with Shelly and Vanessa,” Dino admitted sadly. “But it wasn’t really anyone’s fault. Shelly got stuck in a situation where she had a stepson that she never asked for, whose dad wasn’t even around anymore, and Vanessa… I think Vanessa has issues with men in general because of it. I don’t think she doesn’t like me, per se. I think she hates my gender altogether. Dad did that. If I ever see that guy I am going to punch him in the dick.”
Abruptly Dino rolled over in my lap until he was staring straight up at me. “It’s a mystery how I turned out so normal, really,” he said, dead serious. Then he laughed, and it was a glorious sound and I couldn’t help but mimic him. We both laughed on the couch for a moment, because the reality was, Dino was just as fucked up as everyone else. The difference was that he knew it and worked with it the best that he could.
“I hadn’t been home in a few years because of work. You know how it is,” he said, motioning into the air as if to explain himself. I did know what he meant though. He worked for the government, or at least he did before he quit and became Chaz Malone’s sidekick. Dino’s job was to be undercover. To be someone else at all times. Spooks don’t have families, it didn’t fit their profile.
“I’d just finished an eighteen-month job infiltrating a drug ring in Chicago, which is why you and Gabe hadn’t heard from me in a while, and I didn’t even know you guys had moved. I thought you were still out West working out of the Vegas office.”
The Vegas office was Gabe’s home base. It wasn’t really much of an office, more of just a place where I took calls and filed paperwork for all of Gabe’s assignments he took. It was fun being the PA for a bodyguard. Private investigator. Mercenary, or whatever job he decided he wanted to take. Gabe was good at a lot of things. But when his dad died, he had dropped everything to come home as soon as he could. He missed the funeral and would always regret it, but he dropped his life and took over the family business, because he wanted to make life easier for his mom. Family was important to Gabe, too. I could appreciate it, but I would never understand it because I had never had a family. Something I’d long gotten over wishing for.
“I’d called Nonna to tell her I wanted to come visit, but instead I got Vanessa, who told me they had been having problems with Chaz’s boys. Real weird stuff, but persistent. Shit like harassing employees and making them quit, all the way up to property damage and vandalism. Things that are really difficult for a business to deal with, but not quite serious for a busy police department to get involved with and handle. It was starting to scare customers away, and with the lowered revenue being brought in, it was difficult to pay the super high insurance premiums, especially with all the damages they were incurring from Chaz and his street junkies. It was weird because Gallery B is right across the street from the restaurant, and right next door to Nasta’s, but those two places never had any crime or issues. Just Affini’s. It was pretty personal. So I took another job, this one to find out what the fuck Chaz Malone has against my family. The only way to do that was to become someone else again, but I’m so tired, Jeanette. I’m tired of sleeping in a shitty hotel. I’m tired of not being able to see my family. I’m tired of pretending.”
My hand stilled in his hair, and I was briefly overcome with emotion. Dino was like me. Even though our situations were different, inside we were the same. Pretending to be someone else out of necessity, but desperate for someone to accept us as we were anyway. I’d never felt closer to another human being than I did right then at that moment, with Dino slung across my lap and my hand in his hair. Our hearts were connected, and I could almost feel the rhythm of his beating with mine.
“That night at the auction,” Dino continued through a jaw-cracking yawn, “that woman you met was my sister Vanessa. And five minutes after you left I had to watch them auction off my grandmother’s antique engagement and wedding set. That was an heirloom that would have been passed down to Vanessa when Nonna died. There was no way it would have been sold unless they needed that money for the restaurant. That is Chaz Malone’s fault. He did that. I’m going to find out why he hates my family, Jeanette, and then I’m going to make sure he can’t hurt them anymore.”
Dino looked me in the eyes this time, reached up and curled a lock of my long hair around his finger and tugged gently. “That’s me, Dino Affini. That’s all there is to me. Thanks for listening, can I have my hug now?” The twinkle in his caramel brown eyes was my undoing, and instead of a hug, I leaned down and kissed him, a gentle press of my lips on his.
“I love you, Dino Affini,” I whispered into his mouth.
Wait. What the fuck did I just say?
I hadn’t meant to do it, the words just popped out. We were having a moment and even though they slipped out as an accident, I probably really did mean them. But I screwed up. I tried to pull back, to think of something, anything to erase what I had just said but I couldn’t. Instead of letting go, Dino snuck one arm up behind my head and held me there, immobile while he took my gentle little kiss and turned it into something deeper – naughtier. He licked around the outside of my closed lips with his tongue, and when I had my small gasp of surprise at the words I had just uttered he took advantage of the opportunity and plundered.
And I let him.
I should have stopped him. Things were too weird between us and who knew what tomorrow would bring. It would be smart to stop before we began. Instead I bit his lower lip and sucked it into my mouth whi
le my hand found the bottom hem of his tight as sin black t-shirt and slid underneath it, feeling that smooth hard body below. I felt his abdomen flex under my hand and felt his breath hitch against my mouth.
Dino liked me touching him. Well I like touching Dino.
I still tasted the spearmint and sugar, but underneath it all was the warm amber taste of whatever whiskey he had been drinking tonight, and the combination was divine. I wanted to drink him in, savor the flavor of Dino and keep it bottled up inside of me. My head was buzzing with a thousand thoughts, all incoherent except for one. I needed Dino, and tonight he’d made it clear that Dino needed me.
Whatever had happened in the past and whatever would happen tomorrow, none of it had anything to do with our time now, and as I slid my fingertips over the top of a hard, flat nipple and felt Dino’s fingers tighten in my hair, I knew he would give me what I wanted tonight.
Or not.
I slipped my hand out from under Dino’s shirt, and lower, resting on the zipper of his jeans. I ached to hold him, hard and heavy in my hand. To have him at my mercy, like earlier, which had been over with too fast. But he wouldn’t let me. He gently grabbed my hand and pulled it away from his zipper. Breaking away from our kiss he softly moaned into my ear, his breath puffing against my hair, “No.”
Oh mercy please don’t tell me no.
Uncertainty filled my head and my chest - what had I done wrong? Was it what I said? I frowned, and it was on the tip of my tongue to apologize, for what I wasn’t certain, but Dino had said no and no means no, right?
“Too fast.”
Oh. Too fast? Not fast enough for my taste. I mean, I could feel his dick reaching for me through his jeans, so it wasn’t like he wasn’t interested. I must have let some of my confusion show on my face because Dino grinned and kissed the side of my neck again, sucking the skin in and giving it a nibble before letting go. It liquefied me, and I couldn’t put up a fight as he sat up, and in one fluid motion plucked me straight off the couch and carried me the ten steps to the small bedroom at the back of the apartment.
He laid me down on the bed, but instead of pulling back he followed me down, hands on either side of my shoulders and knees on either side of my legs. He kept them there, knees pinning my legs closed when all I wanted to do was wrap them around his waist and bring us as close together as humanly possible.
“Dino,” I demanded, grumpy that he wouldn’t let me have my way. “I want.”
“Me too,” he grinned down at me, and those full sensual lips took my breath away. I wanted to feel them against mine again. I wanted to put my hands on his body again. I wanted to feel him inside me again.
But he was being a difficult pain in the ass.
“Jeanette, don’t be in a hurry. I’ve been thinking about you all day. I’ve waited years to touch those perky tits, and I want to take my time.”
Okay, Dino wants, Dino gets, and I reached for the hem of my cami to pull it over my head.
“No.” Dino stopped my hands with his and held them down.
“Oh, God, why?” And I couldn’t even keep the frustration out of my voice now.
“You are not the boss right now. I’m on top, I’m the boss.”
Okay so maybe that sounded interesting. “If I’m on top then does that mean I’m the boss?”
“Yes.” I couldn’t hear Dino laughing, but I could feel the rumble from his chest as it was pressed against mine.
“Dibs on top next time.” I wasn’t being funny when I said it, but Dino did laugh out loud then, and I couldn’t help but laugh with him. My giggles cut out abruptly though, when he let go of my hands, massaged my breasts lightly through the soft fabric and then pinched both nipples at the same time, hard enough for me to arch my back off the bed.
God yes more of that.
I wanted to grab him by the head and bring his mouth down to where he hands were, to feel his hot mouth on my skin, but I was good. I curled my hands into fists on the blanket, but I didn’t move.
“Dino, please.”
“Jeanette,” Dino said, and all traces of laughter were gone as I heard the metallic sound of the zipper teeth sliding apart. “You need to relax. I waited a long time, and now I want to play.”
Play mind games? Play my body like a musical instrument? What the hell, Dino, this is torture! Dino’s idea of playing was torturous foreplay, where he took his time touching, pinching and licking on every part of my body while letting his naked cock bounce against my skin lazily as he moved. Everywhere except for where I wanted him. Completely unconcerned with my rising need to touch him, to bring him into my body, to grind against him with that delicious friction that would make us both so very happy if he would just play fair.
“I can’t take much more of this, Dino,” I panted against his neck and bit him there as punishment. My thighs ached to have him between them, but he refused to touch me below the waist, spending all of his time sucking on first one nipple and then the other. “I’m so damn mad at you right now.”
“Does that mean you want to stop?” Dino asked as he let go of my body and sat up on the bed.
“Don’t you fucking dare.” I narrowed my eyes and reached for him, this time my hands landing on exactly what I wanted. He didn’t pull away this time, conceding the fight and letting me stroke his hard length like I wanted. He closed his hand over mine and I thought maybe he was going to try to get me to stop again, and I was prepared to fight over it, but he didn’t. He just adjusted my grip to show me what he liked, how fast he liked it. It was a massive turn-on, and I adjusted quickly, eager to hear his breathing change, feel his fingers tightening in the blankets.
Turnabout is fair play.
Except for Dino was even more impatient than I was when the shoe was on the other foot. He groaned then, and before I could blink he was in front of me again, my knees pushed up almost to my chest and…oh God, he didn’t even take my shorts off, just pushed my soaked panties to the side and slid right inside of me, all the way in one stroke. I’d never felt anything as remotely sensual in my entire life and the shudders started racking my body almost immediately. There was no time for deep hard pumping, he went right to shallow strokes because we had both played too long. The feel of him, sliding in and out against the silk of my clothing was too much to endure and I came apart silently, too overcome with feeling to even say his name, although I was chanting it inside my head.
Dino, I love you.
This time I had the good grace not to say it out loud. He pulled out again, like he did before. I wanted to tell him he didn’t have to do that, but then I would have to tell him why, and I didn’t want to bring a black curtain down on our post-coital bliss. And I was blissed out. Exhausted, drained after having had my body completely loved by Dino Affini, I couldn’t think of a better way to wear myself out at the end of such a wretched day.
We took turns cleaning up, first him and then me. He was laying on his side in the bed when I pulled back the covers on the other side and slid in. There was a small moment of confusion when I first laid down. Should I reach for him? Should I stay on my side? How did he like to sleep? Those worries were unfounded though, because drunk Dino, who may or may not have actually been completely sober by then, was a massive cuddler. One arm burrowed under my body and slid me the rest of the way across the bed while one leg trapped me underneath him. I wouldn’t be moving for a while.
I wiggled a little bit to get more comfortable, my hand squeezing gently on the arm that had me pulled tightly to his side. “Good night, Dino,” I said into the darkness of the room. There wasn’t any answer though, he was already sleeping. It had been six years since I had slept in the same bed with a man, and even longer than that since I had slept next to a man without fear. I wondered if I would even be able to get any sleep at all. Turned out, it was much easier than I thought.
14
Dino
The sound of someone screaming obscenities had me bolting awake while the bedroom was still shrouded in the d
arkness of night.
“Fuck!” The sound came from the floor below me. “I said get down, you lazy shits, unless you want a hole where your third eye is.” I waited another five minutes or so, but there were no more angry expletives. I remembered what Angel had said before, about Gary downstairs having nightmares from PTSD.
Jesus, what the hell had happened to him? War was a bitch. I’d never been through it, but Gabe had. I couldn’t imagine how he dealt with his demons, he had to have some. There was no way I was going back to sleep after that though, and I couldn’t believe that it hadn’t woken up Jeanette the yelling had been so loud. But no, she lay sprawled out on her stomach, sleeping with her face smashed into a pillow and her reddish-brown hair spilling over the sheets. I touched a few strands gently, careful not to wake her, and wondered what it would feel like when it was curly.
I dug around on the side of the bed and pulled my phone out of the pocket of my jeans from where they lay crumpled on the floor. Two things made me groan. One, it was only four-thirty in the morning, and two, the green light was blinking, and I had a text message from Eddie.
Meeting with the boss and the new guys at the office at eight am.
What the hell kind of crime boss had meetings at eight in the morning? That was what was criminal. Ugh. That meant I had a few hours to get it together before I had to be in Detroit. I didn’t want Chaz or that asshole David Ashley to even get a sniff of Jeanette, so I figured I would go back to the hotel to shower and clean up before I grabbed some coffee and made the forty-five-minute trip to Chaz’s warehouse. I also needed to get my story straight if I was going to convince those guys that she was not the droid they were looking for. I also needed to figure out how to find out why Chaz okayed the attack on the restaurant yesterday without blowing my cover and wrapping my hands around his fucking neck in the process. If I even took a step towards Chaz with murder on my mind, Eddie would take me out. If Eddie didn’t get the job done, then Gordon would happily pull the trigger. That was their job. Eddie protected the boss. Gordon just killed people when told to kill them. If I made a move on Chaz, all he would have to do is look at Gordon and I would be dead. I was more concerned about him than Eddie actually. In a one-on-one fight I could take him. Gordon was one scary Mr. Rogers sweater-wearing motherfucker.
Dino (Glass City Hearts Book 2) Page 15
