Mobster: Romantic Suspense

by Lily Harlem

  “Yeah, pretty much.”

  “He’s giving it another six months,” Jolie said. “Then he’s getting the Rammadas back into business.”

  “With my cousins’ help?” Beth asked. “So he knows where they are?”

  “I guess so.” Jolie lit another cigarette from the stub of her last one.

  “And was he going to get me back?” Beth asked, not sure if she wanted the answer. “Was he going to look for me?”

  “Of course,” her mother said.

  “But how could he? How would he have even known where I was? You told me to disappear, to not leave a trail.”

  “Your father has many friends, Bethany. He’d have found you when the time came. We’d have found you.”

  “With all due respect,” Roper said, “your family has no friends in Chicago anymore. Rats don’t have friends.”

  India grimaced. “He had his reasons for what he did with Lou Kempton.”

  “I’m sure he did, and Bowman is an underhand, violent, lying son of a bitch who deserved to go down. But street law is street law. No one goes running to the FBI without facing the consequences.”

  India glanced away.

  “What is it, Mom?” Beth asked, sensing there was more.

  She was quiet for a moment. Beth didn’t think she’d answer her, then India blurted out, “Oh you might as well know the truth.” She paused. “He did it to save me.”

  Roper tutted. “Makes sense.”

  “What?” Beth glanced between her mother and Roper. “What do you mean?”

  “Your gentleman’s club got raided, right?” Roper said.

  “Gentleman’s club?” Beth asked. “What gentleman’s club?”

  “Well, it was more of a whorehouse,” Jolie said with a shrug.

  “Jolie, zip your damn mouth up or fuck off,” India said, anger flushing her cheeks.

  “She’s old enough to know what your business specialty is.” Jolie waggled her cigarette in Beth’s direction. “And if she’s screwing a Hermanus, she’s definitely old enough to know.” She let her gaze slide down Roper, as though undressing him with her eyes and wondering just what he’d be like to fuck.

  “You had a whorehouse?” Beth shook her head.

  “I prefer to call it an upper-class escort agency.” India took a long drag on her cigarette and tipped her chin haughtily.

  Beth was trying to take this new information in. Her mother had always worked, but she’d said her job was running a small boutique hotel on the other side of town. All along she’d been a madam with a brothel.

  “So he gave up Bowman to Lou Kempton in a deal to keep you out of the slammer,” Roper said, nodding slowly. “I get it now.”

  “It doesn’t matter whether or not you get it.” India stubbed out her smoke. “I don’t need your approval. We don’t need your approval.”

  “Maybe you don’t, but you might need my help.”

  “Why?” India tipped her head. “What could a Hermanus possibly have that we want?”

  “Let’s just say there’s been some recent developments.”

  “Like what?”

  “I’ll know more in the morning.” He took Beth’s hand and locked their fingers together. “We’ll be back then.”

  “Wait.” India stood. “Where are you going? You can’t take Bethany. I’ve just got her back.”

  “Beth is free to choose whether or not she wants to come find a motel with me or stay here.” He studied Beth.

  The thought of staying with her mother and Jolie when she had all this new information to process wouldn’t work out well. A screaming match would ensue. Her mother was already grating on her. Plus the last thing she wanted was an evening of being told why she shouldn’t be with Roper or listening to reasons for running a brothel. “With you.”

  “We’ll come back in the morning,” said Roper. “I’ll tell you more then.”

  “Tell us now,” India demanded.

  “No. I don’t want to get your hopes up.”

  “Hopes up?” Jolie said. “Oh, that sounds interesting.” She grinned.

  “That’s all I can say for now.” He tugged Beth’s hand. “Let’s get out of here while there’s still a chance we’ll get a room.”

  “Hey, wait.” Jolie stood and went to the kitchen counter. She plucked up a set of keys. “Next door, on the right…they winter in Florida and I’m looking after the cat. Sleep there.”

  She tossed the keys at Roper.

  He caught them with a downward snatch. “Thanks. Appreciated.”

  “Furnace is on its last legs, so light a fire.”

  “Bethany, stay here, please,” India said. “I haven’t had you near me for so long. I’ve been so worried.

  “No, Mom. I’m with Roper now and…” She hesitated. “If you were so worried, you could’ve come looking for me. If you were running a whorehouse, you know the danger I was in on the streets.”

  “We were going to…soon.”

  “I’m not sure I believe you.”

  “It’s true. You have to believe me. You’re my baby girl.”

  “I’m not a baby, Mom.” Beth paused.

  “I’ve hardly slept for worrying about you,” India said.

  “You look perfectly rested to me.” There was more Beth could say. It was on the tip of her tongue—her anger at being cold and hungry, disjointed from the family, forgotten about, was a nasty thick cloud of emotions whirling inside of her. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”

  “Bethany,” her mother pleaded.

  “I’ll make pancakes for breakfast,” Jolie called as they headed out of the kitchen.

  “What the hell, Jolie?” India demanded, her whining tone switching to one of frustration. “You’re cooking for goddamn Hermanus boys now.”

  “He’s saved our Beth, so it’s the least I can do, India. Maybe you should think about that for a minute and stop screeching like a mad woman.”

  Chapter Eleven

  The house next door to Jolie’s was cold and musty, the windowsills packed high with snow, making it darker inside than it needed to be.

  “I’ll get a fire lit,” Roper said after he’d bolted the door and placed his gun on a bookcase in the living area.

  “Yeah, sure.” Beth jumped as a fluffy black cat wound around her legs. “Hey,” she said, scooping it up. “What’s your name?” She looked at the tag around its neck. “Sooty, very apt.”

  Roper glanced at her and smiled—one of his rare smiles that went right to his eyes. “You like cats.”

  “I like all animals. I wish I could’ve been a vet.”

  “Ah, see, there is a career you want. Maybe when all this shit has blown over you can make that happen.”

  “Maybe.” Yeah, right.

  “You wanna see if there’s any food?” Roper asked, stacking kindling.

  “Sure.” She wandered into the kitchen, still holding the cat. It was the same long shape as Jolie’s, but instead of a table in the bay of the window, the cat’s bed sat alongside its food. There was also an elaborate towering scratching post.

  She set the cat down and pulled open the refrigerator. There was milk, but not much else. She guessed it was for Sooty and topped up the saucer set by his food, much to his delight.

  The cupboards proved a little more fruitful. There was pasta and canned food, including tuna and chopped tomatoes. She smiled and set them down. She’d be able to make something out of that.

  The scent of smoke drifted toward her, then the unmistakable crackle of fire. After putting on the kettle, she headed back into the living area.

  Roper was on his hands and knees, keeping a close check on the fire.

  After shrugging off her jacket, she dropped heavily onto the soft sofa. “This’ll do us for the night, won’t it?”

  “Yeah, ideal. Had enough of sitting on a bike for one day.” He nodded at the kitchen. “Food?”

  “Yep, I’ll rustle us something up when we’re hungry.”

  “You can cook?”


  “Don’t sound so surprised. Our cook was friendly and she taught me plenty. I’ll make us pasta, which is the best I can do out of what’s there.”

  “Sounds good.” He stood and stripped off his jacket, then sat on the sofa next to her. “Was a shock, eh?”

  “What?”

  “That your mother ran a whorehouse.” He took her hand.

  She turned to him. “Yeah, at first, but now…”

  “Now?”

  “Now nothing surprises me. I know she loves me, but she has a funny way of showing it sometimes. She said she thought I looked good this thin.”

  He ran his other hand over her thigh, his fingers huge on her slim frame. “You do look good, baby, but you know I’ll be happier when you’ve put on some pasta weight. Ain’t healthy to weigh less than a feather.”

  “I do not.”

  “Yeah, you do.” As if to prove it, he slipped his arm beneath her and tugged her flat onto the sofa so he was propped over her. “See, you weigh nothing.” He pressed his lips over hers. “I wanna fuck you,” he said against her lips.

  “So fuck me,” she said, clutching his shoulders.

  “You like how I fuck?”

  “Yes.” Did she ever.

  “Like this? He ran his hand down her neck, circling her throat. “You like that?”

  “It scared me a little.”

  “But you know I wouldn’t have let anything happen to you.”

  “I’d just fucking met you, Roper.”

  “Yeah, perhaps I wouldn’t have done that if I’d known you’d only had a few lousy screws from jocks.” He squeezed a little tighter.

  Her airway constricted, and she panted.

  “Makes coming real intense, don’t it?”

  She nodded.

  “You sure you don’t want it like that again?”

  “You’re a kinky bastard, Roper Hermanus.”

  He chuckled and released her neck, then stroked down to her breast and cupped it through her sweater. “Yeah, and you love it.”

  “I don’t know much about being kinky.”

  He looked down at her. “So what do you want to know?”

  “Your other kinks. Show me.”

  He twitched his eyebrows. “You really want to keep that request on the table?”

  “Yes.” A tremble ripped through her belly and settled between her legs. What was she unleashing? What the hell did he have on his kink list?

  “Don’t look so worried. Not all kinks are created equal.”

  “I know.”

  “Do you?” He grinned, then sat back and tugged at her leggings, pulling them down her legs and off.

  After Beth gripped her sweater and discarded it, she removed her bra so she was lying naked before him. Suddenly, she’d had enough of all this age gap crap. She wanted Roper to see her as an equal in bed, for everyone to see that they were two adults, together, not a man and a kid. She hadn’t been a kid for years. She was a sexual being who could enjoy more than just vanilla high school sex.

  He caressed her belly, watching his movements, then pushed her thighs apart so he was kneeling between them.

  Beth allowed her right leg to bend and her foot to rest on the floor. The heat of the fire began to lick over her, and a log crackled and shifted. She was so exposed to him. He was fully dressed, yet she wanted him as naked as she, his body and his desires plain for her to see.

  He tickled through her pubic hair. “I like this,” he said. “Can’t stand women who shave it all off.”

  “You don’t?”

  “No, when I fuck, I like to know I’m fucking a woman.”

  She smiled, knowing that he was speaking the truth because of the way he was tugging and admiring her shock of hair.

  He slipped his fingers farther down, over her clit to her pussy. He eased two fingers in at the same time as he held his other hand up, fist clenched.

  She squeezed her internal muscles around him, knowing that soon she’d want so much more.

  “You reckon you could take this?” he asked.

  “What?”

  “My fist.” He lowered it to her belly.

  “What, up my…”

  “Yeah, we’d go slow. Plenty of lube.”

  “Jesus, Roper. You seen how damn big your hand is compared to me?”

  He unclenched his fist and winked. “I guess that’s a no then?”

  “Yeah, that’s a no.”

  Suggestion apparently forgotten, he added another finger and began to pump in and out.

  She writhed on the sofa, shifting her hips up to meet him.

  “You get so damn wet so quick,” he said, pinching her right nipple.

  “Only for you.”

  “Good.” He set his thumb over her clit, stimulating it as he moved in and out of her.

  Beth had to stop her eyes rolling back in her head. The way he touched her was divine. It was as if her body was an instrument, and he was a master at playing it.

  “You want to come?”

  “Yes…” she whispered, pinching her other nipple. “Make me come.”

  “What about me?”

  “Yeah, you come, too. In me.”

  “On you.”

  She bit her bottom lip. He’d built her up so fast, the pressure collecting in her pussy. Her belly tensed, and she curled her toes and gripped a cushion. “Oh…don’t stop.”

  He stopped, pulled out and sat back.

  “What? Roper…I was…” She sat forward.

  “And you will, when you’re begging for it.”

  “I’m begging now.” She swiped her fingertips over her sensitive clit. But it didn’t feel the same as when he did it.

  He laughed as he popped open his jeans and shoved them and his boxers down his legs and off. “Honey, you don’t know the meaning of the word begging.” He discarded his sweater.

  “I think I do.”

  “Not this sort of begging.” He moved back between her legs and pressed her flat. “Hold your tits together.”

  She did as he’d asked as he hung over her, gripping his cock.

  “That’s it, play with your nipples. Good girl.”

  Her nipples were tight points, and she tweaked them hard. She didn’t have much of a cleavage, but Roper didn’t seem too bothered about that as he worked his shaft hard and fast.

  Beth stared at his cock head, deep mauve and with a wide slit that came into view over and over. His hand became a blur he was masturbating so furiously.

  “Jesus Christ,” he muttered. “What the hell…have you…done to me?”

  “Roper,” Beth gasped, excitement zinging through her. He was getting close, his climax simmering.

  On and on he went, his attention firmly on her breasts. His teeth were gritted, the arm he was using to suspend himself shaking.

  “Ah, ah, yeah…” he groaned. “That’s it.”

  Beth watched fascinated as his slit widened farther and the first shot of cum erupted from it. It was warm and thick as it landed on her breasts and hand.

  He groaned again, still working his cock. More release basted over her.

  Her pussy was trembling, her heart racing.

  “Fuck,” he muttered, yet another thick rope of pearly fluid spurting from him. “That’s it.”

  He released his cock and grabbed her wrists, hoisted them over her head and pinned them with just one hand.

  He touched his nose to hers. He was breathing hard. “You like being covered in Hermanus cum?”

  “I like being covered in your cum.”

  “I’m a Hermanus.”

  “I know.” She swept her lips over his. “And you’re fucking a Rammada.”

  “And loving it.” He smiled suddenly and lifted up a fraction, but didn’t release her wrists. He ran his fingers through his cum, spreading it over her breasts, around her nipples, over her nipples. “Shit, it’s so fucking hot to see you like this.”

  She studied his face as the warm fluid cooled on her chest. His eyes were heavy with lust and full
of approval.

  “You’re mine,” he murmured. “Can you feel how I’ve claimed you?”

  “Yes.”

  “Look at it.”

  She did as instructed, the shimmering fluid sticky and drying.

  “Leave it like that,” he said, releasing her wrists.

  “Okay.” If that was what yanked his chain, she was happy to go along with it.

  He gave a satisfied smile and slipped down her body, pressing her thighs apart and settling between them.

  Beth ran her hands over his hair as he licked her pussy from her entrance to her clit. “Mmm…”

  Another log shifted in the fire, and the sound of flames filled the room. God, this was so good—heat, sex, Roper, food in the cupboard.

  He worked her clit, licking and circling it.

  She trembled and squirmed, loving how he drove his tongue over her.

  As her breaths grew harder to catch, he entered her pussy with two maybe three fingers.

  “Oh, Roper, yes, more. I want to…”

  “You want to come?” he asked, lifting his head to look at her.

  “Yes.” His mouth and chin were shiny with her moisture. “Please.”

  “You begging yet?”

  “Yes.” She shut her eyes and groaned; it was so close.

  He pulled his fingers from her.

  “No…” She banged her foot on the floor and bashed his shoulder with her fist. “No fair.”

  “All fair.” He spread his tongue over her clit and pressed.

  She clenched her fingers so tight her nails hurt her palms; it wasn’t quite enough pressure to tip her over the edge.

  Aware of him stroking his fingertips over her anus, she tensed.

  I’m gonna fuck your ass. His words came back to her.

  Was now the time?

  His fingers were slippery with her arousal as he applied pressure over her tight pucker.

  She thrashed her head left to right and bit on her bottom lip. Oh yes. She knew what was coming next.

  He pushed in, a steady ride until she could feel his knuckles against her ass.

  She froze. The sensation of him entering her in her most private place was taking over her body.

  He flicked her clit.

  She jolted, renewed pleasure circling through her. “Roper…”

  Her tight hole stretched farther. He’d added another finger.