by Bethany-Kris
Andino let her have her moment—he let her tease, and play, and feel. After all, he liked the sight of it just fine, and there was something addictive about watching Haven move when she was on top of him. From the way she flicked her hair back, to the tilt of her head. Even how she watched him was something sinful to be appreciated. He memorized the curves of her body as she moved, and the way her shapely ass fit into the palms of his hands when he grabbed and squeezed her backside.
All of her was perfect.
From her wet cunt.
To her trembling lips.
All. Of. Her.
Andino let go of Haven’s ass and tangled his hand into her hair. Tugging just enough to get her attention all on him again, he murmured, “Enough playing. Time to fuck.”
A smooth, slow smile spread over her lips.
“Can’t say no to that, can I?”
Andino barely had to do a thing except keep his hands on Haven, and watch her move. She kept herself steady on him with one hand on his throat, and another planted firmly on his chest. Those fingernails of hers dug in deep, and kept his nerves awake with the sting of pain while she rode him hard and fast.
Wild.
Raw.
And oh, so good.
And when he couldn’t take it anymore—when he was lost in the sounds of her noises and the way she looked and how she felt around him—he yanked her down for a kiss that shattered his mind.
Yeah, he’d definitely missed this.
• • •
Andino laughed at the sight of Haven tossing Snaps’ latest teddy bear high into the air. She practically squealed, and she might have jumped up and down on the spot, when Snaps darted across the kitchen, spun sideways, and did a back flip to catch the teddy bear in his mouth.
“Did you see that?”
Andino nodded. “I taught him that.”
“What else can he do?”
“Pretty much anything—as long as it doesn’t require thumbs. He likes to learn, and he enjoys pleasing people.”
Also biting people when he doesn’t like them.
Andino didn’t add that little fact out loud. He didn’t think Haven would appreciate it, really. She liked Snaps. No need to go scaring her, too.
Haven smiled. “Does he bring in the newspaper, too?”
“No, he ruins those.”
Haven cocked a brow. “Really?”
“Newspapers hinder his walking time. You know, because then I’m sitting, and not walking him.”
At that statement, Andino gave his dog a look from the side. Snaps simply stared back with his purple teddy bear that Andino had picked up from a street vendor hanging from his mouth by a skinny arm. The dog regularly went through toys like it was going out of style. Nothing was safe from the wrath that was Snaps when he wanted to ruin something. Even those indestructible dog toys—those were fucking child’s play to Snaps, frankly.
Snaps dropped the teddy bear to the floor, and let out one loud bark. Andino gave him another one of his looks, saying, “We know you want to play.”
The dog just barked again.
And then again.
Andino quickly figured out Snaps wasn’t trying to get someone to play—he was alerting him to someone coming in the house, but Andino’s attention was otherwise distracted what with Haven being there and all.
“Andi?”
Shit.
At the sound of a woman’s voice calling his name, Haven’s gaze narrowed in on him instantly. Andino was stuck between cursing the heavens, and wanting to laugh because of how pissed off Haven looked in that moment.
“Relax,” he told her, slipping around the island, “it’s my mother.”
Haven softened her posture. “Oh. Kim, right?”
“Kim, yep.”
“Andino?”
He could have tried to get his mother out of the house before she even knew Haven was there—no doubt, she was going to go back to his father, let Giovanni know there was a woman at their son’s home, and then his dad would take that info to Dante. It was only going to take his mother describing Haven—she didn’t exactly blend in—and they were going to know exactly who his mother had found at his place.
Sure, he could have tried to stop that from happening.
What was the point?
“In the kitchen, Ma,” Andino called back.
Haven gave him a look he couldn’t decipher as she slid around the island to stand next to him, and help build the fajitas he’d been working on. He didn’t even get the chance to ask Haven about her look, or what it meant, because his mother walked into the kitchen a second later.
And promptly froze right where she stood.
“Oh … hello,” his mother said quietly.
Andino smiled at the way confusion lit up his mother’s tone. He didn’t miss the way she checked Haven out—like all good Italian mothers would do when they caught a woman with their son. Kim was soft-hearted, and sweet-natured, sure, but when it came to her son? Her only son? This woman turned into someone else entirely.
“Hey, Ma. I didn’t know you were coming over tonight.”
She usually called.
Kim laughed nervously, and waved a hand. “I was in the neighborhood. That’s not important—who is this?”
“I’m Haven,” the woman next to him said, smiling softly.
“Haven,” Kim echoed. “Pretty name.”
“Thank you.”
“Not Italian, though.”
The look his mother gave him spoke a thousand words without her even needing to say a thing. Andino was quick to drop her stare and go back to work on finishing his meal, so he could finally fucking eat.
“Definitely not Italian,” Haven replied, although some of the softness was drifting from her tone. “Born and raised in Brooklyn, though.”
Kim nodded, but her attention was still on Andino. “You didn’t mention seeing anyone to me.”
“Because I didn’t feel the need to, Ma.”
“Didn’t feel the—”
“No,” Andino interjected, glancing at his mother. “It wouldn’t matter if I did, right?”
He felt Haven’s eyes turn on him, but it was the buzzing of her phone on the counter that stopped anyone from saying anything else.
Shitty luck, maybe.
Or karma stepping in.
Who fucking knew?
“Sorry,” Haven said, grabbing the phone. She did a quick check of whatever was rolling across the screen, and then frowned before setting it down. Her attention was back on Andino, then, and he gave her a small smile—one he hoped was supportive, but he could see there were questions in her eyes. More things for him to have to answer at a later date, likely. “Problem at the club—I have to go.”
“You’ll be back, won’t you?”
She shrugged. “Maybe. I guess I owe Snaps a treat, too.”
Andino nodded. “Yes, for Snaps.”
She winked, and then gave him a quick kiss on the underside of his jaw before moving around the island. As she passed his mother by, Haven was quick to say, “It was very nice to meet you, Kim. Andino only has wonderful things to say about you.”
His mother smiled faintly. “That’s a shame, sweetheart.”
Haven’s brow furrowed. “I’m sorry?”
“It’s a shame that he tells you wonderful things about me, but he’s never said a word to me about you.”
“Ma,” Andino snapped.
It was too late.
The words were out there.
Haven gave Kim a tight nod, and a look over her shoulder to him that burned, and then she was gone. Andino stopped working on his food, and placed his hands to the edge of the counter until he heard the front door close.
Only then did he ask, “What the hell, Ma?”
That hadn’t been like Kim at all.
Kim glanced over her shoulder to where Haven had gone as she said, “I actually meant to say it was a shame, Andino. She seems lovely. Not appropriate—as your father and uncles will tell you—for a boss, b
ut still quite lovely. Why didn’t you tell me you were seeing someone?”
“You just answered your own fucking question.”
“Language.” Kim sighed, and brought her gaze back to him. “Because of la famiglia, then?”
“She’s not Italian. Not Catholic. She’s not … reputable, or respectable by their standards. She’s great, but she’s not—”
“What they would want,” his mother interjected. “Do they know?”
“They did before for a hot minute.”
“Not now?”
Andino shook his head. “No.”
“You have to tell them.”
“It’s none of their fucking business, Ma.”
Kim’s lips flattened into a grim line—not a frown, but most definitely not a smile, either. “It is their business. It is the family’s business. That’s how it works for the boss, Andino.”
“Yeah, I know.”
And he did.
He wouldn’t blame his mother, either, when she told his father about the woman she found at their son’s home. She, like his father, loved him. They also loved their family—that meant protecting it, no matter what.
A newcomer?
An outsider?
The unknown?
All of which, Haven most definitely was … those were dangerous things to people like them. So no, he wouldn’t blame his mother at all.
FOURTEEN
“Are you going to be busy later, or are you closing tonight?”
Haven chewed on her inner cheek to consider her answer instead of speaking right away. “Maybe, but I don’t know. You know how things come up at this damn club.”
Andino’s dark chuckles echoed over the phone. “Yeah, I know.”
“Where are you going to be?”
“The restaurant for most of the evening.”
“What time are you leaving there?”
“Likely midnight,” he replied.
Which meant, he had a lot of work going on. Andino never said that was the case, other than alluding to it, but he only stayed late at the restaurant when he had work to do.
“And about the other day,” he added.
“What do you mean?”
“A few days ago—when my mother showed up at my place.”
Haven frowned.
Yeah, that.
How could she forget that?
“What about it?”
Andino cleared his throat. “I apologize for what she said right before you left. I know it made you uncomfortable, but I also don’t think she meant it the way it come out. That’s not my mom to be purposefully mean, or to hurt someone else. She’s not like that. I think she was genuinely caught off guard just because—”
“You’ve literally never told her about me.”
“Kind of, yeah.”
And that’s what bothered Haven the most.
Hurt the most, really.
Maybe she shouldn’t have automatically expected Andino to open his mouth, and spill the fact he had been seeing Haven to his family. She didn’t know his people, or the dynamics of their family, for that matter. And they were only just starting back into this thing together after taking that break away from one another.
A break she chose.
Haven had to keep reminding herself of that fact.
“I don’t expect them to know,” she said quietly. “But I just … I guess it took me off guard, too. Not once in the entire time we were seeing each other, you didn’t think to mention me to any of them? I mean, we never visited anyone, and you didn’t bring me around but … I don’t know.”
“I wanted to,” he said.
“Then why didn’t you?”
“Maybe I don’t share well when it comes to things that are mine,” Andino muttered. “Who knows?”
Haven rolled her eyes. “That’s not a good answer.”
“I know.” Andino sighed, and said, “Listen, I have a guy coming in for a meeting in five minutes—we’ll finish this later, yeah?”
“If I can get out of here early enough.”
“All right, baby. Bye.”
“Bye, Andino.”
Haven hung up the phone, and although she was smiling, there was still a heaviness settling deeper into her heart. It had been growing heavier by the day, and started right about the time when she left Andino’s home.
She didn’t know how to shake it.
Didn’t know if she could.
“You’re messing around with the Marcello again?”
Haven glanced up at the voice coming from her doorway. There, Jackson leaned in with a curious expression, and guarded eyes. She had the strangest urge to snap at him for—yet again—listening in on one of her private conversations. Really, she just figured she needed to remember to close her fucking door. Unless the idiot just pressed his ear against the wood, or something.
Who knew?
“I thought that was over a while back?” Jackson asked, folding his arms over his chest.
“Remind me again,” Haven said, “when my personal life became any of your business. Or anyone else’s business in this club, for that matter. Don’t I sign your paychecks, not the other way around? Not sure that entitles you to know anything about me, actually.”
Jackson put his hands up in surrender, and took a step back. “Ouch, Haven. I’m just looking out for you, that’s all. This isn’t me trying to get closer to you in that kind of way.”
Probably not.
He had been good ever since that day months ago when she told him plain and simple that no, he was not her type. And no, that was not going to change. He’d been respectful and appropriate from that point forward—Haven had to give him credit there.
Not much else.
“You don’t need to look after me,” she said, standing from her desk. “But thank you for caring. I am a big girl, though. I can handle myself.”
“Just didn’t take you for the type, I guess.”
Haven’s gaze narrowed on her club manager. “What type?”
“I mean,” Jackson said, shrugging, “every woman likes a bad boy, right? That’s kind of par for the course—but Marcello bad?” He made a noise under his breath, adding, “That’s a whole different ball game. Just didn’t take you to be the type to date a mobster, that’s all.”
She stiffened all over.
It was not the first time someone used that title alongside Andino’s name, or even his surname. It was like those who knew the family or knew enough about them to talk didn’t have a problem with labeling them as mobsters, mafia, or something similar.
Haven had heard the whispers.
She knew the rumors.
She’d never listened.
Until right now.
“Is that what it is—the mob?” she asked.
Jackson cocked a brow. “You don’t know?”
“I didn’t ask a question to get a question, Jackson.”
“Relax, woman. I just meant … yeah, that’s what it is. Kind of widely known, especially where they do business. You know that bookie that comes in three or four nights a—”
“The illegal bookie. Nathaniel. Yeah, I know he works for Andino.”
Jackson nodded. “You’re right—kind of. I only know a little because Nate is my friend, and you know, when he’s drunk, he talks a bit. Andino is more like his umbrella. Protection, if you will. Working under Andino and his crew gives Nate a bit of leg room, and respect. He doesn’t have to worry about someone coming after him in his business because he’s got a mafia capo watching his back, and lending him credence in his work. You get what I mean? All he has to do is use Andino’s name, and people know, Haven. That’s the kind of family you’re messing with.”
She heard a lot of things.
Only a couple felt important.
Mafia.
Capo.
They felt important because mostly, she didn’t know what they meant. Oh, sure, she got the mafia—she understood that well enough just from being alive. Hadn’t everyone heard the
mafia mentioned at least once in their lifetime?
She didn’t think this was the same.
And she should probably know …
Haven wasn’t stupid. There were some people who believed the mafia to be dead, especially in New York where it had once been a hub for organized crime. She didn’t think it was dead, but maybe over the years, the mafia had simply quieted in its business to keep from getting negative attention.
After all, how could a criminal empire continue to thrive when the police were constantly hounding at its doors?
It didn’t make sense.
Then again, very little about Andino made sense to Haven at times. Especially the way he kept her in the dark, or so it seemed. She was ready to turn the lights on. She didn’t want to be in the dark anymore.
“Close my door, please,” Haven said. “I’ll be out in twenty to start the pre-meetings before opening.”
Jackson gave her a two-finger salute. “You got it, boss.”
The second her office door clicked shut, Haven sat back down at her desk, and reached for the laptop she had shoved to the corner. Pulling it closer, she opened it up, and brought up a search browser.
Surely, if that’s who Andino—and his family—were, then wouldn’t she find something? If she actually looked, wouldn’t she find something?
Haven decided to look.
• • •
Haven wiped down the bottles she’d pulled from the shelves, and watched the two men at the end of the bar chat away quietly. They looked unassuming, for the most part. They could pass for any well-dressed New Yorkers in their three-piece suits. Minus the Rolex watches on their wrists. Oh, and the very expensive Italian leather loafers she had gotten a peek of when she moved around the bar to help one of the servers when needed.
All it took was someone staring at the two for longer than a few seconds to see the similarities between them—the same jaw shapes, mouths, and eyes.
Green eyes.
God, she knew that green.
Andino had those same eyes.
And the one man?
Even if Haven hadn’t spent a good two hours of her afternoon dropping down the rabbit hole that was the internet to search the New York mob, she would have recognized something familiar in the one man.
Maybe the dimple in his cheek when he smiled—just like Andino—or the cleft in his chin. It could have been his size with those wide, expansive shoulders, or the way he grinned that brought on a sense of déjà vu for her.
