by Bethany-Kris
Perfect.
Tom lifted a taped hand, pointing at Beni. “What’s that mood about right there? A second ago, you were grinning like a fucker at your phone, and now you look like someone pissed on your shoe when your back was turned.”
“Nice imagery there.”
“I do what I can.”
Beni sighed, grabbing onto the bag so that Tommaso could go for another round, if he wanted. The man did, and he spoke while his friend beat the bag.
“Bene hasn’t called.”
“Oh?”
“Not since he left.”
Tommaso’s gaze flicked to him, but he kept working the bag all the while. “And that’s ...”
“Listen, we’re going through a thing, that’s all. Except, you can’t fix the fucking thing when he doesn’t even bother to call me, you know?”
“Or maybe he needs time.”
“We’re not girls. He doesn’t need time away with his feelings.”
“You sure? Because your attitude sounds like you need some Midol and—”
Beni let go of the bag and took a wide step back when Tom threw a particularly hard punch. Expecting the bag to not move, when it did, he fell into it.
“You deserved that,” Beni said.
“And you’re an asshole.”
“Yeah, well ...”
What could he do?
“Besides Bene,” he added, “I’ve also got this shit with the crew on my mind lately. I’m not closer to figuring out who is causing the issues, or stealing, than I was when your father first put me in there to work with them. Nothing is going right for me lately.”
“What about August? You seemed just fine with that.”
Beni frowned. “I don’t want to take her away from her work.”
“I don’t think she would mind.”
“Well, I don’t know that.”
“What it sounds like to me,” Tommaso said, “is that you need to get your mind off the shit that’s bothering you with something—or someone—that does the opposite.”
Someone like August.
He heard what his friend didn’t say. It wasn’t that Beni didn’t agree, but more that he wasn’t even sure what in the hell this was between him and August. Were they just having fun with one another, or was it something else?
Because he leaned toward something else, more than just fun. And that wasn’t at all his usual style. He wasn’t a hit it and quit it type, but he had never had time to fuck around with a chick more than once, either. Yet, he found he wanted to do exactly that with August Rivera, and all it took was meeting her in a club, getting her in his bed, and taking a walk around a goddamn park.
There was just something about her.
He liked it a lot.
But where was her mind?
Like his, or was she just having fun?
Beni didn’t know if he wanted the answer.
Tommaso shrugged, pulling the tape from his hands as he added, “And a little bird—my wife, you know, because she gossips all the fucking time—told me that she and August were meeting up today after her shift was over. And since Camilla is very invested in whatever this thing is between you and August, although I told her to mind her business ...”
Beni chuckled. “Oh, is she? And what does she think is going to happen?”
“Listen, I’m not giving details. I’m just trying to tell you that Camilla would do anything, even give up her dinner and movie with her best friend, if it meant August was going to go out with you.”
Huh.
“And what time are they meeting up?”
Tommaso grinned. “See, that’s what you needed to be asking from the start.”
Fucker.
10.
The Uber dropped August off at Camilla’s home a little earlier than expected. About ten minutes before she was supposed to get home from work, so it wasn’t a big deal. She used the key her friend had given her years ago to get inside, and wait.
Maybe it was the fact that during this trip to Chicago, more so than any of her previous visits, she had been reminded time and time again about the mafia side of her friend’s life. About the dangers they faced, and the risks they took to be who they were ... the only thing they had ever known. August was on the outside of that bubble, just close enough to see inside—so not entirely naive—but also far enough away that she wasn’t touched by it.
Except she couldn’t ignore it this time. Not when it had been placed in front of her face time and time again. It showed her how protected and sheltered her friend’s life actually was ... in a sense that she never got to feel normal.
It made her understand how much trust Camilla and Tommaso must have felt for August, to give her a key to their home. Their haven.
She was still mulling that over, and the fact that she had never realized it before, when a rumbling began outside of the house. A deep growl that had her heading to the front door to peek outside, and see what was causing the noise.
Holy sweet Jesus.
August found the source in the sight of Beni pulling a racer style motorcycle helmet from his head as he stepped off a Ducati SuperBike. The matte black of his leather jacket matched the bike’s paint job. And even the silver detailing of the bike was mirrored in the buttons and clasps of Beni’s leather jacket.
He looked like living, breathing sin. Black jeans molded to his defined thighs—and the denim looked even better on that damn fine ass of his—when he turned a bit to place the helmet to the handlebars of the bike. August liked to think of herself as a strong, smart woman—proud, but not so much that she couldn’t admit to her own faults; firm in her wants and beliefs, but still soft in her heart and soul. And yet that man right there could turn her into a blinking, breathless mess with nothing more than the sight of him shifting from foot to foot and grinning toward the house.
His fingers drifted to the hair that had fallen over his eyes, pushing it back with the rest of his high fade as his gaze drifted over the yard with a flash of familiarity. As though he had looked at the place a hundred times before. It made her realize just how long she and him might have passed each other by throughout the years.
How long had he been friends with Tom?
He had said his mother was from Chicago.
Before August even understood what she was doing, because she was still a bit stuck on the sight of him out there, she pushed the door open enough to say, “It should be illegal to look like you do right now.”
She was shameless with him.
He did that to her, too.
Beni’s laugh carried to her as he quickly crossed the paved driveway and reached for the smooth railing of the steps. “Is that so?”
“Yes.”
“And what if I could sweeten the deal, too?”
August arched a brow as he reached the top step. “How so? That a challenge?”
“You,” he said, crossing the porch in two strides, “tell me.”
She pulled the door open wider as he came to stand on the threshold, so close she could smell his unique scent, and new leather. That jacket. “Sweeten it, Beni.”
He leaned down just enough that their lips were a whisper apart as his husky voice murmured, “Ma chérie ... sei bella, sempre.”
August blinked.
Shocker.
It took her a couple of seconds, and with each passing one, Beni’s grin grew into something far more sinful and sexy.
“Is that ... French and Italian?”
“It is.” He winked, adding quickly, “But my French is far more limited than my Italian. I know enough to carry a very simple conversation. Italian was a ... must for my father, and mother’s side of the family. No excuses—I had to learn. French was a choice, although I just never picked up on it as well.”
“Huh.”
Why was her mouth dry?
Beni’s tongue peeked out to wet the line of his lower lip before he said, “It worked though, didn’t it?”
Her gaze snapped up to his. “What did?”
His laughter washed over her senses in the best way before his form filled the doorway entirely, pressing against her body with one movement, and then he was kissing her. A kiss so hungry, and brutal, and yet now familiar and addicting to her. Every stroke of his tongue against hers took away what little sense she seemed to have left. Supple leather smoothed against her fingertips, and his three-day stubble sharpened her senses as it dragged along her sensitive skin with every sweep of his lips.
Though it felt like the last thing he wanted to do, if the look in his stare was any indication, Beni pulled back a bit to say, “Definitely sweetened that deal.”
August swallowed hard, nodding. “I guess so.”
“Perfetto.”
That reminds me ...
“And what did you say, huh?”
“Before?”
August nodded. “Yeah, what was it?”
Beni cleared his throat, long lashes fanning downward when he lowered his gaze. Was that ... shyness?
Oh, my God.
This man was killing her.
“It was ...” he said low, “My darling, you are beautiful, always.”
Lord.
Of course, that was what he said. Because that just made her heart feel like it was going to beat right out of her chest.
“You are something else,” she told him quietly.
Beni tipped his head down like he might kiss her. “And you are perfect.”
August sucked in a breath. “Are you trying to make me fall—”
A throat clearing behind Beni had the two of them breaking apart, even if it was only a couple of inches. August wished she could be surprised to see Camilla grinning like the cat who found the cream on the top of her steps, but she wasn’t.
“How long were you standing there?” August asked.
“Long enough.”
“You are terrible.”
Camilla shrugged. “Wonderful, I think, is the word you’re looking for. Now, if you’ll let me get inside my house, I can hunker down for the night in my robe with my reruns and wine, and you two can get a start on your date.”
August’s brow furrowed. “What date?”
“Tom said,” Camilla drawled, stepping beyond the two of them when they moved out of her home’s doorway, “that Beni here was coming over to take you out for the night. And while I might want to bitch and moan because you’re my best friend and I want all your time, I should shut up because I might get other things I want. So, that is what I am going to do.”
Beni gaped. “What did you just ramble on about?”
August pressed her lips together, entirely amused, because she understood just fine what her friend had pointedly, albeit still crazily, said without directly saying it. “Seriously, Cam?”
Camilla shrugged. “Just let it happen, that’s all I’m saying.”
Her friend really thought that.
Believed it to be true.
She thought August was going to—if she had not already—fall in love with Beni, which might give her yet another reason to want to be here. Closer to Camilla. A win-win, she imagined, for her friend. And yet all August could do was shake her head.
“Anyway,” Camilla said, closing the door behind her as she entered the house, “I’m totally cool with missing that dinner and movie, Aug, so you’re fine to go with Beni on this date he has planned for you tonight ... you know, according to Tom.”
“You are something else. You are ... trying too hard, Camilla.”
Her friend winked. “But am I, really?”
The door closed with an audible snap.
Beni still just looked entirely fucking confused. It was sort of ... a little bit, though she would never tell him ... cute. “What just happened?”
August pressed her lips together to stop from laughing. “You know what, I guess we’re going on a date.”
• • •
“So yeah, Tom must have called her as soon as I left him at the gym and filled her in on what I had planned,” Beni said.
August shook her head. “Figures. Although, this is nice, too.”
“Just nice?”
She gave him a teasing wink before popping a fluffy bit of blue cotton candy into her grinning mouth. He only laughed, and then dragged her in closer to his side as they continued their stroll through the carnival.
“I still can’t convince you to get on another ride with me, huh?”
August shook her head. “Not after that first one.”
“Come on,” Beni groaned, “that was fucking awesome.”
“Yes, being whisked fifty feet in the air, and then rolling forward mid-air so that we feel like we’re about to fall to our deaths is exactly what I call fun, too!”
He eyed her from the side. “I can hear the sarcasm.”
She beamed. “That was the point.”
“There are other—”
“Listen, I have what is known as self-preservation. It means when something screams this looks like it might kill you, I make smart decisions and stay away.”
“Funny,” Beni murmured, “when something feels dangerous to me, I tend to like it more.”
“That sounds like something you should work on.”
“Thanks for that.”
Their laughter drifted through the line of food concessions. He pulled her closer to his side, an arm wrapping tight around her waist as the lights from the stands and rides lit up the sky. Young teens darted past them after grabbing their bags of popcorn from a concession stand, while the noise from the carnival kept the place awake and alive, despite the sky being inky with night.
“No rides, then,” he said, his words murmuring along her hairline, “so does that mean we can play a game?”
“Think you can win me something?”
“Is that a challenge?”
Her mind drifted back to that challenge in her friend’s doorway, and she spoke before she could think better of it. “Absolutely.”
Beni’s hand found hers before he was tugging her through a crowd, and on the other side, through a line of concession stands filled with games. She was sure most of them were probably rigged to the carnival’s benefit, but she was going to have fun watching Beni try to win something.
“That one,” he said, pointing at a specific game.
August arched a brow at him. “Darts?”
Well, specifically, he needed to hit very small balloons with darts.
“Darts,” he agreed.
They passed a game with pellet guns, and a similar task. And another shooting game, although that one was water, and one needed to get the stream of water into the mouth of a strange looking clown to blow their balloon head up to the max.
“Not a shooting game?” August half-teased. “I thought ... you know—”
“What, that because I’m connected to the mob, I’d want to shoot something?”
Her cheeks pinked.
Beni laughed.
“Well, I wasn’t going to say it like that.”
Beni shrugged as the two of them came to stand at the dart game, the man behind the stand already holding a hand out to take money. A twenty-dollar bill was handed over—enough for five shots.
“Nope,” Beni said, flipping one dart between his fingertips, and surveying the back end of it. “See, the sights on those guns are shit, and the way I was taught to handle a weapon was with respect. They’re not toys, we don’t play with them, and actually, I rarely have one on me unless I know I’m going to need one.”
“Really?”
His stare jumped her way quickly, before he raised his hand back, glanced at the target across the stand, and let the dart fly from his fingertips.
Pop.
August didn’t even look to see which balloon he’d popped. She was too busy still staring at him. And now, his attention was back on her where she clearly liked it to be the very most.
“And who taught you to play darts?”
“My brother’s boyfriend—Alessio.”
“Boy
friend?”
Beni laughed. “They’ve got a chick with them now, too. Ginevra.”
“Wait, what?”
“You know, they’re like an all-in-one thing the three of them.”
“How does that work?”
Beni shrugged, and let the second dart fly. Pop. “You tell me.”
Well ...
“Does it work for them?”
“I guess so.”
“That’s what counts,” August replied.
“And she’s pregnant, too.”
“Are your parents—”
“Crazy happy. Couldn’t be fucking happier, if I’m honest. Mostly because Corrado, that’s my brother, walked around like an idiot for a few years with Alessio pretending like they weren’t a thing ... we all knew what they were doing. Anyway, Ginevra came into the picture, and that shit was done right then and there. It works.”
Huh.
That seemed like a situation where a family might be wary, really. If only because it wasn’t the norm. Yet, his family, including Beni, offered the information like it was totally normal to him. That, she found, was kind of amazing.
“Corrado’s an identical twin, too,” Beni added, letting his third dart fly, “him and Chris.”
Pop.
“So, there’s two sets in your family?”
“Three, if you include my ma, but her twin passed on a long time ago. She was killed ... here. In Chicago, I mean, when they were younger.”
August frowned. “Sorry.”
“A long time ago, that’s all.”
Pop.
Pop.
The stand lit up with lights and a whirring noise wailed from the speakers, a robotic voice congratulating Beni for winning.
“Third level prize,” the guy behind the stand said, waving a hand at the line of large stuffies hanging from the top. “Feel free to pick whichever one you want, little lady.”
Ugh.
Little lady.
Beni grinned her way, making that annoyance drift away instantly. August just shook her head, not surprised in the least at the sight of his cockiness. The man couldn’t help it, and frankly, she liked it too damn much to tell him to stop.
None of the prizes overhead really caught her eye. Instead, one hanging from the right wall did. A dark brown bear wearing a black leather jacket. He wasn’t nearly as big as the other stuffed animals—maybe only a foot long to their three and four feet.
