“I don’t know. But I’ll take your word for it. He’s legit. I’ve always heard that about him. Ruthless as all get-out, but legit.”
“Which category would you put yourself in, Mr. Monk Paletti? My uncles style of businessman, or my daddy’s style of businessman?”
Another reason they called him Monk: he never lied. “Your uncles,” he said, and stared at her to see her reaction.
But Ashley found his response kind of sexy. She wasn’t put off at all. “Well alright then,” she said with a smile, and they both laughed.
And then their food orders came and they ate in relative quiet. But just before they finished, a group of guys and ladies came into the restaurant talking loud, took a big table in the center, and one of the guys noticed Ashley. “Ash!” he called out.
Ashley was about to take another forkful of food when she heard her name. She turned around. Monk, who was facing the table, looked too. The guy motioned for Ashley to come over.
“Some friends of yours?” Monk asked.
“Yup,” Ashley said, removing the napkin from her lap and sitting it on the table. “I’ll be back.”
She got up and made her way to the table, hugging the boy who had summoned her and then sitting at the table talking with him and a couple of the girls.
Monk sat there, finishing his meal alone, and was utterly stunned that she didn’t speak to them and then come right back to his table. And when it continued for several more minutes after that, he was floored. Are you kidding me, he said to himself. Who the fuck do she think I am?
He reached into his pocket, pulled out his money clip, and tossed a couple hundred on the table, more than enough, he knew, to cover their meals. Then he put on his hat, tossed his napkin on the table, too, and got up. He walked over to the table where Ashley sat with her friends and touched her arm. She looked up at him. “Let’s go,” he said without bothering to introduce himself, or to be introduced. He looked serious as serious could look.
But Ashley found his interruption unnecessary. “In a minute,” she said to him, looking him dead in his eyes. And then she turned away from him and looked at one of the girls. “What did Timmy say when you told him?” she asked, apparently in reference to the conversation they had been having before Monk’s interruption.
Monk couldn’t believe it. Was this what they were doing? Was this how she thought she was going to treat him? His anger flared. She could see it in his eyes.
He was going to give her a minute alright. He opened his suit coat, placed his hands in the pockets of his pants, and instead of slapping the shit out of her, he began heading for the exit. That was what his stupid ass got, he thought, for bothering with some gotdamn kid! He walked out of that restaurant.
Ashley immediately felt awful. Why did she do that to him when he’d been nothing but kind to her? It was as if she was sabotaging her own happiness! Because even she realized the truth. That gangster, that mobster with the illegit businesses and the funny Jersey accent, made her feel happy. Really, genuinely happy. But she treated him like her lap dog, and in front of people too! What was wrong with her?
“Who was that?” one of her friends asked her.
“And why were you with that?” asked another one.
“He’s cute,” said yet another one.
“He’s mean,” the first one said.
“Don’t worry, Ash,” said the guy who had called her over to their table to begin with. “Forget his sorry ass. We’ll make sure you get home safely.”
And the others at the table agreed.
But Ashley, so disgusted with herself, didn’t even hear them. She was too busy looking out of the window. She watched as his driver opened the back passenger door of his SUV, and he got in.
But the SUV didn’t leave. Which shocked her. She expected him to get in and order his driver to take off. She expected him to speed off to demonstrate how angry he was with her.
But he didn’t leave. That SUV just sat there.
“Ashley, did you hear us?” the guy, noticing her distraction, asked her. “Did you hear what we said?”
But they weren’t even registering in Ashley’s brain. Because the man in that SUV was taking up all the oxygen. Because that SUV was still waiting.
“Ash?” another table mate said to her. “Earth calling Ash!”
Ashley stood up. “Talk to you guys later,” she said as if it was an afterthought, as she made her way toward the exit.
She walked outside into the chilly night air and slowly walked up to the dark, tinted back passenger window of the SUV. She knocked on it.
Monk pressed the window down. He didn’t look at her. He was looking ahead. And his anger was still palpable to Ashley. “Get in,” he said to her, and then pressed the window back up.
Ashley felt her heart hammering as she walked around the back of the SUV. The driver had gotten out and opened the back passenger door for her, and she got on the seat beside Monk. The driver closed the door and got back behind the wheel. The tension was as thick as a T-bone.
She looked over at Monk. He was just sitting there, staring forward, his hat and suit coat making him look like he was going to burst at the seams with obscenities. And she knew she would have deserved every nasty word he hurled at her. But he didn’t even yell at her.
She was about to apologize. She was about to tell him that she was out of line, that she didn’t know what got into her, but he didn’t give her a chance.
“We need to get one thing straight,” he said to her.
Ashley stared at him. “What’s that?”
Monk looked her dead in her eyes with a kind of hardness she had never seen before in his eyes. “Don’t take my kindness for weakness,” he said to her. “I’m not your bitch.”
Ashley was shocked to hear him say that. “Why would you say something like that? I know you aren’t like that! Why would you say that?”
But Monk continued as if he didn’t care what she was saying. He had to make himself clear. “I know you like these lovesick guys that you can bend to your will,” he said to her. “That ain’t me,” he made even clearer. “Get that through your skull right now or I’ll fuck you up, Ashley. I know you like fun. I know you like to play. And that’s fine. Do you. But don’t play with me.”
He said it with such intensity that Ashley felt her entire body flushed with what should have been fear, but was more like terror. But only the terror wasn’t that she was afraid he’d harm her. For some reason, she didn’t believe he’d ever hurt her. The terror was in knowing that she had hurt him, something she would have thought was not even possible. But she knew what she heard. Most might have heard anger in his words. She heard pain.
“Do we understand each other?” Monk asked her.
She was nodding. “Yes,” she said. “And I apologize. I was out of line. It won’t happen again.”
Monk stared at her, and nodded. And then he pointed forward. His driver, to Ashley’s surprise, saw that he had pointed and began driving away. Taking her home.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
The drive home wasn’t a quiet one because he was handling business over the phone. And she could tell which call was business-related, and which call was mob-related by the questions he asked, or the way he carefully phrased his responses. Her uncles spoke that language too.
But Ashley had so many questions to ask him that had nothing to do with business or any other of his activities. It had to do with why. Why did he come back to Jericho? Why did he fight for her honor? Why did he take her to dinner? And when she showed her ass, why didn’t he leave her?
When he finished his last call, she asked him. “Why?” she said.
Monk looked at her. “Why what?”
“Why didn’t you leave me? Any other guy I treated that way would have left me to get home however way I could. Why didn’t you?”
“Let me see,” said Monk. “Crazy. Dumb. Moronic. Fuck if I know,” he added, and both of them laughed.
But in that moment A
shley felt something shift. It was as if she wasn’t seeing some old-looking gangster any more, but a warm, kind, and very super-sexy man. And, once again, just being around him made her feel happy. And she couldn’t help it. She slid over beside him, to where their arms were touching, and took his hand. She intertwined her small hand into his big one.
Monk smiled when she touched his arm and took his hand, but inwardly he was damned uncomfortable. He didn’t know what to make of her sudden affection for him. Just because he didn’t leave her? Had to be more to it than that!
He looked at her. He actually loved her nearness. “What did I do to deserve your hand?” he asked her. “Just because I didn’t leave you like some asshole to fend for yourself?”
She laughed. Then her laughter died out. “That’s part of it,” she admitted.
“What’s the other part?” he asked her.
Ashley didn’t know if it was wise to say it. All the other times she showed her true feelings toward guys, they would use it against her, like a power trip. But she’d already concluded that Monk was different than any guy she’d ever known. So she just said it. “You treat me like a girl ought to be treated,” she said. “That’s the other part.”
Monk’s heart swelled with emotion. He had done so little in his eyes, but it was major in hers. And he appreciated her appreciation. He removed his hand from her grasp and placed his entire arm around her. Ashley smiled and snuggled against him, and placed her head on his shoulder.
And the drive to her house was not only quiet, but serene. So much so that Ashley fell asleep.
Monk thought it was the cutest thing. And he found himself staring at her as she slept. He couldn’t take his eyes off of her the entire ride home.
When they arrived at Big Daddy’s house, and Jaws was about to get out of the SUV to open the backdoor for her, Monk looked at him. “Not yet,” he said softly, and Jaws remained where he sat.
And Monk allowed Ashley to continue sleeping on his shoulder. He still had his arm around her waist, and he loved how she smelled and how she felt against him. He never had lots of women, but the few he’d had in his lifetime were very discreet affairs. But they were essentially bedwarmers and they knew it. But just sitting in the back of that dark SUV with Ashley, made him feel as if he had no clue what a warm bed felt like. It wasn’t warm because a woman was in it. He was realizing that it was warm because of which woman was in it. And that kind of warmth, he’d never had before.
Until now.
It would be over an hour later, of them just sitting there while Ashley slept, before she woke up. Jaws Macardi, his longtime driver and bodyguard, a man who deeply cared for Monk, was astonished. He’d never seen the boss that smitten with anybody ever before. Or smitten at all, if the truth be told. He stared at Ashley. What was it about that girl, he wondered?
But he wasn’t wondering it as much as Monk himself was. The idea that he would rather sit in an SUV with Ashley than in a warm bed with any other woman anywhere, astounded him too. He couldn’t explain it if his life depended on it. But it was a fact.
“Oh, we’re here,” Ashley said as she stretched and yawned and looked at her surroundings. “Did I fall asleep?”
“You did indeed,” Monk said.
Ashley smiled that endearing smile he loved. “Sorry.”
But then, just as Jaws began to get out to open the back driver side door, where Ashley was originally sitting, Ashley moved on top of Monk’s lap and opened the passenger side door, where Monk was sitting, instead.
Her plan was to just use him as a springboard to get out of the SUV, but when she sat on his lap and realized he had an erection, she didn’t immediately jump ship. She sat there too for a few seconds longer than it took for her to get out, giving not only Monk, but herself a thrill, and then she slowly, twisting as she did, got out of the SUV.
She turned back toward him. And suddenly she was amazed that she didn’t see his sex appeal the first time she saw him. But now? She saw it in spades. Monk was damn sexy! “Thanks for the ride,” she said. “And the dinner. And the nap,” she added, and they both smiled.
“Let me walk you to your door,” Monk said, about to get out, but Ashley placed her hand on his chest.
“It’s okay,” she said. “Nobody’s going to bother me from here to my front door.”
Monk smiled too. But got out anyway, buttoned his suit coat to help conceal his erection, and walked her to her front door.
“Well,” she said at the door, and extended her hand. “Thanks again.”
Monk wasn’t about to shake her hand. That was over. He moved closer to her, and pulled her into his arms.
Ashley immediately closed her eyes tight when he embraced her. It was as if she was starved for an embrace.
Monk, too, felt the fire. So much so that he knew he was doing himself no good remaining in her clutches. He released her while he still had a chance to chalk it up to just a goodnight hug. “Goodbye, Ash,” he said to her.
“Not goodbye. Goodnight,” she said to him, smiled at him, and then she disappeared into Big Daddy’s home.
Monk hesitated. He could still feel the warmth of her, and the sudden loss of that warmth. But it felt like they were making a start. He was going to count his blessings and not push the envelope.
But just as he turned to leave, the front door opened again, Ashley hurried across the front porch, and she threw her arms around him again.
Monk smiled happily. It was a damn good feeling knowing that he wasn’t the only one smitten. Then she smiled at him, gave him a peck on the lips, and made her way back inside her house.
This time there was no delay in Monk’s getaway. Because he was happy. He could honestly say that he was a happy man at that moment. He didn’t know where it was going to go, but at least they were going somewhere.
He walked down those steps with spring in his step. At first, he didn’t understand why he had come back to Jericho on such an impulsive move, but now he did. She was something special. She was something different and fresh. That was why he came back. Ashley was something else!
And inside that house, Ashley was still leaning against the front door basking in all things Monk. He was really a nice guy, she thought. And sexy as hell. She wanted more. She wanted to see where this could lead. For the first time in a long time, she felt as if she wasn’t the only one riding the rails. She felt as if she just might have met an honest-to-goodness partner for a change. She was smiling as she made her way to her room downstairs.
But as that SUV was driving off, Big Daddy was upstairs, looking out of his window, and he wasn’t smiling one bit.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
“Miss America has arrived,” Donald said as Ashley walked into their convenience store in sunglasses and hot pants.
“Don’t start,” she said to her brother as she removed her glasses and made her way behind the counter where he stood.
“Why are you so late?” he asked her. “You were supposed to relieve me an hour ago. Ma told me I can’t keep being late to work or she’ll fire me. And you know she’s not kidding either.”
“I couldn’t help it. I overslept.”
“What else is new?” Donald asked. Then he looked at her. “So?” he asked.
“So what?”
“So how did it go?”
“How did what go?”
“Flint’s party.”
Ashley exhaled. “Oh.”
“Not so well?”
“He tried some stupid stuff on me, but I wasn’t having it.”
Donald hesitated. “I heard Monk Paletti wasn’t either,” he said.
Ashley looked at him. How would he know about Monk? “Who told you that?”
“Bess told me. She was at the party. She said Monk kicked Flint’s ass.”
“How would Bess know who Monk was?”
“She didn’t know his name, but she described him. Besides, he came by here looking for you last night.”
“Really?”
; “And I told him where he could find you.”
“I’m glad you did. Flint had the nerve to slap me, Donny. That’s why Monk beat him up.”
“I told you Flint was bad news.”
“You told me Monk was badder news.”
“He is! You just wait and see.”
A Fed-Ex truck drove up and a delivery man got out.
“What did you order?” Donald asked as the man entered the store.
“Not one thing,” said Ashley. “What did you order?”
The delivery man looked at the name on the letter-sized envelope. “Ashley Sinatra?” he called out.
“That’s me,” Ashley said, baffled.
“Requires a signature,” the delivery man said, Ashley signed, and then he handed the envelope to her. “Have a nice day,” he said, and left.
“What is it?” Donald asked.
But Ashley was too busy opening it to answer him. And when she saw what was inside, and pulled it out, she was amazed.
So was Donald. “That’s a check,” he said. “Did you win Publisher’s Clearinghouse, Ash?”
But when Ashley read the amount on that check, and where that check had come from, she could hardly believe it. “Oh my gosh,” she said.
“What is it?” Donald asked. “How much is it?”
Ashley looked at Donald. “Twenty thousand dollars.”
Donald was shocked too. “That’s the exact amount we asked Dad for. But he turned us down. Who would give you twenty thousand dollars?”
“The badder news guy,” she said, still too shocked to smile.
Donald was so shocked, he didn’t know what to say. Monk Paletti gave Ashley that kind of money? “What’s the catch?” he asked her.
And that question was what brought Ashley back down to earth. Because surely there had to be a catch!
She pulled out her cell phone, and then realized she didn’t even have his phone number! “What’s his number?” she asked Donald. She was suddenly anxious to make sure he hadn’t taken her for some whore or something. “Do you know?”
Monk Paletti: Taming Ashley Sinatra Page 8
