“Well, this is going well,” Hal muttered to himself and watched from a safe distance as Valentina ranted into her cell phone.

The woman was fury in motion, pacing and twirling on her heels while wildly gesticulating like an amped-up marionette.

Her tone went from pleading to bargaining to outrage then cycled back again until, with a loud expletive, she threw the phone down onto the manicured lawn. And she wasn’t done yet, because for the next few minutes Valentina continued to pace, scowl, and mutter to herself in a hailstorm of colorful, bilingual curse words. As a man who prided himself on logical, singular emotion, Hal was fascinated. The woman’s ability to access such a wide range of passionate responses in such a brief time was mind-boggling to him. Valentina’s facial expressions changed as quickly as her language did.

She had to run out of steam soon.

Didn’t she?

Hal leaned back against the Cadillac and pulled out another cigarette. Then he thought about how Prosper had practically blackmailed him into taking this job.

Cagey sonofabitch.

It was true that when Hal joined the club he did so with a special dispensation not to have to go through the MC type of hazing bullshit. But that was never gonna happen, regardless. Hal just wasn’t down for being the club bitch to prove his loyalty and tolerance. So, performing the prospect duties as part of his entrance into the HSMC was a non-negotiable—no fucking way—deal-breaker.

Since Hal’s skill set was uniquely qualified and widely recognized as bringing particular value to the club, in an unprecedented move, Prosper made the executive decision to put a motion out on the table. The motion was carried unanimously to make an exception to the by-laws, and Hal was sworn in. The significance of the gesture was not lost on Hal nor was it unappreciated. It was a decision that Hal wanted to make sure the club did not regret. He liked the way Prosper ran things, and besides, with Jules as his brother- in-law, they were family.

It was all good.

Until now.

Until Prosper had pulled rank and dropped the Driving Miss Daisy detail into his lap. Bodyguard—babysitter—same damn thing as far as Hal was concerned.  But he couldn’t see a way out of it, and what’s more, after the little “eye fucking” conversation he had had with the boss, he knew that Prosper wouldn’t have agreed to have Hal be the one to play house with Valentina if there wasn’t the possibility of a serious threat.

He had to admit that there were worse places to land a gig.

And worse bodies to have to guard.

Hal felt a tightening in his crotch when he thought of how incredibly sexy Valentina had looked stepping into the bathtub. She had one of those smoking hot hourglass bodies that drove a man crazy. Her breasts were full, her waist was tiny, and her hips were smooth and curvy. Her long legs were tanned and toned, and when she had spread and separated them to step into the tub, Hal had gotten a glimpse of heaven. His dick kicked into overdrive when he thought about Valentina lathering up her breasts and running a wash cloth over those large, rosy nipples. He wasn’t proud of the fact that he had stood in the shadows watching her bathe or that he had worked himself more than a few times since then thinking about it. He knew the whole voyeur thing was high on the creep factor, even for him. But he didn’t plan on making a habit out of it, and he figured the ends justified the means—he had gotten Gianni the proof he needed to keep his daughter safe.

Watching Valentina that night had given Hal a come to Jesus moment. It had been so long since he had had a quality woman, he had forgotten they existed. He was filled with an unfamiliar surge of self-disgust when he thought about the pussy pool he had been dipping in. No wonder he needed to put a gun to their heads to get himself off.

If you looked hard enough, you could justify just about anything, his conscious poked at him.

Where the fuck have you been? Hal’s inner soldier poked back.

“Hal? May I have a word with you?” Valentina was suddenly standing before him.

He snaked a long look down the length of her body, lingering at her heaving breasts before sweeping back to her face. When his gaze hit her mouth, the muscles in his throat worked overtime as he swallowed. Hal forced himself to meet Valentina eyes, and when he did, he saw that they were bright with angry tears.

“What’s on your mind?”

“Look,” Valentina fought to make her voice steady, “I’m sorry, but there’s been a mistake made. If you’ll just follow me into the house, I’ll write you out a check for whatever my father owes you, and we can both be on our way.”

“A mistake?” He arched an eyebrow.

“A huge one.” Valentina assured him.

Hal regarded her with a long sardonic look that told her he wasn’t buying it.

“There’s been no mistake made here, Valentina. You know it and I know it. So, whether you like it or I like it, I won’t be going away anytime soon.”

Valentina worked her fingers at her temple as she felt the dull throb of a violent headache coming on. Why didn’t anyone understand? It wasn’t her freedom that was at stake, it was her sanity. She needed this. She needed some normalcy in her life to help her forget.  She needed her independence to feel whole again, and she was not going to give up so easily.

Whether you like it or I like it, Hal had said to her which meant that maybe he wasn’t exactly thrilled with the idea either.  Valentina decided to give it another shot.

“Look, just hear me out.  My father always overreacts to stuff like this. I understand his concern for me, and I respect the need for security. Living the lifestyle that we do, I know sometimes it’s necessary. But I also know that at other times, it’s a bit overkill.  I understand that right now things are tense between the families, but my father is a man of persuasion and influence. If there is going to be a meeting of the heads of the families —especially if it takes place in Sicily where the Bonzini family has its strongest ties— this will be resolved soon.” Her tone was reasonable.

“Yeah, but in the meantime—”

“In the meantime, I know you are currently under my father’s employ and you feel a commitment to honor that. But maybe we can work something out. Perhaps we can work out a deal like the one I had with Pauli.”

“Like the one you had with Pauli?” Hal’s face was expressionless. “Tell me more.”

“Pauli was my last driver. He and I worked out a mutually beneficial arrangement that satisfied both of our needs. I can do the same for you.” Valentine explained eagerly.

Hal raised a brow and rubbed his chin.
“So, you were willing to do what you had to do to make the last guy happy so that he could cut out on the arrangement he made with your father?”

Even though Hal was basically echoing her words, there was something in the way he made it sound that gave Valentina pause, but then again, as far as she was concerned, everything about this situation was wrong.

“That’s right.” She nodded.

“And you’re offering me that same deal? His eyes were hard, but his tone was conversational, friendly even.

“I’m offering you the same deal as I offered Pauli, yes. I’m guessing you might want to negotiate something a little different than he did. But I’m game for anything,” Valentina told him. Then after a brief hesitation she said, “Of course, my father can’t ever find out about this.”

“Discretion is my middle name, darlin’. But …”

“But what?” Valentina’s heart rose with hope. She was right, he didn’t want this arrangement any more than she did.

“I guess I’d like to hear exactly what you did to make Pauli happy.”

“Well, Pauli’s really into horses and—dogs.”

Hal choked on his own spit and started coughing and sputtering.

“Are you okay?” Valentina looked at him in alarm.

When he was finally able to catch his breath, Hal managed to choke out. “Did I just hear you say that the guy that you’re playing let’s make a deal with is into …what the fuck?”

“More horses than dogs, I think,” Valentina told him. “I didn’t ask him too much about it really. I figured the less I knew the better. I’d just drop Pauli off at the Crossroads so he could do his thing. You know that big brick building where Junction 63 meets the Highway 12?”

Hal scowled while he frantically tried to remember what the hell was on the corner of 63 and 12. Then he let out a long breath of relief. “The Off-Track Betting Place? You dropped him off at O.T.B.? That’s all you did for him?

Valentina shrugged her shoulders. “Well sometimes Uncle Pauli went to the harness races or to watch the greyhounds race but yeah, that kept him happy. So, what about you?”

“Me?”

“Yeah, what can I do for you?”

“Baby, you don’t want to know,” Hal muttered.

“Try me.” She cocked her head.

Hal’s ice-blue eyes deepened to cobalt as he made a slow and blatantly sexual assessment of her body. Valentina stood rooted to the spot; she felt her nerve endings gather in revolt as her nipples tingled and swelled. She crossed her arms over her chest to hide her body’s traitorous and involuntary response to him.  His gaze slowly lifted to her mouth then to her eyes.

“Try you? I’d like that,” he said with a predatory smile. “I’d like that a lot—to try you. But darlin’, the things that you would have to do to make me happy have nothing to do with you sending me away. As a matter of fact, they would have everything to do with keeping me real close. And I would do things to you that would knock that wide-eyed look of yours right into the next galaxy.”

Valentina hesitated only a second before her face flamed with sudden and immediate understanding.

“But, shit yeah, I’m definitely willing to negotiate a deal,” He leaned in and whispered low into her ear.

This was not going at all how she had planned. Hal might be a guy worthy of making her loins roar like a hungry lion, but he was also being a major dick about the whole let’s make a deal thing.  And Valentina had the very distinct feeling that Hal was playing with her.

Valentina moved out of his reach, narrowed her eyes at him, and stated imperiously, “Non potevi gestire nemmeno se sono venuto con istruzioni.”

Then she turned on her heels and huffed away

“Hey, I thought Italian was supposed to be the language of love?” He called out to her. Then his eyes filled with appreciation as he watched the delicious curve of her hips swing lustily with each angry stomp.

“Non potevi gestire nemmeno se sono venuto con istruzioni.” Hal punched the words into the translation app on his phone. It took him a while to get the spelling right, but when he did, Hal took a double take at the words and then  burst out laughing.

“You couldn’t handle me even if I came with instructions.”

Game on.