“GOT A SCREW?”
Liliana’s hands froze on the food she was unpacking from the takeout bag, only having heard screw in all he said. “What?”
Across the island, Joe glanced up from the wine bottle in his hands. “A corkscrew, Liliana.”
Her cheeks reddened as she waved at a drawer behind her. “Somewhere in there.”
“Great.” With the kind of confident grace only a predator could have, Joe slid around the island and slipped in next to Liliana. She tried to focus on unpacking the food he had brought along, and not the way her body felt tucked in beside his. “Don’t drink much?”
“What makes you think that?”
“Most wine lovers know exactly where their corkscrew is.”
True.
“I drink a little to celebrate, and on special occasions, but other than that, no.”
“Not a bad thing,” Joe said.
He produced the corkscrew from the drawer with a triumphant grin, and then made quick work freeing the cork from the wine bottle.
“Glasses are on the top shelf in the far cupboard,” she said.
Joe moved around her for that, too, and she got another whiff of whatever woodsy scent he seemed to prefer. A heady, rich scent that gave off an entirely masculine impression, and soaked into her lungs with every single breath she took.
Should she have let him in after he randomly showed up with some half-ass story, and a decent explanation-slash-apology?
That was debatable.
Truth was, Liliana had never been very good at denying herself things she wanted. It seemed there was some crazy part of her that really wanted something from Joe Rossi. She wasn’t entirely sure what it was she wanted, but it was something.
And it would probably be fun.
Joe slid a glass of red wine down the island for Liliana to take, and kept his own sitting in front of him, untouched. “I didn’t know what to grab for food—so I just got a spread.”
Liliana looked over the burgers, fries, onion rings, and more. It was a small buffet, really, but she had little doubt it would be gone by morning. What she probably couldn’t eat, Joe would likely handle.
“Did you put anything on the burgers?” she asked.
Joe shook his head. “Nope.”
“Good—I have my own sauce.”
His gaze darted to hers, and a genuine smile formed. “Your own sauce, huh?”
Liliana shrugged. “Yep.”
“Made from scratch?”
“How else would I make it, Joe?”
“And is the recipe super, secret, too?”
“Are you mocking me?”
Joe let out a hard laugh, and straightened to his full, towering six-foot-five inches. “No, not at all.”
Liliana side-eyed him. “Are you sure? Because it kind of sounded like you were getting there.”
“I was just thinking …”
“What?”
“My mother would love you, that’s all,” Joe murmured.
Liliana froze all over, and glanced up to find Joe was still staring at her in that intense way of his. He could make her heart skip beats with that look, or get her stomach rumbling as it tied up in knots. That look invoked too many emotions for her to handle—shyness, lust, amusement, and curiosity.
Did he even know he did that to her?
“Why’s that?” Liliana asked.
“I swear my mother has a secret sauce for everything,” Joe said, shaking his head a little. He tipped his wine up for a drink before setting it back down, and adding, “And if you think I am kidding, I’m not. My dad even made her this special locked cupboard where she can keep all those super, secret recipes.”
Joe’s grin turned sly when he said, “We learned Dad put an alarm on the cupboard—because our mother gets a little crazy about the sauces—when my younger brother Cory accidentally put his head through the door.”
“How in the hell did he—”
Joe cleared his throat. “He might have had a little help—you know, when I kicked him. We were rowdy teenagers, that’s all.”
Liliana guffawed. “Are you serious?”
“About the sauce thing, or the brother thing?”
“Joe.”
His teasing expression came back in a blink. “We’re still a little … rowdy. Is what it is when it comes to me and Cory.”
“You must drive your mother nuts.”
“My father is quick to say it’s how we show our affection for one another. I can’t say he’s wrong, but a lot of the time, affection is the last thing on my mind when Cory and I go through one of our rounds together.”
Liliana grinned. “He sounds awesome.”
“Who, my dad?”
She nodded.
Joe shrugged one shoulder. “He certainly loves my mom, even when she’s in one of her moods, and gets a little over the top.”
“And you, too, clearly,” Liliana returned.
“Me, what?”
“You love your mom. I can hear it in your voice.”
Joe smiled. “All good Italian boys should.”
Liliana laughed at that. “Truth.”
Silently, Joe set his wine glass aside, and moved around the island to come close to Liliana again. So close this time, in fact, that he all but crowded her personal space. She didn’t even mind a bit. His finger grazed under her chin, and with a little pressure, she found herself staring up at him.
“Thanks for letting me in,” he said.
Liliana winked. “I mean, you did bring food and wine.”
“Is that the only reason, though?”
Her boldness decided to make itself known again. “Not in the slightest, Joe.”
“Thought so.”
“And thank you, by the way.”
Joe cocked a brow. “For what?”
“Telling me about your family. You seem so … closed off, I guess. Not with me, though.”
“Noticed that, did you?”
“A little,” Liliana teased. “And you know, I can’t think of any other way I would want to celebrate a successful show than just like this.”
“Calling that just successful is kind of … downplaying it, Liliana.”
She stiffened a bit. “Pardon?”
Joe inched closer still, closing any and all distance between them. “That show was much more than just successful. You, in particular, were amazing.”
“You saw my show?”
“I wanted to see you dance, ballerina.”
Liliana wet her lips, and did her very best to ignore the way his words whispered over her skin. She could deal with that, and the throbbing heat between her thighs, in a minute. She was trying to focus on Joe right now.
His hand moved from her chin to her throat, and his fingers curved around the delicate column with a soft touch. He didn’t squeeze, but she bet every drop of blood in her body he could feel the way her treacherous heart was racing from just his touch alone. His fingertips rested at her pulse point, and then his hand skimmed up to cup her jaw and cheek. And when his thumb stroked her cheekbone like it was the delicate, soft petal of a flower?
She shivered.
“And did you like it?” she asked.
“Seeing you dance?”
“Mmhmm.”
“Loved it, Liliana.”
There was something about the idea of him watching her dance from the crowd that she found to be incredibly fucking hot. Especially because it seemed like he had only really been there for her, and that meant all of his attention had to have been on her entirely.
She just had to check, though …
“Did you catch my missed eighth pirouette en pointe after I stepped out of turn too soon on the seventh at the end of the first—”
“Seven and a half, actually, but nobody noticed,” Joe countered. “How could they when you were probably spinning too fast for them to count?”
“Somebody noticed—you.”
“Missing things is dangerous in my business. I tend to take notice of everything.”
His thumb stroked her cheek again.
Liliana could have melted right then and there.
“For the record,” Joe said, “if you kiss me again, I would prefer it if you didn’t run off like the last time.”
She pressed her lips together. “Is that all?”
“Not even close.”
“What else?”
“I didn’t come over here with the intention to do anything else but celebrate your night with you.”
“Does that mean you don’t want to do something else with me, Joe? Because I am up for that, and the food can wait. It’s always better when you nuke it, anyway.”
“Killing me, woman,” he said in a rumble of dark words.
Words that promised.
Sin, likely.
It promised sin.
It had been far longer than Liliana wanted to admit since she had indulged in that kind of sin with a man. There wasn’t even one single ounce of her that wanted to back out right now with Joe.
“What do you want, Joe?”
His answer was a kiss that crashed down on her lax lips with bruising force. A hungry kiss that burned her from the inside out with every stroke of his lips, and every flick of his tongue against hers. His hands came up to grab her face, and drag her closer until she was pressed against him entirely. She could drown in his kiss—happily.
Joe’s lips traveled a hot path over Liliana’s cheek, and then down her throat. When she sucked in a ragged breath as his teeth pressed into her pulse point, she breathed out, “The bedroom is down the hallway—last door on the left.”
“Too far,” he grunted out.
Her laugh came out breathless and high, but was quickly swept away by Joe’s mouth seeking hers again. She lost absolutely all train of thought when he easily lifted her from the floor with nothing more than his hands grabbing the backs of her thighs. Liliana’s hands landed on his shoulders as her legs wrapped tightly around his waist.
There was no hiding the hard ridge of his erection rubbing against her center in the very best way with every step Joe took. Liliana barely blinked, and he dropped her from his hold. Her back hit the couch softly, and her hair created a curtain over her face, hiding Joe from view.
Liliana swept her hair back with one hand, and for a split second, lost her ability to breathe when Joe tossed off his jacket, and then yanked his skin-tight white T-shirt up over his head. She had gotten glimpses of some of the colorful ink littering his wrist, and the hint of one on his chest when the collar of his shirt dipped low. Those peeks had not been nearly enough. Colorful art colored up one entire arm in a sleeve—the mother Mary on his other.
And as quickly as her attention was tuned into the tattoos coloring up his skin, it was just as quickly distracted by him.
His body.
All of his hard lines, and defined ridges. The way the muscles in his arms bulged with every movement, and how he toted a fucking eight-pack leading straight down to a dark dusting of hair below his navel.
The man was fit.
Beyond, really.
Godly felt like an appropriate term.
Broad shoulders, strong hands, muscular chest, and artwork for days.
Yeah.
Liliana was strung.
Spun.
High, even.
“Find something you like?” Joe asked.
Liliana’s gaze darted up to his, and then down to where his hands worked to undo the button on his jeans, and yank down the fly. A quick shift of his hips, and a pull of his hands, and those jeans were falling down.
Commando.
She never would have guessed.
The deep-cut V of his groin was sexy enough to make her wet between her thighs without him even needing to touch her. She was probably already soaked, anyway. But really, it was the thick length of his erection that make her pussy clench when it jutted out from his lowering jeans.
She was stuck silent until he kicked his jeans away—but not before he pulled a foil packet from the pocket, and tossed it on the coffee table—and she was finally able to see all of him.
“More than like it,” Liliana admitted.
“I do aim to please,” Joe returned. “And as long as you can listen, I think you’ll end up very pleased by the time I’m done, Liliana.”
Her gaze darted up to his again. “You’re terribly cocky, aren’t you?”
“I mean …” He gestured at his cock—every beautiful nine, thick inches of it. “Got a reason to be, don’t I?”
“Oh, my God.”
“Yeah, you’ll be saying that, too.”
Liliana didn’t even have time to come up with a quick-witted retort for that one because Joe leaned over the arm of the couch, hovered above her, and dropped a hot kiss to her mouth. Then, he asked, “Can you?”
Her tongue felt numb.
Her lips tingled.
“Can I, what?”
“Listen,” he murmured, a breath away from her lips. “Can you?”
She watched him through her lowered lashes. “Guess we’re going to see.”
“Lift up,” he demanded.
His tone offered no other option, so Liliana did exactly what he said. His hands fisted the waistband of her sweats, and dragged them down over her legs along with the simple, black cotton panties she had on, too. Then, his hands came to the compression wraps around her feet. They hid the bandages, helped with swelling, and whatever other hell her feet were going through for the week.
“Leave those, if you wouldn’t mind,” she said quietly.
Joe glanced up at her. “You sure?”
Her feet were just about the least sexiest thing on her body, and she did not want to have that conversation tonight. “Yeah, I’m sure.”
“Your choice, sweetheart.”
Discarding her pants and panties, he kissed a slow path from where her cropped top stopped above her navel, down to her bare mound. He stopped just above her clit, and blew a slow, steady stream of warm air against her pussy.
“Rules go like this,” Joe said, “you listen, you never hide your cunt from me when I want to see it, and you speak up if something isn’t right. Got it?”
Liliana swallowed hard, and nodded.
Joe cocked a brow, and glanced up at her from between her spread legs. “Speak up, Liliana. I need you to use words, sweetheart. It’s the most important part.”
“I got it,” she whispered.
“Now, this,” he said, his words a thick murmur that heated her skin as his thumb suddenly dragged through the lips of her pussy, “this is beautiful, my girl. And it needs to be loved like it is, too. Sucked, and licked, and petted, and fucked until it’s sedated and pleased.”
Liliana tipped her head back, and couldn’t even try to hide the moan that escaped. “Jesus.”
“And what does it like the most, huh?”
“All of it. All of that sounds—”
“Good enough.”
His words were the only warning she got before his mouth was on her sex. First, his tongue was tunneling into her pussy, and it was his rumbling groan when he first got a taste of her that damn near made her come just like that. It was shocking to Liliana how nothing more than a touch from this man put her on edge just like that. His thumb toyed teasing circles around the hood of her clit, making her thighs shake, as she grinded her pussy into Joe’s mouth to get more of his mouth on her.
“Oh, my God,” she gasped.
One of her hands fisted into his hair, and the other grabbed hard to the cushion behind her. She needed something—anything—to stabilize herself from the onslaught of sensations coursing through her system.
Without a word, he switched his target. His tongue started assaulting her clit in the best way while his thumb slipped into her pussy. Nothing more than just his thumb massaging her G-spot like he had no problem at all finding it, and his tongue flicking a hard, fast beat against her clit.
The orgasm came on swift.
So fast.
Wrecking her.
She felt the loss of him between her thighs, but the orgasm was still overtaking her senses enough that by the time she could see properly again, Joe had wrapped his cock in latex, and was reaching for her. His hands locked around her wrists, and he yanked her up from the couch.
“Trust me?” he asked.
She nodded when he bent her over the arm of the couch, and put her ass high. A hand snapped against her backside, leaving a beautiful sting behind that shot straight to her pussy. She knew her mistake instantly.
Listen.
And speak.
“Yes,” Liliana said, glancing over her shoulder at him, “I trust you.”
“Good—it’s always better when you take something away.”
“What?”
“A sense, say. Take one away, and everything focuses in to make up for what you lost. There’s only so much I can remove—how about your sight?”
Liliana blinked.
Her throat tightened.
Joe waited her out, and his hand smoothed gentle, repeated circles with his palm against her ass. He was asking for a lot—asking to remove some form of control from her in a situation that could end badly, and she would have no say at all.
Still, she did trust him.
Some part of her did, anyway.
“Sight it is,” Liliana whispered.
Joe grinned. “There she is.”
“Who is this she, Joe?”
“Someone I’m still trying to learn, Liliana. Don’t panic when you can’t see, okay?”
“I’ll try.”
And that was honest, too.
He used that shirt of his he’d discarded earlier as a makeshift blindfold. He rolled it into a rope of sorts, and lowered it down over her eyes. She felt the way he twisted it around his fist at the back of her head, and then tugged hard. It pulled her head back, and made her suck in a sharp breath.
His hand skimmed her spine. “Breathe.”
“I’m good.”
And she was.
Joe had been right, too. She couldn’t see a damn thing, but the rest of her senses kicked into overdrive to make up for it. She swore the scent of him was even more heady with blackness saturating her vision. His fingertips tracing her spine, and his lips ghosting over the swell of her ass was intoxicating. She heard the shudder of his exhale, and the shift of his body before she even felt him press into her from behind.
One simple, smooth flex of his hips.
Hard and oh, so deep.
He filled her full, and stretched her open all at once. He slid through her wet, clenching sex easily, and yet it still took her a few breaths to adjust to his size.
Liliana all but fell forward, dropping her lower half to the couch with a broken cry when Joe pulled out just as fast as he had first taken her, and then slammed right back in again. His hand came up to press against her back, and keep her firmly down on the couch.
All she could do was fist the couch, and let him fuck her like that, but Christ …
She loved it.
His thrusts came on unrestrained, and wild. A little brutal—a deep ache settled in her pussy with every hard flex of his hips. He grabbed her waist, and pulled her body into every thrust, only adding to the sensations taking over her body.
“Please, please, please.”
Liliana heard her voice.
Heard her own words.
Heard her cries.
And yet, it didn’t sound like her at all.
“Fucking give it to me,” she heard Joe say. “Give me that come, sweet girl.”
Yep.
He was going to kill her.
But in the best of ways.
Liliana smiled at the warm kisses teasing the back of her neck as sunlight painted across her skin, waking her up further. “Good morning.”
“Morning,” Joe murmured from behind her. “I ordered breakfast in from the place down the road. It’ll be here in a few, if you want to get up.”
She hummed indecisively. “I don’t know.”
“What, you want to cook?”
Her laughter came out breathless and high until Joe suddenly flipped her over, and was hovering above her naked body on the bed.
“Laughing in bed with me is probably not a good idea,” he said with an arched brow. “I take it as a challenge.”
“Is that so?” she dared to ask.
“Very much so, yeah.”
“Maybe that’s why I didn’t know if I wanted to get out of bed to eat or not, Joe.”
He cocked his head to the side, considering her words. “Fair enough. Are you getting up, or what?”
“How long until the food gets here?”
“About twenty, now.”
Liliana nodded. “Lots of time.”
“For what?”
“Stretches,” she told him. “Preps me for the day, and gets me loosened up before I go into the studio. It’s like a fucking warm up for their warm up.”
Joe scowled.
“What is that for?” she asked, pressing her thumb into the furrow between his brows.
“You don’t even get a break after a show, huh?”
Liliana shrugged. “That show is one of three this week for that ballet. All sold out, too.”
“Huh.”
“I like it, though.”
“Stretches, then?” he asked.
Liliana nodded, and let him pull her out of the bed. “Stretches.”
Shame, though, as it seemed he had gotten up long enough to pull on his pants, and shirt. She was still naked, and felt that was incredibly unfair.
Although, the way Joe watched her as she passed him by was enough to make her grin at him. “Now who’s found something they like?”
His laughter followed her out of the bedroom as she snagged a pair of leggings, and a sports bra on the chair next to the door. After freshening up and dressing in the bathroom, Liliana moved to the living room to the barre she had gotten installed in the studio apartment along the floor to ceiling windows overlooking the street down below. She could have put on her pointe shoes, which she sometimes did, but she just needed to wake up her muscles. Not get en pointe for the whole time.
Peering out the window, Liliana lost time as she did a quick fifteen minute warmup that included basic stretches, and some moves that were meant to test her flexibility after a hard day like yesterday. One included having her right leg resting along the barre, and then letting her back and left arm fall as far backwards as it could go before she quickly came back up. She could just about fold her body entirely in half doing that move.
“Jesus fucking Christ,” she heard.
Liliana dropped her leg, and found Joe staring at her from the kitchen island. The ease of his body leaning against the counter belied the intensity in his gaze as he watched her. “What?”
“You just bent in half. Backwards.”
“And?”
Joe swallowed thickly as he pulled out a phone that buzzed in his hand from his pocket. “You know what—nothing, babe. Just know I’m going to remember that you are limber enough to bend in half.”
She only laughed at him, but quickly went back to her exercises. Although, a part of her was listening to his conversation on the phone, too.
“Rossi here,” she heard him say.
Liliana switched to another move that allowed her to face him, but she only watched Joe from the corner of her eye as she began the set of stretches. With nothing more than a reply to his name, she watched Joe’s entirely demeanor change.
Like when made men were around.
Like when he was at the dinner.
Cold.
Black.
Hard.
Nothingness.
Liliana blinked, and stopped her stretches when Joe said, “No, I need you to look into that for me—yeah, business reasons. Find out who the fuck it is. Later.”
He ended the conversation.
She didn’t move a muscle.
“Joe?”
“Hmm?”
Instantly, the coldness was gone. He was Joe again, looking at her in that beautiful way of his.
“Why are you still in New York?” she asked.
One of many questions she had.
Joe shrugged his shoulders. “Business.”
“That’s all you want to say?”
“That’s all I can say.”
“You kind of give me whiplash, Joe.”
He, too, stayed still as stone. “Why’s that?”
“Sometimes, it’s like you’re someone else entirely. You go back and forth between this person I get to see, and someone else you let the people around you see. And I’m not sure how I feel about the other Joe when he comes out to play.”
“I beg your pardon?”
“He’s cold—blank, I guess. It almost makes me wonder if you feel anything when you look like that, you know?”
“And what else?” he asked.
Liliana glanced down at the floor. “I just … what do you really do in the business, Joe?”
“I’m the shadow people need when something needs to go, and nobody needs to know about it.”
That … told her nothing. Or, maybe she just didn’t want to think too hard about what that meant. She was not dumb—she knew the men in her life weren’t entirely good people. They were criminals, and yet, she still loved those men. They were good to her. And that’s what counted the most.
“So, what does that make you, then? A good, or a bad man?”
And what was she supposed to do with it?
Joe’s expression gave nothing away when he said, “The only man I know how to be, Liliana.”
“I fucked him.”
Cella’s head popped up from staring down at her phone, her eyes became impossibly wide, and she choked on the latte she had been sipping on just seconds before. So, maybe that hadn’t been the right time to blurt that information out to her sister.
It took another few seconds, a long drink of the latte, and only then was Cella seemingly ready to digest what Liliana had said.
“Who, Joe?” her sister asked.
Liliana shrugged. “Who the hell else would I be messing with right now?”
“Well, I don’t know. You’re busy, so I only get bits and pieces lately.”
“You know I haven’t been in a relationship—sexual or otherwise—since fuck-head, Cella.”
“Yeah, but still.”
Liliana rolled her eyes. “Yes, Joe.”
Cella wet her lips, and leaned back in the café chair. “And when did that happen?”
“Three days ago. The night of my show.”
“Opening night—‘cause I came to the second one, and he wasn’t there.”
“Opening night, yeah.”
Cella nodded, and then grinned slyly. “How was it?”
Jesus.
Liliana couldn’t help herself, though. She grinned, too. “Fantastic.”
“Then, what’s the problem?”
“Not sure.”
Cella raised a brow. “That’s not a good answer. You get a great lay, and you should be ecstatic about it. Plus, I mean … look at the guy, Liliana.”
“I did—too much, probably.”
Her sister laughed.
Liliana shrugged.
What could she say?
“At least you can say his skills in bed match his looks,” Cella offered. “Just because a guy looks decent means nothing. It’s always the good-looking ones who can’t seem to find a fucking clit.”
Just the level of her sister’s voice drew the attention of people sitting nearby. Liliana would have shrunk into the chair if she could. Instead, she just settled on giving her sister a look she hoped shut her up.
Not Cella.
Never.
“What?” her sister asked.
“You’re terrible.”
“I know.”
Cella seemed all too happy about that.
“I haven’t seen him since, though,” Liliana added.
“Yikes.”
“I mean, he texts me, or whatever.”
“That’s something,” Cella pointed out.
“I think maybe he’s trying to let me figure some shit out.”
Cella’s brow dipped. “Figure what out?”
“Him, I guess.”
“I need more to go on.”
“Just … him,” Liliana said lamely. “Sometimes, I don’t think he is who he says he is. I know he’s not entirely on the right side of life, just considering his last name and where he comes from.”
Cella glanced upward. “Uh, neither are we, technically. Or our father … uncles, grandfather, cousins, and—”
“I get it, Cella.”
“Listen, we’re not new to men like him, Liliana. We’ve grown up around them. This shouldn’t be … a thing for you. Why is it a thing?”
“Because he’s not telling me, maybe? I mean, maybe if he told me, then I wouldn’t feel like there are two different men I’m trying to figure out right now.”
“Maybe you’re not in deep enough for him to need to tell you shit. Ever consider that? You’re stuck in your head and feelings with the idea he owes you something that we both know men in this life keep carefully guarded, Liliana. And right now, at this stage, he doesn’t owe you anything about that part of his business. Think about it.”
Liliana blinked at that statement.
“You never even considered that, did you?” her sister pressed.
“No, I suppose not.”
Cella nodded. “Yeah, I figured.”
Huh.
“Funny,” Liliana mumbled.
“What is?”
“Aren’t you the one who always said you wouldn’t marry into the mob? How the fuck did you get this in-depth understanding of men like Joe Rossi, huh?”
Cella meh’d under her breath. “Just because I don’t want to love a made man doesn’t mean I don’t know this life, Liliana, and the men inside it. I know. Inside, you do, too.”