Effortless: A Legacy Novel
Tommaso Rossi + Camilla Donati
Releasing January 2017
*This is an unedited snippet of Effortless: A Legacy Novel, a standalone contemporary erotic romance featuring Tom Rossi and Cam Donati. There may be typos, grammatical errors, or otherwise.*
“At least wait until I’m not looking to eye-fuck my sister,” Cross said under his breath. “That’s the respectful thing to do, Tommaso.”
Tom heard Cross’s warning loud and clear, but it still took him a couple of extra seconds to tear his gaze away from the platinum and purple-headed blonde across the room. He knew Cross had a younger sister—nineteen or twenty, somewhere around there—Camilla. Although, he had never met the girl.
No, not a girl.
Definitely a young woman.
Very much woman.
All woman.
Tom’s gaze darted back to the woman in question as Cross stopped to chat with somebody. He figured his friend’s attention was distracted enough that he wouldn’t notice or mind Tom sneaking one more peek at Camilla Donati.
Petite in stature, she would barely reach his chin and that was with her heels on. And speaking of the heels … Those damn things had spikes all the way around the straps, and they looked made for some kind of fun and sin.
There were at least another thirty women in the room. All dressed in some variance of skirts, dresses, or jeans that hugged their asses tight enough to make Tom wonder how the fuck they could even breathe.
Yet, something about Camilla kept his gaze drifting in her direction.
Edgy makeup, with crystals placed along the cut line of her eyebrows. Red lipstick so dark it was bordering on a black crimson. Round, large brown eyes that someone else might have mistaken as innocence staring back from them.
He didn’t see innocence at all.
Not the way she was looking at him.
Pretty wasn’t the right word for her delicate features and naturally pouty lips. Pretty made him think of fragile lace and inexperience.
Alluring was more like it, with just enough of a touch of sex to color her up.
Like a rose.
Attractive, silky smooth, interesting and beautiful. Just enough sexy to make it impossible to resist touching it. Hidden dangers in the form of thorns ready to injure and scar.
“She single?” Tom asked when Cross finished with his conversation with the stranger. He couldn’t even help it. The words came out before he could stop them. “Your sister, I mean. Is she?”
“Kind of makes you look like a lovesick fucker when you keep staring, Tom.”
“Your point?”
Cross sighed, and scrubbed a hand down his jaw. “Cam doesn’t know what a relationship is, so yeah, she’s … available.”
“What’s that mean?”
“Not my business, that’s what.”
Tom didn’t press for more. “Why aren’t you pounding me into the ground right now for even looking at her? She’s what, nineteen, or—”
“She’ll be twenty soon.”
“Didn’t answer my question.”
Cross shrugged. “Cam does Cam, man. She does whatever the hell she wants to do, and nothing anyone else says has much effect on her. As long as she’s having fun, nobody’s bothering her, and she doesn’t need me to step in, then I step way the fuck back. She’s my sister, not my property.”
“So you wouldn’t mind—”
“Literally not talking anymore about it because I don’t care and I don’t want to know.”
Good enough for Tom.
“I mean,” Cross added quickly, “she doesn’t usually mess with my friends, so good luck with that, huh?”
Tom chuckled.
He didn’t need fucking luck.
She was still looking at him, too.
“Zeke!”
Cross’s holler gained the attention of the man standing beside Camilla. A singe wave of Cross’s hand sent Zeke heading in their direction.
“What, you’re not even going to introduce me to her?” Tom asked.
His friend laughed at him, and hit him hard on the back.
“Fuck no,” Cross said. “I’m not helping you. I just won’t stop you. See the difference?”
“You’re a shit.”
“Not news, man.”
“A real shit.”
“I said what I said,” Cross replied.
Well, if Camilla was anything like her brother … Tom didn’t plan on going very far with her, anyway. One could only take so much Donati attitude before it drove them up the fucking wall.
Zeke nodded to Tom as he joined Cross. “Tommaso. Haven’t seen you in what, a couple of years?”
“Something like that. How’s your father?”
“Wolf is … Wolf.”
“So, riding your ass, right?”
Zeke laughed. “Every damn day.”
Out of the corner of his eye, Tom watched Camilla tip her crystal wine glass up for another sip. He saw just the tip of her tongue peek out to edge along the rim of the glass. His throat and slacks tightened to an almost painful point.
She knew what she did.
She was looking right at him.
Camilla cocked an eyebrow, and watched him through long, dark lashes. Like she was fucking challenging him or something.
The woman didn’t know who she was playing with.
Not at all.
“We’ll catch up tomorrow or something, all right?” Tom asked.
He wasn’t even looking at Cross or Zeke now.
“That girl is like a Venus Fly Trap,” Zeke muttered. “All she’s got to do is sit still, look pretty, and the next stupid fucker falls right into her snare. Watch yourself, Tommaso. Before you know it, Camilla will have you falling in all kinds of love with her, and then she’ll smile when she waves you goodbye. That’s her deal—she doesn’t know how to do anything different.”
Was that supposed to be a bad thing?
Tom didn’t think so.
“Okay, that’s enough of this,” Cross said. “Let’s get me a drink.”
Tom took one more look at Camilla to consider his next move. She decided for him with a little tilt of her head as if to ask him to come over.
“Later,” Tom said over his shoulder.
Neither of his friends answered him back. That, or he just didn’t hear their response.
Tom slid in beside Camilla, with their backs turned to the entrance of the kitchen, as she took another sip from her wine.
“So it’s Tommaso, right?” Camilla asked.
She peered up at him, sly and sweet at the same time. How did she even manage that?
“Most people call me Tom, but Tommaso passes when I’m not in Chicago, or if it’s my mother using my name.”
“Why’s that?”
“My father is the Tommas of the family.”
Camilla nodded. “Ah, I see. I’m—”
“Camilla,” Tom interjected. “I know.”
Her gaze drifted to where her brother was snagging a new bottle of unopened bourbon from the top shelf of Zeke’s liquor cabinet.
“I bet you do,” she finally said. “You know, everything they said about me is true.”
“How do you know they said anything at all?”
“Because everybody deserves a warning when it comes to me.” Camilla grinned wickedly, gave him a wink, and took another drink of her wine. “My mother likes to say I’m a free spirit. Wild-hearted. Everyone else has a compass, and it points them north to keep them settled. My compass is broken, but that doesn’t stop people from thinking they can fix it.”
“Not all broken things need to be fixed. Sometimes, the interesting and beautiful parts are the broken ones. It’s the story, not the ending, that tells the tale.”
Camilla laughed a sexy, musical note. “You just took my easiest pick up line, and turned it into something beautiful.”
“Let’s call it a talent of mine.”
“One of many?”