“It’s a spider, not a pit bull, bella.”
I grab a glass and a napkin, pin the thing smoothly, and dump it in the trash with the ease of a man who’s handled far worse than an eight-legged intruder.
“It’s gone,” I say, turning back to her.
Beatrice exhales like she’s just escaped death and slowly begins to ease her defensive stance.
“You sure?”
“You want me to bring you its corpse?”
She shoots me a withering look before climbing down—slow, cautious, her legs searching for the floor.
The second they dangle,instinct takes over. I step in, hands slipping to her waist.
She drops into me.
Not onto the floor. Into me.
Her body collides with mine—soft, warm, too close—and every nerve in my body lights up like a fuse catching flame.
The broom slips from her fingers.
Her hands landon my chest to steady herself, but the moment she touches me, something snaps—a gasp from her, a breath punched out of me—like neither of us was ready for the hit.
We don’t move.
Her palms stay splayed over my chest. My fingers tighten around her waist. We’re caught in the kind of silence that’s louder than any scream.
Heat curls between us—slow, dangerous, inevitable.
One breath.
Another.
Her eyes lift to mine, wide and shaken, and for a split second it feels like the air is pulling us closer?—
But she stops. Breaks the moment like she’s breaking surface after being underwater too long.
She steps back fast, smoothing her hair, pretending her pulse isn’t racing.
She sidesteps me,retreating toward the cabinets with all the composure she can scrape together.
And I just stand there, hands still burning from where her body fit perfectly into mine.
“I’ve handled a lot of things in my life,” she mutters, grabbing a glass from the cabinet, “but I draw the line at spiders.”
“Noted.” I chuckle and turn to face her.
She pours herself water and leans against the counter on the other side, arms crossed, eyes flicking to mine and then behind me. She shifts her weight from side to side, suddenly uneasy.
“Why were you carrying a gun?” she asks softly.
“I mean, you’re aware of my line of work,bella.” I tell her. “It kind of comes with the job to always have a weapon on me.”
She nods slowly. “I heard that you’re quite the mafia boss. One of the most feared.”
“And who told you that,bella?”
