There’s something about Remy Jones that sets her apart from every other woman I’ve ever known. She’s beautiful, that’s a given. Sexy as fuck too. But she’s far more than that. It’s the air of innocence that triggers a reaction deep inside my corewhenever I think about her. The kind of honesty that can’t be faked.
She’s a keeper, my mom would say.
At least I thought she was until I saw her with him.
Of all the people. It’s shitty that trust doesn’t come easily when your family is mafia, but it’s something I’ve grown up with and stopped questioning before I reached puberty. We sleep with one eye open, a weapon within reaching distance, our enemies’ movements plotted on a mental map because losing sight of them could mean the difference between waking up for breakfast or not.
Is she working with him? Did he plant her in the Rinse as a distraction?
It doesn’t add up though. Why not plant her in my casino at the Titan? Unless it’s a double bluff and my resort was too obvious. With my twin brother Bash away on business, he must’ve known that I’d be running the Rinse too. Stage an accident with a tray of drinks. Bribe a guest to step in and bring Remy to my attention. The rest was easy.
“Remy.” I watch her freeze midway across the foyer.
Some guests are making their way home, their perfume cloying, their eyes heavy beneath the weight of their losses and liquor consumption. Others are just arriving, eyes bright with anticipation, their night only just beginning.
I nod a greeting to the regulars I recognize, most frequent the Titan too, and the Wraith, the business run by my brother Caleb. Their lives are an endless cycle of gourmet restaurants, exclusiveevents, and chancing their luck in casinos. They know they’ll never beat the table, but the challenge still beckons.
Remy is still waiting for me. I can tell by the tension in her shoulders that I should’ve reached out to her sooner. She’s had time to think and has convinced herself that she meant nothing to me. That I used her and didn’t give her a second thought.
Fuck. Nothing could be further from the truth.
It was just shit timing.
The threat of being taken down by a new Italian mob took over before I could tell her how I felt. The police commissioner’s hands were tied more tightly than was comfortable for the Murray family, and I was indicted for drug dealing and money laundering on the Titan’s premises. For the second time. The charges won’t stick, of course. My brother Kyle has seen to that, which is why we would never consider using a lawyer outside of the family. Blood loyalty. It’s how we’ve gotten to where we are today.
It can’t help me now though.
She doesn’t raise her eyes to meet mine until I’m standing in front of her.
Her lips part, and my body sends reminders hurtling towards my brain of how it felt to kiss her. I resist touching her hair, her jaw, her pale neck that she exposed to my mouth in the throes of her climax. I’ve relived it so many times, my pants are automatically bulging.
But for the first time, I’m unsure where to begin.
How have you been?
I’m glad I bumped into you.
Sorry I’ve been too busy to talk to you.
What a bunch of copouts, when what I really want to say is:I saw you with George Quinn, and I wanted to break his fucking neck.
“Don’t go.” Because that sounds so much better than ‘do you come here often?’ Understandably, she doesn’t respond. “I wanted to talk to you sooner.”
She blinks, slowly, while my gaze drifts to the freckles at the corner of her left eye. I want to touch them. I want to feel her silky skin beneath my fingertips. Fuck that. I want to kiss her until neither of us can breathe and nothing else exists.
“Why didn’t you?” she asks, holding my gaze.
Still, I don’t miss the tremor in her voice, and it cracks something solid inside my chest. “I’ve had a lot going on. I’m sorry.”
She watches me, her expression unreadable. “Is that it? Are we done here?”
Adrenaline crashes through my body, leaving me feeling drained. “Is that what you want?” Maybe I got it all wrong. Maybe her innocence was just an act. Or maybe this is part of the distraction, reel me in and then drop me from a great height.
It’s fucking working if that’s the case.
“Does it matter what I want?” She licks her lips. Her eyes glisten with tears, but she clutches her purse tightly to her chest like it’s her suit of armor.
“More than you realize.” I try, and fail, to control the emotion in my voice. I can’t be this close to her without wanting to see her naked and fuck her until she begs me to stop.
