“Sure you only like women, Vin?” Siena asks, eyebrow arched, and Matti can’t hold back a laugh.
I dead-eye her, my expression flat. “I’m sure, princess. I’m just not interested in paternity bullshit. You can’t get pregnant through your ass. The last thing I need is a kid.”
“Finally, something we agree on,” says Siena, hugging into Matti’s side, her hand curving protectively over her swollen belly like she’s shielding the baby from me.
“Oh yeah?” I ask, leaning forward. “You only into ass fucking too?”
She gives me a dirty look. “We agree that you shouldn’t be procreating. With anyone. Ever.”
Giovanna snorts out a laugh, and I turn toward her but she and Tommy are locked in their own world not even participating in the conversation. Fucking greatconsigliere.
I roll my eyes and sink back into the couch just in time for my ex, Valentina, to throw herself into my lap and slam her mouth into mine.
2
Vin
“Jesus fuck,” I snarl, wiping what I know is a ton of dark red lipstick off my face. “You get one of those and one only, and that’s only because you got shot helping us out with that job a few months ago.”
“I’ve done more for this family than just getting shot one time,” she gripes, digging her long manicured nails into my chest and leaning in like she’s going to kiss me again.
I grip her throat hard enough to make a point and push her back. Grit, Matti’s head of security, steps forward with a grim expression, his hand hovering near his weapon, ready to move.
“I’ve told you fucking ‘no’ more than once. Don’t make me embarrass you in front of everyone.”
She grabs my wrist and laughs, the sound throaty and provocative. “You know I love that, daddy. Don’t threaten me with a good time.”
I let her go roughly and shove her off me and onto the couch next to me with enough force that she bounces slightly. Giovanna and Siena turn to stare, their conversation dying on their lips, but my brothers ignore her like always. To them, she’s background noise.
“Jesus Christ. It’s been more than 16 years since we were together. I’m not that 20-year-old kid anymore, Valentina. If you’re going to be apart of the new Demonio Brotherhood, you need to get your shit together.”
She tosses her hair, dark waves cascading over her shoulders, and levels me with an intense stare, her eyes glittering. “Vin, you know I’m joking. But we’ve been friends for too long and know each other too well to hate each other.”
“There’s a lot of gray area between hating each other and fucking each other,” I snap as Giovanna turns back to Tommy and Matti tries to recapture Siena’s attention, his hand sliding up her arm.
“So we shouldn’t have a hard time finding a way to make it work,” Valentina returns. She sighs dramatically.
“Makewhatwork? It’s hard to respect someone who I caught choking on my father’s cock when she was pretending to be my girlfriend.” Every time I think about it, disgust crawls up my throat like bile. Not losing her—I got over that years ago—but the public humiliation I was subjected to when the woman I thought I was in love with dropped to her knees for my father. In my fucking house. In front of everyone. “Fucking disgusting.”
“Come on. He wasn’t always the 60-whatever-year-old, 350-pound asshole he is now,” she purrs, like there is any possible redemption for her choices.
“Because a 275-pound asshole in his 50s is better? Better than your fucking boyfriend who was your age, ripped, and fucking into you?”
“The muscles didn’t come until later, Vin.”
She’s not wrong. I started hitting the gym hard after her and never stopped. Now I’m big enough that no mother fucker would even think about fucking with my girl. If I were ever stupid enough to tie myself down to one.
I side-eye her. “You were 19.”
“Actually I was 17, but I told him I was 21.”
Seventeen?I raise my eyebrows at her, the revelation hitting me like a slap. Is she telling me I fucked a 17-year-old kid when I was 20? It’s been 16 years since all that shit went down, and the hits just keep on coming. “Jesus fucking Christ, Valentina.”
“Don’t lose your shit, Vin. It’s not like you were my first.” She says it like she’s commenting on the weather.
“Of course I wasn’t.” I pause and grin, wiggling my eyebrows at her. “But I was definitely your best.”
Her brows knit together. “You don’t seriously think that, right? I mean you were 20 years old, Vin. You didn’t know how to fuck.”
