“You were upset with us because you thought we were taking your neighborhood’s money and not giving you what you’d paid for. Understandable. But now you know different.”
“There’s also your…methods of enforcement.”
“We defend ourselves when attacked?” he said mildly.
“And you extort money from businesses!”
“We give them protection that the police can’t. If we didn’t protect them, they’d be the target of curses from competitors, or ghouls, or ogres. We are willing to die to protect any business that pays us our fee.”
She was running out of arguments. “You encourage gambling,” she mumbled.
“Ahh. Like in Las Vegas?”
She hated how he was batting away every argument and making it seem as if they were an organization of benevolent businessmen. They weren’t! But…were they really that bad? Especially compared to everyone else who ran this lousy corrupt city? Damn it. How was he getting inside her head like this?
She sighed and reluctantly set down her fork. The buttery taste of pasta lingered, and she ran her tongue along her lips. The air suddenly felt warm, and she realized that Dominic was watching her with a fierce hunger that burned away all of her defenses and nearly set her panties on fire.
I need to nip this in the bud. She cleared her throat and squirmed in her seat. “All right, let’s discuss this logically. It makes no sense that you would want to hitch yourself to me forever. I mean…wolves mate for life. You don’t know me at all.”
His eyes gleamed with amusement. The more she resisted, the more it seemed to arouse him. “We have all the time in the world to get to know each other.”
“And before your wolf bit me on the ass, you never even noticed me.” Her voice was higher than she’d meant it to be, and she realized that there was a shrill undercurrent of hurt to it. She winced in embarrassment, but Dominic didn’t seem to notice.
“The first time that you catered one of our events, you wore your hair piled up in a messy bun.” Dominic’s voice was grave and for once, that fierce gleam of humor faded and he was dead serious. “The sun lit up your hair and made it look like rich caramel. You wore little wire earrings with red stone hearts.”
He’d noticed all that?
Zoey thought her heart would stop. His ice-gray gaze met hers, seizing it, holding it captive.
“I don’t have them any more. My friend Cin gave me those. She stole them from somewhere and when I figured that out I made her take them back.” She had no idea why she said that, she was just talking mindlessly, because she was reeling from the shock of what he’d just said.
“No. She made them. She makes jewelry.”
“She does? How do you know that?” And why did she not know that? When she’d asked Cin if she’d stolen the earrings, Cin had just shrugged and said, “I couldn’t exactly afford to buy them, now could I?”
She felt a pang. Had she falsely accused Cin of stealing?
His cruel lips curled up in a smile. “Knowing things is my business.” His voice carried a dark, sensual undercurrent, carrying a veiled threat and promise that mingled together and snatched her breath away.
She shook her head, trying to clear it, but her gaze never left his. “Are you saying you were interested in me from the first minute you saw me?”
“Entranced, is more how I’d describe it. I saw how you carried yourself with confidence, and faced down mafia bosses even though inside, you were quaking. I saw how kind you were to Carlo, when he couldn’t figure out how to tie his own shoelace. You just knelt down and laced it up for him and talked about the weather, like it was all no big deal. And then you showed him how to do it himself without making him feel foolish, and ever since then he’s remembered. When you were in the back with the other girls taking a break, you grew flowers and stuck them in a glass of water and made that dingy little break room feel like a party. And you made sure that everyone had something to eat before you started.”
He took a bite of pasta, casually chewing, as if he hadn’t just tossed a bomb at her that blew up her entire world. This was even more life-altering than hearing that his wolf had claimed her as a mate. That just meant that he thought his stubborn ass was stuck with her. Now he was saying that he had actually wanted her all along.
“So why did you never make a move on me then?” she asked, her heart thudding in her chest. She wanted to believe. More than anything. Not because she could ever let herself have a man like Dominic – hard, criminal, with walls around him that she’d never breach – but just because it was the most marvelous, magical thing a man had ever said to her.
“Because, as one of the highest-ranking men serving under Arturo Moretti, I am expected to mate for the good of the pack, to make a political alliance, not for love or desire. Unless my wolf choses otherwise.”
He took a sip of wine. “Your turn. What did you notice about me when you first saw me?”
Zoey tilted her head to the side, thinking. “You were very handsome, and very self-confident, but not in a flashy way. A lot of the made wolves always carry themselves like they have something to prove. You didn’t. You were also very alone. You stood back and watched everybody, but didn’t let anybody get close to you.”
Dominic looked skeptical. “Romano’s usually right by my side.”
“Physically. Mentally, emotionally, you’re a million miles away from him. And everyone else.”
He poked at the remains of the pasta on his plate but didn’t reply. The lights in the restaurant flickered.
