Page 40 of Diary of a Mafia Princess

I couldn’t help but grin at Nyah staring right back up at him, refusing to back down.

But Luca’s voice was deep and cold when he spoke. “Are you insinuating I like men?”

She shrugged. “Do you?”

Yes, I silently answered for him.

He ran his finger from her ear along her jawline, and then down over her throat.

I was sure he didn’t miss the way her breath stuttered. Unlike when Carlos had touched her and I’d seen her body physically stiffen, when Luca touched her, she leaned in. It was the slightest of movements, but I saw it, and I would have bet Luca felt it.

His thumb came to the side of her neck, pressing against her fluttering pulse.

He waited a moment, then leaned down, so his lips brushed her ear. “Either you’re scared of me, princess… Or you’re turned on.”

She shoved him away from her, and he grinned, laughing to himself.

“I hate you,” she muttered, getting onto her bed and tucking her arms around her legs.

“Feeling is mutual.”

He turned to me.

I raised a knowing eyebrow. He was so fucking full of shit. I hadn’t missed that he hadn’t answered her question about whether he was into guys or not. If Nyah thought about it long enough, she might have realized too. But he’d rattled her by getting in her personal space and using the attraction between them to distract her.

I wondered if either of them actually had any idea what they were playing at.

Luca ignored my eyebrow and took up the spot against the wall that Nyah had just vacated. “Do you know anything about hockey?”

I breathed out slowly. “I’ve been in a cell for the past ten years—”

Luca grimaced. “So that’s a no.”

God, he was so impatient. “That’s a, ‘I played all through high school and college.’ It’s the only reason I even went to college. Full scholarship.”

Shame I hadn’t realized what a gift I’d been given back then. I’d rarely turned up for class, knowing they weren’t going to do shit because I was the best player on the team.

Hadn’t that all fallen to pieces after, when I couldn’t find a job and hockey no longer wanted me.

Luca lit up like a Christmas tree. “So you know stuff?”

I snorted. “Like how to skate and how to hit a puck? Sure. Like how to run a team? Fuck no.”

Luca pointed at me, clearly choosing to ignore my hesitations. “But you know how to play. The rules and shit. Teach me.”

Nyah rolled her pretty eyes. “Or, you could try googling it, like anyone else would. Instead of acting like a spoiled brat and demanding Lynx do you favors.”

But I grimaced at the idea of anyone trying to learn how to play hockey from an internet search.

Google couldn’t teach you what it felt like when you laced up your skates or what the ice smelled like first thing in the morning before you’d even had a coffee. It couldn’t tell you how to hit a puck so perfectly it avoided everything in its path and landed square in the back of the net.

I’d been dying to get back on the ice ever since I’d gotten out of prison. I just hadn’t dared.

But now Luca was practically making it my job.

“I can teach you,” I agreed. Then glanced over at Nyah. “If Nyah doesn’t mind coming along. I don’t exactly have much free time at the moment. If I’m not here, it’s only to go home and sleep and then I’m back. I’ve got club stuff to do on my day off, so it’ll have to be while I’m here. So it’s really up to Nyah.”

Luca sighed heavily. “What say you, princess? Want to come see this team I’ve inherited that apparently sucks ass, but I somehow need to make profitable if I want to keep my head?”