Page 103 of The Bluffing Game

“Hey.” I squeeze his hand. “We all have a past, right? No one’s perfect.”

“Yeah, but I’m so far from perfect. It’s not even funny.”

“Why? Because you were in the Mafia?”

He nods.

“That’s not a good thing. I mean, I don’t think it’s a good thing, but it’s not the worst thing I’ve ever heard in my life. I’ve heard worse than someone being in the Mafia. Well, no, I haven’t, but there are men who are in gangs. There are people who are corrupt. There are all sorts of evil, bad people out there. And it seems to me, Dalton, that you’ve turned your life around. It seems to me that you gave that life up.”

He nods.

“Is that why”—I pause—“you look like a man with money, but you seem to be struggling?”

He laughs. “I don’t quite know how to answer that, but I suppose.”

“I mean, you have this restaurant and this beautiful house, and you wear classy clothes, and you have a fancy car, but Lucia seems stressed about money, you seem stressed about money, and it just doesn’t add up.”

He nods slowly. “As a made man, I grew up with everything I could want, but it didn’t feel right. I don’t want blood money on my hands. That’s why I started the restaurant. Gracie, well, she was always better than that life, and I wanted to give it a real go, but it’s not going as well as I hoped. We’re not really making the sort of money that we need to be making, and I’m likely going to have to sell the house and the car and figure out how to get this restaurant as profitable as possible, as soon as possible.”

“I can help you with that,” I say. “It doesn’t just have to be a restaurant. We can have meetings there, and people can hold parties there. It’s a beautiful space. It’s absolutely gorgeous.”

“You’d do that for me? You’d help me think of new ideas to bring in revenue?”

“Of course. It would actually be something I’d love to do.”

“I guess while you wait for your billionaire.” He throws his head back. “Just think, if I were the old me, maybe you would want me then. Maybe I would be man enough in some ways.”

“Dalton, listen to me.” I grab his hands. “You’re not a bad guy.”

“But I’m not a billionaire.”

“Maybe a billionaire isn’t all that matters in this world. Maybe someone’s heart means more.”

“I’m a complicated man. If you were to date me, you’d have a really complicated life, Sage.”

“I like complicated, I think.”

“Do you think?” he asks. “Do you like me?”

“I don’t know if I want to answer that.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, it seems like you want me to put all my cards on the table, but you’re not putting any of yours.”

“I just told you I was in the Mafia. I just told you that Toby is my adopted son. I just told you that his mom is a drug addict and wants nothing to do with him. How many more cards can I put on the table?”

“You could tell me where you see me in your life,” I say softly.

He leans down, grabs me, lifts me up, and carries me to the sand. He caresses his fingers down the side of my face and kisses me. He kisses my nose and my cheeks and my chin. He stares at me with passion and lust.

He pulls his shirt off and takes his pants off before slowly disrobing me. We lie there naked on the sand, and I groan as I feel grains getting in everywhere.

“And this is meant to be romantic?” I ask him, a twinkle in his eyes as he stares at me.

“I didn’t say it was meant to be romantic.” He laughs. “But I was hoping it would be.”

He positions himself over me. His fingers play with my nipples. I push him onto his back and slide over on top of him. He looks up at me and reaches his hands up and cups my breasts. I slide down and rub myself against his hard cock, loving the feel of him next to me. I reach down, grab his cock, and pump it a couple of times before sliding it between my legs. I sit up slightly and then position him to fully take me, loving the feel of him as he enters. I start bouncing up and down on his cock, going faster and faster and faster.