Page 62 of Above ’N’ Beyond

Bella padded into the kitchen, sidestepping the dogs, who’d found something interesting to sniff in front of the sink. She filled a glass with water from the tap. Not that she was thirsty. With all that nervous energy, she needed something to do with her hands.

Jimmy followed her into the kitchen, which wasn’t that big to begin with. Now the tiny space was saturated with his powerful presence. As if someone had said the word “bacon,” Jax and Gnocchi sat, looking expectantly from Jimmy to her, then back again.

“Don’t play games with me.” He leaned back against the granite counter, again crossing his arms. “You know exactly what we need to talk about. The cameras. You’re playing with fire, and you’re going to get burned.”

She huffed. “What’s a few singed hairs if it gets me my restaurant back?”

Jimmy’s lips compressed. “I’m worried it will be more than just a few singed hairs.”

“Are you ordering me to take them down?” She advanced on him, stopping a few inches short of bumping into his wide chest and craning her neck to meet his gaze. “Are you?” she prodded when he didn’t respond.

He took a deep, openmouthed breath as he glanced briefly to the ceiling. “No.”

She jerked back, raising her brows. That wasn’t the answer she’d been expecting. “Then why were you so angry that I put them up in the first place?”

A deep frown line creased his brow. “I told you. You could get hurt. Badly.”

“That’s my problem. Not yours.” She planted her hands on her hips, not caring that the blanket, while still draped over her shoulders, had gaped open and no longer hid a thing. “I’m her blood. In the end, I don’t think she’d ever hurt me.” Then again… She still wasn’t completely certain of that.

“No,” he bit out. “She wouldn’t. She’d order someone else to do it.”

“Meaning, someone like you?” she said more than asked. He was one of Paola’s soldiers, after all. “Would you really take me out? Pop me in the kneecaps? Activate my dental plan, or feed me to the fishes?” She’d seen The Godfather. Leave the gun and take the cannoli.

“No,” he snapped. “I would never hurt you.”

Dark eyes bored into her with such impact he might as well have smacked her.

She believed him. For some inexplicable reason, she did. Jimmy would never hurt her. That’s why he hadn’t told Paola or Tony about the puppy cams.

She shook her head. “I don’t understand. Why are you covering for me?”

A loud snort came from behind them. The tips of Jax’s ears tickled her legs, then he head-butted the backs of her calves. Her knees buckled and she fell forward. Right against Jimmy. The next thing she knew she was plastered against his body from the tips of her bare toes to the top of her head.

Big, strong hands at her waist steadied her. The blanket slid to the floor. The cool air on her bare skin should have made her shiver, but the smoldering, sinful heat in Jimmy’s half-closed eyes had the same effect as sitting outside in a hundred-degree day.

She was burning up. Heat flared deep in her belly. A muscle in Jimmy’s cheek jumped, calling attention to all the planes and hollows of his lean, handsome face. Bella held her breath, wishing she didn’t want him to kiss her. But she did.

He released her waist, and when she’d expected him to push her away, he slipped his fingers into her hair. Her scalp tingled, as if a hundred butterflies were dancing on top of her head. When he leaned in, the breath she’d been holding whooshed from her lungs, then she couldn’t get enough air and began breathing faster, practically panting with anticipation as his head lowered more, his lips parting.

Walking away—no, make that running—was what she ought to do, but as the space between their mouths closed, her hands slid up his hard chest, locking around the back of his neck as he hauled her against him. Then his lips were on hers, her body melting into him.

She’d sworn never to be with a mobster, in any sense of the word, yet here she was, her toes barely touching the floor, her breasts plastered against Jimmy’s chest as he kissed her.

His lips were warm. Soft and hard at the same time as he urged her to open her mouth for him. Their tongues stroked, his tasting smoky and spicy, like whatever whiskey he’d been drinking. One of his hands remained in her hair, the other sliding down her back until he was cupping her bottom, tucking her against the hard bulge behind the zipper of his jeans.

Pressure built inside her body. Her belly tightened, and she rocked against him. Closer. She had to get closer. As if reading her mind, he reached down and hooked his hand behind her knee to wrap her leg around his waist. He spun, then planted her bottom on the counter, deepening the kiss and stroking the inside of her mouth with a ferocity that had her moaning with need.

He nudged her legs apart, standing between her outstretched thighs with his erection pressed intimately against her dampening panties. Still kissing her, his hands went to her breasts, massaging them gently, then catching her nipples between his fingers.

She wasn’t a particularly religious person, but oh Dio. The sensation of his erection at her cleft and his magic fingers on her breasts was too much. If he didn’t get inside her, she’d go up in flames.

He tugged her to the edge of the granite counter, then cupped her, stroking her through her panties until she writhed against his hand. When he slipped one finger beneath the elastic waistband and pushed it into her channel, her brain went to war.

If this was so wrong, why did it feel so good?

There’d always been something different about Jimmy. No matter how wrong being with him was, she wanted him. Wanted him deep inside her, stroking her from the inside out until they both screamed their release.

Chapter Twenty-One