Total pages in book: 78
Estimated words: 75373 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 377(@200wpm)___ 301(@250wpm)___ 251(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 75373 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 377(@200wpm)___ 301(@250wpm)___ 251(@300wpm)
I was getting there.
The sooner I did, the sooner I could sell the place and pocket the money. Then I could go to the cops. If the shop got wrapped up in the drug thing, at least I had the house money to live on.
It wasn’t a perfect plan, but it was the best I could come up with. I’d lost everything in the move. I had to have a nest egg to fall back on when I did the right thing.
Sucking in a deep breath that no longer smelled like grease and oil and lube thanks to the essential oil diffuser I’d installed in my office—full of relaxing lavender because, well…—I reminded myself for the tenth time just that morning that everything was okay, I was safe, and this was all going to be over soon.
I could move back to Washington, reconnect with my friends, rebuild my life. And this whole Navesink Bank experiment would be nothing more than a fever dream.
Unbidden, Santo’s face popped into my head. Great bone structure, soft eyes, that silky hair…
“Stop,” I grumbled to myself when I felt desire sizzle through my needy system.
It had been nearly two weeks since he’d taken me to Famiglia. Then dropped me off at home in a rush. At first, I’d figured it was just a work thing that tore him away from me. But as more time went by, the more I had to conclude that he’d changed his mind about me. That maybe the teasing from his uncle had made him uncomfortable, so he decided to cut ties.
That was, you know—horrible, upsetting, borderline heartbreaking—not ideal, but it was what it was.
I would just have to get over it.
It was just that my body didn’t care what my mind thought when he traipsed across my memory.
Forcing thoughts of Santo away, I sat down at my desk. Wiggling the tension out of my shoulders, I opened my laptop to pay the bills for the shop, a knot coiled in my belly because I knew how tight things seemed.
In the end, though, everything got paid. And there was just enough leftover to pay the Grassi Family for their protection. Plus, like, fifty bucks.
Yay? I guess.
I closed my laptop lid and leaned back in my chair, closing my tired eyes, wondering how wrong it would be to let myself take a little desk nap. I mean… the blinds were drawn; no one could see.
In a sick way, work had suddenly started to feel a lot less scary than home. If for no other reason than there were always other people milling around—picking up cars, dropping them off, waiting for their oil changes.
I’d just made my decision, folded my arms on my desk, and rested my heavy head on them when there was a sharp knock at my door.
“Ugh,” I grumbled, dreams of a nap slipping away.
I made my way to the door, expecting David—since he was pretty much known for his sharp raps at the door at this point. The other guys, well, they avoided the office like I was harboring a petri dish sporting a brand-spanking-new viral plague.
“Oh!” I said, shocking back to find Santo standing there.
He looked almost bashful with his hands tucked into his pockets, his posture curved forward.
“I told myself I wouldn’t show up until it was time for our monthly meeting,” he said.
“But here you are.”
“But here I am,” he agreed, his gooey eyes moving over me. “You gonna invite me in?”
“Oh, right. Yeah. Of course,” I said, moving out of the way so he could pass.
I closed and locked the door out of habit before making my way back over toward my desk. “Why did you tell yourself not to show up until our appointment?”
“Because I, yet again, forgot to get your number. And I was worried I was moving into creep territory by showing up without an invitation.”
“For the record, it wasn’t creepy.”
“So you’re telling me I wasted two weeks of not doing this,” he said, reaching out, grabbing me by the back of my neck, and pulling me flush against him. “When I could have been doing it?”
Then his lips were on mine, muffling my little whimper as the need spread through me instantly, nearly breathtaking in its intensity.
I sank against him, my arms going around his neck as his slid down my back, sinking into my ass, dragging me against him and making it abundantly clear that I wasn’t the only one who’d been thinking of just this moment since the last time we’d been together.
Santo’s hands were quick to slip under my skirt, to tease over my ass, to sink in and squeeze.
His tongue toyed with mine as he turned me, backing me up against the desk, then reaching for the backs of my thighs.
Following the silent instruction, I let my ass land on the desk. Pressing against my knees, he waited for them to part for him before stepping between.