Page 53 of King of Sinners

I look back at him, wrinkling my nose. I usually heed the command I hear in his voice. I’m not one for arguing but I’m still trying to figure out what’s bothering me, besides the obvious, he spied on me. It’s deeper but I can’t quite articulate it yet. “I like my shampoo better.”

Later, I’ll look at the pictures and see what they make me feel.

I hear him get up and follow, but I cross into my room and into my smaller bathroom. I nearly snort, remembering how my entire apartment could fit into the smaller bathroom.

Mason is still behind me. He sets my camera on the vanity, I hear it on the surface, before he comes into the bathroom.

I turn on the water, wondering how I’m going to handle this. I haven’t been this cautious with Mason since that first night and I don’t know how to keep my feelings to myself.

He steps in behind me, picking up the shampoo bottle on the shelf.

“What are you doing?”

“Taking note of the brand,” he says eyeing the bottle. “If this is the thing that keeps you out of my shower…”

“What?”

“I’ll have to stock the other room.”

That makes me smile. But it quickly slips off my face. “How long do you think I’ll be here?”

He steps up behind me, nosing my hair as his arms snake around my waist. “I’m close to closing the permits for the tunnels. After that, the Italians are going to start striking out for revenge. I’m about to really piss them off, not that I care.”

“But the Italians are the ones I saw getting murdered, right?” Why would they want to hurt me? I’m their witness.

“Right,” he says sliding his hands up my skin. Despite the warm water, my skin pebbles with goosepimples at his touch. He always feels good.

And when he cups my breast in both hands, I gasp. He tweaks one of my nipples, his lips sucking at my neck. I could lose myself in his embrace.

“Does that mean they are not a danger to me?”

His hands still. “Considering they killed my father, I can assure you that they are a danger to everyone.”

I spin in his arms, my gasp lost in the heavy steam of the air. “Oh, Mason. I didn’t know…”

He pulls me close, his body wrapped around mine. “I know you didn’t.”

There is so much more I want to ask. What happened with his father? What are his plans for me? Now and later…

I wrap my arms about his neck. Knowing they killed his father has pushed my concerns to the back of my thoughts, my focus now on what’s happened to him. “I don’t understand your world. How can you do business with those men if they did that to you?”

“I don’t do business with them. Not really. And this tunnel will allow me to finally repay them for all they’ve done.”

I’m still not sure how I fit into that, but I lean back, searching his face. This is about revenge for him. And I’m part of that…I see it now.

My stomach sinks deeper. Does he just not want me to help the Italians? Or is there something more? It would make sense that he wouldn’t want me to be a witness for his Italian rivals to use to strike out against the Dukes. Is that why he’s suddenly protecting me?

He’s kissing my neck even as he reaches back and gets the soap. “I’d like to stay in this shower all day, but I’ve got a long day pushing the building permits through.”

Part of me aches to lose his touch but the other part is relieved.

In the last twenty-four hours, things have gotten so complicated. Then I shake my head. They were always complicated. The change is that I no longer see this as just an exchange.

My body, it belongs to Mason. Even now, it aches under his large hands as they soap up every inch of my body.

“A day with the zoning department,” I wrinkle my nose. “The only thing more boring might be staying here alone all day.”

He’s bending down, washing each of my legs. “It won’t be forever. Today is a big step forward.”

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