Page 22 of King of Temptation

Her mouth opens and then closes, her nipples rock hard, her eyes dilate. “I can’t…”

I place my hands on the counter on either side of her. “Come in this afternoon and audition.” I’d have her come right now, this very minute, before she has time to think, but I’ve got plans to slink into a corner at Toni Carcetti’s casino and watch the comings and goings.

She lets out a long breath, her arms wrapping around her own ribs, covering those nipples. “Fine.”

A little triumph surges through me. No, I didn’t convince her to go back into her room to let me eat her out until she screamed my name. But I am seeing her again.

Level one, complete.

CHAPTER EIGHT

Leo

The rest of my afternoon wasn’t nearly as fruitful. Despite three hours and four club sodas, Toni never showed at the casino. I’m looking for a regular schedule, or a gap in his security, some way I can plan an attack that is sure not to fail and doesn’t involve his family.

But so far, no luck.

Now, I’m holding my clipboard, trying for all the world to pay attention to the dancer in front of me. What was her name again?

Does it even matter?

I scan down the list, seeing Kim on the sheet. My fingers tighten on the pen. My cock twitches from just reading her name. I press two fingers into my eyes. What the hell is wrong with me that even seeing a K on a piece of paper has me in knots?

“Still sexually frustrated, I see,” Jake calls from behind me before he comes to take a seat next to me.

I scowl. “I told you. This is not your hunting ground.”

Jake grimaces back. “You know, I was all for you giving up drinking until I realized you were going to turn into a grandmother.”

“Not a grandmother,” Roman says, filing in on the other side. “More like a really bossy mom.”

“You mean like the mom you two didn’t have?” my cousin Luke adds as he sits next to Roman. Luke is also a Kincaid.

Jake and my dad were brothers, but there is a third. Nick Kincaid. He’s retired to Florida. The soft prick.

Luke is his son. He’s been around my whole life, and he knows that my mother’s only love was the bottle. Vodka, more specifically.

I let out a rumble of frustration. I don’t have time for this. “So you’re here to insult me for quitting the bottle and to remind me how much my mom loved it?”

Roman frowns. He was only ten when our mom died in a car crash. It hit him hardest, I think. “We’re here to give you an update.”

I hold up my hand to stop the music and dismiss the dancer in front of me.

She goes with several backwards glances. Once the room is cleared, I sit back in my chair. “What’s up?”

It’s Jake who begins. “We’re having a few issues with our special project.”

I scrub a hand down my face. Their special project is my special project too. They just don’t know I’ve been working on it.

It all started with my dad. I inherited my ability to just blow life up from him. Fucking a boss’s wife was a stupid idea. I can admit that. But when Toni Carcetti, the head of the Italian mafia had my dad killed, I swore I’d make that guy pay.

I tried last month, and I was kind of successful. I managed to get his top hitman, Giovani Vendetti in jail, but I was also drinking all the time and nearly blew up Mason and Charlotte in the process.

Mason, he’s grown our business up to a level that we can afford revenge, but only if we’re smart about it. Or…if one of us decides to take the fall. That’s me. I’m gonna be the fall guy.

Because in getting Vendetti arrested, I stirred the pot with the whole Italian mafia. And Vendetti, he bombed my brother’s apartment building to get back at me. It was fine, Mason built the place to withstand far worse attacks. But between Vendetti’s arrest and the bombing, I know what I have to do to protect my family.

They can’t be attacking us like that. Especially now that Charlotte has entered our lives. All the other families who do business in our space need to know not to fuck with us.

---