Page 12 of Under His Protection

I wanted to familiarize myself with every decadent inch of her sexy body. Every curve. All the smooth, soft skin of her generous tits, her tiny waist. I stared at her lips, fighting the urge to taste them and bite them for the reward of her gasp. And her hair, that thick, glossy braid. I resisted the need to grip it and hold her in place as I shoved my cock into her mouth and?—

She cleared her throat, narrowing her eyes with suspicion. The sound jarred me from staring, and I chastised myself for showing how badly I lusted for her.

Watching her raise her brows as we paused at the passenger door, staring each other down in a silently brewing tension, I reached over to grip the handle for her.

“After—”

The door to the building clanged open behind us, and as a group of rowdy men all tried to exit the narrow space at once, I rolled my eyes. Franco and the security guards sure had their hands full tonight. It looked like more of those Devil’s Brothers idiots, and I wondered if it was past time to give them a warning to fuck off around here. On my turf.

Nina wasn’t as distracted. While I turned to look at the door, she slipped away and opened the door for herself. Her fingers closed over mine as she wrenched on the handle. In the next moment, her body eased away, prohibiting me from enjoying the warm, slender curve of the small of her back, where I’d put my other hand.

She was in the car, already tugging the door closed by the time I looked back at the men exiting the building.

Huh.

I wasn’t imagining it. Nina was a little frosty with me, not letting me be the gentleman and open the door for her. It was no matter for now, though. She was in my car, and as I rounded it to get in the driver’s side, I considered the sheer stupidity of asking her to spend any time with me.

I lusted for her. From the second she’d bumped into me, a deep, carnal need filled me. But this was Henry’s daughter. My best friend’s kid. This wasn’t right, no matter how much Henry and I had drifted over the years.

But I got in the car, anyway, not wasting a second to speed off with her riding shotgun. In the limited space of the car, her scent overpowered me. Something clean but sweet, and mixed with the scent of her, altogether intoxicating. I’d been around countless attractive women before, but something about Nina captured me.

“Interesting running into you there, of all places,” she quipped.

“How so?” I arched a brow at her as I pulled into a lot near the gambling rooms. I wasn’t sure where to take her. The only thing that crossed my mind was bringing her home and fucking her hard, but that wouldn’t solve anything other than scratching a stubborn itch, this quick-to-form and strong desire for her.

“I just learned tonight that the Constellas owned that building.”

I set the car in park, eyeing her uniform. “I own it.”

She turned to look me over. “So, you’re my boss. That’s the business that kept you so busy that you couldn’t stop by at my dad’s funeral?”

Rubbing my jaw, I considered whether she was playing dumb or she was really that ignorant. “Henry and I used to be best friends back in the day.”

She snorted. “Before he gave up staying in touch with everyone, you mean.”

“We drifted apart,” I agreed.

“That’s no excuse not to come to his funeral.”

I kept my stern gaze on her. “It’s not.” If she was trying to pick a fight with me, it wouldn’t go far on this topic. I did feel bad that I hadn’t gone to Henry’s funeral. “I feel bad that I wasn’t informed.”

She rolled her eyes, sassy yet not childlike with that juvenile gesture. “Too busy owning the Hound and Tea. I got it.”

“Do you?” I asked. Before she could reply, I gave up on resisting her allure. In the privacy of the parked car, smelling her sweetness and wishing I could lean over and touch her, I was weak. Too weak for my liking. I didn’t allow women to have power over me, ever, so I got out and walked around the car to open her door. She joined me, standing outside the car and enjoying the quiet and fresh air of this empty lot.

“Do you get it?” I studied her. “We’re not strangers?—”

“How are we not strangers? I haven’t seen you since Romeo and Ricky shared a birthday party.”

I did the math. Thinking back to the one time my son shared birthday celebrations with Henry’s son, her brother, I calculated that almost twenty years had passed since the memory she referenced. Their birthdays were close together, and we combined efforts to celebrate the boys that one time. Eighteen years. It felt like too long ago. But I exhaled in relief that Nina wasn’t the jailbait she looked like. She was twenty-two now, fully grown into her womanly figure.

“But Henry knew what kind of businesses I oversaw.” I let the silence linger between us, prompting her to agree or argue that point. She merely pursed her lips and looked away.

“I’ve preferred to lean on the principle of ignorance is bliss.” Lifting her face to smirk at me, she added, “And it’s not like I’ve run into you over the years.”

I nodded. “Interesting that we’d crossed paths tonight though.”

Her brow furrowed. “I wasn’t up there to work.”

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