Page 55 of Under His Protection

“Sometimes, it can feel like it’s a really small world among us organizational leaders.”

I drank faster. “I guess so.”

“I want nothing to do with those bikers. They are a newer power in the area, and I am waiting for them to fade from the scene.”

Will they, though?

“Do you think that’ll happen soon?”

He smiled at me before he brought me close for a tender kiss. “I can’t predict that, but rest assured that I will never let them have you.”

I liked the sound of that.

“Just the same as your being with me will deter Vanessa from thinking she’ll ever have a chance with me.”

I froze with his lips pressed against mine. There it was. I finally found the answer. The night we ran into each other at the Hound and Tea, he told me that he had his reasons to want to enter a fake relationship with me. Now I had that reason.

He was using me as a way to show Vanessa that he wasn’t available.

And that was the time limit I didn’t want to learn. Dante would string me along and keep me near for as long as Vanessa tried to pursue him. Once she found another man to chase, once she gave up on going after Dante, my purpose expire. My ruse would be over. I would no longer have an excuse to sit on his lap or kiss his lips. I would no longer need to enter a fitting room for him to choose a dress for me or bring me close so I could ride his thick cock.

My time with Dante had an end date. And I hated the reminder that this was nothing more than a temporary farce we’d orchestrated.

It’s not like it’s a surprise. I knew the rules when I entered this arrangement.

That didn’t mean I had to like it anymore. Not after we’d both blurred the lines with our very real interest.

I tipped my glass back further, welcoming more alcohol down my throat to numb the pain of not having this rugged, sexy, and powerful man for real.

21

DANTE

Dante

As the night wore on, Nina drank more flutes of champagne. She picked them off the servers’ trays more often than what I could count.

“She’s probably drinking as much as she can because she can’t afford it on her own, right?” Eva asked with more snark than what was necessary.

I faced her slowly, letting her see the disappointment on my face. I'd raised her better than that. She grew up with the expectation of falling in line and behaving like a Mafia princess, but that judgmental bullshit was uncalled for.

She had the grace to lower her gaze and appear ashamed for speaking like that, but she didn’t take back her words or apologize.

We spoke off to the side, Eva, Franco, and I, while Romeo and Nina remained a few feet away, looking at an option in the silent auction. I didn’t give a shit about any of the choices. I preferred to sink a heavy check with a lot of zeros on it to cover my need to donate to a good cause.

“Or she’s just wanting to enjoy the evening,” Franco reasoned with Eva.

Nina had seemed like she was having a good time—before Vanessa spoke to us.

Actually, that wasn’t true. Nina took that woman’s sass and harsh attitude in stride. It was only after, when Nina and I sat down to talk, that Nina’s mood changed. While she wasn’t aloof like before, she seemed dejected. Defeated. And quickly trying to cover it or numb it with alcohol. I may not have had her in my house for very long, but I was proud of how quickly I’d come to recognize her tells and read her so well.

Regardless of why she wanted to imbibe, she remained as alluring and beautiful as ever. She wasn’t a sloppy drunk, but she was sexy, forced to be happier and definitely quicker to be aroused.

She was handsy, all over me, and I loved every fucking second of her sensual attention. Her kisses made me hard. Her lopsided smiles hit me in the heart. And she wasn’t on the verge of passing out or tripping over her own feet. She was still in control of herself.

Enough that if I pulled her aside, she would likely unleash all of her desire on me.

And I’d welcome it all.

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