Page 16 of Dozer

“Yes.” I smiled. “I’m hungry, too. Hana bailed on me for lunch. We were going to meet up after classes. Blade made her a better offer.”

I padded barefoot into the kitchen.

Dozer followed me.

I bent over to look in the fridge. Dozer’s growl sent deliciously naughty shivers over me.Friends…just friends.

Speaking of friends.

“I have a class with Levi.”

Dozer popped up onto the counter. Faded denim, with thinning threads at the knees, stretched over strong thighs. He absently slipped his fingers under his black T-shirt. Tanned, tatted skin peeked at me as he rubbed his palm over taut abdominals. What was it about Hellers? Ink, muscles, bikes, boners. Theywere gods of depravity, and I was ready to sacrifice myself at their altar.

He cocked a brow. “You’re probably not going to be study partners.”

I set cheese, butter, and bread on the counter. “I just don’t want to be her enemy. I talked to Hana.”

“I can imagine her insight, considering the way Jazzy treated her.”

“But I don’t have a brother that used to sleep with Levi to smooth out our friendship. Once Jazzy found out about Hana and Vance, she changed.”

“Levi is Levi.”

“That’s all I get?”

“Yep.” He shook a cigarette from his soft pack. Dozer headed into the garage to smoke.

Since there was only going to be friendship between Dozer and I, what was the point of pressing the issue? Focusing on lunch, I slathered butter on bread for grilled cheese sandwiches.

Italians were known to be good cooks. Not this one.

“Merda.” I had the heat too high. The bread charred on the edges before the cheese could melt. As the sandwiches burned, I poured a can of soup into bowls and popped them into the microwave.

Dozer approached as I flipped his sandwich onto a plate, blackened side down.

“I hope you like your food well done.” I handed him the plate.

Our fingers brushed. My gaze lifted to his. Flurries of emotional debris, like a category five hurricane, tore through me. His hunger had nothing todo with food. I felt it to my soul as his gaze devoured me.

No wonder Levi hated me. If I didn’t stop this, I’d hate myself.

We carried our plates and bowls into the living room.

His gaze roamed around the room as he took a bite of his sandwich. “Do you pay your sister rent?”

“No. It’s more like I’m housesitting except she doesn’t keep any of her stuff here anymore. She’s fully moved in with Vance.”

“Nice sister.”

“The best. I have a brother, Diego. He works with my father. He’s being groomed to one day take over the Ricci family fortune. My sister Claudia has one baby and another on the way. Do you have siblings?”

He groaned and leaned back in the chair. “None that I know of.”

I’d laugh, but it wasn’t that funny in my family. Gabi was my half-sister. Ugly story that boiled down to my dad treating her like shit because she looked like her biological father, and my mother treating her like shit because said bio dad walked away from the affair when he found out about the pregnancy.

I had a big fucked up Italian family. And I was the princess no matter how tarnished I made my crown.

“I’m close to my dad,” he said. “My mom, not so much.”

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