Page 48 of Dirty Little Sins

"Plus, you're here. With you, proximity is half the battle."

"Is that what I am to you? A battle?" I wasn't really as offended as I sounded, but needling him about it sounded like fun.

"Everything is a fight metaphor to me. That's been my whole life for almost as long as I can remember. Day in and day out. I don't like to take a single day off."

"I don't know how you do it. I'm lucky if I can survive thirty minutes on the treadmill a few times a week."

"That's only because of the work hours you keep. We aren't that different in that respect. I just happen to spend most of it in a gym."

"Most of it? What do you do when you aren't in the gym?

"I have several other business interests these days that I keep track of. As soon as I hit thirty, I knew it was time to diversify. I now own the gym I grew up in and a couple of years ago began the steps to franchise it. There are now several locations across the United States and one in Italy."

I don't know why, but I had the feeling he was downplaying his businesses. Maybe it was the size and location of his luxury home. Or the fact that he kept this insane suite at The Sinclair at the same time. He must have a substantial portfolio.

There was also the matter of our illustrious meeting. At a party hosted by Romeo Rossi. At first I didn't think twice about it. As a boxing celebrity, it would make sense for the mafia to take interest in him. Professional fighting was a popular red-blooded sport among Italian men. Hell, all men seemed interested at one point or another.

But there were too many interesting threads in his life and a lot of unknown variables. Including that mess with his stepfather.

"How did you end up at the party that night?" I popped a grape into my mouth, trying to keep my cool over the fact I was probably treading into dangerous waters.

Silence descended and with every second that passed my stomach knotted tighter. He took so long to answer I almost thought he hadn't heard me.

"I get a lot of invitations. Not to sound too egotistical, but there are a lot of boxing fans worldwide. Having me at their parties is kind of a big deal."

I swatted at his arm and felt that familiar spark the minute my hand touched his warm, hard skin. Seriously, it was like his body had been carved from some magical element that transformed him into a perfect physical specimen that I apparently couldn't keep my hands off of.

"Keep touching me like that and it's going to be a very long time before we get out of this bed again." His growled statement pulsed through my body and made heat flare between my legs.

I still had so many questions, but so far he had a knack for deflecting with sex. Not that I was actually complaining about all the orgasms. The man was a demanding beast, but he made it more than worth it.

"Are you trying to distract me?" Not that he actually had to try. When he'd climbed out of bed he'd only grabbed a pair of shorts to cover up and I had all those acres of gorgeous skin to hold my attention.

"Does it matter?" he asked.

I tried to think on that and whether it did actually matter. There was a lot I didn't know about Vincent and thanks to Google, a lot I did and wished I didn’t. Yet, none of that had prevented me from falling deeper into whatever this was between us.

Even the thought that those pictures were still out there seemed less important. Well, not exactly, but kind of. He'd hired someone to look into the case and promised that he'd make sure this mess was taken care of. No one had ever made that kind of promise to me before. Not even my parents. My grandmother wanted to, but she had little control while I was little. My parents didn't have much time for a child, but they preferred that I spent my time in a fancy prep school in America instead of closer to my grandmother.

I knew in this day and age I wasn't supposed to need someone to 'take care of me', but the knowing that someone wanted to, no matter how temporarily, kind of felt incredible.

And yet...

"I guess it depends." I answered as honestly as I could.

"On?"

Apparently, he wasn't going to make this easy for me. "On whether there are closets full of skeletons or maybe a secret wife or family I should know about. A lady can't be too careful these days. If there's another scandal waiting for me around the corner I'd rather know now than later.”

His dark laugh wrapped around me and new warmth filled me. I loved hearing that sound from him and based on what I'd seen so far and how rusty that half smile looked on him, I had a feeling he didn't make it nearly enough. I was going to make it my personal mission to see if I could do something about that.

"Everyone has secrets these days. Although I'm pretty sure it would be impossible to hide a wife. And why would I? If I ever get to the point in a relationship where I can see myself married, I'm not going to keep that hidden."

I tried not to cringe at his answer. Whether he realized it or not, and he probably did, he'd just made it crystal clear that he didn't see that happening. It seemed that like most men, either the good ones were taken or they were commitment phobic. Oh well. I didn't know how long this thing we had between us would last, but I wanted to make the best of our time together anyhow.

If that was even possible considering we were both under a lot of pressure right now. He had a fight to survive. Although from what I'd seen on YouTube it didn't seem like it would be that hard for him. I'd watched video after video where he'd beaten back his opponents under every single circumstance.

The raw power he harbored in that perfect body was explosive to say the least. Not to mention that perfect record he carried.

---