Page 14 of All Your Firsts

“Fine, triple. This will be between you and me only. Do we have a deal?” I extend my hand, but he just looks at it.

“No.”

My heart sinks.

“What do you mean, no?”

“You think I’m going against your brother, who’s not only one of my best friends but also the next boss in line to the Chicago Mafia?”

There it is. His motivation stems from loyalty. Good for Gage. A desire for future favors, I’m sure, maybe even wealth that can be easy to get from someone like my brother. I’m outmatched when competing with those.

There’s only one hand left for me to play. I’m backed into a corner and left with no choice.

“Well, then I guess I’ll tell my brother in the past twenty-four hours we’ve been half naked in a room together with my fingers in your mouth.”

Four

Vic

Igaze at Rosie, her self-satisfied smile both intriguing and unsettling.

Gage would chop off my balls if she told him that out of context. Shit, even in context, it doesn’t sound good.

She thinks she has me where she wants me, but she’s dead fucking wrong.

Standing, I run my fingers along the smooth surface of the wooden desk. “Blackmail?” I say in a low tone as I approach her.

I focus my eyes on her chest, where I can observe the rhythmic rise and fall of her breaths, mirroring my footsteps.

“Is that what you’re attempting to do to me, Princess?” As I lean closer, my chest presses against her shoulder, causing her to reach out instinctively to stabilize herself against my desk.

“Ahh, yeah,” she says as she looks anywhere but at me. To her credit, she doesn’t move. She holds her ground even as I push further into her personal space. She’s trying hard to conceal the small smile playing on her lips.

“And where do you plan on working, huh?”

“Sweet Escape.”

Of course. Fucking Jess.

If I knew Ax wasn’t already over there, I’d send him right now to make her day difficult. Usually, I feel sympathy for Jess with how relentlessly Ax pesters her. But not today. And probably not next week either. Those two need to figure their shit out, anyway. I knew there was always more to their friendship when we were kids. I just never knew how deeply it ran.

I need to approach this argument with Rosie in a tactful and strategic manner. If I give her this small taste of freedom, maybe she’ll find contentment in that and not cause me too much trouble. I mean, how much trouble could she possibly get into while working at the coffee shop? It’s better than the alternatives we have in town with the bar or strip club.

“Fine.”

“Really?” Like sunshine on a summer day, her entire face lights up while a beautiful smile adorns her full pink lips.

I retreat to the other side of my desk, unable to bear the sight any longer.

The desk provides a sense of protection, creating a necessary boundary between us. One that I should remember.

“Yes.”

Even as I sit back down, she continues to smile, her eyes sparkling with joy. It’s disconcerting to see her smile for something as basic as a human right that she should have, regardless of my approval. Yet my mind’s consumed with the notion that I’m solely responsible for the joy reflected on her exquisite face.

I look at her with a critical eye as I’ve done since she dropped into my life. Attempting to find flaws to make her unattractive.Her silky black hair hangs to her mid-back and is the perfect length to grab and wrap around my hand multiple times. Her tanned skin appears like the sun has kissed it multiple times, and I don’t have to touch it to know how soft it is. It’s practically velvet under my rough fingertips.

Her big green eyes track mine as I make the descent down her body with breasts that I’m sure will be a perfect handful. A soft waist I can grab as I’m fucking her from behind with no worry of breaking her in half, and an ass that I imagine my hand reddening until she screams. I don’t need to look at it to know how glorious it is. I got an eyeful last night, and I haven’t been able to get it off my mind with her small pink thong that showed more than it covered.

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