Page 12 of Taken By the Kingpin
She’s not afraid.
“Should we resume our lesson?” she asks.
It’s so late it’ll be dawn in only a few hours. We only have one day together, and though I want to savour it, I should let her rest.
“That’s enough for one night.” I step back from her before I decide to do something truly misguided, like lie her onto the sofa and push into that soft pink slit, fucking her until she moans my name and comes on my cock. “Take the first room on the right in the hall.” It’s the mirror room of mine.
She hesitates and smooths her hand down her silk-covered thigh. “I don’t have anything to wear to bed.”
Sweet girl. It doesn’t even occur to her that she could sleep naked, as she would if she were with me. Or even that she could just keep on those cute little knickers.
I catch her small hand in mine and walk to my bedroom. Though it’s tempting to invite her in, I leave her in the hallway, grab a shirt from the wardrobe and bring it to her.
“G’night.” She clutches the shirt to her chest and smiles wistfully.
“Sleep well, angel.”
Then there’s a door between us and I have never wished as fervently as I do now that I lived in a tiny cabin with only one bed.
But that’s not happening.
Neither is sleep, for me. I grab a bottle of Scotch and pour myself a generous measure. The likelihood of my sinking into dreams is about five per cent higher after a nightcap, so I figure it’s worth a try. Maybe it’ll get the sunshine and roses smell of Jeanette’s hair out of my nose.
I sit with my laptop, sip my drink and wonder what I did in a past life to deserve this torture of having Jeanette in my home, without being able to claim her.
It’s all the fault of my overactive conscience. A bloody bind for a mafia kingpin. Any other man would take what she doesn’t even realise she is offering.
I check up on my investments, who of my people have paid, and what the status of my territory’s peace is. But apart from some goons at the safe house, it’s quiet. Too quiet.
Fletcher and Carter know I took Jeanette, and I’m expecting there to be fallout. But so far, no one is acknowledging she’s anything other than a pretty eighteen-year-old.
Suits me.
Linda—my second-in-command—drops off some clothes for Jeanette. I don’t examine too carefully why I brush off her assertion that Jeanette should have some female company her own age. Instead I snap that if she wants to argue with me, she can return to working for Fletcher.
Obviously she shuts up then. And I feel bad, because whatever happened I wouldn’t send her back to them after the way Fletcher treated her. But not bad enough to allow her to intrude on my time with Jeanette.
The lights are so low it’s almost completely dark and I’m into my second whisky—one was never going to get me close to sleep with my mind constantly gravitating to Jeanette—when there are soft footsteps in the hallway to the bedrooms.
Jeanette.
Will she try to escape? I’m curious about whether she’ll head for the elevator despite our bargain, and what she’ll do when she finds it pin locked. I almost want her to attempt it, for the excuse to touch her again when I catch her. The air is steam, burning my throat as I wait to see what she’ll do.
She pushes the door into the main living space open, and the air cools.
I’d prefer if she didn’t notice me so I would get to enjoy the sight of her long legs and possessive glee that she’s wearing nothing but my shirt. Her hair is in a loose plait over her shoulder and she looks sweet enough to make my teeth ache.
But instead her gaze finds me like she can sense my presence.
“Oh! Sorry!” She shrinks back.
“It’s alright.”
“I didn’t mean to disturb you. I couldn’t sleep, and I thought…” she trails off. “Couldn’t you sleep either?”
“Why can’t you sleep, angel?” I don’t answer her question, partly because it’s obvious. Partly because I can’t explain to this innocent girl that the reason I can’t sleep is her.
“I can never sleep in a new place on my own.”
