Page 20 of What About Love

Chapter 5

ANGIE PACED THE MATin the gym in the basement of Rossi headquarters. She glanced at the wall-mounted clock, again. 8:15 a.m. Only a minute had passed since the last time she checked. Dan was late. That wasn’t like him. Stuck in traffic once, he thought he might be and called to let her know but still got there ahead of her. Something was wrong.

The metal door clanged as it banged open behind her, but it wasn’t Dan. It was Cap, followed closely by T.

She frowned. Something was definitely up.

“Change in plans, Angie. Dan got called away on a family emergency last night.”

This was a surprise. They’d parted ways less than eight hours ago. “Nothing serious, I hope.”

“Not life-threatening, fortunately,” Cap replied, quickly dispelling her fears. “His mother had a wipeout on her scooter and broke her hip.”

Picturing a little old lady with gray hair in one of those slow-going power chairs that probably topped out at four miles per hour, she tilted her head and inquired, “How exactly does one wipe out on one of those?”

He smiled. “I should clarify. Marjorie Ogilvie is not your average seventy-two-year-old. Her scooter was a 300-class Honda Forza. According to Dan, she was street racing, cut a corner too sharply while passing on the inside lane, and wiped out. He flew out to Dallas on a 6 a.m. flight.”

This didn’t surprise her at all. Not his mother’s injury—that was terrible news, but that Dan came by his general badass-ness naturally. It showed in his choice of profession, first the Army—and not just regular Army but the Green Berets, an elite unit of specially trained badasses—then his investigative and security work at Rossi, and in the vehicle he drove. Not his big black 4WD truck or the even bigger company SUV, also in black. But in the weeks she’d been working with him, she’d frequently seen him ride in on his custom-built Harley Super Glide. It was sleek, super cool, and more than a little scary.

Megan rode out with Cap on his whenever she could—before the babies came along. She always had a grin on her face when she talked about it, recounting it was nothing short of amazing. Although, Angie figured the man—her cousin having been with Tony Rossi less than two years, but in love with him for half her life—had as much to do with it as the bike.

She’d always wanted to ride but none of the guys she’d dated owned a bike. Thinking Dan might be her only chance, it hadn’t taken much to finagle a ride on the back of his a time or two, and she loved it. Now, thinking about his mother on a souped-up scooter, she smiled. The apple didn’t fall far from the tree.

“I’ll call him today and see if there’s anything I can do.”

“I’m sure he’d appreciate that, Angie,” Cap said with a small smile. His eyes cut to T who stood silently beside him.

When she did the same, her smile faded. Sure, he was giving her body-hugging hot-pink racer-back tank and black Capris a once-over, but there was an unusual tightness in his face. Without being told, she knew why he was there.

“T is going to take over your training,” Cap confirmed. “Here and at the club, like Dano.”

Hearing precisely what she’d expected, it still struck her like a blow.

A vivid memory of him from the night before invaded her thoughts. Gorgeous as ever, Antonio Minelli was more so with his head thrown back in pleasure. She’d fantasized about him that way often; seeing it live was a shock, especially with his neck muscles tight, his biceps and forearms bulging as he gripped the hips of the woman on the bench, his long thick cock glistening with her juices as he took her, hard. Then he’d come, growling his release.

She still hadn’t fully recovered. Not so much from seeing a threesome playing out in front of her, with T behind the bound woman and another man using her mouth, none of which she’d expected to see—ever. It was more so the sheer beauty of the man she’d lusted after for so long.

Her heart twisted now, as it had then. With jealousy, sure, that it hadn’t been her bent over, tied down, helpless and vulnerable in front of him. But more so with pain because it never would be.

She’d spent the better part of last night and this morning trying to push the images of him from her mind. When she had succeeded, sort of, she’d had little time to prepare herself to see Dan again. Considering what he’d done to her, touching her so intimately, spanking her naked backside, it seemed a daunting task. Spared the awkward moment this morning, she’d welcome it ten times over than this instant with T.

She’d had her chance to bring her fantasies to life. But being with him was time limited. Out of self-preservation, she’d declined. Her heart couldn’t take being that close to the man of her dreams and never be able to have him as she really wanted him. For her, it went beyond a few hours of mindless passion. She wanted him without limitations and wasn’t about to settle for his hardline one-night, no-relationship rule.

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