Page 2 of Mobster's Home

“Hello,” I murmur and her jaw slacks as if I just yelled in her face but then she points at herself.

“You’re talking to me?”

As if I’d be interested in talking to anyone else and I nod. “What’s your name?” I say in a low voice and she licks her lips in a slow way that’s insanely sensual and she probably has no idea what it does to a man.

“Luna.”

Fuck, that’s a sexy name. “What do you do for a living, Luna,” I say in a friendly tone, the kind I imagine she’d be more comfortable with and it seems to work because her shoulders ease and she gets a soft look in her eyes.

“I’m a kindergarten teacher.”

Nice answer. Her job pleases me because it probably means there are no men around. It would be very uncomfortable for everyone involved if she’d said something like cop or surgeon, where she has to get changed in the same dressing room as other males. Other men are a threat and I’m willing to fight my ass off for this girl.

“What do you do?” she asks and I reply without hesitating,

“I’m a bounty hunter.”

The relief in her eyes almost shames me but the snigger she lets out afterward, goes straight to my groin. “Bounty hunter, of course. I feel so silly now.” She shakes her head, causing a snowfall around her face and for a moment my whole world goes quiet in awe. “It was nice meeting you.” Grabbing her purse, she adds, “This is my stop.”

She rises before we’re at standstill and loses her balance, falling straight into my lap. I hiss, my heart pounding like a maniac in my chest and she looks up at me with eyes that want something a little bit brutal but are too hesitant to ask. “Thanks for catching me,” she breathes and she doesn’t immediately get up or throws herself off of me.

Instead, she stays in my arms, gentle as a whisper against my hardness and the armor around my heart cracks little by little with each of her breaths. My eyes bore into hers and I need her to keep clinging to me like this until there’s nothing left of me to cling to.

It’s not until she squirms that I realize the reason she stays is because of my clutching hands. Clearing my throat, I let her go and she throws me a careful smile, waving and then she walks out on me. It’s not even a question whether to let her run or not. Pulling up the collar on my coat, I lower my head and I’m prepared to hunt down what needs to be mine.

2.

Luna

He’s following me. Even before I looked, I could feel him coming after me. His manifestation is too majestic and malevolent to pass under the radar. Biting my lip, I shake my head. He’snotmalevolent, because bounty hunters are normal people just like everybody else.

A thrill tickles my spine as I make my way up the staircase to the street and it’s so crowded I nearly can’t breathe. I throw a glance over my shoulder and Derex looks like he rules over this town, his shoulders so large he could tackle five linebackers and make them cry for mommy.

His penetrating eyes bore into mine deep enough to almost blind me and if I expected him to be embarrassed that I caught him coming after me, then I was wrong. He’s not even trying to hide it, as if stalking me in broad daylight is perfectly normal but the man doesn’t belong in sunshine...he belongs in some place darker where there are tons of shadows and maybe in those shadows he would have his arms around me, his firm mouth sucking my throat until my pulse dances everywhere in my body. Pinching my lip, I turn around the corner and I could choose another route if I wanted to lose him but I have no interest in doing that.

I want him behind me and I want him up close.

Even though seeing him for the first time was mildly terrifying, I also felt strangely at ease when falling into his lap, as if he knows how to look after a girl. And I sure could use some looking after. This isn’t a quaint area and I especially don’t like walking under the bridge with all that vulgar graffiti and the gang that always hangs around, but now there’s no problem.

Usually when I see the gang, I tense up and run the other way but this time I cross under the bridge as if I’m sliding through water and it’s all because Derex is walking behind me. Their mean eyes flare at the sight of him, their heads lowering with cautiousness. They’re scared of him and I feel like smiling and saying:Yeah, look who I brought. Not so tough now anymore, are you?We keep moving like two partners in crime until I slow down my pace, thinking he’ll do the same but he’s done playing and walks up to me.

“You’re following me,” I breathe, searching his eyes and my voice doesn’t sound accusatory but more as if I want to be taken to bed. He must be so powerful when he makes love to a woman, potent and virile and I bet he can make a girl dazed for days. I wonder how someone even recovers from him and it probably requires a ton of rest, painkillers and a hot water bottle.

Derex gives a curt nod. “I’m walking you home if that’s fine by you.” He reaches his palm out. “Hold my hand.” The way he holds it out, reminds me of a king and I do yearn to be introduced to his kingdom.

Unable to say no, I put my hand in his, feeling more than content when his fingers wrap around mine. His grip is a little too strong, almost as if he isn’t aware of his strength but I quickly get used to it and suddenly I can’t imagine anybody else but him ever holding my hand.

“This isn’t a nice area, Luna,” Derex rasps, his aggressive eyes moving over the grounds as if he’s a hunter looking for threats that need to be taken down. “It’s for bad people and not pretty girls like you.”

“It’s cheap,” I shrug and a muscle ticks in his jaw. “And all I can afford.”

Derex curses. “Are there any men in your life, because if there are then they deserve a good beating?”

My jaw slacks at the ferocity. “I don’t have a father, or brothers...don’t have a boyfriend either.”

“You’re unprotected out here,” he says. “No muscles and strength surrounding you, seems like I came just in time.”

He sounds as if he’s making plans for me, plans that I have no idea what they entail and all of the sudden, I want to help his plans come to life, because from the expression in his eyes I know they can’t be anything bad. He doesn’t look at me the same way he looked at John, there’s no animosity or violence, just something hot and generous and I don’t think of him as overly harsh anymore.

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