Page 5 of Deviant Desires

I adjust my tie in the mirror and ignore him. “No one asked you, Luc. Don’t you have City Hall shit to do?”

Luca snorts as he throws himself on my bed. Wrinkles shoot through his suit and leave him looking ruffled. “Not today, big brother.”

“Did someone call me?” Raniero walks through the door adjusting his own tie. “Hey, by the way, how long are we staying? I promised Calliope that I’d put Gabe to bed tonight. She needs a bubble bath and—” he stops talking when he realizes everyone in the room is staring at him with a look of disgust on their faces. “What?” He glares back at us. “Forgive me for having better things to do.”

Our little voice of reason and the youngest of the Valenti brothers, Cesare, reminds Raniero why we’re all attending the dean’s retirement party. “The family donated enough money to K-State to get a building named after us. You helped Dean Simon’s granddaughter get into Yale,” he points out, “I think that our presence is sort of a necessity.”

I should have just asked everyone to meet there. Having all this testosterone in my house is driving me nuts.

“Okay, but does anyone agree thatheshouldn’t go?” Luca points at me from the bed and I seriously consider walking over and punching him in the face.

The room goes quiet as all eyes turn from Raniero to me. Even the quietest of the guys, Stefano, looks at me curiously. “What?” I glare at them through the mirror. “I’m part of this family, too.” As I turn on my heel to meet their gaze directly, everyone starts talking all at once.

“Yeah, but you had that whole prison thing.” Cesare.

“Don’t forget this is Bambi’s college department.” Raniero.

“You’re sort of the black sheep of the family.” Luca.

“Yeah, but aren’t you the white sheep?” Cesare talking to Luca.

“This is about his dumb ass, not me.” Luca talking to Cesare.

“Can you even handle seeing her again?” Stefano.

I’m not easily overwhelmed, but Iameasily frustrated. “Stop, okay,” I raise my hands to draw attention to myself, “just stop. Yes, I fucked up a few years ago and killed a dude. Mind you, that was on Raniero’s orders, so don’t fucking put all of this on me.”

Raniero steps in to quietly add, “I didn’t say kill him in front of your fiancé though.”

I turn my head slowly to pierce my older brother with my eyes. If I could, I’d burn a hole through his chest. “You fucking hypocrite. Aren’t we all breaking the same fucking laws?” Before anyone can respond, I take jabs at them all. “You kidnapped the police chief’sdaughter. So don’t talk to me about committing a crime in secret. You fucking kidnapped her and then had a photographer take fake ass photos of the two of you having the time of your life so the city would think she was fine. You had Sampson going to her fucking apartment and making it sound lived in. So don’t preach all high and mighty about committing the right sort of crimes because I can think of at least six charges you should go to jail on.”

Silence. You’d think I dropped a bomb in the room. But I turn on Luca and read him to filth next. “You want to share with the class how you’ve been quietly changing city laws to benefit the family? How there’s suspiciously $150,000 of the Manhattan budget being spent on road repairs and I fucked up my car on Tuttle Creek Boulevardjust yesterday?” I hit a pothole and damn near popped my tire. It’s been slowly leaking air ever since and I’m going to have to go to Firestone in the next few days to get a replacement. “And don’t even get me started on the two of you,” I glare at Stefano and Cesare.

They’re the youngest of the Valenti boys at 33 and 32, respectively, but they’re no less innocent than the rest of us. Stefano almost got caught tampering with a jury on a case for a friend and Cesare has been casually ruining a woman’s life in order to convince her that he’s the only man that can protect her.

“We are all fucked up, okay. We’re Valentis, for Christ’s sake. I’m just the unlucky son of a bitch that got put behind bars for it. But make no mistake,” I warn them, “you fuckers aren’t innocent just because you haven’t been caught.”

Nobody tells me what to do, not when I’m a free man. You can ask for my help, but you can’t force me to help you. I am my own person. And tonight I’m going to the Dean’s retirement party. I don’t care what my brothers say.

I’ve spent two years lying in wait to get my hands on Bambi. I’m not backing down today.

“So are we driving together or what?” Raniero clears his throat and changes the subject.

Everyone groans. “I don’t want to ride in your Tesla,” Luca announces for all of us. “There’s no legroom when a guy wants to stretch out and take a nap.”

Raniero wrinkles his nose. “Good. I don’t want you sleeping in my Tesla. I just want to go home to my wife and baby.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Cesare waves, “we know. Is this what we’re all going to turn into when we’re married? Sappy dads that just want to stay at home and never do anything fun?”

“Speak for yourself,” I tell them. “The only person I want calling medaddyis Bambi. I want her to call me daddy when I’m hittin’ it just right from the back and—”

Luca rolls off the bed and interrupts me in the middle of my sentence. “Enough, Mat. We get it. Christ, you’re disgusting.”

That’s what he says, but we’ve all heard stories about Luca’s sexual conquests. He’s no better than me. We all like a little spice in our lives. Who doesn’t?

4

BAMBI

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