Page 277 of Dangerous as Sin

He doesn't miss a beat. His eyes never waver from me as he bridges the distance between us. “I know. I came to see you.”

“Me?” I squeak, wincing when I sound like a frightened mouse. I clear my throat. “Do I know you?”

What a stupid question. Of course, I don't know him. If I'd ever seen a man like him, there's no way I could forget him. His image has already been burned into the back of my retinas.

“No, but I know you, tesoro.” He reaches out slowly as if I'm an animal that he doesn't want to spook before his hand gently cups my cheek.

I can't help it. I close my eyes and lean into his touch. I'm not one for being touched. I wasn’t the girl who had loving parental figures giving her hugs and raining kisses down upon her. I’ve never had any boyfriends either. I saw too many other orphans looking for affection and then ending up pregnant as a result, and I didn't want that to happen to me.

So, I don't know if it's just him or the absence of touch in my life that has my skin tingling at the contact, but I suspect it’s just him.

He strokes his thumb gently over my cheek, and when I open my eyes, his blue orbs are blazing down at me intently like a roaring blue fire.

His phone chirps, and I sense his irritation at being interrupted as he pulls it out of his pocket. He frowns down at the screen, and his face has turned stony when he looks back up at me, a hint of regret in his eyes. “I'm sorry, but I have to go now.”

His hand comes up to cup my cheek again. His face looms closer to mine as he brings his lips down until they're just a hair's breadth from mine. They’re so close I can feel them skimming across my lips as he whispers, “Be a good girl until next time.”

“Next time?” I expel the words in a breathless rush, but he's already turned and is walking away from me. All I can do is stand there, my entire body trembling as I gape after him.

When he reaches the door, he turns back and orders me, “Lock this back immediately.”

It’s like I'm in a trance. I immediately move to obey him.

He nods at me in approval, his eyes blazing down into mine through the glass one last time before he turns and strides over to a waiting vehicle. He gets in the backseat, and I watch in a daze as the darkened vehicle pulls away from the curb, my mind still reeling.

What the hell was that?

CHAPTER TWO

Massimo

Incompetent. Every fucking one of them. I swear to God, I’m going to fire every last man working in this warehouse.

“How the hell did Doyle’s men get past our guys?”

The moron on the other end of the line sputters as he tries to come up with an excuse.

“Never mind!” I snap at him. “Just contain it for fuck’s sake.”

I grip the phone in my hand so tightly I hear the case crack. I was interrupted with my little Gracie for this. This fucking territorial bullshit. Doyle better hope I never get my hands on him because I’ll wring his fucking neck for all the aggravation he’s caused me.

The head of the Irish mafia has been a pain in our asses for as long as I can remember, but he’s gotten cocky lately. Now he’s encroaching on our territory, and my father is so livid about it, I’m surprised he hasn’t given himself a heart attack over it. Just the mention of Conner Doyle’s name is enough to raise his blood pressure so high that his face turns red as a beet.

The Irishman is our biggest enemy, and he’s getting bolder, but he’s slipperier than an oiled snake. He’s always just out of our reach. To make matters worse, he has no family to speak of—no wife or children—so no weaknesses to exploit to draw him out.

No, he sits protected behind a wall of security and keeps sending his lowest men to antagonize us.

But he’s going to slip up one day, and when he does, I’ll be there. And I’m going to make him pay double for interrupting me when I finally got to meet my little tesoro in the flesh.

I feel my skin vibrate just thinking about her. Maybe it was premature for me to show myself to her now, but I couldn’t take it anymore. I had to touch her, be near her, smell her. Her sweet berry scent still fills my nostrils, and I can still feel how petal soft her skin felt beneath my fingertips. Her lips were so pink, so ripe.

I need to taste her.

Soon, I promise myself. Soon, she’ll be completely mine.

It's killing me not being able to be near my little Gracie. Everything's ready to go on my end, except for fucking Doyle raising hell and starting a war. As much as I'm dying to take Gracie for myself right now, I know that now isn't the best time. I can't take her in the middle of a war and put her in danger like that. If people find out she means something to me, she'll become a target.

Still, I can't stop myself from watching her every spare moment I get. I have cameras put up inside her little apartment and everywhere she frequents. I make sure I have a camera on her at all times. I watch her as she walks to and from work. I have a tracking device installed on her phone so I can pull up the app on my phone and pinpoint her at any moment. I have this obsessive need to know where she is at all times.

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