so my only hope was using the attraction between us. I’d failed last time, but maybe if I let things go further…
My heart thumped hard. Just how far was I willing to go? I wasn’t completely unspoiled, but my sexual prowess was fairly untested beyond the usual heavy petting. Despite my Catholic upbringing, I knew how to give myself an orgasm—and Charlie Gerrity, the one boy I’d dated seriously in high school, had certainly been no great challenge—but Enzo was another entity altogether. He wasn’t a school boy ready to go off at the sight of a girl’s knees. He was a man, and he seemed like a man with experience. Would I know what to do to get him to yield? And how would I keep my temper in check? Every time I thought about the way he’d stolen Al Murphy’s business, screwing me out of making the ransom money, my skin got hot with rage. It would take a huge effort not to accuse him of deliberately playing dirty with me, not that he’d care.
It’s a dirty business, Tiny.
It sure as hell was. Dirty and dangerous and full of constant temptation.
As I remembered his fingers beneath my dress, on my bare skin, touching the most sensitive parts of me, my body thrummed with desire. I flexed and fisted my hands in the sheet, imagining what his body was like underneath those custom suits. Suddenly I had all kinds of ideas for getting him to talk.
He said he found me hard to resist. I was going to test him on that.
#
“I might be able to help you,” Rosie said coyly, leaning toward her reflection as she applied her lipstick. With her social life, I thought she might know some people interested in buying whisky, so I’d stopped by hoping to see her before she left for work. She met my eyes in the bedroom mirror. “But what’s in it for me?”
I couldn’t offer her cash—I needed every dollar to pay Angel. But there was something I thought she’d go for. “How’d you like to go to Club 23 tonight?”
She straightened. “You serious?”
“Yes.”
She capped her lipstick and rubbed her ruby lips together. “Why do you need the money so bad?”
“My father’s in trouble. I’m helping him cover a debt, and I have to pay it immediately.” I’d decided to be up front with Rosie because she liked Daddy. Mr. LaChance had an eye for other women and a tendency to disappear for weeks at a time, and more than once Daddy had helped Mrs. LaChance pay the rent.
Rosie nodded. “What’s the price?”
“Fifteen per bottle.”
She admired her reflection again. “Club 23, huh? I bet there’s a lot of high class daddies in there.” In the mirror, her eyes wandered around the room she shared with Evelyn. “Maybe I could get out of this dump.”
“So it’s a deal?”
“It’s a deal.” She went to the closet and pulled down a brown leather suitcase. “Pack as many bottles as you can in here, and I’ll take ‘em down to the store. I know a few suits I can sweet talk.”
I ran out to my car and hustled in one sack of whisky. We managed to tuck all twelve bottles inside the case. “I bet I’ll have it all sold before lunch,” she bragged, flipping the latches closed.
“If you do, I’ll buy your first drink at the club.”
She pursed her perfect bow lips as she slipped into her shoes. “Honey, once we’re through that door, you can go chase yourself. I won’t need you.”
#
That day, I called or visited every customer on our list. I braved sales calls to restaurants where I knew the owners and even ventured into the Country Club to speak with a waiter I’d gone to high school with. Short of standing on a street corner and shouting to the world that I had whisky for sale, I’d done everything possible to move every last drop, but at five o’clock I still had forty unsold bottles. That meant I’d be six hundred dollars short when I faced Angel tonight, and that was assuming Rosie managed to sell all twelve bottles she’d taken to work.
I drove home, racking my brain. Who could I borrow
My heart thumped hard. Just how far was I willing to go? I wasn’t completely unspoiled, but my sexual prowess was fairly untested beyond the usual heavy petting. Despite my Catholic upbringing, I knew how to give myself an orgasm—and Charlie Gerrity, the one boy I’d dated seriously in high school, had certainly been no great challenge—but Enzo was another entity altogether. He wasn’t a school boy ready to go off at the sight of a girl’s knees. He was a man, and he seemed like a man with experience. Would I know what to do to get him to yield? And how would I keep my temper in check? Every time I thought about the way he’d stolen Al Murphy’s business, screwing me out of making the ransom money, my skin got hot with rage. It would take a huge effort not to accuse him of deliberately playing dirty with me, not that he’d care.
It’s a dirty business, Tiny.
It sure as hell was. Dirty and dangerous and full of constant temptation.
As I remembered his fingers beneath my dress, on my bare skin, touching the most sensitive parts of me, my body thrummed with desire. I flexed and fisted my hands in the sheet, imagining what his body was like underneath those custom suits. Suddenly I had all kinds of ideas for getting him to talk.
He said he found me hard to resist. I was going to test him on that.
#
“I might be able to help you,” Rosie said coyly, leaning toward her reflection as she applied her lipstick. With her social life, I thought she might know some people interested in buying whisky, so I’d stopped by hoping to see her before she left for work. She met my eyes in the bedroom mirror. “But what’s in it for me?”
I couldn’t offer her cash—I needed every dollar to pay Angel. But there was something I thought she’d go for. “How’d you like to go to Club 23 tonight?”
She straightened. “You serious?”
“Yes.”
She capped her lipstick and rubbed her ruby lips together. “Why do you need the money so bad?”
“My father’s in trouble. I’m helping him cover a debt, and I have to pay it immediately.” I’d decided to be up front with Rosie because she liked Daddy. Mr. LaChance had an eye for other women and a tendency to disappear for weeks at a time, and more than once Daddy had helped Mrs. LaChance pay the rent.
Rosie nodded. “What’s the price?”
“Fifteen per bottle.”
She admired her reflection again. “Club 23, huh? I bet there’s a lot of high class daddies in there.” In the mirror, her eyes wandered around the room she shared with Evelyn. “Maybe I could get out of this dump.”
“So it’s a deal?”
“It’s a deal.” She went to the closet and pulled down a brown leather suitcase. “Pack as many bottles as you can in here, and I’ll take ‘em down to the store. I know a few suits I can sweet talk.”
I ran out to my car and hustled in one sack of whisky. We managed to tuck all twelve bottles inside the case. “I bet I’ll have it all sold before lunch,” she bragged, flipping the latches closed.
“If you do, I’ll buy your first drink at the club.”
She pursed her perfect bow lips as she slipped into her shoes. “Honey, once we’re through that door, you can go chase yourself. I won’t need you.”
#
That day, I called or visited every customer on our list. I braved sales calls to restaurants where I knew the owners and even ventured into the Country Club to speak with a waiter I’d gone to high school with. Short of standing on a street corner and shouting to the world that I had whisky for sale, I’d done everything possible to move every last drop, but at five o’clock I still had forty unsold bottles. That meant I’d be six hundred dollars short when I faced Angel tonight, and that was assuming Rosie managed to sell all twelve bottles she’d taken to work.
I drove home, racking my brain. Who could I borrow
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