Page 55 of The Devil's Playground

I press a kiss to her navel, tonguing her belly button before rubbing my nose against the gentle swell of her lower abdomen. She writhes beneath me, enjoying my caresses. Taking heart in that, I skim my hands up her sides.

Her shirt is bunched up beneath her tits, her full midsection on display. She seems comfortable enough like this. Why not go a little further?

Slipping my fingers beneath the cups, I shove her bra over her tits so that I have full access to them.

That’s all I wanted. I love her body, but after fantasizing over the cleavage she had on display down at the Playground for months now, I’ve been dreaming about getting my palms on her breasts without anything coming between us.

They’re gorgeous. A perfect handful, perky just the way a twenty-seven-year-old’s are when they’re not sagged down after having kids, with pretty pink nipples that have my mouth watering.

“See? I told you there was nothing about you that isn’t fucking beautiful. Look at these tits.” I lower my head, just about to suck one of those perfect nipples into my mouth?—

—and that’s when I see what she was hiding from me.

“What’s this?”

Nicolette suddenly pales. Her hand cups the curve of her breast, slapping over the ink, but there’s no point hiding it. I know what I saw.

I just don’t know what I’m supposed to do about it.

“Royce, I…”

That’s all she says. Scooting away from me, covering the tattoo with one hand, tugging down her bra awkwardly with the other, she mouths wordlessly as I stare, half-disbelieving.

It’s a dragonfly.

Over the years, both when the Libellula Family was just starting out, and once they were firmly our rivals, I’ve seen a shit ton of dragonfly tattoos.

I always thought it was hysterical. One of the things Damien sniffed over when me and Link split off from him was how Link decided that anyone loyal to our local mafia would have a devil tattoo in honor of him. And, yet, what did Damien do?

Insist that anyone in his Family be marked with a dragonfly.

I get it. Libellula literally is the Italian translation for the word ‘dragonfly’, and god knows that Damien is insanely proud of his heritage. He formed his crime family to protect his birth family—including his younger sister, Genevieve—and used the dragonfly as both the name and symbol for his gang.

Unlike Devil’s specific design—the devil horns and tail that nearly all Sinners have—Damien’s dragonflies don’t necessarily look the same. They come in different shapes and sizes and colors, but they’re as professionally done as anything Cross can do.

The tattoo that is drawn just below the curve of Nicolette’s right boob? That one definitely isn’t.

The lines are shaky. I’m no artist—I leave that to Cross—but even I recognize a shit job. I’d chalk it up to the positioning since it couldn’t have been easy to start on her side, then curve up around the tit itself, but a pro could do it.

And that tells me a pro didn’t do it.

So who did?

Deep down, I already know the answer. Because this? This isn’t a tattoo that marks the wearer as a proud Dragonfly.

Oh, no.

This is a brand that marks a woman as a Dragonfly’s property.

I swallow the rush of anger threatening to gag me. If what I suspect is true… it’s not Nic’s fault. Yes, she hid it from me, but wouldn’t I do the same thing? My tattoo is where it is, not because I’m ashamed of it, but because it means something to me. Anyone who doesn’t think I’m a Sinner only has to ask me to prove it and I’d start unbuttoning my shirt gladly.

Not Nic. Poor girl… she spent the last few weeks clinging to her shirts because she didn’t want me to see it.

Cool it, Royce. Don’t give her any reason to think she made the right decision, hiding it from you.

I’ve only just found out about Alfieri. If I hadn’t known the truth of her past… if I hadn’t known she had a tie to the Dragonflies… how would I have reacted to seeing that the woman I was obsessing over was a member of my syndicate’s rivals? Truce or no truce, I know the answer to that.

I’d feel tricked. Betrayed. Like I fucked up again, and it was like falling in with Heather all over again.

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