Page 97 of Worth the Risk

“How can you say that, Dan. Since we’ve been together, you’ve held back. Don’t you think I realize spanking my butt till it’s warm and tingling isn’t the real you?”

“Who says? I seemed to get off quite spectacularly after spanking your butt, or flogging your breasts, and—”

“You say that now,” she interrupted. “But what happens in three months or a year, or three years when that doesn’t do it for you anymore? What if I can’t be what you need?”

“You’re exactly what I need, Bella. I joined the Marines because I was searching for a future and trying to fill a void. After sixteen years of service and a failed marriage, something was still missing. I joined the SAPD. They werea clusterfuck of corruption and didn’t give me what I needed, either. Then I found a home at Rossi and at the club, but the void persisted. What got me off when I was younger didn’t have the same satisfaction. I upped the ante, which just left me feeling emptier than I already was. The last few women who interested me weren’t masochists. One was like you, vanilla. But none of them could make me laugh, or made me hard simply by licking their lips, or took my hand, the hand of a sadist, with trust in her eyes and rocked my world. What I was searching for all this time, Bella, was you. You’ve filled the void, so I don’t need anything. Vanilla, hell, even missionary with you blew me away, and that’s why I’m not letting you go. Got it?”

She sniffled. “That was the sweetest thing I’ve ever heard in my life.”

“I’ll take sweet, as long as you as you say you’re mine, for a lifetime.”

“You’re sure you’re not risking your kids?”

“Never more so, baby. Besides, you’re worth the risk.”

Through tears making her blue eyes luminescent, she smiled up at him. “That’s funny. That’s what I told myself the night I dowsed a man with margarita who then asked to get to know me better. I said it again when I learned he was a sadist and wanted to do all kinds of kinky things to my body. Then again, when he learned I had secrets, and instead of walking out the door drizzled chocolate sauce all over me.”

He yanked the towel and pulled her naked body against his. With his lips hovering over her mouth, so close she could feel the brush of his breath, he asked, “Was I?”

“Yes. You were worth the risk because I fell in love with you, and true love is always worth it.”

“I love you, too, beautiful.” He lifted her, and when she wrapped her arms and legs around him and heatedly returned his kiss, he carried her to his bed and loved her in a most vanilla fashion, but it was spectacular.

Chapter 21

BELLA AND DAN’S WORLDhad been in upheaval since the day they met. If she thought being dead to Lorenzo and Paulo Giordano would settle things down, she thought wrong. The following week was just as tumultuous, except she didn’t have someone shot dead and fall at her feet, get abducted by the Mafia, or experience the excitement of steering an out-of-control SUV going the wrong way on eastbound I-10. Thank heaven it was the middle of the night and not rush hour.

What she did have was a boyfriend with an ex-wife in big trouble. After Allison made a stink about Bella’s association with criminals, two days later, she became one herself—allegedly. The Austin DA filed charges of accessory after the fact. Accusing her of not reporting the crime but benefiting from the proceeds, and then assisting Evan, the embezzler—again, allegedly—in covering it up.

Needless to say, Dan picked up his kids after school and moved them in with them. Yes, them. She’d gone home with Dan after spending the day in the police station talking to detectives and special agents, and he’d moved her in the next day.

And that wasn’t all that went down. The day after that, a slew of high-profile arrests out of New Jersey made the national news. The charges weren’t for the three-decade-old murder of Marcus Pietro, but racketeering based on information from a CI, who, Dan predicted, was already in protective custody. The boss and his lieutenants were swept up in the sting.

“They got Ernie to flip,” Bella breathed in shock. “That only happens in the movies.”

“My guess is it was the driver,” Dan had countered.

---