Page 7 of Lethal Lover

“Well, I can take you home, or you can come home with me…” His hand slides up my thigh until the tips of his fingers brush the seam between my thighs. My body grows so warm I think I’m going to pass out. Heat flushes my cheeks and pools in my groin. He wants me to “go home” with him, and that only means one thing. But on the second date?

“I… Uh….” I know what he wants. Honestly, I kinda want it too, but I don’t think I’m ready yet. I let a guy feel me up a few times—once, he got me off—but I’ve never done that. Not the whole shebang, and Liam will be expecting something I can’t do for him.

“Something wrong?” he asks, grinding the tips of his fingers against my sensitive part. My mind screams no, but my body wants to melt into him. I’m melting just thinking about how amazing an orgasm would feel right now, one I didn’t have to give myself. But we just met. I’m not ready.

“I’m a virgin, Liam. And I’m just not sure I’m ready for this yet.”

His hand retreats, much to my chagrin, but my mind has won out. My body will wait for another time, or I’ll self-pleasure at home imagining what could’ve been if I’d have just said yes to him. I just don’t want him to think I’m easy, and I don’t wantto jump into something with him that I may regret later. What would my mother think?

“Well, I completely understand. I wouldn’t want to do anything that you’re not comfortable with.” He says the right words, but there is an undertone of maleficence in his words. It doesn’t make me feel uncomfortable because he pulls away, but I am frustrated with myself.

“I’m sorry.”

“Do not be sorry.” He touches my cheek lightly. “Once a flower is plucked, it cannot bloom again.” He leans in and presses his lips to mine in an explosion of sensations that makes me want to change my mind, but I can’t. I haven’t brought protection, and besides, I want my first time to be really special. Not on a second date after eating Burger King. I’m glad Liam respects that.

Maybe Warren is worried about nothing. I’m sure the director’s mugging was just a random, horrible thing. Good people still exist, like Liam.

5

LIAM

Irritated that I’ve been summoned to my father’s office over something so stupid, I try to remind myself that he’s grooming me to take over his position as leader of this Family when he dies. Though, it isn’t my fault my guy was dumb enough to do the job without covering his face. Maybe he thought the bastard would die and not be able to talk, but I can’t see how he thought that. Now I have to listen to my father rip me a new one again.

“He’s waiting for you,” Maverick says as I pass by his station down the hall from my father’s office door. The behemoth of a man leads the security team and intimidates everyone who walks these halls, except me. I grew up here, and he knows he’ll report to me soon enough. No sense in my being bothered by him.

Irritated, I stride down the hallway, my leather boots clicking against the polished marble floor. The office doors stand tall and imposing at the end of the corridor, adorned with an intricate carving of our family crest. As I approach, they open inward slightly, revealing a sliver of gold-trimmed darkness within.Music drifts out—an oldies tune my father often plays when he's in a foul mood. The scents of rich mahogany furniture and expensive cologne waft toward me, mixing with the faint aroma of cigar smoke.

Pushing the door open, I step into my father's office. The room is a study in opulence. Plush, deep red carpet muffles my footsteps. Matching drapes frame the wall-to-wall windows that offer a view of our sprawling estate. A large mahogany desk dominates the space, its surface clear except for an antique brass lamp that casts warm light over leather-bound ledgers and framed photos of past family members—all powerful and ruthless like him.

He stands by the curtains watching over the expanse of gardens, a cigar in one hand and a glass of whiskey in the other. I don’t bother announcing myself. He knows I’m here. He probably watched me on the surveillance system as I arrived out front and walked through the house. I stand by his desk with my hands folded in front of myself waiting for my dressing-down to begin. The sooner I get this over, the sooner I can get back to the things I want to be doing.

“Do you see this, Dominic?” His eyes are trained on something beyond the curtain which I can’t see from this angle, but I don’t think I need to see it in order to get the point of his statement. I say nothing and he continues. “Land like this isn’t cheap.” He turns away from the window and faces me, and the sunlight shining into his dark office casts an eerie shadow across his face. “Millions… hundreds of millions, I spent buying these properties, demolishing them, transforming them into what you so easily take for granted.” He walks toward his desk and puffs on his cigar.

I’ve seen the look on his face before. He thinks I’m ungrateful and that I need to grow up, but I work just as hard as anyone elsein this Family. I know who I am and who I will be one day, and I just like to enjoy that a little too much sometimes, at least by his standard.

“I’m not sure I understand what you are getting at.” I unbutton my suit coat and slide my hand into my pocket. I know exactly what point he’s trying to make, and he’s wrong, but I’ll never correct him. I’m not stupid enough to do that again. I tried once as a teenager, and it earned me a hard smack and six months doing grunt work at the restaurant.

“Cameron was arrested for the little incident you planned and orchestrated.” His eyebrows peak in the middle as his lips turn into a sour pucker. “If I wanted to throw my entire estate and organization into the shitter, I’d do it myself.”

I scoff and turn toward the leather armchairs situated by his desk and have a seat, crossing one leg over the other. My giving orders isn’t the same thing as my screwing the job up. That’s all on Cameron. I didn’t think I had to spell it out for him to wear a mask when he did a mugging.

“Your legacy isn’t going into the shitter. Our guys go down for shit all the time. Louie is in the slammer right now, remember?” I run a hand through my hair and roll my eyes at his overdramatization of the circumstance. We have men on the police force for this reason. They cover things up. Sometimes, they let something slip.

Dad sits down in his chair and sets his whiskey tumbler on the coaster to the right of his mouse pad. He isn’t an intimidating man physically—shorter than me by several inches and not as broad in the shoulder, either. He doesn’t work out, and age is beginning to show in all of his features. But anyone who evenhears the name Luciantonio Salvatore trembles. I’ve done my share of shaking too.

“Dominic, if you can’t lead your small faction of men under my command, how will you lead this organization?” His gaze bears down on me, eyes narrowing as he sets the cigar down in the ashtray. “All of this for a woman, too? Is that what I hear?”

I shrug a shoulder and look away, irritated. “Not like you haven’t done similar things.” He likes to pretend he’s perfect, that he’s never made a rash decision or impulsive choice in his past.

“You had the director mugged so they would cancel a production so you could spend time with the actress?” His tone is accusatory and insulting. “You took stupid risks to get pussy.”

My hands clench into fists and I grit my teeth. This is the part where I just let him go off on me and say nothing. I don’t think it was a risk. I think it was a calculated move that enabled me to get what I wanted, but I don’t voice that now.

“Yes, but she was worth it.” I deadpan, not breaking eye contact with the man who created me. His nostrils flare in anger, and I know I’ve gone too far. How would he feel if he knew I didn’t even fuck her yet?

“Women are a dime a dozen, Dominic. You can’t let them distract you from your purpose.” He stands up and paces the room, red-faced and fuming. “You can’t lead with your dick.”

He’s right. I know he is. But he also doesn’t understand that when he met Mom, it was game over for him too. When a man meetsThe One, nothing is too extreme, there’s no line he won’t cross.

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