Page 63 of Burn this City

“You could take today to familiarize yourself some more if you need.”

Spadaro shrugged. “I’m all set.”

“Enzo?”

“I’ll start tonight. Late enough so most civilians are off the streets. Some guys might be off to clubs, but we’ve given them the opportunity to schedule a one-hour same-day delivery slot, so hopefully they’ll use that.” Enzo laughed, shaking his head, so clearly in love with his idea and contribution that it made Sal smile. “So we can be sure our courier will catch them.”

Spadaro smirked. “We are ambush hunters. Always good to know where the prey will be.”

“I’m glad you both are having fun,” Sal muttered, but found himself enjoying this part of plotting the mass-murder of the whole Lo Cascio clan. His phone buzzed again. “I’ll go pick up Jack.”

He checked the screen on the way down, but it was just Jack telling him he’d arrived outside the garage, so Sal phoned security and told them to let the silver Porsche inside. He headed toward the parking spaces marked “Guests”, and there Jack was, closing the car door behind himself with a satisfying thud. Sal’s heart skipped a painful beat, and his fingers tingled with the urge to touch him. That was unlike him. He could lust over lovers, enjoy the anticipation of meeting a hook-up, wholly feast on an attractive couple hosting him at their house, but he

Instead of walking up to Jack and grabbing him in a tight hug, he let him come toward him. Despite the tension around Jack’s lips, he couldn’t help but smile. The harsh neon lights of the car park were decidedly unkind to Jack—they made him look pale, and the bruises looked more serious. It would take weeks for the discoloration to vanish, though the swelling was definitely down. But despite all that, Jack still looked amazing in his classic suit and shirt. “Let’s go to the elevator.”Because I don’t know what I’ll do if we don’t get away from any potentially curious eyes.

“Yeah, good idea.” Jack sounded a little breathless himself.

Sal stepped into the elevator first and hit the button once Jack had joined him. The moment the doors closed, Jack shifted his weight uneasily and then hit the “stop” button. He turned around and the last thing Sal saw before Jack was right up in his space and kissed him was an expression somewhere between despair and pure need.

“Fuck,” he muttered before he kissed him back. This kind of kiss—both of them clear-headed, or as clear-headed as they could possibly be, given the circumstances—made his soul feel raw.

Emboldened, Jack grabbed him by the shoulders and pushed him back against the wall of the cabin, and Sal loved that urgency. He didn’t fight him, but grabbed Jack’s belt and pulled him even closer, until their bodies were grinding together. Jack gasped, broke the kiss and pressed his forehead against Sal’s. “You’re trying to destroy my sanity, aren’t you?”

“Why, is it working?” Sal grinned and grabbed Jack by the neck. “And are you enjoying it?”

“It scares me to death.”

“That makes two of us, but we got this.”

“You think?”

“I do.” Sal pushed Jack back enough so he could look him in the eyes. “Why are you here? What’s wrong?”

“Nothing’s wrong. I needed to see you. And Andrea’s going to have a party tonight, and I have to be there. And maybe you can do something with that.” Jack closed his eyes. “But mostly I needed to see you. After last night …”

“Liked the videos?”

Jack nodded. “I want …”

Sal almost didn’t expect Jack to say the words. What the man needed was plenty clear from the way he sought every bit of contact he could get, that shine in his eyes, and a slight flush that spoke of a need so strong it was melting his barriers from the inside. Getting somebody like Jack—who’d denied himself for so long—to such a state took some doing, but Sal didn’t gloat. He found it both terribly endearing and hot as hell that Jack had come to him not just willingly, but clearly craving him, and this moment was the payoff he’d been after ever since he’d decided he’d try to seduce the man, mind and body and soul.

Jack tried to collect himself, swallowed. “I want you. Like that. If I can.”

“Anything specific?”

“No. All of it. I need to know what it feels like, what you feel like.” He looked almost sheepish then, as if he seriously thought Sal might be toying with him. “If I’m going to die, worst-case scenario, if everything goes sideways and I catch a bullet, I want to know what it’s like to … have sex with a man.” Another hard swallow. “With you.”

This wasn’t the first time that Sal had been propositioned in an elevator, but definitely the sweetest and most heart-felt one. “Same. With you. I know what it’s like, but I’m definitely up to fuck you specifically.”

“Oh, thank God,” Jack muttered, and Sal chuckled.

“I’m not playing. You need to know that before we get out of this elevator and into my bedroom.” He reached past Jack and hit the stop button again, and with a small jerk, the cabin resumed its smooth movement. “They check on elevators quickly here, and the technicians can have the door open in less than a minute, so we should have this conversation upstairs.”

“All right.” Jack straightened his suit but looked very flustered. “I still feel … stupid. Insecure. Worried. You’re right, how can I get this old and …”

“It’s hot.” Sal winked at him. “You won’t have any bad sexual habits to unlearn, for one. It gets tiring really fucking quickly if a partner has a script in their head about how sex is supposed to go. You don’t have that. And that’s hot.”

“I know porn isn’t actual sex …”

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