Page 24 of Veiled Amor

She might need Jesus and his disciples before this was over.

But she had a feeling only Judas would rock up to her party.

NINE

“Too close for biker comfort.” - Capone

To get them out of that too small motel room where he picked up her perfume with every breath, he took her to eat a few hours later.

“What you hungry for?” He asked her, all too aware she was walking at his side, their arms brushing.

“Whatever you’re having is fine.”

Capone’s feet came to a halt on the sidewalk, making the people behind him take a wide berth as a guy cursed for the disturbance but thought better of it when Capone glared at him.

“Lucia, what do you wanna eat?”

“I already said…”

“I know what you said, and knock that shit off. Don’t passively go along with whatever someone else wants.” He’d guessed that shit so on the money when she flushed and took her eyes away from his. “I know it’s all you’ve known, but you can do whatever the fuck you want,sí?”

“Yes. I could eat a sandwich.” She smiled up at him like he’d given her the Hope Diamond, and he felt the punch of it in his gut.

She was too beautiful, and he’d underestimated how difficult this would be.

They walked a few blocks. The one thing he didn’t have to do was worrying about the silence because Lucia filled in the gaps with a running commentary of the missing six years of their lives.

Capone found his lips twitching as she told him about people from the old neighborhood he knew. He’d kept in touch with so few.

“You wouldn’t recognize the neighborhood now,” she said as they reached a local bar. He opened the door, ushering Lucia in first, “so much has changed.”

He knew that already. He didn’t ever go back to Miami, but he monitored old haunts through his MC buddies. At the first opportunity, after he’d left, he had his parents’ house demolished, and the land sold. He knew there was a new women’s refuge there now, owned by the city. A place he anonymously donated to every year. He thought his mom would approve. She never approved of much of what he did. By the time he was sixteen, he was already running with the local MC, earning a reputation of someone not to be messed with. But like all good Puerto Rican sons, he loved his mama.

After choosing a corner booth, he passed her a menu, listening to her stories. He’d missed her rabid conversations. With anyone else, he would have told them to shut the fuck up. Instead, he listened to her melodic voice, knowing how her throat moved under his hand when she was making other noises.

Goddammit.

It wasn’t something he needed forefront in his mind. But as she looked over the menu, he watched her slim throat working when she swallowed, and he felt a tightening in his jeans.

To look at her, Lucia appeared like a sweetheart of a girl, a former cheerleader homecoming queen, quiet with a heart as big as her eyes. She wouldn’t fuck around with a biker, not someone like him. She was made for a high climbing career and a marriage to a nice guy. But he’d seen a different side to her, hadn’t he? He wanted to know if many knew how dirty that sweet tongue of hers was. How many men had she whispered her dirty words to make them lose their minds, as Capone had?

“Earth to Capone.” He flipped his gaze up to find Lucia watching him, smiling.

Capone? Since when did she call him by his road name? It made his jaw tick. He’d always been Gi or Giancarlo to her. The last person who called him by his name.

“The server is waiting to take your order.” Some watchdog he was when he hadn’t noticed the younger girl coming to their table. “I’ll take a beer and a fried shrimp po’ boy.”

“Extra jalapeños, right?” Piped Lucia, and he stared across at her, answering in a hot rasp. “Yeah.”

“Be right back, folks.”

“What did you order?”

“A croque monsieur and some Cajun fries for the table. I remember you liked them spicy.”

The food came out within a few minutes, Capone was on his second bottle of beer. He watched the delicate way Lucia tested her pink lemonade with simple sips.

“Do you mind?” She asked, sluicing fries through his pot of garlic aioli before he could answer her.

---