Page 45 of Bad Medicine
“You got a date later tonight, or what?” he drawled, his eyes dipping down to my cleavage. “You gonna be seeing that fancy fuck doctor you were so concerned about before?”
“That’s not what happened, and you know it.” Crossing my arms, I lowered my voice, not wanting anyone else to hear this conversation. “Dr. Edwards is a colleague and nothing more.”
“Dr. Edwards is a putz, but maybe that’s your type, hey?”
I frowned, wondering what the hell his problem was. “You don’t even know him.” It wasn’t that I was a huge Elliot Edwards fan, but I still felt that defending him was somehow defending myself.
Backwards logic, but whatever.
“I don’t have to know him to know he’s a putz, Doc.” Reaching past me, Rocco grabbed a meatball on a toothpick, popping it into his mouth and chewing, flashing me an evil grin at the same time. “But like I said, that’s fine, if putz is what you’re into.” Finishing the meatball, Rocco leaned one elbow on the counter next to me, sliding the toothpick into the corner of his mouth, and I was annoyed by how sexy it made him look.
In fact, he was looking really damn fine, his dark jeans and tight black V-neck t-shirt giving him more of a rock star vibe than the classic mobster look I’d seen him in before. I hated how much I liked it.
“Oh, please. I haven't been into anything for a long time,” I snapped without thinking, then immediately regretted it. The look of surprise that flashed on Rock’s face had me turning back to my wine, gulping down the other half as fast as I had the first.
“Is that what the problem is, Doc?” Rocco questioned, his tone gone from snarly to seductive in a blink. “It’s not that you don’t want what I can offer, it’s just that you’re out of practice.” I stared at him, mouth open, as he spoke.
“That is none of your business,” I said quietly, feeling my face heat. Shit, this was worse than I had anticipated. “Now, please. Just drop it.”
“Alright, Doc. I’ll let it go,” Rock said, pulling the toothpick out of his mouth and leaning down to whisper in my ear. “For now.”
And with that ominous statement hanging in the air, Rocco returned to the opposite side of the kitchen island and continued snacking as though he hadn’t just thrown down a sexual gauntlet in the middle of Thanksgiving dinner.
“Is it ready?” he called to Francesca, not taking his eyes off mine.
“It’s almost time, Rocco,” she teased, opening the oven and peering inside. “Not that you’ll have any room left after the amount of food you’ve packed away.”
“I promise you, boss lady. There’s room,” he said, lifting his shirt and patting his ridiculously firm abs. Good grief, how did any real human look like that? I didn’t want to stare, truly. But I hadn’t seen anything so sexy outside of a fitness magazine in my whole life. Catching me looking, Rocco grinned, licking his lips and adding, “There’s always room for something tasty.”
Oh, holy heck.
Reaching for the bottle of wine, I topped up my glass.
This was going to be a long freaking night.
Chapter twenty
Mia
“He’sstaringagain,”Lexisaid, not looking up from her laptop. I didn’t know how, but she was somehow still aware of the fact that Rocco was staring this way.
“He’s been staring all night,” Lucky growled, her arms crossed over her chest as she stared right back. “What the fuck is his problem anyway?”
“I’m not sure I know what you’re talking about,” I fibbed, trying to steer the conversation away from literally the only topic I wanted to avoid at the moment. When I had moved from the kitchen to join the ladies on the patio, I hadn’t expected the third degree.
“I do,” Lexi piped up helpfully. “He’s smitten.”
I couldn’t help it; I snorted.
“He’s hardly smitten, Lexi,” I said, still unable to actually look at the man in question. Instead, I lookednearhim, letting him dance in my peripheral vision as he helped Frankie in the kitchen, lifting the huge turkey out of the oven and prepping it for slicing.
Every smile he threw at her, every time he said something that made Enzo shake his head, my heart tripped over. The man had presence, and just being in the same room as him seemed to spread warmth to all the shadowed places inside me.
For all my concern about Rocco’s place in Frankie and Enzo’s business, it was how he made me feel that was the most dangerous thing about him.
“Besides,” I tossed out, desperate to change the subject. “If anyone’s smitten, it’s Benny.”
Lexi scowled while Lucky huffed out a sound that I thought was supposed to be a laugh.
