Page 2 of Mafia Men Need Love Too
Van’s face fell, and he let out a disgusted sigh. “Fine. But you’ll let me know, right?”
“When the time comes, he’s all yours.”
Van cracked his knuckles, and his expression hardened in a way that made the stripper on stage turn on her plastic heels and scurry away. Nico was impressed. Scurrying in those shoes without face planting took strength and skill. Maybe if they got rid of Ricky, they could hire her to take his place.
But maybe now that his stupid conversation with Ricky was done, he could finally find a woman to distract him from the mind-numbing monotony of his life for a…
That’s when she caught his eye.
She stood out in a room full of half-naked women not because of her beauty (though, she was beautiful, to be sure), but because of how absolutely she did not belong there. She looked like a sweet little daisy amid a bouquet of black roses—lovely, but 100% misplaced.
First of all, she was tiny. If she was five-two, he’d be surprised. The biggest thing about her was the mass of ink-black, curly hair that trailed over her shoulders and down her back. Could it possibly be as soft as it looked?
Her black dress was fitted to her body (which was curvy and flawless, by the way), but modest—not too short, not too low cut. She looked like she was dressed for a funeral, not an evening at a strip club frequented by the mafia.
She had delicate features, big blue eyes, and pouty lips that were begging to be kissed. She looked…clean. Innocent. What could have gone wrong enough in her life to lead her here?
His fiorellino was looking around the room, eyes scanning for…something. He had no idea for what, or who. Oddly enough, he was a little jealous of whatever or whoever she was searching for, because he knew it wasn’t him. If he’d met this woman before, he’d remember.
Then her gaze shifted to his, caught, and stuck there for a good long while.
Being the center of her attention felt like waking up after a long, cold hibernation and feeling a sunbeam on your face. It was the first time in—hell, he didn’t even know how long—ages that he’d felt something other than apathy.
He watched as she took a few deep breaths, squared her shoulders, and smoothed her hair with trembling hands. She was obviously working up her nerve. For what he had no idea. But as she took first one, then two tentative steps in his direction, he sat up straighter.
Was she actually going to approach him? And if she was, why did she look like she might vomit?
Van followed his gaze and moved to stand. No one approached Nico without Van’s approval, and sadly, this woman didn’t have it. But Nico laid a hand on his underboss’s arm and shook his head.
Let her approach.
Van’s brow furrowed, but he settled back in his seat and turned his head in Ricky’s direction when the little weasel said…something. Nico paid them no mind. His sole focus was on the delicate beauty approaching him like she was marching to the gallows.
And in that particular metaphor, Nico was Death himself.
Some distant vestiges of the manners the nuns at one of the group homes he’d been raised in kicked in when she was within arm’s reach, making him stand up. She blinked up at him like she’d forgotten the word for “hello.”
She looked even tinier up close. Prettier, too. And she smelled like freshly cleaned linen and sunshine.
He did not care for the effect she was having on his pulse. “You look lost, fiorellino,” he said in a voice so low and raspy he barely recognized it as his own.
That seemed to snap her out of her stupor. She let out a delicate snort. “Oh, I’m definitely lost.”
Nico could relate. He was feeling a little lost himself. “What’s your name?”
She looked reluctant to tell him. And the way she was chewing on her lower lip was driving him absolutely insane. Did she have any idea how gorgeous she was? Somehow, he doubted it.
“That’s not important,” she eventually whispered. “What’s important is…”
He waited for her to finish her sentence. And waited. And waited. It looked like whatever she wanted to say was trapped behind those pretty pink lips of hers.
“What can I do for you?” he prompted.
He almost expected her to turn on her pretty little heel and run away. That’s how terrified she looked.
So, imagine his surprise when she took a step toward him, stopping close enough that she had to crane her neck back to meet his gaze, and said, “I was wondering if you wanted to have, um, sex.”
Well. His night just got way more interesting.
