Page 27 of Stolen Kisses
Twelve years ago …
“You little minx, you’re supposed to tell me these things way before it gets serious.” I giggled looking at Christina with wide eyes.
The little devil was hiding something from me and I was certain it had to do with her mystery man. Her mystery man she was keeping uber quiet about.
She sat on the sofa and smiled at me.
“There’s nothing to tell.” She shook her head and her long black hair fell over her shoulder.
I widened my eyes at her.
She’d just asked me if she was being too hopeful in thinking a guy would want to take things further if he wanted to take her to his house.
“Maria, I just think he wants to see me somewhere more private. That’s all. We’ve only been on a few dates.”
“And you’ve done nothing so far?” I raised a saucy brow.
“No, not yet.”
“And you want to?” I cooed.
She started laughing. “Yeah I do. But do you think it’s okay to go to his house? Would you go to a guy’s house you’d only been on a few dates with?”
I nodded and didn’t bother to tell her I wouldn’t have given it another thought. Not only that, I would have gone from the get-go.
“Honey, you know I don’t worry about things like that. You see the guys I get with. I know they’re only after one thing and that’s okay with me.”
We were both nineteen. I was going to be twenty in a few months and I had decided long ago that I wanted two things in life.
The first was to move the hell out of Vira’s, and second I wanted to be on the arm of the most powerful man in Chicago.
The moving part was being sorted out. I’d gotten a better waitressing job that paid me enough to give Aunt Vira her rent and save up for a deposit.
I had enough saved up for the deposit and now I just needed to get some money behind me to move.
The man part though was still a work in progress. I’d been with many guys, but I was still looking for that man who ticked every box.
“Is it though Maria? Don’t you want more than just sex? Don’t you want love?”
I just stared at her. Love was a myth used to drag people into things like Valentine’s Day.
I didn’t believe in it, never saw it, and never felt it. I was happy with the physical.
“Christina, this is the time in our lives to have fun. It doesn’t hurt to be with a guy who’s successful and treats you like a queen.”
“Even if there’s no chemistry? What about that spark of attraction you’re supposed to feel when you look at someone and you just want to get lost in them?”
I pursed my lips together and shook my head at her. Better not to comment and tell her there was only one person who made me feel like that, and that guy happened to be her brother, Dante.
Dante, who was little more like a kid in my book in comparison to the guys I’d been with.
She’d probably have a fit if I told her that, although I was certain she knew he liked me.
“No.” I lied. “Those types of things will make you end up poor.”
I’d be damned if I ended up poor after the shit life I’d had here with Vira. My Aunt Vira every half second trying to pimp me out. Her with her leery, creepy men hanging around looking at me and Sophia.
No way was I going to end up having a life like the years I’d had where I was basically helpless.
