Total pages in book: 181
Estimated words: 171979 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 860(@200wpm)___ 688(@250wpm)___ 573(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 171979 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 860(@200wpm)___ 688(@250wpm)___ 573(@300wpm)
“Him?” an astonished Sal questioned once he realized her sole friend, whom she had been playing with for years, was a guy. For some reason, albeit sexist, he’d assumed Valerie played online with a girl when she mentioned her friend.
“Yes …” She stared at him strangely and like he’d suddenly grown a third eye. “Justice is a guy. Why would that matter?”
Shit, am I jealous?
“No reason,” he quickly clarified, but his words were unable to convince even himself. The stinge of jealousy was unprecedented for him and simply couldn’t go unnoticed.
Sighing, he took a seat on the edge of his bed in defeat from needing his thoughts and this conversation to move on to a different subject. So much so, he was even willing to risk his own life to do so—
“Lately, it’s been complicated. Before Lucca took over the family, no woman had ever been anywhere near the business. But recently, the first one in Caruso history took a position.”
“Ooo … that’s so cool.” Proud the family had stepped into the twenty-first century, she was slightly envious, but way more intrigued of the mystery lady. “I need to meet her.”
“Oh no, you don’t.” He nipped that right in the bud. “I will be doing everything in my power to make sure you don’t meet Maria.”
Valerie pouted. “You’re no fun.”
“I will, however, be letting you meet my sister, Katarina. While she’s not as heavily into the family business as Maria is, she is married to a made man and has taken on an accounting role. I think she might have a job for you at the Casino Hotel.”
“Don’t get me wrong or anything—I’m excited to meet your sister—but I’m not that good with numbers. I’d rather vomit every day for the rest of my life than do anything with accounting.”
“I’m confident, between my sister and I, we will find something for you here.”
For some reason, Valerie really didn’t like the sound of that. But she’d worry about that at a later time. Right now, as she got the old gaming system finally up and running, it was time to whoop Sal’s ass in Mario Kart.
“You sure you want to hook it up in your bedroom?” she asked a bit nervously when it was time to sit down beside him on the bed, since there was no chair. The way he looked in his tight, sleeveless shirt as it showed off his lean muscles was simply criminal.
“The TV downstairs doesn’t have the right hookup. It’s too new.”
Lies.
Liar.
Big fucking liar.
The system could so hook up to the TV downstairs, but he didn’t have any other perfectly good reason to get her in his bed. Other than being honest with the fact he wanted to fuck her … and that he didn’t even want to admit to himself, as she had been his sworn enemy for the past six months.
What a sad life he was beginning to live. Never in his life had he had to use video games to sleep with a woman, which was quite shocking considering who he was.
Fuck. Am I that desperate that I’ve had to resort to these measures?
When Valerie had to step past him to sit down on the edge of the bed beside him, she gave him her back, thinking that was the better way to squeeze by, but since he was leaning forward a bit with his hands between his knees, his knuckles grazed the soft skin of her legs, and he got a full view of her ass covered by his shirt.
Swallowing hard, he found himself awfully thirsty.
Desperate times call for desperate measures …
“I’m hot,” Sal announced before lazily taking his shirt off. “Are you hot?”
Holy fuck. Hell yeah, you are … she couldn’t help but think after getting a glorious look at his tanned back.
As he pulled the material over his head, the action had flexed his back muscles, revealing that he wasn’t that lean after all. His thick suits had just hidden all the goods.
Licking her suddenly dry lips, she tried to get a hold of herself. “N-Now that you mention it, I could use some water.”
“Be right back,” he said, getting up to head downstairs.
The bed having released some weight rose quite a bit, showing he weighed more than she’d thought, too.
Unable to keep herself from gawking, she watched his back and every muscle he had like a hawk until he disappeared down the steps.
“Fuck! Fuck! Fuckity fuck!” Valerie whispered harshly for only her ears.
And she had Cheeto Puff breath. Great.
She tried to desperately reprimand herself for having thoughts of kissing him; she didn’t want herself getting any more ideas.
“He has a girlfriend! I know he has to. Hell, he probably has three! Just look at him—”
Her voice quietly trailed off when the front side of him came back into view from up the steps. His backside had nothing on the front. Those hint of abs dipping into his low-waisted gray sweatpants should be a fucking crime.