He stood up and started to pace. “And this promotion. You’re not a server no more?”
“No, I’m the office manager now.”
“What’s he got you doing? Counting endless stacks of money and writing down your accounting in two separate ledgers?”
I turned my back on him, pretending to reach for something on top of the fridge. Yes, I was doing those things, but not for the reasons he thought. “You’re wrong about him. He’s kind and decent. He’s generous and good…”
At that, my brother laughed out loud. “Jesus, Kelly, you sound like you’ve got a crush on the son of a bitch.”
“I don’t.” But something about my answer seemed to tip David off. He stared at me, analyzing me not as my brother, but as a cop.
“Has he gotten fresh with you?”
“No.”
His face went red. “Don’t you lie to me. Has he?”
“No,” I said again, my voice high and anxious. I could never tell him what had transpired between Marco and me last night, not ever.
He snatched his coat as if to dash out the door, his hand hovering over his police revolver. “I’ll kill that bastard.”
“Stop, David! He hasn’t done anything he shouldn’t, I swear.”
He paused at the threshold, turning back to study me again. “You got with him. Of your own free will, you…” He gawked at me as if he’d never seen me before, as if he didn’t know who I was. “I can’t believe you got with a goddamn mafia thug.”
As if disoriented, my brother drifted toward the doorway, nearly banging into it. Then, he stumbled outside and into his police cruiser, leaving our apartment door wide open. Once inside, he raced off, the engine roaring and the tires squealing, and I knew no matter what, things between my brother and I would never be the same again.
14
Marco
The next day I was eager to get to the bistro. I felt this pull to be in close proximity to Kelly again. After getting home the night before, I had to spend considerable time releasing the worst of my pent-up passion in the shower. It took three full go arounds before I quit feeling keyed up enough to go to sleep.
The images from my time with her besieged my mind even then, giving me such vividly pornographic dreams I’d awakened as hard as ever. I sighed, took another shower, then headed to work.
I wondered if maybe I should’ve taken her up on her offer to reciprocate but then dismissed the idea. As a virgin, she deserved far more than hot monkey sex in some random business office. She deserved to be wined and dined. She deserved to have th
e softness of a king-sized mattress beneath her. She deserved to be worshipped like a goddess.
And she was a goddess. She had a body like a dancer, lithe and slender, but with curves just where they needed to be. The fact that she’d hidden her figure so well, especially those delectable breasts—good Christ—made seeing her au naturel that much more alluring, that much more of a reward. I couldn’t wait to do it again.
Still, I needed to take my time with her, make sure that she not only enjoyed herself, but that she also didn’t experience any discomfort. In all my time with women, I’d never deflowered one before. I needed to do this right. I needed to make this memorable for her in the best of ways. I started to develop plans for this, deciding any residual beliefs I had about staying away from her no longer applied.
Kelly Carr had officially become an addiction for me, and I needed my next fix.
I’d been there an hour when Kelly’s friend Chloe knocked on the metal casing of my open door frame. “Marco, Kelly called. She’s sick and can’t come in today.”
Worried about her, I asked, “Did she say what she had?”
“No. Just that she didn’t feel well.”
More disappointed than I cared to admit and unsatisfied by the lack of details, I said, “Okay, thanks for the message, Chloe.”
I almost left to go check on her right then. I seriously considered it. She’d discussed her homelife with me, and I knew her parents looked to her to take care of them. I understood that her mother was ill, but the thought of her always being the one to give without ever receiving anything in return rankled.
It was part of the reason I’d had no problem taking care of her last night. I hadn’t realized she was completely chaste before she’d told me, but it made sense. She’d been starved of affection, sexually and possibly just in general. I’d done what I could to remedy that at least temporarily, and if allowed additional opportunities, I’d do more. A lot more.
From what she’d told me, it sounded as if she’d been a caregiver her whole life rather than allowed to be a child. Her brother may have been in the same position but thinking about him only pissed me off. His attitude left a great deal to be desired. If Kelly hadn’t been right there, I would’ve been more than pleased to adjust it for him.