“Ah, what a great friend. Don’t you just love when he dismisses you with such disdain?”
Gracie grins at him. “It’s just nice to know I’m not the only one he does it to.”
“Hang around Calvino long enough and you’ll start to think you’re a masochist that loves the pain.”
“Could be I’m starting to learn a little bit about myself already.”
Diego laughs at that as he disappears past Gracie and into the club. She watches him go before she shuts the door and turns to me.
I let my eyes roam down her body. God, that fucking outfit is obscene—low-cut top that barely covers her tits and a skirt that’s more like a dishtowel than functional clothing. Before all this, I barely ever noticed her, but now she’s like a spotlight beaming in my face. She glares right back, very aware that she’s exposed, and my mind flips back to her changing in front of me and the muscles in her back, her smooth beautiful skin, and the glimpse of her breasts and her hard, pink nipples, and the taste of her when I bit down hard.
“You did well last night,” I say, holding up my phone. “While we didn’t exactly make a huge splash, my sisters both texted demanding to know who you are.”
“What did you tell them?” She seems nervous and puts down the tray.
“I told them you’re nobody, which is what I’d say if you were somebody. Congratulations, they want to meet you.”
“That’s good, right?”
“That was the goal, yes. But meeting them will come later, after we’ve had a chance to sit down with Vince and Charlie.”
“Shouldn’t we do the whole family first?”
I shake my head and pat the couch, gesturing for her to sit down. She hesitates, but sinks slowly onto the edge of the cushion, sitting with her back straight like she’s about to bolt at any second. I know it doesn’t say anything good about me, but I love the tingle of terror she gets when she looks at me.
“No, I need to introduce you to the Don before the others. If it were my father and you were truly my girlfriend, I would’ve done that already. But since it’s my brother, I get to pretend like I’m doing this against my better judgment.”
“There’s too much politics in your family. Mine was fucked up but at least it was simple.”
I let out a breath and shake my head. “All families are fucked up in their own way.” I unlock my phone and flip to the pictures. “My parents owned a sprawling ocean-front mansion complex down in Long Beach. That passed to my brother, and most of my siblings still live there. It’s sort of like the heart of our organization these days.”
“Wait, all your siblings still live in the same house? Seriously?”
“It’s a big house.” I frown at her and shrug, turning the phone around to show her an exterior shot. Her eyes widen with surprise. “Susi’s twenty-four and Rella’s twenty-six, so the girls are still young. Damon and Jason just like being there. And Vince comes and goes as he pleases. But once you see the inside, you’ll understand.”
She shrugs like she doesn’t believe me, but she knows better than to tell me I’m wrong. Instead, she nods at the dossier. “More files on me?”
I put my phone away. “Diego’s very good at his job.” I give her a stare that means don’t keep pushing this shit and she lets it drop with a fake noncommittal shrug. I can tell she wants to ask more, but I don’t want to go into that right now.
“Dinner was the easy part,” I say as I toss the dossier to the far end of the couch, away from her view. “You realize that, right? All you had to do was sit there and pretend to like my company, but even that seemed hard.”
Her jaw works. She does that when she’s pissed. “You don’t exactly make it easy to be around you.”
“Too fucking bad. This is how it’ll go and if I start acting like someone I’m not, it’ll be goddamn obvious to any one of my siblings. You need to start accepting that I am what I am and learn to play the game.”
Her anger slowly dissipates as she takes two breaths. She’s very good at controlling her feelings—I’ve noticed her pausing before answering more than once, which means she thinks about what she’s about to say before she blurts it out. That’s a very good talent, and I wonder if she learned it from living with an abusive stepfather and an addict mother. Must’ve been hard, trying to survive life with those two, and I can only imagine all the different things she’s had to learn just to get through the day.
“I can play, Calvino. Maybe I just like to play rough.” Her voice is soft and teasing like she’s trying to pretend to be a flirty girlfriend.