“Thirteen,” I say, running a fingernail along his collarbone. “You?”
“Same,” he says. “But that was pretty normal at my school.”
“Was she the girlfriend you mentioned?”
“Yeah. Apparently I really sucked, though, because she never wanted to do it again.” He chuckles quietly. “I’ve learned a thing or two since then.”
“Yes, you have,” I say, leaning up to kiss his chin. “And you can’t really blame the girl. Losing your virginity to a guy with a big dick is painful as hell.”
“Okay, who is this asshole?” Royal asks. “Now I’m going to have to kick his ass.”
“He goes to Faulkner,” I say. “You probably don’t know him, and trust me, he’s not worth tracking down to change that.”
“I’m going to need a name.”
“You first.”
“You want the name of my first fuck?”
“Why not?”
“Madison.”
“Colin.”
He draws back to look down at me. “Colin Finnegan?”
“You know him?” I ask, lifting my head.
He gives a bitter little laugh. “Yeah, I know Colin.”
“How?”
“Are you fucking with me?” he asks. “Everyone knows Colin Finnegan.”
“You said that about Maverick.”
“Maverick is small-town scum,” he says. “Colin is… Bad.”
“Because he fights dirty?” I ask. Even though I never go to the guys’ fights, there are murmurs on occasion—an injury that took someone out of the ring permanently, a masked fighter’s identity getting out. And sometimes it’s about an asshole going after knees or intentionally putting someone in the ER.
“That’s one reason,” Royal confirms.
“Okay, so, maybe I have a type,” I say, smiling down at him. “Notorious bad boy. Sound like anyone you know?”
I lean down at kiss him, and he relaxes a little. When I lay my head back on his chest, we’re quiet for a minute.
“Our families do business together,” he says, almost reluctantly. “On occasion. There are times when it benefited both families to work toward a common goal. But I’d gladly break a few more of his teeth for you.”
“What kind of business?” I ask, my heart hammering. Because while it’s not true that everyone knows Colin, everyone of a certain… Subset… knows him.
“The kind that the Italians and the Irish have in common.”
I swallow hard, my heart hammering, afraid to even hope he’s saying what I think he is. Is Royal really admitting his family is in the mafia? Is that the big secret, one big enough to take down his family?
But no. Of course not. It’s not like I have proof, and half the school has whispered that rumor to me. If his dad is in the mafia, the whole town knows it, and none of them have taken him down. He’d just deny it.
“Damn,” I say, trying to keep my voice casual while my mind races with ways I could get him to say this on record. But even admitting mafia ties doesn’t make him a criminal. Does it? Is that illegal in itself, or do I have to have proof of an actual crime committed?