The woman was fucking with my head, and I didn’t have time to play games. She was in a lot of danger, and so was my family.
I needed to stay on my game, not get irritated with a woman who wasn’t mine.
I worked with Dante to pack up most of her dishes. I instructed him on the exact way I wanted them organized into the box.
He smiled at me slowly as I did. “You realize I pack shit up for a living, right, man?” He waggled his eyebrows and cracked his knuckles. Dante sometimes got rid of the bodies for us.
Bastian, on the other hand, commanded the damn attention. It never bothered me before. Yet
Katie’s eyes wandered over to him more than I liked. Her smile lingered when he gave her the attention she craved. And she licked her lips when she thought no one was watching. Was she hungry for his touch? Just enjoying the view?
She glanced my way and winked, making me stalk over to her. “You tell the coffee shop you quit yet?”
She huffed. “I text the manager, alright?” She waited a second. “Also, Brey and Vick know too much.”
“That my fault?” I reared back at her accusation.
“Well, it’s not mine. I didn’t tell them anything. Bastian called one of the Stonewoods.”
“You keep pushing boundaries, Kate-Bait.” I shook my head because I loved and hated it about her all at the same time. “You should have never introduced those girls to me.”
“We’re all friends now.” She shrugged and brushed at nothing on her shoulder, but she bit her lip. It was a sign she knew things were getting too tangled.
“Start taking this seriously.” I told her, my voice low.
Her grey eyes narrowed at me before she licked her plump lips. “I always take what Bastian says seriously.”
I couldn’t stop the growl at hearing his name come from her mouth. She smiled at the rise she’d gotten out of me. She was just playing more games.
It wouldn’t be a game if I ripped her away from him, from this whole family.
She needed to be punished for the way she baited men, especially men like me. Yet the punishment I wanted to inflict on her ended with me between her legs because she looked good enough to eat today.
13
Katie
“You’re pushing your limits with him,” Bastian said from the window of his living room.
I was lying on his couch, swinging my legs back and forth in the air as he unfolded the top of another box. “Am I going to have to wear these knee-high socks here all the time, or do you turn up the heat ever?”
Bastian sighed and stalked toward me. “You don’t want to talk about him?”
“What’s there to talk about?” I asked, still swishing my legs, giving Bastian a sly smile.
He grabbed one calf and squeezed, stopping my rhythmic motion. His hand stayed where it was as he sat down next to my ass. Then he dropped my leg onto his lap. I let the other one fall down next to it. “I’m wondering about this arrangement.”
“Well, I can tell you it’s not the best plan you’ve ever come up with.”
“Why not?” he grumbled, but he asked like he already knew.
“We’re not nearly explosive enough to grab Georgie’s attention, and I can hook him if I just go back there.”
“Not happening.” Bastian’s commands were usually followed. Mob boss and all.
I put a pin in my idea for the time being. I figured I owed it to him to listen.
His hands rubbed up and down my thigh like it was a subconscious motion. It probably was, too. Bastian always had women around—hanging on him, tending to his every need—and he was a natural womanizer who charmed most of them with either the power he exuded or the natural way he took care of them. Hence the rubbing.