This girl is just absolute perfection. Having her with me lights my soul on fire and sends my hormones raging.
Part of me is eager to show her off at the Christmas party, but another part of me wants to keep her at my house, away from all the eyes I know will be there. But my transaction with Rick was well-known within the family, and if I don’t show up with Leia by my side, it will raise questions, so as I pull up and park, I turn to her and take her hand in mine.
“Any of these guys give you a hard time, you come and find me,” I tell her. “Now we shouldn’t be separated, but if for some reason we are, just make up an excuse and come get me. Got it?”
“Do you expect any trouble?”
“Nah, nah,” I reply, shaking my head. “Most of these guys here are just regular street guys. They’re not gonna start anything. I’m just saying if. All right?”
Leia smiles, making me wish I could just turn the car around and take her home and strip that dress off her. “All right.”
I lean in and kiss her, but not too deeply and not for too long, just in case I get myself too horny before I have to go inside and shoot the shit with everybody. Even still, I feel a pulse between my thighs as our tongues touch, and I quickly pull back.
“Christ,” I mutter, shaking my head at her as I let the back of my hand drift across her cheek. “The things you do to me.”
“What do you mean?” she asks, shying away. She’s playing coy. She knows damn well what I mean.
I turn and hop out of the car, then go around to her side and take her hand and lead her up the long, snowy cobblestone walk to the front door. We pass a frozen fountain on our right, and I notice the two guards eyeing Leia as we approach the steps.
It’s already starting.
But neither of them say anything as we pass. They’re lower down the totem pole on the family hierarchy than I am. They keep their mouths shut, but I know what they’re thinking. Any man with a dick sees Leia and he’s thinking the same thing.
“Quite the house, huh?” I ask as we pass the tall white pillars wrapped in Christmas lights for tonight’s special occasion.
“A little ostentatious,” Leia replies under her breath. I conceal my smirk. She’s right, of course. The doors that open to the inside are easily nine-feet tall and wide enough to fit a car through.
“This is Donnie Esposito’s house,” I explain. “Current Godfather of the family. I guess he feels like he’s got to…show off.”
“Godfather, huh?” Leia nods. “So I’m about to meet Al Pacino then?”
I chuckle and intertwine our arms. “If only he was that cool and restrained.”
Things have already started once we step inside. There’s an enormous table filled with hors d'oeuvres and several men tending bar. On the larger stage in the main room is a band playing jazz covers of Christmas songs that gives the whole party a Great Gatsby vibe. A fellow debt collector named Franky spots me from over at the bar and immediately comes over.
“Aye, Sterling!” he howls, clearly already a few drinks deep. “How the hell are ya?”
“Hey, Franky—”
“And who’s this?” he asks, his eyes focusing on Leia.
“Franky, this is Leia,” I reply calmly, trying to keep the energy low. Leia smiles and nods politely.
“Leia!” Franky smiles, his red face brightening up. “Leia, let me ask you something. What’s it like being so goddamn beautiful that everywhere you go, men just fall all over themselves wanting to give you everything they own?”
Oh, Jesus.
Not even five minutes into the party and it’s already falling apart. I open my mouth to interject, but before I can, Leia replies. “I wouldn’t know,” she says simply. “When you meet Bella Hadid, can you ask her for me?”
It’s then I remember that Leia works in a coffee shop and must be used to dealing with plenty of pain in the ass customers. Franky’s silly, drunk question is probably no big deal to her. It actually turns me on to watch her deal with him that way.
Franky stares at her for a second, then bursts into laughter, spilling a good half of his whiskey out of his cup and all over his hand. He points two fingers holding a cigar at me.
“She’s a good one, Sterling. Good one you got there!”
“Yes, she is,” I hear a cold voice say from behind me. I know immediately who it is and turn to see Donnie Esposito, clad in a dark suit that says nothing about Christmas, approaching us, a gold pocket watch in his hand.
He doesn’t even give me a glance; his eyes are fixed on Leia, who immediately grips my hand tightly. Without a word, Franky makes himself scarce and heads back toward the bar.