CHAPTER EIGHT:
1398 Words
The worst of dangers oft come wrapped in the shiniest of covers.
EARL
I remain seated, eyes closed and head thrown over the top of the couch, for a long time.
One because I am completely exhausted.
I can tell from the light streaming in through the cracks in the curtain and from the warmth on my face that it is morning outside.
And between staging Cameron’s accident and dealing with Frank last night,I have not gotten a single blink of rest in over twenty four hours.
The other reason I don’t move, is because I am as hard as a f*****g rock and I don’t think I can walk around just yet without it hurting.
It doesn’t matter how I sit or what I think about.
It refuses to go away.
All because she sat in my lap and said my name.
It was her voice that near did me in.
Low and sultry, like syrup over smooth shiny marble.
Ah hell, who am I kidding?
It’s her voice and her body and her f*****g green eyes that are always glaring at me.
I mean who has eyes that bloody perfect shade of sea green?
Thank f**k she isn’t even in the room anymore.
I called Rosalind to come and take her and get her something more…presentable to wear for the ride home.
Although my exact words may have been. “Get her something that looks less like the poster picture for the less privileged”
The memory of the look of pure spite and defiance she had thrown me when I said that should be enough to make me angry.
No one who knows who I am would dare to look at me like that without fearing to lose their tongue.
Yet instead, all her disobedience does, is make my hard on worse and my curiosity about the woman who calls herself Cameron Waters, nauseatingly stronger.
I have been stared at with hate and lust and need more times than I have fingers to count on.
By the families whose fathers and sons I have taken away.
By the people who see dollar signs where my head should be.
By the women I’ve slept with and kicked out of my room in just their underwear.
But never, ever have I wanted to pull the person glaring at me into my lap and taste every inch of her skin until she’s a complete bedraggled mess.
Cameron Waters is messing with my head and I detest every single moment of it.
Somehow knowing that I cannot touch her isn’t helping .
If anything it’s making it even worse.
Especially because I have touched her before.
In that bed right there.
I have palmed her small round breasts in my hands and pulled her rosebud n*****s into my mouth until she moaned my name.
Goddamn it my hard on is back.
The realization makes me clench my jaw until it starts to hurt.
I push myself to my feet anyway.
Maybe a cold shower will help my brain get back on track.
I glance at my watch.
We need to move soon if I want to have any chance of catching my father unawares.
Old he may be but there will always be people scurrying to win Salvatore Mallore’s favor by bringing him information.
I have been careful to hide my plans about Cameron from the rest of the men but in this line of business, you learn quick enough that Omertà or not, there are no secrets the lust for money cannot bring to light.
Before I can decide whether to still take that shower, the door to my suite clicks opens.
I barely glance at it.
Only one person would enter my room without knocking.
“What do you want, Rosalind?”
She steps aside. “This presentable enough for you?”
Cameron steps in just as I raise my head and all the blood in my veins rush downwards and start to my…
Fuck me.
She’s wearing a black dress with an off the shoulder neckline and a hem that falls mid shin.
It’s simple, plain even, yet it hugs every inch of her curves in just the right way that I temporarily forget what exactly I’m supposed to be thinking about.
Rosalind clears her throat loudly and beside her Cameron turns a shade of red that does nothing for my focus.
Get it together Earl.
Screw a cold shower.
At this point I would need to move to Antarctica.
Still unable to completely take my eyes off Cameron, I snap at my sister in a voice too rough to be clear.
“Rosalind, be a doll and go tell Carlos to get the car ready. We’re leaving.”
Out of the corner of my eye I see my sister smirk at me.
I click my fingers at her. “Hey, Rose, what did I just say?”
“Just don’t ruin that dress.” She quips backing away. “It’s one of my favorites.”
“Get out Rose.”
She leaves with a laugh.
Ruin that dress.
Oh I could do much worse than that. So much worse.
Left alone with me, Cameron presses her lips together, biting the lower one and wincing as she does so.
She’s going to hurt herself if she keeps doing that.
She stretches out her arms by her side, her voice, unsure for the first time since she waltzed into my club.
“So?”
I drag my eyes up her body and back to her face. “You look…”
Beautiful.
Sexy.
Goddamn decandent as f**k.
“Less like you rolled out of bed and picked the first thing you found on the floor.”
As expected she immediately narrows her eyes and scoffs at me, all the uncertainty disappearing with a puff.
“Oh go screw yourself Salvatore.”
I resist the urge to smirk.
That’s more like it.
Her hair is tied in a simple messy chignon, stray strands curling at the nape of her neck, pulling my eyes to the olive toned curve of it.
She walks past me and without looking, I reach out and pull out the clip holding it all together.
She whirls around, hand to her head as her hair tumbles down in shiny waves to her shoulders.
“What was that for?” She splutters, staring at me with wide eyes.
“Well one,” I start, turning around to face her. “I like your hair this way. And two,” I take a step closer, a perverse sense of pleasure flooding my chest when she takes one step back and away from me.
“If I see a single man staring at your neck the way I just was, I would have to kill him.”
I take one strand of her hair, grazing her skin as I do so, before twirling the yellow lock around my finger. “And I don’t know about you, but I like to at least have breakfast before my first kill of the day.”
Her lips part but no words come out.
Instead her eyes drift past my face, dropping to my chest.
I’m still shirtless and I can see the way her eyes dilate when she realizes it.
I wonder if she can see exactly what she’s doing to me.
How tight my pants are becoming just simply staring at her.
Her lashes droop and her eyes darken and f**k my life I want to kiss her.
I can see her pulse fluttering wildly in the hollow of her throat and I want to kiss her so badly it hurts.
I let her hair go and step back to glance at my watch again.
“We leave in five. Carlos will come for your bag.”
I turn my back to her and stride away without another glance.
Maybe the cold shower won’t help but if I do not put some distance between me and Cameron waters right this second, that contract would not be enough to stop me ripping that dress to shreds.
This is either going to be the most interesting or the worst year of my entire life.
And try as I may I can’t seem to stop the little nagging voice in my head that keeps telling me it is going to be both.
- Writer
