Dangerous Beauty: Part Two: A Mafia Princess (8 page)

Kyle lost the battle and laughed. “You’re so fucking nasty, Carter.”

Carter shrugged, “Yeah, well, I’ve been hanging around some very naughty boys. You guys are starting to rub off on me,” she teased. She grabbed his shirt and pulled him closer before wrapping her arms around his neck and hugging him. She kissed his cheek and looked into his eyes. “Thank you for what you did outside, Kyle.” She wiped the lip gloss print of her lips from his face and continued talking. “I was …” She leaned in close so no one could hear her. This was not going to be easy to admit. Carter cleared her throat uncomfortably. “I was … afraid,” she whispered, and then rolled her eyes when Kyle chuckled at her uneasiness with showing fear, but it wasn’t her fault. She had been taught never to show it.

Carter ran her hands down her pants again. “Anyway … I needed you,” she said, remembering how terrified she had been when she had first woken up. If Kyle hadn’t come, she didn’t know what she might have done. “Thank you, Kyle,” she said, genuinely grateful for him.

Kyle kissed her hand. “Anytime, angel. I’m just glad you didn’t forget me. You probably would have popped a cap in everybody’s ass,” he teased.

Carter chuckled and hit his arm. “As if you would let me forget about little ol’ you,” Carter teased, remembering how Kyle had said she’d forgotten about him when she found Nathan.

Kyle smiled his father’s crooked smile, “You’re right. I’m unforgettable.”

Carter nodded, “You are.”

“Where’s Nathan? I’m surprised he let you out of his sight,” Kyle asked, eyeing her with suspicious curiosity.

Carter smiled innocently. “He’ll be down soon,” she said, trying to keep her cool. Just the thought of Nathan had her right back where she had been in the bedroom with him.

Dammit! Why hadn’t he just given her what she wanted? Then she wouldn’t be suffering right now. Every time she replayed Nathan coming under her touch in her head, her body burst into flames, and it was a fire only Nathan could put out. If he would only stop being so damn stubborn, pin her against a wall, and thrust his big hard—

“Carter!”

Carter snapped out of her thoughts and looked at Kyle. What the hell had gotten into her? She shouldn’t have been thinking about sex in here— with the Originals and Kyle in the same room. She really needed to get her shit together before she embarrassed herself again. After yesterday, she refused to have any more embarrassing moments.

“Carter, are you …” He squinted his eyes and looked at her face closely. “Are you blushing?” he asked with amusement.

Carter’s eyes widened and locked with Kyle’s.
Blushing? Shit!

“What’s going on in that beautiful head of yours?” Kyle teased.

“Nothing. I’m not blushing. Shut up,” Carter said defensively with a frown.

Kyle chuckled. “Are you sure it’s Cesare you have a crush on? I think it may be Nathan who gets you all hot and bothered, angel,” he teased.

“Kyle!” Carter hit his chest. “Shut up and leave me alone, jackass.” She turned to walk away from him.

He pulled her back. “Aww, come on. Stop pouting,” he said in his best baby voice. He pulled her to him, and she wrapped her arms around him, resting her head on his chest while he patted her back. “Kyle will leave the baby alone,” he joked.

“I hate you,” Carter whispered.

Kyle chuckled. “Mm-hmm. Me too, angel,” he soothed. “So where’s my best friend?” he asked again.

Carter shrugged. “Maybe he decided to take a nap,” she said, inwardly laughing at the possibility that he actually did.

“Mmm-hmm.” Still hugging her close, Kyle pressed his lips against her. “Well, when I talked to him on the phone, he said that he had been assaulted by a very naughty girl.”

Carter could feel his smile against her ear, and it pissed her off. Kyle and Nathan got on her nerves with this shit. They were too damn close. Nothing was private or off limits for a topic of conversation between the two. Carter’s nails began digging into Kyle’s back, and she heard him groan. She lifted her head from his chest and smiled smugly. She let her nails slide slowly down his back.

“Carter,” Kyle said through clenched teeth.

She knew it hurt, but she didn’t give a shit. Kyle had called out her inner bitch just like Nathan had earlier. They would both have to deal with the consequences of fucking with her.

Carter smiled sweetly. “Remember when you asked me if our relationship would annoy Nathan?” she asked him. “Isn’t it ironic that you and Nathan are the ones annoying the hell out of me?”

“Nathan and Kyle pissed you off again, I see,” a deep voice said behind her. Lucca chuckled. “They are annoying, aren’t they? Like two gossiping little girls. We all wish they’d shut the fuck up, too,” he joked.

Carter turned around, and her eyes brightened at the sight of Lucca and Dante.

“Fuck you, Lucca,” Kyle said through clenched teeth.

An evil smile appeared on Lucca’s face. “Make sure you kick him where it hurts, Sweetheart.” He winked at Carter.

Carter raked her nails down Kyle’s back quickly, just enough to leave a few marks, then kneed him in the balls and went over to hug Lucca and Dante.

“Fuck!” Kyle exclaimed, falling on the couch in the middle of Cesare and Bruno, holding his balls. “Shit! Cesare … shoot her! I think she broke my dick!” he whined. “She fucking broke my dick. Somebody do something.” His voice was a breathless, high soprano. Carter turned to look at him and laughed loudly.

Cesare slapped Kyle in the back of the head, and he looked at his father in outrage. “She told you to stop teasing her, didn’t she?” He ruffed up Kyle’s hair. “Maybe now you can give your little wee-wee a rest, eh, son?” Cesare teased, mimicking the baby voice Kyle had just used to taunt Carter.

Kyle gasped in shock and outrage.
“Little wee-wee?”
he yelled.

Carter nearly fell over laughing, but Dante caught her. He looked down at her grinning widely “You’re having fun, aren’t you?” he asked.

Carter nodded, unable to stop laughing. He laughed gave her a big smooch right on the lips, as he always did. Carter loved Dante. He was the big brother she’d always wanted. Unlike the rest of guys, excluding Nathan, he was the one she could cuddle with, hug, give a kiss to, sit on his lap— and not worry about him making it sexual in any way. She could do this because, like her, Dante was in a committed relationship.

“Don’t be nice to her, Dante! You saw what she did!” Kyle yelled.

“Don’t be a pussy, Kyle.” Lucca jabbed him as he fell back on the large couch. “Take your beating like a man.”

“Kiss my ass, Lucca. I fucking hate you,” Kyle said, falling back on the couch next to his father. “I should kick your fat Salerno ass.”

Lucca roared with laughter.

Kyle peeked from the hand covering his eyes with a sly smile. He looked over to Carter and stuck his tongue out.

Carter stuck her tongue out back at him and turned back to Dante. “I miss you. Cuddle with me,” she ordered, like a bratty sister.

Dante chuckled, scooped Carter up in his arms, and carried her to the couch. Carter cuddled up on his lap and rested her head on his shoulder.

“Give me your phone,” she said to him. He reached in his pocket. Whenever the Originals where around, Dante and Carter had their conversations via text messaging, and since Carter didn’t have her phone, they just passed Dante’s back and forth.

Carter texted, “How’s Casey?”

Dante responded, “Fine. Keeps asking about you.”

“Were you honest?” Carter wrote. Then she looked at him, and Dante nodded. He took his phone.

“We promised we wouldn’t keep secrets. You know how it is,” Dante answered.

Carter nodded. She did. Secrets had no place in relationships. Carter knew that from experience. She grabbed his phone. “Was Casey hysterical?” Carter wrote.

Dante chuckled. “You know it. You know how much we love you,” he replied in a message.

Carter smiled warmly and kissed him on the cheek.

“I love you both, too. Don’t worry. I’ll call and we’ll set up a shopping day,” Carter responded on the cell.

“Like we have more room in our closets. You know Casey goes overboard.”

Carter giggled. “So what? You’re not going to say anything about it if Casey goes overboard. You love him too much,” Carter wrote with a smile.

Dante laughed softly and nodded.

“You’re right, I do,” he said out loud.

He kissed Carter lovingly on the forehead. Carter wrapped her arms around his waist and cuddled closer.

Carter had figured out that Dante was gay about fifteen seconds after she first met him. While the other guys were staring at her breasts and ass, he was staring at the menu and checking out the hot guy one table over, Casey Long. She would have introduced him right then because she knew Casey— he was a regular— but Nathan had interrupted her train of thought when he initiated a make-out session in the middle of the damn bar. Yes, Carter blamed him, even though she had wanted it, too. Anyway, it ended up a good thing she hadn’t said anything at the bar because when she had tried to make conversation with Dante the next morning, asking if he had thought the guy at the bar was sexy, he seemed shocked and upset. He asked if Nathan had told her about him, and she quickly said no. Her gaydar was right 99.9% of the time. Turned out Nathan and the rest of the guys were the only ones who knew Dante’s secret— and he wanted to keep it that way. Carter told him not to panic, that it wasn’t obvious, and she was just very perceptive.

Dante and Casey had been dating since Hope Beach, and Casey had moved in with him a month ago. Carter had quickly become friends with Casey. She and Nathan invited him and Dante over for dinner often. They were the only couple she could entertain without Nathan’s objections.

“Where you at, sweetheart?”

Carter looked up to see a concerned Dante.

“You okay?” he asked. “You zoned out for a second there.”

Carter smiled. “I was just thinking,” she said, and then frowned, noticing that someone was still missing from this reunion. “Where’s Mickey?” she asked.

Dante shrugged. “Yell for him. He’s somewhere around here.”

Feeling too tired to get up herself, Carter let Dante help her up while she glanced around the room. Pretty much everyone had started focusing on other things, and she knew where Nathan was … But where the hell was Mickey?

“Mikilo!” Carter yelled. Everyone looked at her, but she didn’t give a shit. She wanted her partner in crime. Walking toward the living room entrance, she shouted again, “Mickey! Get your sexy ass in here!”

“No! You bring your sexy ass in
here
!” he yelled back.

Carter grinned.
Where the hell was he?
“Mickey!”

“What?”

“Get in here!” Carter laughed.

He rounded the corner with a sly smile and….

Okay, Carter was seriously about to kiss Mickey because of what he had in his hands. A huge plate…of food! Not just any food. Her. First. Favorite. Lunch. Carter’s hunger came back with a vengeance when she saw the Doritos that were sure to give her back her figure.

“Oh, Mickey,” she moaned.

Mickey’s smile widened. “Finally,” he said with sigh. “I’ve been trying to get you to say my name like that since the day I met you.”

Carter floated forward, entranced by the heavenly smell of Doritos. She took one off the plate, slowly put it in her mouth, and couldn’t suppress the moan that escaped her lips. It felt like a lifetime since she’d eaten Doritos. It was orgasmic.

“You’re kind of turning me on right now, Carter,” Mickey said, biting his bottom lip.

She saw the way he was looking at her, scrunched up her nose, and giggled. “Ewww, Mickey, stop!” She hit his arm playfully, grabbed her plate of heaven, and was about to go eat when she remembered something.

She took a good look at Mickey. She hadn’t noticed it outside, but he was walking with a cane. She remembered he had been shot twice in the leg and was instantly happy she had been the one to kill the bastard who’d done it. “How’s your leg, my Mickey?” she asked sweetly as she stood on tiptoes to kiss the side of his mouth.

He smiled. “It’s healing, my sexy little protector. I just can’t wait to get rid of this fucking cane.” He grasped her chin and their eyes locked. “You keep killing men for me, and you’re going to make me fall for my Russian brother’s girl. So stop it,” he said. He leaned forward and kissed the tip of her nose.

Carter smiled shyly.

Mickey’s wounds were being tended to the day of the incident, so they had never had the chance to speak before Carter was hurt. This was the first time she’d seen Mickey since he was shot. “You would’ve done the same for me, Mickey. You’re my bestie, and I love you. I’ll kill anyone that hurts you, so deal with it,” she said playfully— but she wasn’t playing, not in the slightest. “Plus, the fucker had it coming,” she muttered with a shrug.

Mickey took Carter’s plate from her hands and set it on a small table next to them. He snaked an arm around her waist and pulled her to him in a tight hug, letting his cane fall to the side. Carter had to stand on her tiptoes, but she wrapped her arms around his neck, hugging him back. The warmth and love in Mickey’s hug was surprising and almost opened the flood gates. “Awww, Mickey.” She was used to the bad boy flirt, Mikilo, but now he was getting all sentimental on her, and he knew she was a damn crybaby.

“Thank you,” he whispered. “
Sei un angelo, ti amo con una Bella Carterina
,” he whispered in her ear.

Carter smiled. “You know I love it when you speak Italian, Mikilo.” Carter said, teasing.

And just like that, her bad boy was back.

Mickey’s low laughter against her ear nearly made Carter’s body shiver. “You do, huh?” She felt him smile, and he whispered again, “
Well, you know I aim to please, E chi sono io per negare il piacere di ascoltare me parlare la mia lingua madre
.”

Carter almost gasped. She had no time to play with these boys today. Her body was still running on hot because of Nathan. Nathan. Oh shit, why did she have to think of that sexy ass blonde again? Carter shook her head. It was torture!

She pushed on his big shoulders and left his embrace “Stop it, Mickey. You’re going to make me flirt with you. I’m engaged, dammit. I have to be a good girl now,” she said with a wink. Mickey pasted on a sexy smile. Carter groaned. “Get away from me, Mikilo. You look like your father.”