Defending My Mobster (BWWM Romance) (3 page)

“Yeah. I thought it would get me in with the ladies but ended up being the most embarrassing part of my life. Now, I’m a big, egotistical prodigal son, beloved by all and feared by many,” I told her with a wink. I couldn’t find a recent time when I had been so at ease. Nia had a wonderful personality under all of her business skirts and disdain for rule breaking. That disdain made it amazing she was having dinner with me, all things considered.

“I’ll remember to point that out where it can cause the most damage,” she said. The twinkle in her eye told me she’d never would, and that she knew the story was only for a laugh.

“Do you want to get dessert, Nia?” Maybe I said it wrong, but Nia spent a second eyeballing me with a slightly startled expression. I honestly couldn’t help the low quality that had taken over my voice, and my eyes traveled down her arms and over her chest automatically. It was an unfortunate, but easy mistake for me to make. Before I’d met her, I was like Roman, bed hopping for a bit of fun every now and then. Now, though, my goals boiled down to one bed and one woman. It was true, though, that she was desirable. She was beautiful, smart, and successful. As my father would say, she was a proper woman.

“I don’t think that’s a good idea, Angel,” she said. It was hard not to be disappointed, but I managed to keep it internal. The last thing I wanted was Nia to think was that I was simply after the juncture between her thighs. True, I knew she thought my flirting with her on the job was something I did with everyone, but lately it’d died down quite a bit. There were a lot of things that I had done in my life, but I didn’t lead a woman on. If she wasn’t interested in that particular moment, I didn’t push. That didn’t change because of my infatuation with the woman that was my attorney up until a few hours ago.

“You know I owe you now, Nia. You can ask me for just about anything and I’ll do my best,” I made sure to say. Leaning down to murmur in her ear, I felt a surge of smug pride when goosebumps appeared on Nia’s arm. We’d hardly eaten during our brief stay, and now we were both heading out with paper bags, carrying take out boxes of what had been on our plates.

“How about another date?” she asked. I should’ve known by now, but the boldness with which Nia offered a response was staggering, typical of her but staggering. The question made me smirk as I led her back towards my car. Sometimes I just live right, I thought. It was my turn to be surprised.

“It must be because of my good looks, hmm, bella. You just can’t resist me, can you?” I insinuated. Watching Nia roll her eyes made me chuckle a little as I pulled my car keys from my pocket. Still, I wasn’t exactly expecting her to offer a response, and when she did her voice was soft.

“No… I guess I can’t,” she told me. I managed to keep my jaw from dropping.

Walking into my apartment, I rubbed my jaw absently and shrugged off my suit jacket. After dropping Nia off and making sure she got inside her own house, the annoyance I felt was overriding the pleasantness of the evening. The negativity rolling off me as I walked to the bar in my kitchen was mainly because of the phone call I had received on the drive back. My father needed me to go back to work. It wasn’t like I didn’t want to work because the reality of it was quite the opposite. Running an empire was exciting and fulfilling for me. However, he’d given me some disturbing news.

Roman had been handling things while I was aboveground.

Truthfully, it isn’t that I didn’t think he was capable, but my cousin was a slob and had no doubt wrecked my office. I would spend the next week in there cleaning up after him, and it wasn’t something I looked forward to. I would not be able to find anything, hell he may have rearranged the furniture. For me, it was amazing how such a mundane thing could ruin such a nice night. No, Nia had made it clear with a chaste kiss on the cheek that I wouldn’t be getting lucky. Where was the fun in an easy girl though?

The truth was there wasn’t any, only a recoiling disgust. You have to work for the best things in life. In my mind there was nothing better than Nia.

***

“You’ve got to be kidding me.” Groaning as I looked around the mess that had become my office, I found it hard to believe one person could make such a whirlwind disaster. Then again, I’d been to Roman’s apartment. It was something I didn’t want to do again. No matter how flashy or gentlemanly he was, my cousin was a complete pig.      

Chapter 3 - Nia

I awoke slowly as usual, stretching under the soft sheets. I slept in shorts and a small loose night shirt because I like the feel of the sheets on my skin. Why else have silk sheets, right? I propped myself up to help my wake up process and yawned, remembering the previous night’s date.

I had really enjoyed myself and it had been a revelation to me how much. Angel was a nice guy, despite his occupation. Not to mention sexy as hell, which was something I avoided thinking about throughout the date. Not that I had been able to. For a man like him to show interest but be gentle at the same time was nothing short of amazing. It was good I had decided no sex. A few dates would be fine and probably fun, but I did not need to go there.

My sexually-frustrated body had other ideas and I squirmed a little bit thinking about the man. It had been a long time since sex had even crossed my mind. I was far too busy to worry about it. I found myself stroking my belly as I lay there, remembering the conversations of the night before and the look in his eyes. A handsome man to be sure but also a mob boss. Who knew he would have told me that? I asked myself. It was always suspected by some, but never confirmed. It figured though. That explained why he went completely legit during the trial.

He could have no strings from his business on him during such an important trial. Of course now that it was over he would be going back to work and that, apparently, made him eligible to start hitting on me for real. I had to admit, from a woman’s point of view it was nice to be appreciated. Especially if it was from an obviously handsome, powerful man. I smiled and squirmed a little more. I realized my stroking fingers were down lower than I wanted and immediately got up to take a shower, that would help.

***

“Nia, there’s a guy in the waiting room, says he needs to talk to you.” I sighed at the words, scowling slightly as I shoved my keys into my bag. I hadn’t even been through the front door before Marla, the secretary, was calling my name. It’d only been one day since my triumph in the court room and I needed a break. Maybe I’d use up my vacation days and go to Hawaii, but that thought didn’t last long as I walked into my office building and frowned.

“Roman?” I asked surprised. The Italian mobster looked sharp, and most of his tattoos were covered by his suit. I could still see the one on the back of his left hand, though, as he stood up and reached out.

“Nia, is there somewhere we can talk privately?” he asked. I ignored the handshake completely, I couldn’t help but wonder why Roman was even here. Shouldn’t he be celebrating with his family or something? Of course, Angel did say he was going to work today just like I was. Still, why Roman was here bothered me and I nodded stiffly before leading the way to my office.

“I wanted to congratulate you for defending my cousin so well. Not even better lawyers than you could do that,” he said. Blinking slowly, I crossed my arms over my chest as the barely concealed insult reached my ears. The guy had some guts to come to insult me! Who the hell did he think he was anyway? Jackass.

Roman didn’t have much tact for a man that was raised in his kind of environment. It was something I’d learned the night before, among other things. Thinking about it, though, made me a little distracted. Angel had flirted with me all night but somehow I had still said no to him. My feminine side screamed in mortification, but I wanted a cooling off period. I was beyond glad that he respected that. Despite my physical urges, I needed the time.

Pulled from my thoughts as Roman’s smile became slicker, I found myself frowning.

“If you came here to insult me you can leave, Roman. I have work to do,” I said sternly. Strong and unwavering, my voice came out fairly monotone and his stupid smirk fell a little. It was a win for me that I gladly took. Angel may intrigue me, and he may be interested, but I didn’t much care for Roman after my brief but enlightening encounters with him.

“I didn’t mean it like that, anyway it doesn’t matter. You got Angel off, and that’s what counts,” he told me. I snorted sarcastically.

“You came all the way down here at 7:30 in the morning to tell me this?” I said. I was so suspicious of this man it wasn’t even funny. He just screamed something wrong to me, and my gut was hardly ever wrong. I got to where I was by trusting my gut. Everything about Roman was like an eel, slippery and dangerous. Maybe Angel didn’t notice it because they were family, but I did and it was disturbing. Maybe Angel did notice but he had known the guy so long he was used to it.

The fact that they were related was the only reason I didn’t tell Angel about what I saw in the court room. There was an entire possibility that he wouldn’t believe me. I had heard family trust in the mob was a sacred thing. It was why it was so hard for families to doubt one of their own.

“Actually, I came here to tell you that you getting mixed up with him is a bad idea, Nia. In our world, having a love interest is dangerous. You do know that anyone that saw you together could put out a hit on you, right?” he said threateningly. Leaning back on my desk, it had briefly occurred to me that Roman was right. Angel was the son of the main man, the big honcho and he had enemies. The thing that didn’t sit right about it was that we’d gone on a single date, an attorney and her client celebrating the winning of a case.

He was free, and wanted to express his gratitude. That was how I looked at it, anyway. It was something of a tradition so no one was going to get all hot and bothered over it. Especially since it had been only a day since the high profile case ended. Even if there was a risk, it would be beyond stupid to do anything to me this soon. Not that there was anybody who was going to. Now Roman was getting me paranoid. I decided to shut him down. I really did not like him in my office.

“I’m very aware of that, yes. Is there anything else you want to say, Roman? I didn’t come to work to have a good time, you know,” I let him know. It was easy to see that my pushy attitude was getting to him, and Roman pulled a complete frown. While I was struggling, and ultimately succeeding, in wrestling control of the conversation, his hands were clenched lightly and his eyebrows were creasing. He was an angry man with a temper, I had been sure this would be the case.

“So what? You’re going to risk your life for a few dates and a quick tumble in the sack?” he asked with a sneer. Honestly, I didn’t know what I was going to do. Right now, Angel was content to flirt with me, and some of the time I flirted back. I had done so last night, even suggested a second date he readily took me up on. I didn’t tell Roman that though. It was better to be safe than sorry. I had a feeling with this man being sorry would be the end of me.

“No. Last night was just a date to celebrate winning the case. I have no intention of sleeping with Angel,” I told him. At least I didn’t have to become a hypocrite and lie. It was true after all that I wasn’t going to have sex with Angel, and I had told him so as he drove me home. I needed time to get out of my attorney mode with him. Last night, he wasn’t a love interest.

That didn’t mean I didn’t enjoy his company and, in the future, wouldn’t find myself wandering around his apartment with messy hair and a ‘too-big-for-me’ shirt. I had a good enough imagination that I could envision that clearly. It might even be fun. Just not now.

Narrowing my eyes a little when Roman smiled once again, his mood swings were going to give me whiplash.

“Good, for your sake, I mean. He really likes you, Nia,” Roman said. This conversation was starting to get on my nerves and I let out a sigh. Of course Angel liked me, he’d seen me every week for the past four weeks and sometimes more than once. If he didn’t like me, I wouldn’t have been able to defend him properly. This guy was a real idiot.

It was too bad that Roman was talking about a different kind of attraction, though. He was thinking with his dick obviously. Not a big surprise.

“Yes, I know. Now please leave so I can go to work and make money the legal way,” I said. Gesturing towards the door roughly, my flippant dismissal of what Roman had said only seemed to make him happier and it was confusing. Why he was happy that Angel and I weren’t, in theory, going to get together anytime soon was beyond me. Maybe it was a different story with the older family members, but from the movies, documentaries and real life experience I had, I knew I was a catch. A pretty good one too, I thought without too much modesty and a quick look in the mirror. A snug jacket and skirt looked good on me, yes I was a good catch. If I ever actually wanted to be.

It was only adding insult to injury in my book. I was glad when he left.

Thankfully it was the end of the week, and I could sleep in, not wear pants and eat as much as I wanted tomorrow. Nothing irked me more than a long work week, and this one had been ridiculous. So I spent some time dreaming of a day on the couch in sweats, reading, or watching a movie while pigging out on ice cream. That would work, I decided.