Defending My Mobster (BWWM Romance) (31 page)

“You don’t have to make the effort.”

“You’re not going to get back any other way. I wouldn’t recommend taking a taxi if you’re still lucky enough to find one, and the buses only run in the morning again. Let me drive you.”

She nodded, relief flickered across her face for a second. She followed me to my car.

“Thank you for this,” she said. “You don’t even know me.”

I shrugged. “Well, let’s get to know each other then. I’m Nathan. Nate.”

“Alyssa,” she said.

“There. Sorted.”

A ghost of a smile played over her lips, but I couldn’t stare. I had to pay attention to the road.

She was quiet most of the way, and we listened to the radio.

“Most of these songs were released almost six months ago in the States,” she commented after an ad-free thirty, where they played back-to-back songs for half an hour without advertisements.

“We’re a bit low on the commercial food chain,” I said. “I’m surprised you chose South Africa to come to, of all places.”

“It’s not that bad.”

“No, you’re right.” I indicated and cut across a stationary lane where a fender bender had just happened. We both craned our necks to see the damage, but there wasn’t much to see.

“It’s worse,” I added after we’d passed the accident.

She shrugged. “The job offer was here. I didn’t have anywhere specific, I just needed to get away. I was tired of being...stagnant”

“I know how that feels.”

She looked at me, her eyes liquid. They were mesmerizing. I forced my eyes back onto the road again. I couldn’t get into a car wreck because of her. For that matter, I couldn’t get into a life wreck. I didn’t need a relationship right now.

Chapter 3 - Alyssa

I walked towards the light and stepped into a European-feel restaurant called Outer Limits. It was bright and cheery, and with my jeans and sandals and a flowing white shirt, I wasn’t underdressed. I had no idea where I was. I was lost on a Friday night, in a big city where everyone seemed to have somewhere they wanted to be. The restaurant was spacious, with bars skirting the seating area. I walked over to the cocktail bar and flipped through the menu that lay to the side.

“A cosmopolitan,” I ordered, and the pink drink ended up in a martini glass in front of me. One thing that was familiar. I took a sip and relished the tart cranberry juice, laced with vodka.

“What’s a pretty woman like you doing in a place like this?” a husky voice said next to me in a thick accent. I looked into the brown eyes of a man with stubble on his chin and a shirt too green for his tan. Really? Pick up lines and clichés were universal, apparently, even in South Africa.

“I’m not interested, thank you,” I said, smiling politely and turning back to my drink.

“Come on, you’re not here with anyone are you?”

I didn’t answer. I felt like admitting I was alone would make matters complicated for me. But he persisted.

“I’m not here with someone either. How about you and me, we leave this place together?”

“I said I’m not interested,” I said, my voice harder this time.

“Come on, girl. It’s a Friday. Let loose a little.”

He was standing very close to me, with no regard for personal space. I didn’t want to take a step away from him, men like these liked the chase, and I wasn’t going to give him the satisfaction.

I looked at the bartender, hoping he would help me out, but he gave me a blank look and kept polishing his glass.

“Let’s get out of here, baby,” the guy said and this time he grabbed my wrist.

I looked down at his hand where his skin touched mine. When I looked up at his face again he smiled a smile that told me everything I needed to know about him. He wasn’t here to be told no. His eyes were dangerous.

“Let me go,” I said softly, trying to pull out of his grip, but his fingers were locked, his hand a shackle.

“You heard the lady,” I heard a voice spoke behind me. My assailant looked over my shoulder, irritated. I looked behind me, too.

Nate stood behind me, hands in his pockets, casual. But his eyes were a dark evergreen, and he was clenching his jaw.

“This is a private conversation,” the guy, still holding my wrist, said.

They stared each down and there was some sort of power struggle between them, but finally he dropped my wrist and sauntered away.

“Thank you,” I said, rubbing my wrist where he’d gripped me.

“It’s my job to save damsels in distress,” he said with a smile. “I keep running into you.”

“Seems like I’m always in some sort of distress when you’re around,” I said.

“Can I buy you a drink?”

God knew I needed one. I nodded, and Nate leaned over the bar to get the bartender’s attention.

“What will it be?” he asked.

“Surprise me.”

His eyes shimmered.

“Sex on the beach for the lady,” he said. I was all about empowerment. I didn’t like looking vulnerable to a man’s flattery, so I acted as nonchalant as possible.

The orange-and-red drink arrived, and I took it, following Nate to a table.

A waiter brought menus, and we sat together. Nate ordered a Richelieu and Coke.

“What are you doing here?” I finally asked.

“I live in the area. I was supposed to meet up with friends. They ditched me last minute. They’re off to a nightclub and I don’t feel like dancing.”

“You’re a bit old for nightclubs, aren’t you? I mean, not that you’re old… it’s just…” I stopped talking and took a deep breath.

Nate grinned, and his green eyes deepened.

“It’s a place where older people hang out. Not too far from here. Billy the Bum’s.”

“It sounds awful.”

“Don’t knock it ‘til you try it.”

My head felt light and airy, like I could float away on a breeze. Nate’s attention stayed on me, and I liked it. I studied his face. He had a four o’clock shadow on his jaw. He wore an aqua shirt that made his eyes impossibly green, and his hair was a stylish mess, carefully constructed to look like he’d just gotten out of bed. After
not
sleeping. I forced thoughts of him in bed away.

I was aware of his hands. They were bony, with long fingers and smooth skin. I wondered what they would feel like on my skin.

“How long are you staying here?” he asked, and I forced myself to focus on the conversation. It was getting increasingly difficult through the fog that had rolled in and settled around my mind. My veins were buzzing in a low hum with the surge of alcohol, and my body tingled all over.

A twinge between my legs.

I scissored my thighs against each other under the table. The Alcohol was messing with my mood. Must have been that Sex on the Beach…

Nate was talking and I laughed at what he said. As I did his eyes slid down to my lips. It was just a second, but it made me notice his, too.

They were a thin line when he smiled, but when he concentrated on me they were perfect. Not too thin. His tongue slid over the bottom lip and it left a glistening trail behind. I rolled my own lips.

When I dragged my eyes back to his, he was looking at me. He’d stopped talking at some point. His eyes were a light, spring green, and a smile played at the corner of his lips. When I smiled, he looked away and sniffed nonchalantly, leaning back in his chair. He rubbed the palms of his hands on his jeans.

“Would you like something to eat?” Nate asked me. “You should get something in your stomach before you drink more.”

Food was the last thing on my mind.

“I’m not really hungry,” I said. Nate peered down at the menu, and then closed it.

“Yeah, me either,” he said. “We should probably get going. I have a conference this weekend.”

“I don’t know where I am,” I said.

“What?”

“I’d been shopping, and then I’d taken a bus but it had been the wrong one. And now I’m here, and I don’t know where ‘here’ is.”

I was aware that I sounded like an idiot. Nate cocked an eyebrow.

“I know, I know,” I muttered. I really was an idiot.

“Come on, let’s get you home,” he said, getting up and holding out a hand for me. I took it, and my skin tingled where his touched mine. He smiled at me when I got up. I lost my balance, and he reached out an arm and caught me, stabilizing me.

He chuckled. “Are you okay?”

He wrapped an arm around my waist to steer me to the door. His skin was warm through our clothes, and his closeness was more intoxicating than the alcohol in my system. We got the car and he opened the door for me.

“Such a gentleman,” I said.

“As a rule, yes. But tonight I’m also scared you might fall on your face I if leave you to do it yourself.”

I looked at him, mock-offended. His eyes were laughing at me.

It was warm in the car, and pleasant. We drove in companionable silence. I still wasn’t used to the idea of driving on the wrong side of the road. The roads in Johannesburg were also insane.

“Everyone here needs an advanced driving class to get around,” I commented when a car stopped dead in front of us and Nate maneuvered his car around it in between oncoming cars.

He chuckled.

“It’s the basic concept of being thrown in the deep end. We learn because we have no choice. It’s different in Cape Town where I grew up. I’m sure it’s different everywhere else, too. Joburg moves in the fast lane. Literally.”

“I’m sure if you can drive here, you can drive anywhere.”

Nate pulled up in front of The Don, the hotel I was staying at. He got out and opened the door for me again, but I was a bit more stable on my feet this time. Still, he took my hand to help me down, but pulled it away again once I had my feet on the ground.

I felt his absence acutely.

“Walk me to my room?” I asked. I knew it sounded forward, but I didn’t know how else to ask. I was a bit tipsy and alone in a place I barely knew and wanted to spend more time with him.

His eyes rested on me, his gaze locking on mine, shutting out the rest of the world. Real life faded away.

He reached his hand, placed it behind my neck, and pulled into me.

His lips were hard on mine, hot and urgent. I had been right. His lips
were
perfect. He snaked his tongue out and licked a trail on my bottom lip, asking me to open my mouth. I did and he slid his tongue in, swirling around mine in a slow dance. His hand was on my cheek, and his other reached out to the small of my back and pulled my body into his. I could feel his breathing on my skin, the taste of brandy on his lips. There was something wildly attractive about a man that tasted like alcohol, and Nate was a tall, stiff drink.

His body was hard against mine, every part of him betraying his urgency for me, and judging by the length of the hard shaft pushing against my stomach between my hip bones, his lust.

I took him by the hand, interlinking our fingers. I took the passage that led around the outside to the suites. I was on the ground floor, and my door was the third one. I unlocked it and pushed it open. Nate’s hands slid around my waist onto my stomach from behind and he planted a kiss in my neck that sent shivers over my body. I reached for the small light in the hall, but Nate spun me around and kissed me again before I could.

“This is a nice place,” he said between kisses. It was a small apartment, not just a room. It had a living room, kitchen, and a bedroom. We tumbled toward the bedroom. His hands pushed up underneath my shirt before we reached it, and he nipped the skin of my neck. The small burst of pain awakened an animal inside me, and I ached for him.

We collapsed on the bed in a tangle of arms and legs. He had me on my back and kissed me down my neck, leaving a trail of fire behind. His hands slid up my stomach, over my ribs, and he found my breasts.

“God, you’re stunning,” he said, feeling the size and shape of my breasts through the satin and lace. I groaned and tipped my head back.

He swirled his tongue in a small circle just below my collarbone. His one hand cupped my right breast, squeezing just enough to drive me up the wall, but not enough to hurt. With his other hand he found my nipple through the fabric, and using his thumb stroked it in slow circles. My body responded to him, my nipples tightening in response. A flame ignited between my legs.