Riding Dirty: Luciotti Crime Family (A Bad Boy Mafia Romance) - Kara Hart Page 0,14
just out to annoy me today.”
“Both. Sure, throw the chocolate bar in.” I looked around her at the open kitchen. In the back was a man I hadn’t seen before. “Where’s the old goombah today?”
“Goombah? Really? Isn’t that a little disrespectful?” She punched in some numbers on her electronic display and held out her hand for the money. “That’ll be $9.73,” she said.
“Lady, I’m Italian. My pops was born in Italy. I think I get a free pass with that stuff,” I said. “Here’s a fifty. Keep the change.”
She made a gross throaty sound, as if my presence made her sick. She walked up to the kitchen window and called out “Quiche. To-go, please.” Her back was arched in front of me. I had half a mind to turn around and close up this shop, drop in front of her and cup her ass hard. She’d probably love my working-class hands, pushing her forward, while I had my way with her.
“Why are you looking at me like that?” She asked me, turning back around to grind the espresso and start the coffee. She clicked a button and a loud grinding sound echoed throughout the café.
“I like your dress,” I said. I’d rather be underneath it, with it draped over my face.
“Uh, thanks,” she said. She poured the coffee into a paper cup and threw a shot of espresso in it. Then she quickly grabbed the boxed quiche and handed it to me. “Here ya go,” she said, without making eye contact with me. But underneath all that light makeup, I could see that she was blushing.
No woman in her right mind could resist me, especially the feisty kind. And I knew that deep down she was a woman full of spice. Hell, she was clearly covering some shit up. Just that knowledge alone gave me a light feeling in my movement.
I smiled and took a big sip. “Now that’s some good coffee. Thanks.”
She looked at my jeans, examining my belt buckle. Now was the time for me to start blushing. When she didn’t reply back, I said “You know, you don’t have to play your little game anymore. We’re friends now, right?” I gave a big cheesy look, showing off my handsome smile.
“Friends?” She spat out. “You’ve got to be kidding me!” For the first time since I met her, she burst out laughing.
Straight-faced and serious, I said “What’s so funny? Why can’t we be friends?” I had drained about half of my coffee by now and I unraveled the tinfoil on my quiche and took a bite with my hands.
“Because you do stuff like that,” she said, still slightly smiling but trying to give off this “high and mighty” attitude with me. As if she was better than me and my kind. Listen, I wanted to say, I know you’re bad like me. All this pretend life you’ve got for yourself, ain’t fooling no one. But I didn’t. I simply took another bite of quiche and continued to stare.
“You couldn’t handle a man like me. Is that why?” I smiled. “Anyway, I don’t want to be friends with some boring lady in a shit-town. You probably have way too much baggage for a guy like me.”
That, of course, pissed her off. Before she could lay it on me, I was already out the door. “Hey! You can’t just come in here and—”
I closed the door and chuckled softly to myself. “You’re such a prick,” I muttered under my breath.
I had decided it might be time to go home, back to being a recluse. But all of a sudden, a brand new black SUV pulled up in front of me. The window rolled down and I saw a dark-haired man in his 30’s, smiling at me. “Well, if it isn’t my baby brother. Get in.” Ricky. Fuck.
I reluctantly got in the front seat, holding my quiche and coffee, and he sped off. “You’ve been hiding from me baby brother!” He laughed. “I’ve been so lonely.”
I stared straight out the front window. “How’d you find me?” I asked him.
“It wasn’t easy. In fact, I traveled everywhere. South America first. Turns out you had been in São Paulo, Brazil a week before I got there. So I stayed in a few hotels, asked around at about a dozen or so bars, and tracked you down in Basque Country. What were you doing in Spain, Lucas?”
“Catalonia.” I corrected him.
“What the fuck are you talkin’ about?” He took off his sunglasses to get a