Keep Her Close - Jenika Snow Page 0,8

doesn’t matter anyway, because you and I both know that this,” she gestured between them with her hand, “isn’t going to happen.”

Before she dropped her hand he grabbed it, and placed her open palm on his chest. He heard her breath hitch and felt her try to pull her hand away, but he refused to let her go. “Just one meal, Marra. Let me take you out, feed you genuine Italian food, have you drinking wine that is as full bodied and exquisite as you are, and then at the end of the night if you don’t want to see me again I’ll bow out respectfully.” He stared into her blue eyes, watched the emotions and thoughts move across her face, and thought he knew exactly what she would say.

“I don’t think that’s a good idea. I don’t need drama in my life, and I have a feeling your life is filled with it.” Se tugged her hand back and curled it into a fist. Her nipples were hard beneath her top, and she was still breathing heavily. She wanted him, but was fighting damn hard about it.

“You’re smart, Marra, but deny what you feel because of my profession.” He straightened, felt his annoyance grow at her refusal once again, and put his suit jacket on. He could have easily played it off like he didn’t know what the fuck she was talking about, but then he’d be acting just as naive as she was.

“I wouldn’t be able to give you what you want.”

He gritted his teeth, and reined in his irritation. “And what the fuck would that be?”

She narrowed her eyes. “A warm body to use for the night.” She held his gaze, refusing to back down, and although he respected her for that, it also pissed him off. “And that is exactly the thing you look for in a woman.”

He leaned in, his body shaking with his anger from what she’d said. She held her ground, though. “You think you know me, Marra Santos, but I don’t think you have the first clue about who I really am.”

She swallowed, and although he saw her nerves showing, she stood still. He heard the sound of the back door opening and of Henrietta and Francesco speaking in Italian, but Joey kept his focus right on Marra, and she kept hers on him.

“You’ll realize soon enough, though, that I don’t give up on what I want, Marra.” He leaned in another inch so now their lips were only inches apart. Her warm, sweet smelling breath moved across his lips, and he held back his groan of arousal. “And I want you pretty fucking badly.” And then he turned and left, because if he stayed a moment later he’d kiss her until she either submitted to him, or slapped his fucking face.

4

Marra couldn’t stop thinking about Joey, not after he had gone all alpha caveman on her at the café this morning. She was still annoyed with him for thinking he could talk to her that way, be so damn persistent, and pretty much tell her that she would be his one way or another.

“Ugh.” She shoved her hands in her pockets, feeling the bite of fall right around the corner. It was going on eight at night, and after getting some drinks and diner with a friend, she had opted to save the money she would have spent on a cab, and walk home. Her apartment was only a few blocks away, and after the three watered down Long Islands she was feeling pretty damn brave to be walking alone.

There were several people still on the sidewalks, mainly young teenagers that should have been inside and getting ready for bed. The sound of their laughter, of a few bottles breaking, and then of their voices drifting in the distance as they ran off filled the chilly night air.

The streetlamps had this muted yellow glow to them and bathed the cracked and old sidewalk in the light. The sound of another bottle breaking came in the distance behind her, and she glanced over her shoulder. She should have gotten a ride home with her friend, but the booze had been going through her bloodstream, and she had walked this path a million times.

He might be a dangerous and violent man, and do things that were illegal and unconventional, but she knew he wouldn’t hurt her. She knew that for a fact. Marra had even heard talk about how Joey and a few