Redemption - Garrett Leigh Page 0,33

sat back against the wall while Luis ate. “This place isn’t so bad.”

Luis snorted around a mouthful of bread. “It’s not the worst place I’ve ever slept, but I wouldn’t call it home.”

“Not planning on staying then?”

“I can make all the plans I like. Doesn’t mean I’m going anywhere.”

“I know that feeling.”

“Where would you want to go?”

Paolo sighed. “Dunno. Never stopped to think about it.”

“Because of your grandparents?”

“Maybe. Or maybe it’s me. Running the cafe meant I never had to make any choices about my future, so I don’t have any dreams.”

Luis ate the last of his beans and set the mug on the floor. “I’ve never had any either. When I was running for Dante, making it to the next day was all I was aiming for, and inside, time just stops, you know? I didn’t even care that much about getting out.”

“For real?”

“Yeah. It wasn’t like I had anything to come back to.”

“Not even your brother?”

“Fuck my brother.”

“So you still haven’t seen him?”

“No.”

Luis got up and gathered the mugs and spoons. He took them into the kitchen.

He’s lying. Paolo stood slowly and trailed after him like a man walking to the gallows.

Luis was at the sink, head bowed, shoulders heavy.

Paolo stepped up behind him and wound his arms around Luis’s waist. Despite the chasm between them, they fit together like a perfect puzzle with no missing pieces. Paolo knocked his head on Luis’s spine, breathing him in. “I should go.”

“I don’t want you to.”

“Why?”

“Because I feel better when you’re close.”

“Better than what?”

“Than everything.”

It made no sense. But nothing about how Luis made Paolo feel ever did. He pressed up tighter against him, letting desire seep from deep in his gut and overcome everything else. Doubts faded. Fear lost its grip. Paolo slid his hands beneath Luis’s waistband and lower. “I’ll stay . . . for a little while.”

10

Luis’s kitchen had a small window, no blind. There was an alleyway behind the building where slingers kept their stashes. Any one of them could’ve glanced in and seen Luis hunched over the counter, jeans bunched at his thighs, but he didn’t care. He couldn’t care, about anything while Paolo was on his knees behind him.

Not even the fact he’d told him a bare-faced lie.

“’Sup, my brother? You’ve been hiding from me.”

Paolo pushed his tongue inside Luis again, deeper this time. Luis screwed his eyes shut. Sweet sensation rocked him, and he moaned, but it wasn’t loud enough to drown out Dante’s mocking voice.

“It’s good to see you, bro. Manor hasn’t been the same without you. Are you ready to talk business, or are you still playing lacky at that greasy spoon?”

“So what if I am?” Luis fought to keep his aggression down. “You don’t need me up in your shit. I’m the one that gets caught, remember?”

“Yeah, but it looks bad on me to have you dicking around in town when you should be with me. Come back, man. Hero’s welcome.”

“I don’t want a hero’s welcome. I want to get on with my life.”

“You don’t want to do that with me? Making all the Ps you could ever need?”

“No.”

Dante had taken the rejection well. His bland smile had hidden his sneer, and he’d let Luis leave with no indication that he’d see him again, but Luis knew him better than anyone. Perhaps better than he knew himself. Dante Pope was king of his castle, and no one told him no. Not even his brother.

Especially not his brother. Luis had bought himself time, nothing else. And who the fuck knew how much. A month. A week.

A day.

Luis groaned again, pushing back against Paolo’s probing tongue. He hadn’t been rimmed in so long, he’d forgotten he ever had. And he’d never had someone explore him the way Paolo was right then. “Fuck, that’s so fucking good.”

Paolo let out a low laugh and snaked a hand around Luis’s hip to his cock. He squeezed with a light pressure that almost sent Luis to his knees. “Come on. Let’s take this to your bed.”

Stumbling, Luis straightened up and took Paolo’s outstretched hand. Trust flowed between them, a trust Luis didn’t deserve. But Dante’s voice had quieted, cowed by the sensory overload of Paolo and his wicked tongue, and Luis was done with coherent thought until he was alone again.

Paolo pushed him down on the bed, face first. “On your knees.”

Luis shivered, obeying the gentle command without question. He pressed his chest into the mattress and spread his legs, hoping Paolo heard the words he