Page 39 of Bulletproof Baby

I can feel him shift behind me, the energy around him building with a hint of apprehension. "Lia, I want to be honest with you. I don't want to hide anything from you. I also don't want you to look at me like I'm a freak of nature or even worse, like I'm a monster."

I sit up and turn to him. "A mob boss backed my parents into a corner to extort money from them. Then he suggested to those same people that they offer their only child up in a virgin auction. The monsters in my life look nothing like you. If anything, you're the monster who rescued the princess."

"I don't know what fairytale that is, but I'll give you the short version. I was an enforcer under my father before I became Don Barrone. Me and Armande were both enforcers, actually. We were young, temperamental, and decided to test our limits."

"How? And for what?"

He groans with a huff. "We wanted to show the other dons that Pop had the toughest enforcers in all the land. So, we held a fight club type of thing. For three nights, we brawled, bare-knuckle, last man standing type of thing. We won, but it triggered something. I realized I liked the pain, but being the winner of something like that doesn't get people lined up to fight you. Then I found Dimitri."

"Ah, the Miami Vice extra." I nod.

"Yeah. He has a way of noticing things about people, picking out what they need. He set me up in a room at Kings. One thing led to another?—"

I stop him. "I don't want to hear about your sexcapades."

"What the fuck is a sexcapade?" he asks.

"Shit, that's what me and Frankie call his extravagant love affairs."

"Love affairs? Frankie's married? That didn't come up in our research."

"Oh my God, he's not married. Sexcapade, you know? Like the Ice Capades; tips, tricks, and splits…but on dick." It sounds so absurd when I break it down out loud.

Val chokes on laughter, sitting up. "How the hell do you know about the Ice Capades? Shit, I haven't heard about that show since I was a kid. You? You weren't born in the 1900s like me."

I can't stop laughing at this version of Valentino. He's so sweet, charming, less lethal than the man commanding teams of men to cart away intruders. This is a man I can love. Conversation just flows between us. "Me and Frankie used to watch tapes at my Nonna's. That apartment you practically broke the door off? We spent years of Sundays watching the tapes, eating, living, laughing."

"Well, I don't have any sexcapades to speak of. I just liked getting hit. Makes me feel alive, and when I don't have to hit back? It's like a shot of adrenaline mixed with codeine. There's no need for restraint, I don't have to defend my manhood or my life."

"And during sex?"

"It makes everything insanely pleasurable."

"That's the short version, huh?" I ask him, turning to face him. The split in his lip is small, barely the size of a short fingernail. I lean in close to kiss him, inhaling his scent as our lips touch gently before the softness of his tongue rubs against mine.

When I pull away, he's staring at me with a look in his eyes that I can't pinpoint. While he may not be head over heels in love with me, I'm definitely falling for him. I don't want this moment to end. However, the sound of his phone buzzing somewhere in another room pulls us out of our romantic trance.

He pushes himself off the sofa, giving me another chaste kiss before trotting off into the house and returning with his phone against his face. I can hear the loud voice coming off the other end of the line.

"You get me my money, the pages, and you get your delivery. Capisce?"

"Yeah. I want proof of product," Val says, his tone deathly serious.

"You'll get your proof," the caller says before ending the call.

Val ends the call and looks at me.

"Who was that?" I ask him.

"You were kidnapped this evening, Lia. It's time to be a victim," he says nonchalantly.

"Fuck, I nearly forgot about that. Remind me to chloroform you."

"Only if you promise to have your way with me. I want to wake up in your arms. No, nix that. I want to wake up between those thighs." He leans down, kissing me gently.

"Why are you making crime sound sexy? What do I have to do? You never actually told me your plan here," I say.

"Remember the guy Jimmy?"