“How is the whole family empire thing going anyway? You’ve been around a lot more lately.” I hadn’t wanted to ask about it for a while since he’d been so incredibly adamant about keeping me out of his nefarious business dealings. But I was curious to know him better.
He smiled again, and I found my breath catching. He and Cole both had the most amazing smiles, and neither of them used it enough. “Really good, Regina mea. I have put in place a very pliable and respectable figurehead, backed by two geniuses to really run things from behind the scenes. Within a few weeks, I’d say I can be officially retired.”
“A figurehead?” I puzzled. “Why use a figurehead and not your two geniuses... Oh.” It just clicked. “Really? Lucy and Elena are running your crime syndicate now?”
“No,” he shook his head, then finished the last of his drink. “They’re running my entirely legal corporation of investments in property and stocks. I promised you I was cleaning the organization up, drag?, and I meant it.”
Speechless, I finished off my own drink and then placed the empty glass back on the table. “So... Lucy and Elena, huh? Bet your men would love that if they ever found out.”
“Exactly,” he chuckled, trailing his fingertips across my back. “Hence the figurehead. Another?” He nodded to our empty glasses, and when I accepted, slid out of the booth to order them for us.
While he was gone, I considered this new development and found I was really happy for Lucy. She got bored so damn quickly, and without me needing her help on Fox jobs anymore, she was going a little bit crazy. This was actually just the perfect task for her, and I was really impressed that Vali had thought of it.
“So,” I said as Vali returned with fresh drinks. “Do you dance?”
“Dance?” he repeated, settling back into the booth beside me, close enough that our thighs were pressed together. “Like that?” He nodded to the dance floor where sweaty, half-naked girls writhed and rubbed up against equally sweaty guys.
“Yeah, I suppose. Why not?” I wasn’t really a big one for dancing either, but the combination of an information and emotion overload, three long island iced teas, and Vali’s intoxicating nearness was making me want to grind up on him too.
Damn dragon must have been tapping his gypsy powers because he seemed to read my mind as he leaned in close. “You don’t need the excuse of a dance floor to grope me, you know.” As he spoke, his lips brushed my ear, and I needed to stifle a moan.
Under any normal circumstances, I might have been concerned at how fast my mood had shifted from hurt to angry to exhausted and finally settled on turned all the way on. But these were far from normal circumstances, and I had six boyfriends. Could anyone really blame me for wanting to jump Vali right then and there?
“I thought we were taking things slow?” I murmured a little breathlessly as his arm slipped down from the backrest to tuck around my waist and pull me closer.
“We were,” he agreed, his granite eyes tracing the lines of my face and settling on my mouth. “But now we’re not.”
“Totally fine by me,” I groaned, closing the short distance between us and plastering my lips to his in a frenzy of pent-up sexual desire. To my intense relief, he responded with the same level of urgency, forcing my already willing lips to part and claiming my tongue with his own.
While we kissed, my hands gripped tight to his broad shoulders, trying to pull him closer, even as his own huge palms circled my waist and tugged me onto his lap to straddle him. If I had any doubts in my mind about whether he was into me or not, the steel bar crushing against the denim of my crotch eliminated them.
“We should get out of here,” Vali suggested, pulling back from my mouth just long enough to kiss and suck his way down my neck. My brain was floating solidly on cloud nine though, and all I could muster as a response was a breathy moan. Vali chuckled, his laugh vibrating the soft skin of my neck and sending lightning bolts of pleasure through me.
“Come on,” he urged, lifting me off him and then standing. He took my hand in his, and I hurried behind him as he tugged me through the crowded bar and out into the street. “I borrowed River’s Maserati for the night.” He winked at me as we rounded the corner and passed the spot where my mother had dropped about sixteen thousand bombshells on me only maybe half an hour ago.
“What?” I exclaimed, my arousal being tempered by offense. “He let you take one of his cars and not me?”
“Let me.” Vali snickered another evil-sounding laugh. “I didn’t ask.”
Oh, he really is the devil. I love it.
If it was even possible, the fact that he’d taken one of River’s cars without asking—even though this was a rental and not actually River’s car—made me even more aroused.
River’s careful control was a wild turn-on for me, but so was Vali’s blatant disregard for River’s rules. Fuck, it was one sexy conundrum. If I hadn’t already been pretty positive Vali wasn’t the sharing kind of guy, I’d kill to get them both in bed at the same time.
“Where are we going?” I asked as I jogged a little to keep up with Vali’s long strides. I was still wearing my chunky-heeled boots from earlier in the day when Vali and I had gone for a walk to calm my magic down. Damn, that felt like a lifetime ago.
We’d almost reached the back of the valet parking lot, which was why I’d asked, as it was pretty dark away from the main lights of the street and the bar.
“Oh, never mind, I see,” I answered my own question when I saw River’s sleek black Maserati tucked into the last space of the row, almost totally hidden by an enormous GMC Yukon with something like nine seats. Who the hell needed nine seats, unless... Okay, sure, I had six lovers, so who was I to judge?
Vali wasted no words, spinning me to face him, then lifting and pinning me to the hood of the hundred-and-something-thousand-dollar car. His hot lips descended to mine, kissing me without restraint, like I was the last damn woman on earth.
“Regina,” he growled as my hands slipped beneath his shirt and my knees spread to let him in closer to me. “I don’t think I can survive the drive back to our hotel.”
“So don’t,” I offered, then demonstrated my meaning by dragging his T-shirt up and over his head. That was all the encouragement he needed as he dove back in to claim my lips in a bruising kiss. His hands pushed my jacket off my shoulders, then returned the favor by yanking my dove-gray T-shirt off and leaving me in just my black bra, jeans, and boots.
“You sure?” he checked as his hands went to the waistband of my tight blue jeans and flicked the button from its loop. “We are very public right now.”
That was actually part of what made this such a turn-on. We could get caught any damn second, and I loved it. “Hell yes, could not be more sure if I tried.”
Vali dragged my zipper down, and I lifted my ass so he could step back and drag the thick fabric from my body. Somehow—I have no idea how but made a mental note to ask later—he managed to get my jeans totally off me without getting them tangled on my boots.
Magical creatures seriously have the best tricks.
“Huh,” Vali muttered, grabbing one of my legs in a strong hold and pulling me tight against him while my upper body sprawled on the hood of the luxury car. “I see why my little brother keeps destroying your underwear.”
“Don’t—” Before I could even finish the damn word, let alone the warning, a little fire ball had incinerated my black silk thong. “Seriously? Ugh, you two are as bad as each other!”
Vali grinned his wicked dragon grin at me and stroked a sure finger down the length of my pussy, dipping inside me briefly then lifting that finger to his mouth.
“Mmm,” he hummed, rolling his tongue over his wet finger and holding my eye contact. “Seriously addictive.”
Arousal swept through me in another heady wave, and I moaned as my nipples tightened even more in the cool night air. “Vali, seriously? Shut up and fuck me.”