Player(71)

“…know what I mean?” she asked, turning to me for an answer.

“Hmm?” I hummed, tearing my eyes away from her ass to meet her eyes.

She blushed, laughing. “Wow, Sam. Really?”

“What do you mean, really? You realize you just stripped down naked, right? I can’t be expected to listen when I can see your nipples, Val.”

She made a face. I made one right back at her and stood, pacing toward her.

“So you’re telling me that if I were to strip down right now,” I said, shrugging off my coat and tossing it back in the direction of her bed, “you’d hear everything I said?” My hands moved for my belt buckle and unfastened it, and her eyes followed hungrily. “If I were to tell you the secret of the universe with no pants on, cock in hand, you’d hear every word?”

Pants unzipped and hanging off my hips. Her eyes on the dark sliver of hair, the straining bulge of my cock.

I stopped a handful of inches from her. Her eyes were down, her breath shallow, her breasts rising and falling. I palmed one like I’d been imagining a moment before. Her hands seemed to have a mind of their own, her fingers tracing the shape of my cock, hooking in the opening of my zipper, slipping between the denim and my skin.

“No, you wouldn’t hear a word. I could tell you all the great mysteries of time, and you wouldn’t catch a single one. Would you?”

“Would I what?” she muttered absently.

I laughed and kissed her, the weight of her breast in my hand, her fingers grazing my shaft. But before she could wrap her hand around me, I picked her up and carried her to bed where I told her a few mysteries of the universe in a way she couldn’t help but hear.





“Okay. Are you sure you want to do this? Now’s your last chance for escape.”

She stood on the sidewalk under a gigantic elm whose leaves had burned to russet and amber. With every rise in the wind, a few let go and swayed, twirling to the ground. Her eyes were as dark and soft as freshly turned earth.

“I’m ready. There’s squid and noogies waiting for me upstairs. Now, let’s go face the wolf-nado.”

She laughed softly, and I bent to kiss her nose.

“Come on,” I said as I took her hand.

And with a deep, fortifying breath, she turned for the door.

A shock of nerves zipped through me when her hand grasped the doorknob. Because despite my bravado and determination, I was worried. But only a little and only for that moment. I shoved the feeling back down where it belonged and lifted my eyes to the stairs.

The noise was the first thing to hit me. Laughter. A conversation in Spanish. Acoustic guitar, plucking an exotic tune. More laughter. Male voices chanting something in Spanish and another burst of laughter. Val’s shoulders rose and fell with another sigh, her spine straight. Her hand tightened on mine.

I squeezed back.

She let me go as we stepped into the kitchen. It seemed to be the hub of the house, the center of everything, a room full of people and sizzling food and the sounds of togetherness.

Their faces turned to Val and lit in smiles. A tiny woman with deep lines in her face, a crimson scarf tied around her head. Another woman who looked to be an exact copy of Val in twenty-five years, with curves and chestnut hair and eyes like a baby deer. A tall man with black hair and broad shoulders, a friendly smile but suspicious eyes. A small man in a straw fedora, his aquiline nose hooked like his back, his dark hands weathered but his eyes glittering coals.

And four brothers wearing matching dubious expressions of discontent. Their arms folded across imposing chests in identical postures.

Dante I knew, the tallest of the four. His gaze was the heaviest, black as midnight’s asshole. Max and Alex I deemed to be the two just behind him, the three standing like the head of a formation of bowling pins. Angry, immovable bowling pins. Franco looked younger than the other three, though it might have just been that his eyes shone more with amusement than a desire to decapitate. He stood just off to the side, as if he didn’t want to commit.

I decided he was my favorite.

Val’s grandmother held her face in spindly hands, smiled brightly. “Ah, mi cari?o. You brought your appetite, sí? And a friend?”

“Yes, but I think he only came for your paella, Abuelita.”

They all turned to me, and I stepped into the light of their attention. “It’s true. I’m a sucker for paella, and from what Val’s told me, I might be spoiled forever after tasting yours.”

The old woman laughed, shuffling toward me with arms outstretched. I bent when she reached me, and she placed her hands on my face, her skin paper-thin.

“Tell me your name, príncipe.”

“I’m Sam. Thank you for having me, Abuelita.”

“Thank you for coming with our Valentina.” She searched my face, her lips in a sly smile and eyes twinkling. “Qué lindo.” Her hands moved to my shoulders, then my arms, giving them a squeeze. “Muy fuerte.” She leaned in, saying conspiratorially, “You know, príncipe, Valentina has hips made for babies.”

“Oh my God, Abuela,” Val groaned. “Mama, please?”

Her mother laughed. “Come on, Mama,” she said, taking Abuelita by the arms. “It’s nice to meet you, Sam. I’m Victoria. This is my father, Matias, my husband, Sean, and our sons, Dante, Francisco, Maximus, and Alejandro.”