STOLEN SMILE

JENNIFER

"I like to be myself. Misery loves company."

-Anthony Corallo

†*******†

THERE WERE TWO RULES I always followed.

Never leave the house without my .45.

And never put myself in a position I knew I couldn't get out of.

I had more enemies than the President of the United States, and I'd only survived this long by following those two simple rules. I'd never been tempted to break them-up until I was locked in a car with Caterina Abelli.

Gas station fluorescent lights flickered and buzzed above my head. Mist fell from a dark, starless sky, each drop sizzling on my skin. I was fucking burning up. I took my suit jacket off and tossed it in the backseat. Pulled on my tie and leaned against the car door. I inhaled, smelling nothing but rain and gasoline, and listened to the tire noise from the expressway.

I could have laughed, though I wasn't amused at all. The smallest sexual interaction I'd ever had with a woman had gotten to me so much I had to pretend I needed gas just so I could get the fuck out of that car. Heat crawled beneath my skin, and I rolled up my long sleeves.

Caterina Abelli pressing her lips to mine was in breach of rule number two. I'd known it wasn't something I could handle, yet like an idiot I'd let my dick guide me. It hadn't killed me, but fuck, it felt like it.

I was more worked up than I'd ever been. I swore, straight lust in all its itchy, burning glory rushed through my veins.

I put a cigarette between my lips and slipped my hands into my pockets. I wasn't going to light it. If I did, I'd have to admit she unsettled me, and I refused to do that over a fucking grade-school kiss.

I leaned against the car for far longer than it took to fill up the five dollars' worth of tank space. I paid at the pump-couldn't go in because I had a fucking hard-on.

The mist began to cool me down, but before I knew it, I was sucked back: her soft lips on mine, her shallow breath in my ears, the tiniest brush of her tongue, hot and wet, before she pulled away. Fuck me. Heat raced straight to my groin.

I didn't know how I'd managed not to grab her nape, pull her closer, slide my tongue against hers and taste the inside of her mouth. It hadn't felt like a want at the time-it felt like a need. And that realization gave me the strength to hold back. After the night before, especially. I'd thought she was materialistic and shallow, yet she watched documentaries, read history, and was reserved. I wanted to know what she did during the day and what kind of thoughts consumed such a pretty head.

A car door shut behind me.

I turned to see Caterina looking at me over the top of the car. She
wore a high ponytail I should've never wrapped around my fist. Now I could never forget how silky it really was.

She cocked her head toward the gas station. "Bathroom."

I nodded once, then gave her my back, because the last thing I needed right now was to watch her ass as she walked away. She was wearing leggings-enough said.

I'd underestimated her. I'd thought she would refuse to reenact the stage kiss, therefore giving me a leg to stand on by calling that "platonic" excuse bullshit. Truthfully, I didn't give a fuck if it had been. It pissed me off.

I wanted to make her squirm after I'd spent the entire week trying to drive her half-naked body from my mind. Except she didn't squirm; she undid her seatbelt and laid one on me. She called it platonic, while I had been one second from losing my grasp on self-control and touching her everywhere she'd let me.