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He keeps staring at me. I sit up and place my hand on his thigh. “Please, you have no idea who he is. He’s the son of an influential politician, and he could get you in trouble. It’s my mess, I’m going to fix it. I’m already in enough trouble as it is.”
He looks at my hand on his thigh, then up into my eyes, grinding his teeth together, and I let go like he burned me. “Promise me, okay?” I plead with him.
“No,” he answers, more like states.
I open my mouth to say yes but he cuts me off.
“Let me be the judge of how much trouble you’re in,” he says under his breath.
“I don’t want you to get hurt.” This little piece of truth knocks the wind right out of my chest. I’m in way too deep with this one. I’m all in, so I do what I always do, I deflect. “Where are you from, mafia guy?”
The corner of his mouth twitches. “What do you mean?” he asks, staring at his hands.
“Did you grow up here in Seoul, or in America?”
“That’s none of your business. This is only a business transaction between us, nothing more. And I need to know about the fucker who’s been calling you, because I won you. Everything I own must be problem free. I can’t have people investigate my shit,” he says, all angry, locking eyes with me.
“Okay, way to be evasive,” I whisper, and he pretends not to hear it. I look around the room, at his record collection and the books lining the wall. And his view takes my breath away. “They say if you look at water for fifteen minutes a day you feel better,” I say, taking a deep breath.
He follows my gaze and nods. “Why I bought it. People don’t bother me here. I can do what I want.”
“Do you own a lot of clubs? Or is that topic off limits too?”
“By clubs you mean poker joints?” He smiles, or tries to. “Yes, amongst others, but we do so much more.”
“We?” I ask, my turn to frown.
“Yes,” he says. “All six of us have our own niche. We have a lot of people working for us. So, if you ever want to back out of the deal we made, know I have ways to find you.”
I nod, believing him, he means what he says.
“We stay in the shadows because it’s easier this way. We all learned new sets of skills in the military, which we honed when we got out. We’re famous in our own ways.”
“Is this why everyone vacated the room when you sat down at the table?” I ask, swallowing hard.
“Why didn’t you?” he counters, running his thumb over the corner of his mouth.
“I don’t know why I didn’t,” I tell him, my voice sounding stronger than I feel.
“Why is that?” he asks, sounding interested.
“I don’t know,” I whisper, telling him the truth.
His eyebrow rises like he doesn’t think I’m being honest. “Believe me, if I knew what would happen…” I begin.
“You wouldn’t have stepped one foot into my place?” He chuckles with silent laughter as his shoulders shake.
I clasp my mouth shut. Shit, I don’t know. What can I tell the guy, I sort of like him and he scares the living shit out of me at the same time?
“Don’t,” he warns softly and scoots forward to grab my chin. He loses his smirk, his expression going cold again.
“Don’t what?”
His lips twitch. Some part of me thinks he likes how much I push his buttons, and the truth is I like figuring out what makes him go off. I should be scared shitless, but something in me also wants to see how far I can take it with him. I want to know what’s going to happen when he breaks.
He grabs the back of my head and presses his mouth against my ear. “Don’t lie to me,” he whispers, and I freeze as he strokes his thumb across my lower lip before letting me go like nothing happened. Like him being inches away from me doesn’t make my heart race.
He scrubs at his face with his other hand, like he’s waging a war within himself. “Was he the guy who you fucked?” he says dangerously.
