Page 30 of Pretty Lies

Who did this guy think he was?

“How dare you—”

He kept looking down the alleyway, away from her so their gazes couldn’t meet. She wished he would look at her then so that he could see the hatred glaring back at him that she felt in those moments. Instead, she was stuck scowling at the way the leather of his jacket molded to his broad shoulders and how his back flexed when he shrugged. Those tattoos peeking out above the collar of his jacket, and the plain black tee he wore underneath had a heady memory thrusting through her mind of how sinful that same ink had tasted under her tongue.

Like sex and salt.

Fuck her whole life.

And fuck her for being attracted to Cory Rossi, too.

“The fact you’re here, that he offers you protection because you need it while you work, says he respects you the same he would any other employee of his that is valuable to him. And don’t for a second think he wouldn’t give someone else the benefit of protection, too, if he thought it might be a danger to his business or well-being.”

“I’d like to think I’m more than just his employee. It’s not like this is a traditional business or something. Maybe I do my own thing, or could, and some decisions could be left to me. Like whether or not I want a guy trailing me day and night.”

“One of the most traditional, actually. And I didn’t say it like it was meant to diminish what you do—just simplify. Because apparently you’re the one here who can’t do that.”

Ouch.

That hit a nerve.

Della was determined not to show it.

And failed, it seemed.

Cory laughed under his breath, those stormy eyes of his darting over to her in the shadowed alley. Finally, their gazes met. Funny how earlier, she’d not wanted to look at him at all for fear of losing what sense of self-control she had left … now, she didn’t dare to look away. That same, hot and heavy feeling she felt hearing his voice raged through her much the same a dangerous storm would ravage the coastline. Swift, unforgiving, and wild.

“What, pretty girl, you thought stomping the streets and making a few calls made you the boss of yourself?” Cory smirked wickedly, and it did wonderful things to her insides despite the fact she wanted to wipe it from his smug fucking face. “It’s understandable that you don’t want to be called an employee, doing what you do and all, but at the end of the day, that’s what you are. Nobody’s the boss on these streets unless they’ve earned the right to be called it, yeah? Let your father do what he’s gotta do here, sit back and learn from it, and maybe you get a little closer to the respect you think you want around here, all right?”

Della blinked.

Words didn’t form.

The anger bubbled.

And yet, he was also right.

No one had really said it to Della in so many words, or by being as blunt as Cory had just been with her, but she heard the way people around her hinted at it. She wasn’t in with the family business like her father and brother were because she hadn’t earned it. Not because she was a woman, or the men in her life were being overprotective, but simply because that respect wasn’t yet hers.

She’d not paid attention to what they were trying to tell her until now. Maybe it hurt her ego a bit to have it be Cory who told her outright what it was, and how it would always be, unless she worked to change it.

Della decided that instead of making an even bigger ass of herself in front of the man who looked like walking sex on a stick beside her and made her insides twist with good and bad things … for once she swallowed her pride.

“So, you’re my new shadow, huh?” she asked Cory.

He grinned.

Goddamn.

It had been his grin that made her walk off the dance floor at the club with him, ready to let him do every sinful, dirty thing he wanted to her.

Good to see it hadn’t changed.

Like she needed another problem.

“Seems I am,” Cory returned.

“I might make your life a living hell.”

That earned her a chuckle.

Every part of her felt it.

Did he know the effect he had on women?

Or did he just not care?

“You don’t know much about me,” Cory said, pushing away from the wall in one confident, fluid motion before he stepped forward and opened up the exit door wide as if to hold it for her to enter, “but I like a good challenge, Della.”

She held his stare and walked inside.

Noted.