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He enjoyed running a dull-edged blade down their spine, across the small of their backs, and over their asses. And sometimes—if they were willing—he liked to do other things.
But Hal always acted on full disclosure. And he always—alwaysmade sure the bitches got off first.
Yeah, he was a real gentleman that way.
But still, his newly acquired taste for violently controlled sex didn’t exactly make him relationship material, not that Hal gave a shit. He wasn’t in the market for a woman and had absolutely zero interest in starting a family of his own.
He figured just like everything else, the kink shit would work itself out in time.
Besides, everyone had their own private demons; everybody had something they had to fight against to survive.
Hal scanned the room and his attention naturally fell onher.
Valentina Abruzzi.
With her doe-like eyes, long, silky-sable hair, full breasts, and the kind of hips that made a man want to grab on to, Valentina was one fine-looking woman for sure—and she was also a total badass. Who would have thought under all that beauty, Valentina possessed more courage than most men he knew—that beneath all that smooth skin and graceful elegance, beat the heart of a warrior. Who would have guessed that Gianni Abruzzi’s daughter—a woman born of such wealth and privilege—would have the strength to survive what had happened to her.
Hal remembered, word for word, what Valentina said the first time he had met her.
“It’s crowded places that I find difficult. And tight spaces. And places where there’s too much noise or too much quiet. And the dark. I’m afraid of the dark. Oh, and really, really bright light. I’m afraid of that too. So basically, it’s everything. I’m afraid of everything.”
He had wanted to reach out to her then to tell her that fear was good, that fear made you strong—that fear kept youalive.
But, of course, he hadn’t.
He had stood like a goddamn idiot, rooted to the kitchen floor. He’d been so intent on her, so transfixed by her story, that for the first time since the bombing, he hadn’t given a shit about his seriously damaged face and had looked at her straight on.
And she had never even flinched.
Valentina hadn’t looked on Hal with disgust or pity; she simply stared right back at him with those beautiful, dark eyes. Then she graciously thanked him for his service, softly expressed her condolences for the loss of his men, and walked out the door.
The loss of his men.
Not even Glory had dared to rip open that wound …
“Penny for your damn thoughts?” A gruff voice sounded out next to Hal.
“Huh?” Hal shook his head slightly as he focused on Prosper. “Hey, boss, nice party. Your woman and the girls did an excellent job putting it all together.”
Prosper pointed to the shot glass in front of Hal and signaled the bartender for two more before he snorted in response.
“Yeah, nice of Abruzzi to give up the place for the reception. I remember the hassle that my boy, Reno, had to go through to rent out a place. No one would give him a venue ‘cause of his ties to the club. Ended up marrying Claire in the backyard of the lake house. Rained like hell that day, too. We made it work, but still this place is a hell of a lot nicer.”
“Yeah, it was cool of Gianni to offer it up for the reception. Made my sister really damn happy. Guess I owe the Italian for that,” Hal said in agreement.
“And you figure the best way to repay that favor is to eye-fuck his daughter all night long?” Prosper pinned him with a stare.
“What the hell are you talking about?” Hal shot back in surprise.
“For the past twenty minutes straight, brother, your eyes have been boring a hole into the back of Valentina Abruzzi’s head. Don’t have any idea how Gianni missed that, but you are sure as hell lucky that he did.”
“Shit… I was just thinking about…I didn’t mean to…” Hal’s voice trailed off. After a pause he asked, “You think she noticed?”
“Nah. She can’t see you past that big-ass flower arrangement in the middle of the room,” Prosper answered warily as he tried to cipher out the situation. He sure as hell hadn’t mistaken the hungry look that Hal had fixed on Valentina. The last thing the tenuous alliance between the mob and the Saints needed was to have one of his boys dick around with Abruzzi’s daughter.
Not gonna happen.
“You thinking about fooling around with that sweet thing, you better think again, brother.” Prosper warned him.
