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“Is that the liquor license application Gio asked you about yesterday?”
“Yes. And I have to finish it.”
In other words, Please take your hot little ass out of my sight so I can think about something that’s not filthy.
Melanie didn’t disappear, though. She decided to lean against the counter, about eighteen inches from my work space.
“Dominic,” she said in a low, unwittingly sexy voice. “You know I can do things for you, right?”
Good god, was she trying to kill me?
“You can do things for me?” I repeated blankly, my mind running amok with possibilities of what Melanie could do and the positions she could do them in. And just like that I was so fucking hard my balls ached.
Melanie smiled sweetly, completely unaware of the X-rated movie playing inside my head.
“Of course,” she said. “Why don’t you turn that paperwork over to me? I’ll get it done right away, and all you’ll have to do is sign on the dotted line.”
“Thanks, Melanie, but I’ve got everything under control.” I turned away from her and stared intently at the liquor license application until she got the message.
“All right,” she said, mercifully backing away. “If you change your mind, you know where to find me.”
As soon as I was finished with the application, I stood in the hallway outside the office and called to Melanie that I was stepping out to drop off the liquor license application in person. I didn’t wait around to see if she heard me or not.
Outside the cool sanctuary of Espo 2, the heat was punishing. Summers in the desert tended to linger well into September. After a decade of living here, I ought to have been used to it, but there was never anything like that blast of fire on a Phoenix street.
I jumped in my pickup truck and navigated the short distance to the Department of Liquor Licenses and Control. I didn’t know what my problem was when it came to Melanie. She was beautiful and she was intelligent and I really wanted to see her dancing naked on the counter, but I should’ve been able to get over all that by now. Jason kept teasing me about the fact that I hadn’t gotten any action for more months than I cared to think about. Life had been nothing but work and dreams of work. That must be the reason why my brain and my libido were all scrambled these days.
If I was being honest, then I would have admitted that my reaction to Melanie wasn’t just physical. The day she’d told me about her parents as her eyes filled with painful tears, I wanted nothing so bad as to collect her against my chest and stroke her hair as she wept. The way I felt around her was not something I felt regularly. That made it more dangerous, and even tougher to resist. And that’s what I was afraid of. Somehow Melanie wasn’t just tempting my dick, she was inside my head. I knew if I ever got a taste of her, I might forget all kinds of good manners and family promises.
There were moments when I thought that if she wanted it, I’d fucking take her right where she stood and then carry her away with me. The problem was I’d always have to turn around and come back before I got very far. In the end the needs of the restaurant took precedence over anything else. Esposito’s was more than a business venture; it was my name and my family and every plan I had ever made. Melanie wouldn’t understand that, and I wouldn’t expect her to. If we got together, she’d wind up frustrated and unhappy and probably in search of a new job. What’s more, Gio would hit the goddamn roof when he found out.
Yet those cold realities never kept me from imagining several dozen creative ways to get down and dirty with Melanie Cruz. Thank god she wasn’t psychic.
By the time I returned to Espo 2, Tim was back to disorganizing the kitchen, and Tara had arrived for a visit with baby Leah.
“There’s my princess,” I said when I walked through the door and saw the baby tangling her chubby fingers in her mother’s hair.
“Well, hello, Dominic,” Tara laughed. “I’m happy to see you too.”
Melanie had emerged from the office. It appeared as if she and Tara were having a friendly chat. I thought I remembered Gio saying that the two of them had really hit it off, that they’d even known each other years ago. Right now I didn’t care. I only had eyes for my baby niece.
Tara handed Leah right over when I walked toward them with my arms out. Even though my brother’s family lived in a neighboring condo, I’d been keeping such weird hours I hadn’t seen the baby in over a week.
Leah smelled like soap and innocence. She immediately drooled all over my shirt. I’d never had any interest in babies until Leah was born, but the first time I held her in my arms, I knew I would do anything for that little girl.
“She’s teething,” Tara explained. “Those first two bottom teeth just broke through yesterday. Watch your fingers because if she gets too close, she’ll try to chew them off.”
I looked into her angelic little face. “You wouldn’t do that to Uncle Dominic, would you?”
Leah blew spit bubbles in my direction and laughed.
“That’s right,” I told her. “Don’t forget that I’m your favorite uncle in the whole world.”
Tara and Melanie started chatting about art museums and other bullshit, so I carried the baby into the kitchen for a tour.
“Let’s see what you think of Daddy and Uncle Dominic’s restaurant,” I told her.
Tim was in the kitchen staring at a stack of gray food bins that we used to store the pizza dough while it was rising. He blinked at me.
