Phantom's Baby: A Mafia Secret Baby Romance (Mob City Book 3) by Holly Hart Page B

pills are for, you know?"
    The elevator doors leisurely slid shut. My jaw fell open in astonishment at the same slow pace. A silence filled the elevator for a few seconds, weighing down on my shoulders. A hot flash of embarrassment filled my cheeks, and I dared not even look at the man who stood so close to me that his body heat half-burned my arm.
    Finally, Val broke the silence – and the tension. He chuckled. "Well, you heard the lady…"
    I turned, and punched him on the arm, except the arm was gone, and his hands reached out to yank me towards him instead. Then our lips were locked, my body pressed against his, with his hardness pressed against my thigh.
    For the first time, I allowed myself to truly believe that this wasn't just a dream. But even if it was, I was going to make it the best damn dream I'd ever had, or ever would have. Val's hand ran through my hair, mussing it up, until it looked like a lion's mane.
    I groaned, and the sound hid the ping as the elevator came to a steady halt. I pulled myself from Val's embrace, desperately pulling my hands through my hair to return it to some semblance of order.
    But as the doors slid open, there was no one on the other side. I hung my head with relief.
    "Not into people watching, eh?" Val grinned. "We'll have to see if there's something we can do about that…"
    "You can't be –" I croaked, but before I had a chance to finish the half-formed thought, Val tossed me over his shoulder, lifting me as easily as a sports bag. I squealed, and pulled my short black dress down to cover my ass, but I didn't complain.
    As he strode down the carpeted hallway, his muscular body moved beneath me, his muscles all firing in synchronized harmony, his thick shoulders rubbing against my skin, taunting me, teasing me, and throwing fuel onto the fire of my desire.
    He threw me down on the bed, and the impact knocked half of the air out of my lungs, but I didn't notice. Nor did I open my mouth and suck in a mouthful of air; instead, I pressed my lips against his as he lowered his body onto mine.
    I kissed him hungrily, messily – the sloppy work of a woman who hadn't touched a man in years; not like this, anyway. I didn't care, and neither did he.
    His hands roamed my body – probing, touching, stroking – but never stopping. One moment his thick, huge right palm caressed my ankle, the next it slid up the back of my leg. No sooner was my attention focused there, than his left was pressed hard against my stomach, then pawing at my breast. I arched my back as two tongues of fire soared down my body, and he pressed his in closer.
    Val tore his lips from mine, and I moaned with displeasure. He stared at me with a hungry, inky blackness spreading in his ice-grey eyes, like an oil spill in the deep ocean. "You're sure you want this?"
    His breath caught in his throat as he spoke. The slight hesitation somehow heightened the tension, forced me to hang on his every word.
    His voice was made of diamond now. It grated with an edge that I'd never heard in it before. It scared me, chilled me – thrilled me.
    "You'd best be certain," he said, throat raw. "Because once I start, I can't promise I'll stop. This won't be like it was last time. I have –" he paused; his eyes filled with a haunted need that threatened to overwhelm him. He blinked, and it disappeared from sight; but I knew it wasn't gone. Something like that could never be gone , not really. " – Urges now."
    I shivered. This was a giant waving a red flag. The kind of moment blossomed before me that any girl – any normal girl – would beg for at the start of a relationship; the kind that tells you to run as fast as you can, as far as you can.
    But there was something in the way he paused – the way he asked permission instead of just taking – that held me back. He was damaged – maybe beyond all repair – but who was I to judge? There was an aching pit of loneliness and need inside me that threatened to swallow me whole, and Val