Speak Low (Speak Easy 2)

“Within one week?”

“Yes!”

Enzo breathed deeply through his nose. “What the fuck do you want, Tiny?”

I had no idea. What’s changed? It was a fair question, in a way—I had known he had a fiancée the last two times we’d slept together. True, I hadn’t known about the wedding date, but if I was honest with myself, I had to admit there wasn’t much of a difference between sleeping with a man who had a fiancée, and sleeping with one who had a fiancée and a wedding date. Both were pretty despicable, separated perhaps by a scant few degrees of despicableness on the scale.

“I don’t know, Enzo. I guess…I guess I’ll wait until next Saturday and see if you manage to dodge your own wedding. ” Slapping a hand over my face, I groaned. “God, that sounds so ridiculous.”

“That’s a long time away, Tiny.” He trailed his fingers along my shin. “I don’t think I can wait that long. I don’t think you can, either.”

“It’s one week, Enzo. You can’t go seven days without having sex?”

“I just want you so badly.” He rubbed my hip, staring at his hand against the ivory material. “Can’t we come up with a different plan?”

“No.” I got off the bed and located my heels on the floor. “We can’t.”

“Is this about him?” He watched as I slipped my feet into my shoes.

My cheeks flushed, and I bent over one leg as if I needed to concentrate on the buckle. “No.”

“I don’t believe you. You have to decide, Tiny. You can’t be loyal to two people in this situation.”

I straightened so quickly I got dizzy. “Ha! Look who’s talking!”

“Gina means nothing to me. In fact, she annoys the hell out of me, and it’s pretty clear I am not loyal to her. I never claimed to be.”

I bent and buckled the other shoe. When I straightened, Enzo was reaching for the lamp, and a second later the room went black. “I need my purse,” I said.

He picked it up from the chair brought it to me. “Are you sure you won’t stay?” His voice was lilting and soft again. “I can come back later and stay with you. All night.”

I felt a quick tug of arousal, but it disappeared at the thought of him coming straight from Gina’s side to my bed. “No. Not until I know for sure that you’re not going to marry her.”

“How do I know for sure that you’re not fooling around with Lupo?” he asked testily. The light coming from the parlor illuminated only one side of his face, leaving the other half dark.

“I’m not.”

Silence. “I saw you dancing with him.”

My stoma

ch flipped. “So what? It was just dancing. There’s nothing between us.”

“What if I want you to prove it?”

“How would I do that?”

A smile appeared on his half-shadowed face. “By keeping a secret.”

“What secret?”

“This one: The gunman outside the prison was a hitman named Legs Putnam. And the hit was ordered by Sam Scarfone.”

I gasped. “Sam Scarfone! But Big Leo was his uncle! Why would he do that?”

“Because Big Leo was the boss. And if you don’t like the way things are being run, and you think you deserve more than you’re getting or you been screwed one too many times, that’s one way to fix it. Take him out.”

“Oh my God.” I brought a hand to my mouth.