Sergio (Benedetti Brothers 3)

She closes her eyes, bites her lip. Presses her hands against me. “No.”

I take that hard, little button and tease it and she’s leaning the top of her head into my chest, one hand fisted there, the other pushing against me. Her breathing is coming in gasps and I think she’ll come soon and I want to see her come. It’s what I want most in the world right now.

She looks up at me. I grip her pussy, tug her toward me. I rub her clit again, watch her eyes when I do.

But then she moves her hands underneath my jacket and she’s feeling my chest, and I know the instant she touches the cold steel of my gun because she freezes.

Fuck.

I watch her. She blinks and that desire is turning into something else.

I clear my throat. “You should tell me to go,” I tell her again, my voice hoarse. It’s the right thing to do. I know it. She knows it.

I slide my hand out of her panties, my fingers wet with her.

She takes hold of either side of my jacket and pushes it back just off my shoulders and looks at the holstered gun, but she doesn’t speak. Instead, she touches it. I watch her tentative fingers, delicate and fragile. But when she closes her hand over the handle, I take hold of her wrist and pull her hand off and push her away, turn my back to her as I lean against the counter, holding her at arm’s length, needing a moment. Needing many moments. I adjust the crotch of my pants and when I finally look at her again she’s watching me.

This time it’s me who doesn’t speak. Instead, I release her wrist. I adjust the cups of her bra and take one more look at her before I turn, pick up my coat. I don’t bother to put it on before I open the door, even though it’s icy out, and I walk out of the house without a goodbye.8NatalieI lay awake for a long time after he left and kept waking up throughout the night, remembering. It’s the first thing I think of this morning.

He didn’t say goodbye. And I didn’t get a chance to say a word before he was gone. The door closed behind him and he vanished. Disappeared into the night like a ghost. Like he wasn’t here at all.

And it’s the strangest thing. The most unsettling feeling—something I can’t put my finger on—but it’s almost a premonition. Sergio here, then gone.

Just like that.

Like a ghost.

Pepper’s barking alerts me that there’s someone at the door. The doorbell’s been broken forever. I get up, pull a hoodie on, and glance out the window. I know it’s not Sergio. Pepper wouldn’t have barked at him.

Three men are standing outside, two in black jackets with a logo I can’t read at the back, and one in a long dark coat. The guy in the coat looks up, catches my eye in the window. He opens his arms as if to say ‘hey, answer the door’.

I go downstairs, keep a hand on Pepper’s collar when I open the door. I don’t know these men.

“Good morning,” the one in the coat says. He introduces himself. I only catch his first name. “Sergio sent me.”

I’m confused. “What? Why? It’s seven in the morning.” I have class in an hour but still. I read the logo on the uniform of one of the men behind him. He’s a locksmith.

“He said you need new locks. We’ll get it done as fast as possible and be out of your way. Gentlemen.” He puts his hand on the door to push it open, gesturing for the two men to enter.

“Hold on. You can’t just barge in here and—”

“Miss, if you don’t mind my saying so, these locks wouldn’t keep a third-rate bum out.”

My mouth falls open and he digs his phone out of his pocket, says a few words then holds it out to me.

“Here.”

“What?”

“For you.”

I am so confused. I take the phone.

“Good morning,” Sergio says before I can say a word. I can almost hear the grin on his face.

“Are you responsible for this?”

“Yes. I realize it’s early—”

“You can’t just send someone to my house to change my locks. I don’t even know you. It’s not even my house. What’s next, the windows?”

“Maybe. If you need it.”

“No. I’m joking!”

“The owners will appreciate the better locks, Natalie. I guarantee that. I can break into your house with one hand tied behind my back.”

“No one’s trying to break into my house.”

He doesn’t speak for a minute and I think back to the man last night, the one who almost plowed me down on his way out of the street.

No one has tried. Yet.

“I just want to keep you safe. Young woman living alone and all. Want to make sure you’re protected.”