Kane's Ransom: A BWWM Mafia Romance Novel (14 page)

After a minute or two, she reached out and grabbed hold of the side, pulling herself up against the smooth, wet wall of the tub. Draping her arms out of the edge of the tub, resting on its smooth edge with her armpits, Alicia soon realized that she could position herself right on one of the jets so that it rushed between her legs, sending a little stream of bubbles creeping up the crack of her ass.

Ooh. That felt good, Alicia thought to herself through the soporific haze of warmth, sagging down and positioning herself a little closer to the jet. She could feel it pushing up against her, sending a near-constant tingle through her nether regions. It felt similar to when she let her fingers stray downward at home, but constant, more bubbly and spread out to touch all the best spots at once...

Alicia rocked back and forth, her eyes closed, feeling the pleasure build up inside of her. Ooh, this was exactly what she needed! Just a little further, she told herself. Just a little more - oh, right in that spot-

Oh god, that was it.

She felt herself swept forward, over the edge. For just a moment she felt herself teetering on the edge of that cliff, hovering there, about to go plunging over it - and then she let go, lost control and couldn't hold on any longer.

Alicia's eyes squeezed shut, and despite the heat of the hot water surging around her, she shivered violently. Oh, it almost certainly wouldn't feel as good as with another person, she imagined, but it still felt far better than she ever expected in her mind. She always found herself surprised by the strength of that reaction, as if all the pleasure normally denied to her body was simply stored up and released. in one huge flood.

With her eyes still closed, she tried to imagine someone else with her, having sex with another person. But who? She didn't have a lot of people in her life to fantasize about, now that she actually considered the question.

Mentally, she ran through the list of other employees at her workplace, only to come up empty. The cooks were a sassy, sarcastic bunch, but none of them really seemed at all sexy or appealing. She couldn't think of anyone from her past, despite how quite a few of the young men in high school with her had showed considerable interest. One young man in particular, Jamal, had always given her a big, wide, bright white smile whenever he passed her - but after a couple of weeks, when she didn't return his flirtatious advances, he instead settled for her friend Rhonda - and got her pregnant by the end of junior year.

So, so much for Jamal.

Suddenly, as if on his own, Killian popped into her head. Even as she rocked back and forth on the jet, Alicia frowned a little, more surprised than upset. Killian? She'd never really tried to imagine how he would look without clothes, how he'd feel if he put his hands on her...

As she felt herself once again tilting towards release, the wave of tingling excitement in her once again starting to build, she imagined herself with Killian. His white skin would look very different against her own dark tones, but she was sure that he was fit and strong under his clothes, from the way he moved and how he wore his plain shirts.

He was older, definitely, but he'd have the strength, still, and probably the knowledge of how to make her feel good, to not just be focused on his own pleasure. She imagined him running his hands over her body, sliding up from behind and first cupping her breasts, squeezing them and pinching her nipples, and then dropping those big hands of his down to guide her hips up against his own.

He'd be hard behind her, thrusting in between her legs, feeling the roundness of her ass as she pushed back against him. Alicia grinned as she shifted a little more forward. He'd put his hand on the small of her back, bending her down onto her hands and knees so that he could thrust into her...

Oh! As she tried to conjure up the feel of him, his manliness, pushing inside of her, she once again felt herself losing control, exploding in the hot water and nearly slipping back down below the surface as her next orgasm crested up over the edge and overwhelmed her.

This was a very good choice as a distraction, she decided. But at some point, she'd need to add some more hot water.

PART TWO

"Don't mistake my kindness for weakness. I am kind to everyone, but when someone is unkind to me, weak is not what you are going to remember about me
.
"

AL CAPONE, CHICAGO OUTFIT CRIME BOSS

Chapter sixteen

As he headed out of the hotel, riding the elevator silently down to the lobby, Killian kept on lifting his fingers up to brush against the spot on his cheek where he'd felt Alicia's lips brush against him. He knew that he ought to be thinking about the meeting he was headed to, but he couldn't seem to keep his mind off of that little bit of contact.

Was there something there? Did he want there to be? Killian felt unsure and conflicted - and that sense of uncertainty deeply worried him.

He knew that there were half a dozen reasons why it wouldn't work, why he shouldn't even consider the question. He listed them on his fingers as the elevator dropped down to the ground floor.

First, the question of age. Alicia was what, in her thirties? She looked amazing for her age, he did have to admit, remembering the slim lines of her body in her outfit whenever she served him as a waitress. And he did his best to keep himself in shape - but that wasn't enough to fully overturn the issue with their differing ages.

Even more than their different ages, however, they simply came from different worlds. Alicia had grown up here, in the heart of the ghetto, in abject poverty. She'd done incredibly well, fighting her way out of that trap, but it was still far different from the healthy status of Killian's own bank account, how accustomed he'd grown to having money.

And really, what could he offer her, if she wanted a relationship with him? He was secluded, with no friends, and a little house, almost as small as her own. He imagined that she'd want someone young, her own age, someone who would take her out and show her a good time. Killian sniffed. To him, staying home and cooking some food, then maybe watching a movie or playing some board games, sounded like a perfectly good time.

The elevator dinged as he arrived at the ground floor, and Killian hastily swept his mind clear. He needed to focus, needed to think about who he'd be meeting with next. He was about to set foot on turf that he'd done his best to avoid for the last few years. And the man he'd called, the man he would be meeting with? Just a week previously, Killian would have rather stepped on his own fingers than tell that man anything.

The valet nodded to him and hurried off to fetch Killian's car, while he waited outside the hotel's front entrance. His stomach growled at him, and he realized that lunchtime had come and gone. Would Alicia want food? He wouldn't mind if she used the room service to get food, as long as she stayed safe.

Once his car arrived, Killian slipped behind the wheel of the Maserati, pulling away. He plugged in his location's address into his phone, turning on the GPS to help guide him to the destination.

Twenty minutes later, he pulled up at a rather seedy looking bar, parking in the lot behind the building. Despite the bar's rather uninspiring and dilapidated appearance, a whole host of luxury vehicles were parked in the lot behind it. Killian drove past Land Rovers, Mercedes, and BMWs before he found an open spot. He even spotted a Lamborghini in one corner, and rolled his eyes.

Walking around to the entrance to the bar, Killian stepped inside, and then paused for a minute to let his eyes adjust to the darkness. Given that it was only just past noon, he expected the bar to be next to empty.

He was wrong.

At least half a dozen men sat around the bar, some of them on their own, some of them in little groups. The single bartender behind the bar glanced up at Killian, but then dropped his gaze back down to the glass he was polishing. The other men sitting around, however, didn't lower their eyes, staring belligerently back at Killian.

He did his best to appear unaffected, looking around past them and not letting his eyes linger. He spotted his contact sitting in back, and lifted his chin in a nod. His contact returned the nod, and Killian headed for the booth at the back.

"Thanks for meeting with me," he said, sliding into the booth opposite the other man. Behind him, Killian heard the scrape of chairs as a couple of the other big fellas sitting around turned to look at him, or moved a little closer. He tried not to feel intimidated - or, once that failed, tried to keep any of his emotion from showing on his face.

"No problem," replied the man across the booth's table. "You're looking good, Kane. Retirement working for ya?"

"Something like that," Killian replied. He sized up the other man, trying to find some good comment to offer. "You're looking, uh, okay? Lost some weight?"

The other man chuckled. "Yeah, right," he replied, leaning back and smacking his gut. "Put on twenty. Got a fitness trainer for a while, but ended up spending more time trying to get her out of all that spandex titty-flashing shit than actually working out. Thought about getting a male trainer, after that, but it seemed kinda gay, ya know?"

"Jiggs, you've always had a way with words," Killian replied, trying not to grimace at the man's frank words. "Anyway, to get back on track-"

"Nah, nah," Jiggs interrupted, turning and waving his hand at the bartender. "Yo, Frankie! Get us a couple a beers, huh? My throat's drying up over here!" He turned back to Killian as the bartender nodded and busied himself pouring a couple of pints. "Now, why don't you tell me where you've been hiding for these last few, huh? Been off fucking through Thailand or something?"

"I've stayed around here, actually," Killian countered. "Done some charity work. Wanted to give back after all the bad events I've had a hand in, you know?"

If the dig at some of Jigg's activities registered, the man didn't give any sign. He just grinned, showing slightly uneven teeth, and raked his hand back through his greasy black hair. "Around here? And you never came to any of the barbecues?"

"Didn't want to be an accessory to the crime," Killian fired back, grinning even though he wasn't exactly joking.

Jiggs snorted, turning his shark's grin up to Frankie as he brought the beers over to their table. "Frankie, you know this guy? Killian Kane, MD. Used to be one of our best surgeons, kept quite a few dudes outta the ground. But we couldn't keep him, no matter how much cash we offered him, so he's been AWOL for the last few."

The bartender just smiled, putting the beers down and disappearing back behind the safety of his counter. Killian reached out for the beer, but didn't raise the glass to his lips until Jiggs had taken a big pull. Always let the host drink first, he remembered that rule.

After taking a long pull, Jiggs dropped the glass back down to the table, wiping one hand across the back of his mouth. "Okay then, Kane, what made you break your vow of silence and call me? What's your problem, someone put out a hit on your or something?"

"Actually, it's a friend of mine," Killian replied after he had taken his own drink. "Kidnapped, just the other day. And it sounds like the Family is involved." He took care not to refer to the Mob by that name. He knew how particular Jiggs, as well as other "made members" could get over naming.

Still, the man across the table was sporting a frown. "Kidnapping? Nah, that's not us. We don't get into that kind of shit any more. Too rough, too much risk for the payout. You know what kinda heat you risk bringing down on yourself with that? Nuh uh."

"Well, someone's pulling it here in Dallas," Killian reiterated. "My friend got a call, with a voice on the other end telling her that she'll have to cough up a hundred thousand dollars - the amount that the kidnappers lost on some drug deal - if she wants to see her brother alive again. That sound like something that you'd know about?"

Jiggs lifted his drink up to his lips again, but the look that he shot at Killian over the glass's rim was surprisingly perceptive. "Your friend," he repeated. "The one who was kidnapped, or the one who got the ransom call?"

Killian thought back through his comments and held back a wince. "My friend got the call," he said, "but that's not the issue. Is anyone in the Family upset about losing out on a bunch of drug money?"

"Drug money..." Jiggs mused, smacking his lips together as he eyed the beer. "Now, that's a place with a lot of juicy profits. Especially around here, close to the border. I could see a lot of folks being involved in that sorta thing, if they're interested in making cash."