Free ROMANCING THE MOB BOSS by Mallory Monroe

Jazz to say get out now, quit while
    you’re ahead, leave his ass in the dust. But she
    wasn’t the one sleeping with Reno. She wasn’t
    the one fal ing hard for a man like him. She
    wasn’t the one who had a feeling that she had
    herself a real man, a good man who wasn’t
    perfect, but was perfect for her. It was easy for
    Jazz and anybody else on the outside looking
    in. But for Trina, who was on the inside, deep
    down inside, it couldn’t have been any harder.

EIGHT
    She saw Reno again that Friday night, when
    he took her to dinner. After a lovely meal, where
    he actual y tried to serenade her by singing
    some tired Tony Bennett song, they ended up
    back at her place. And, eventual y, in bed.
    Oddly, they didn’t make love when they
    got into bed. Odd for them because they never
    ended up in bed without making love. But this
    time he just wanted to hold her. He had had a
    tough day, he said as they lay there, both naked
    and in each other’s arms, and this “whole thing”
    was beginning to get to him.
    “What ‘whole thing,’?” Trina asked him,
    her mind moving in many directions. Was he
    talking about the PaLargio, the mob life, them ?
    “The renovations,” he said, “the new
    construction, the grand opening of the west wing
    coming up.”
    Trina relaxed. It was al about the
    PaLargio. But it did afford her an opening.
    “You’ve always been in the hotel and casino
    business?” she asked him.
    “Not always, no,” he said, wrapping his
    arm tighter around her. They were both on their
    backs, staring up, and he had one of his hands
    constantly flicking her nipple and squeezing her
    breast, which let her know that they hadn’t had
    sex yet, but they would.
    “What made you go into this line of
    work?” she asked him.
    “It beat any other line of work. I saw an
    opportunity, so I took it.” This line of questioning
    was beginning to bother Reno. He knew he had
    some explaining to do, but not here, not now.
    “You said your father owned a
    restaurant, right?”
    “Trina!”
    “I’m just asking.”
    “Yeah, he owned a restaurant, al right?
    Among other things, but mainly restaurants, yes.
    What else you wanna know?”
    “Why didn’t you go into the restaurant
    business? It would be a lot easier than trying to
    run a hotel and casino. Why not go into
    business with your father?”
    business with your father?”
    Trina looked at him, to study his reaction
    to her question. As usual, a cloudy look
    crossed his eyes.
    “I was in business with my father,” he
    said and Trina’s heart dropped. Did he just tel
    her that he used to be a mob boss, or was he
    talking about a legitimate restaurant business?
    “So, you’re saying you used to run his
    restaurants?”
    “Yeah, something like that,” Reno said. “But
    let’s talk about that later, al right? Right now,”
    he said, moving her to where her butt was
    facing him, “I don’t wanna think about anything
    but you.”
    “I’m just trying to get to know you, Reno,”
    Trina said. “It sometimes feel like you’re
    holding something back.”
    “I know it does, sweetheart,” Reno said,
    entering her from the back. “And I’l tel you al
    you ever wanted to know about me, boring parts
    and al . I promise you that. But not now.”
    Trina lay there as he slowly slid in and
    out of her, and she felt as if he was playing for
    time. But she felt relieved too. Because he
    spoke of being involved in his father’s business
    in the past tense. Which meant he wasn’t
    anymore. And he said it was the restaurant
    business that he was involved with, which was a
    good thing, too. Besides, she was used to bad
    boys. Every man she had ever fal en in love with
    would be considered a bad boy, so bad boys
    were nothing new to her. But the mob, she
    thought, was a different kind of bad.
    She sighed as his penis penetrated
    deeper and deeper within her. She knew she
    was rationalizing. She knew she should just flat
    out ask him about his father. But she