Pink, page 24
Gigi shrugged, falling gracefully onto the arm of the couch where she sat with an all too pleased smile. “It’s just a little flex. How many other kids are gonna have that kind of backpack their first year?”
“A flex.” He scoffed. “Right, she’s not even a teenager and already flexing. Not that it matters. Can’t exactly tell her no when you’ve already given it to her, can I?”
Gigi stuck out her tongue. “Nope.”
Arely’s fist pumped into the air as she climbed out of her father’s lap, her LV bag still clutched close. “Yes.”
His kid headed back for the mirror.
Gigi, on the other hand, leaned a little closer to him, her pretty lips pouting just a bit. “You’re not too mad at me, are you?”
“For that?”
“Well … It’s okay to tell me not to step over a line. Even if I’ve already jumped over it and didn’t even see it, Lev.”
Right.
Except she hadn’t.
Not really.
Up until that second, Lev had been careful about showing any kind of physical affection toward Gigi while his daughter was in the same vicinity. Arely witnessed nothing more than perhaps his hand on Gigi’s back or a hug between the two. Certainly not the slow, languid kiss that he stole from her because she was close enough, and he couldn’t find an excuse not to. He hadn’t meant for the kiss to last as long as it did, but the way Gigi’s lashes fluttered closed and she hummed against his mouth … well, he took just a few more seconds to enjoy it.
The giggles across the room pulled him back, though. By the time he looked Arely’s way, she was watching herself in the mirror again. Clearly pretending as though she hadn’t seen a thing. He knew different, but he also felt comfortable enough that if his daughter had an issue with it, she would just say so. After all, she didn’t have a problem doing that any other time.
“That was security, by the way,” Gigi said, dragging his attention back to her instantly.
“Pardon?”
She waved a hand over her shoulder. “The call. They said a bunch of paps and some fans have gathered at the front and rear of the hotel. Maybe the ones that have the place staked out, put out a call that they saw you arrive or whatever. Anyway, they were wondering if you might wait a little while longer before leaving or—”
“We can’t take a side door again or …?”
A shrug fell from her delicate shoulders. “You could.”
“But?”
Gigi’s expression turned a little sheepish as her gaze darted from him to the girl in front of the mirror. “Well, I was thinking maybe you would stay for the night.”
“Arely—”
“There are three bedrooms in this suite, Lev.”
“The paps are gonna catch us leaving one way or the other, won’t they? Tonight, tomorrow. When really just determines what they might write, doesn’t it?”
She reached over to sweep her thumb along the hard line of his jaw. “But is what they might say about us really all that untrue at this point?”
He swallowed hard.
She wasn’t wrong.
“Doesn’t mean they should, Gigi.”
“Part of the package, Lev.”
“Yeah, I know. I’m supposed to be staying out of the spotlight, though. The boss doesn’t want it to look like we’re attempting to antagonize anyone from outside—or in—town, if you get my drift.”
Meaning Jensen or Marco.
She arched a brow, silently questioning. He offered nothing more. He couldn’t.
Gigi’s life came with strings. So did his.
“Are you staying, then?” she asked softly. “I’ll call down and let them know.”
Lev knew it wasn’t the best idea. There were a million reasons why he should say no. He also wanted to stay more than anything. “Yeah, let them know we’re staying, babe.”
That gained him another one of her brilliant smiles. And a searing kiss. Surely that was worth another round with the tabloids.
Wasn’t it?
• • •
It was far too easy for Lev to forget about the outside world when he was watching Gigi work his dick. With her knees pressed into the plush cushion of the chaise, she threw her body back into his cock, riding him reverse-style and giving him the best view while she was at it.
“You like that?” she breathed, her words colored with her pleasure as her pace became painfully slow. God. “You like that ass, baby?”
“Keep fucking teasing me, and you’re going to see what I like, sweetheart.”
Hell, her ass was already red from his palms. And the way he’d slapped the round cheeks earlier when he had her bent over the bed with her panties stuffed in her mouth to keep her quiet when she couldn’t do it on her own.
“Yes, please.”
Lev groaned out his agreement through clenched teeth, determined to hold back his release for as long as he fucking could despite the fact they’d spent the better part of the early morning hours wrapped up in one another. It didn’t matter.
It wasn’t enough.
Every time they fucked, he just wanted more. He wanted to drag her right back into the bed the second they were finished. If he could keep her naked and wrapped in sheets, then he fucking would but alas … life was always waiting to catch up.
Like now.
Room service would be there anytime. She had called down for it almost an hour before. Arely would have to be woken up soon, too. Then, they had to worry.
But right then?
Fuck life.
He had two handfuls of Gigi’s ass while she backed her soaked pussy into his dick, and he got to watch every second of it. The way she tossed her head back, blonde and pink hair flipping over her shoulders. How a tremor worked its way over her shoulders the slower she fucked him because she too was trying to hold back.
To make this last longer.
Peeking over her shoulder at him, Gigi’s teeth dragged over her lower lip before she whispered, “Make me come.”
Yes.
Abso-fucking-lutely.
Lev didn’t need to be told again, his hands flying to Gigi’s waist to keep a better hold on her as he lifted from the chaise. His cock didn’t even leave her cunt when he pushed her down to the cushion, her head hanging off the end while she grappled for the edge. She was barely hanging on when his fingers dug into her ass again, spreading her wide as he nailed into her.
The slap of his hips snapping against her pinked backside was music to his ears. Just like her low, keening moans with every thrust she took from him.
And Christ … “You take me so fucking well, Gigi. Your cunt loves this cock, doesn’t it, babe? Fuck yeah, look at you.”
“I can’t … I can’t …”
He wasn’t sure what she was trying to say, but the spasm that rocked her spine came in time with the clench of her pussy around his dick. The orgasm came on with no warning, and while he might usually slow down a bit to enjoy the feeling of her milking him through it, he just picked up the pace. Pounding into her through broken cries of his name that sent him spiraling closer and closer to his own edge.
He was almost there.
Balls tight.
Back slick with sweat.
Nearly there.
Buuuuzzzzz.
Lev’s pace came to a halt all at once as the loud, annoying buzzing continued to resound throughout the room. Gigi’s breathless laughter had her pussy contracting around his dick in the best and worst way, pulling a thick sound from his throat that even he didn’t recognize.
Except he did know that ache in his balls.
That pain.
Fucking blue balls.
“Food’s here,” she told him. “And if we don’t answer the door, they’re going to keep hitting the ringer.”
“Your security—”
“Probably waiting right there with room service. We have to go out and answer the door.”
“For real?”
His voice came out too high. Unnaturally so. It only made Gigi laugh again.
“Stop that,” he growled, his hands flexing hard against her ass. She just grinned into the cushion. “You’re being serious, aren’t you? I was just about to—”
“Come,” she said in a pleased sigh. “I know.”
Goddammit.
Buuuuzzzzz.
Buzz. Buzz. Buzzzzzzz.
The more buzzing he heard, the worse his balls ached until he was swallowing a fucking whimper. Like a damn boy. It didn’t help that Gigi’s giggling had his dick jerking inside of her which only made the pain flare all over again.
Buzz.
“They’re gonna wake Arely—”
That was all Lev needed to hear. He pulled out from Gigi faster than he thought possible. Her smile was a little more sympathetic as he searched for something decent to wear, wincing with every step. Which just ended up being his slacks from the day before, left unbuttoned, and nothing else because he didn’t have time to grab the button-down he’d left in the bathroom with the buzzing seemingly getting louder.
It really wasn’t.
That was just his crazy mind.
Gigi had managed to pull on a silk robe that she tied tight at the waist as he headed out of the bedroom and back into the main rooms. Passing through the sitting room for the door at the other side, Lev didn’t even bother to check the peephole before yanking open the door with a scowl he leveled on—
A woman with a suitcase.
Oh, the security that followed Gigi stood behind the woman, of course. But he was less concerned with them and more concerned with the woman who looked familiar enough for him to know she had to be Gigi’s—
“Mom,” Gigi said, coming to stand next to Lev in the doorway. “We were expecting—”
The green-eyed, blonde-haired woman smiled slightly. Her stare drifted over Lev’s naked torso and straight down to where he hadn’t bothered to do up his pants. Another time—another woman—and he might have asked if she liked what she saw.
Not this time.
“Someone to dress you?” Gigi’s mother asked.
Gigi sighed. “Mom.”
“Kidding.” Then, she smiled wider at Lev. “Hi. I’m Kimie Parker. And you’re the man I keep seeing plastered all over the papers with my daughter—Lev, right?”
His mouth opened to reply.
No sound came out.
Behind Kimie Parker, the security in the middle of the three men explained, “Screened as always, Miss Gigi. We didn’t think you would mind her coming to the door without a phone call, however.”
“That’s fine,” Gigi replied.
“Is it?” Lev muttered.
Kimie’s gaze turned on Gigi, a little sharper than it had been for Lev when she said, “So, what the tabloids said were true?”
“Well—”
“And you didn’t tell me?”
Gigi laughed weakly. “I didn’t want you to worry. A lot of it is nothing but lies.”
“Right.”
“What are you doing here, Mom?”
“You’re walking the runway for Fashion Week, and you seriously thought I wouldn’t come to watch you? At home?”
Beside him, Gigi stared at her mother like she was begging the woman for something he didn’t understand.
“Are we going to keep standing here like this or are you inviting me in?” Kimie asked. “I didn’t drive here from Jersey to book my own hotel room, Gi. I shouldn’t have needed to wait thirty minutes downstairs, either. I’m your mother.”
Okay, that was enough of that. Lev stepped back from the door first, but Gigi was quick to follow when he said, “Come on in. We’re waiting for food, and then we’re going to wake up my daughter to eat. You might as well join, right?”
Kimie huh’d under her breath, saying to Gigi as she passed her by beyond the doorway, “He’s really got a kid, too, does he? I thought the rags were just reaching with that. Apparently, I should be following the tabloids more often. They clearly know more about your life than I do lately, Gigi.”
Ouch.
Gigi said nothing, simply slammed the door behind her mother. The stare she shot him, however, both pleaded and thanked him at the same time. For what, he had no idea.
But damn.
This had been quite the morning. It could only go up from here, right?
Lev hoped so.
• • •
“Arely’s first day at kindergarten went spectacularly,” Lev said, laughing. “And you’d be proud of how many pictures I took.”
“I liked the one you sent me. Did she pick the outfit, or you?”
“Her.”
Gigi grinned, the pride shining through when she replied, “Girl has style, Lev. You should really consider getting her an agent or something.”
“You’re kidding, right?”
A shrug fell from her shoulders. “Partly.”
“Hell no.”
Absolutely not, in fact. The time he had spent with Gigi was enough to tell him that the lifestyle she lived was not as glamorous as it seemed from the outside. He couldn’t imagine Arely being put in the same position.
Gigi didn’t seem offended about it, and instead changed the subject altogether to something they hadn’t been given the time to delve into what with their busy days getting in the way. Even this lunch was probably going to get cut short by a meeting he had to have with his boss later while Andino visited his barber on the other side of Manhattan.
“My mother liked you,” Gigi said, rolling her glittering eyes. “She wanted me to tell you that she looks forward to spending time with you after Fashion Week is over.”
Lev’s chin tipped up at the slight bitterness he heard in Gigi’s tone. She didn’t show it where she sat across from him at the table in the restaurant that he had been able to both get a reservation last minute but also make sure it was private enough for them. Andino’s La Vita Bella, that was.
She might not show her bitterness, but she didn’t have to. Not when he had so clearly heard it.
“Is that an issue or something?”
Gigi’s gaze snapped from the windows to his face in an instant. “What, no. I just—”
“There’s a pap,” Lev interjected before she could explain more on the topic.
Before Gigi could even find the man aiming a lens of a camera out of his car’s window, focused on them through the restaurant’s large bay windows, one of the enforcers Lev had trailing Gigi came into view with a hand already waving at the guy. As fast as the car had pulled up to the side of the street outside the business, the vehicle sped off with the window still rolled down.
Although now, the enforcer walked away with the camera. That earned a chuckle out of Lev.
“We haven’t even gotten our food yet,” Gigi muttered, “and already they’re showing up. I’m sorry, I know you wanted to have a normal date.”
Right.
Well …
“I wanted to have lunch with you while I could this week,” he murmured, reaching across the table to catch her hand with his own. Weaving their fingers together, he lifted her hand to his lips and dotted soft kisses along her silken skin. “I’m still trying to work on that date thing, so let’s not count this as that. Not yet.”
“I mean, at least they’re good for getting rid of the assholes. The enforcers, I mean. They don’t care about catching a charge for something like my security does. Not sure what they’re really doing, though.”
“Keeping you safe, babe.”
“From what? Nothing has happened for me to need them. Jensen hasn’t shown back up. According to my agent, the campaigns for the Revvers have all been canceled. Not on our end, either. I think it’s safe to say whatever you thought might happen because of all that—”
Lev made a dark noise under his breath, stopping her from saying more when he said, “I can’t remember what it feels like to think the way you do. “
“How do I think?”
“Normally, I guess.”
That had Gigi’s brow dipping low. “What does that mean?”
He might have laughed at how she sounded offended at the very idea of being called normal. Problem was, this wasn’t a laughing matter. In any way. The bigger issue was that Gigi clearly didn’t understand how serious the possible issues with Jensen and Marco could actually be for them both. Maybe that was partly his fault.
After all, he hadn’t really explained what it was like to be … the person he was. The man he had been turned into the moment he took a job for Andino Marcello.
Lev sighed when Gigi continued to stare at him, clearly waiting for an answer to her question. “It means … before the fucking mob came into my life. Before they turned me into Pink, you know? I used to think like you, too. If nothing was happening, then all was good.”
Gigi swallowed hard. “Why did you … did you join, or?”
“I work for Andino. That’s it. That’s all. Saying I joined implies something that doesn’t exist for guys like me in this business.”
Mostly.
“But why?” she asked.
Lev shrugged, his thumb stroking the side of her hand because it helped to keep his thoughts from running wild into a past he really didn’t want to revisit. “I needed the money and the security for my kid, so I took the job offered to me even knowing it might mean that same job could take me from Arely someday, too. But before all that, I was like you. I had no idea how everything was going to change when I stepped out of my house and became Pink for the mob. Girl, a week? Two or three … five fucking years, it doesn’t make a difference to these men. They’ll wait as long as they need to for a vendetta or just goddamn business. Don’t think because it’s been a quiet week that we’re safe. We never are.”
Gigi quieted throughout his spiel. Her silence continued long after he was done, too. Lev hadn’t meant for his words to hit so heavy, but it was what it was.
“Things were easier then, weren’t they?” she finally asked softly. “Before I was this and you became … you. What might have happened if we had a little more time back then?”
He didn’t have the answer to that. Still, he smiled for her, saying, “But it might be worth it.”
They hadn’t gotten that far to know yet.
Gigi shot him the kind of look that would usually have his thoughts darkening with filth, but the server coming their way with plates of food balanced on her arm took his attention instead. Funny how the only things that could get Lev’s mind off fucking Gigi was food or his kid. Neither of them said much as the dishes of the restaurant’s most famous lasagna were placed down to the table, and they dug in.
