Waste of Worth (DeLuca Duet Book 1) Read online

  Karen giggled, tipping up her bottle for another drink. “Here I am.”

  “Do you miss home?”

  “Miss the sun and the beaches,” she offered. “Sometimes. I like the snow.”

  “I’m sure that makes up for it.”

  Karen shrugged. “Does for me. Snow makes for beautiful pictures.”

  He wondered just how much time she was able to devote to photography given she spent five days a week at his restaurant working eight-hour days. She was paid well, which he was sure she appreciated, but it wasn’t her passion.

  Artists thrived on passion.

  “And what do your parents think now?” Dino asked.

  Karen’s brow furrowed. “About me being in Chicago?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Well, I don’t know. I haven’t talked to them in about a year now. I haven’t gone back for a visit because …” She trailed off, a sweet pink coloring her cheeks. “I just haven’t gone back.”

  “Because you couldn’t afford to?” Dino asked.

  Karen glanced away, taking in the quiet people milling about in the bar and enjoying their evening. He’d allowed her to pick the place, if only because the establishments he would go to would probably be mob connected and his main goal in whatever he was doing with her was to keep her far away from that mess. She didn’t need to be involved in that side of his life, even if her only involvement would be through him.

  “Yeah, that’s … accurate.”

  “Do they know that’s why you haven’t been back?” he asked.

  Karen laughed, but this time it was bitter and sad. “Why would I tell them that? So they can say they were right—this whole plan of mine was a major fuck up and look at how spectacularly I failed at it?”

  Ouch.

  “You’re not failing, Karen. I know failure—this isn’t it.”

  “Oh?”

  Just like that, Dino felt the proverbial table turn to him.

  He’d been careful throughout the date, only letting her chat about what she wanted, and doing his best to deflect any questions about his history or life without making it extremely obvious that’s what he was actually doing. She didn’t seem to mind that he didn’t want to go too in depth with his own stories, and she enjoyed talking.

  Frankly, he really enjoyed listening to her.

  It’d been a long time since he just talked to someone.

  Since he enjoyed the company of others.

  Too long, maybe.

  “You know, I can see it when you sort of blink out on me, Dino,” Karen said.

  Dino cleared his throat, setting his bottle of beer on the bar. “I’m not sure what you mean.”

  “You often go inside your head. It makes me wonder what’s so interesting in there that it’s where you want to be.”

  “My head is not an interesting place, believe me.”

  A war zone, maybe.

  Hell, likely.

  Certainly not interesting.

  “I don’t believe that for a second,” Karen said quietly. “I went back to your mother’s grave for a couple of weeks after you stopped coming on Sundays—just to say hello to her, and wipe down the stone. I figured if you had done it for so long, maybe it was difficult for you to just up and stop simply because you had to in order to avoid me.”

  “I wasn’t—”

  “Are we going back to that again?”

  Dino let out a laugh at her pointed glare. She was right, and rightly called him out on the lie. But the laugh … that was what surprised him the most. It was genuine, and deep. It almost made his stomach ache, though it didn’t last long and was over before he realized.

  Sad thing was, it was not the first time or even the second time that she had made him laugh without even trying.

  It was all a little surreal.

  Who was this woman?

  Why her, he found himself wondering.

  “Dino,” Karen whispered, drawing him from his thoughts.

  It was something else a little strange about her—he always found he liked being outside of his head when he was with her, rather than inside where he could ignore the world, even if his mind was full of terrible things.

  “Yeah?” he asked, watching her more intently than before.

  “You’ve been staring at my mouth for the last five minutes.”

  Had he?

  Well, she had been talking.

  It certainly wasn’t because a part of his mind wondered what her lips felt like, and another part of his brain was curious what she tasted like and how she kissed.

  Dino had spent so long keeping his emotions shut off from the rest of the world, because it was easier to deal with life when he didn’t have the complication of feeling to go along with it, and he didn’t quite know how to discern the things he felt now. Making sure he never got involved with people meant he didn’t need to put forth a great deal of effort to understand them or why they did the things they did.

  Karen made him want to know all of those things, especially why she made him want it.

  It felt like he was playing with fire.

  She was right.

  He was a little strange.

  “Dino,” Karen said, laughing low.

  “Just ask, right?”

  Karen nodded, her grin deepening. “Right.”

  He was caught staring at her mouth again, and how her lips curved upwards at the edges whenever she glanced his way.

  Just ask.

  “I’d like to kiss you,” he admitted.

  “I didn’t hear a question there.”

  “It’s self-explanatory.”

  “I did say coffee was a possibility,” Karen mused.

  “I’m only asking for a kiss.”

  “We both know it’s not going to end at a kiss, Dino.”

  Even as he leaned forward, closing the distance between them to catch her smiling lips with his own, he knew she was right.

  It wasn’t the first time she had been, and he doubted it would be the last.

  All those thoughts drifted away, and his mind quieted, as he felt her lips move against his. Soft and steady, slow and sweet.

  It still burned him all over.

  Suddenly, he was reminded what it felt like to be alive.

  All because of a kiss.

  KAREN had been right—entirely so.

  One kiss was not enough once Dino had been given it. One kiss turned into two, and then three. Before he knew what had happened, he’d pulled her from the barstool and onto his lap where he could finish his beer while his hand grabbed tightly to her inner thigh under the skirt of her dress.

  He thought they’d make their way to her place, maybe.

  His was too far away.

  A hotel for the night would work just fine, too.

  Shit.

  They didn’t make it past the parking lot.

  Dino fell into the backseat of his car with a chuckle as Karen climbed into his lap and straddled his waist. With the door closed, the windows tinted dark, and the corner of the parking lot hidden in the shadows, he couldn’t find a single reason why not.

  That was just fine for him.

  The backseat wasn’t very big, and he didn’t have a great deal of room to move. Those reasons made his first few moves hesitant and stilted when he reached for Karen.

  Or maybe it was because it’d been a while since he’d been in this situation.

  Dino had plenty of opportunities for sex if he wanted it, and on the occasions when he felt the need, he acted on it and that was it. He rarely even asked those women’s names; he went into it with zero expectations, and so did his partner for the night.

  Karen was not the same.

  Not at all.

  She also wasn’t having his hesitance.

  “Dino,” Karen said, shifting on his lap in such a way that damn near made him groan. “Don’t think about this too much right now.”

  “I can do that.”

  He was sure he could.

  He could feel t
he soft cotton between her thighs, warm and thin. Her core grinded down on the hard length of his erection. Her hands found his face, and she made him look at her. She clouded his vision—pretty brown eyes and pouty pink lips. And then in a blink, those lips of hers were on his, moving and melding, parting just enough to let his tongue snake in to find that taste and heat that he’d wondered about earlier.

  It was as good as he expected, if not better.

  Karen’s thighs tightened just a bit to Dino’s waist, and her fingernails dragged over the scruff on his jaw when she tilted her head back, giving him access to the delicate column of her throat. It was the slight bite of pain from her touch, followed by the happiest, quiet sigh she released, that did it for him.

  The small amount of anxiety he’d been feeling drifted away.

  The control he was keeping was gone.

  The desire to feel something other than a black nothingness beat deep in his blood, thumping harder with every beat of his heart. It was so unusual for him to get to the point he currently was when he did find himself in the midst of a hookup—fisting her clothes and yanking them off to get more skin and more to feel and taste.

  But he wanted that with Karen. Wanted to see her skin and find out if his hands fit into her curves, and God, maybe he could get her to give him another one of those sighs.

  It wasn’t long at all before Karen was exactly how Dino wanted her, naked, in his lap, and free for him to explore. Every swipe of his thumbs over pebbling skin earned him the sweetest sounds. The slide of his hands up her throat and his fingers curling around her neck made her breath hitch and her lashes flutter when her eyes closed.

  Yet, it was between her thighs where he wanted to be the most. He kept his hand on her throat, feeling his fingers tangle into strands of her hair and his other hand slipped lower. A shiver worked its way through Karen’s body, from her legs to her shoulders, when he finally got his hand on her sex. A hot wetness met the tips of his fingers, the softness of her sex pushing down into his hand to find more.

  She wasn’t shy, he found.

  Not when two of his fingers thrust in, and she didn’t hold back from reaching down to hold his wrist in place, keeping him like he was for a second.

  He didn’t mind at all.

  His thumb came up to slide along the hood of her clit, and Dino’s gaze flew up to find Karen watching him with parted lips and anticipation shining brightly.

  He bet she was beautiful when she came.

  In that moment, that was all he really wanted to see.

  “Come—let me have it,” Dino said, surprised at the hoarseness of his words.

  His demand was punctuated by another thrust of his fingers and the circle of his thumb over her throbbing clit. Under his touch, she trembled, her hips meeting his hand and her lip finding its way between her teeth as the walls of her sex hugged his digits tighter.

  Dino quickly realized this was going to be an addicting sight for him—having her like this, watching her so caught up in it all.

  He wasn’t ready to think on it for long, but he liked it.

  “Shit,” Karen breathed.

  Her soft exclamation was followed by another round of tremors crawling over her body as her pussy contracted hard around his fingers. His name fell from her mouth, loud and lovely, as she came.

  Dino had been right. She was beautiful when she came.

  Flushed, lost, and free.

  Very few things compared, he thought.

  It was only after she’d calmed did he withdraw from her body, going in search of a condom packet he knew should be in his dash. Karen’s fingers trailed over his neck as he leaned between the seats, quickly finding the condom before he fell into the back with her once more.

  He wasted no time then, kissing her hard and deep while her fingers worked the buttons on his shirt open and he got his pants undone just enough to reach in for his cock. Karen only broke away long enough to grab the condom from his hold, open the foil packet, and then fit the latex down his length before her mouth was back on his.

  The softness and heat of her mouth warring with his damn near matched the satiny warmth of her pussy as she grinded over him again. Dino had no time for teasing, his interest in that had waned the moment she’d come on his hand.

  Grabbing her waist tightly, Dino lifted Karen just enough to get her positioned where she needed to be, and then he was pulling her down. The move was hard—fast—but she didn’t seem to mind. As he slid into her clenching sex with the one thrust, her head fell back and caramel-toned waves of her hair tumbled over her shoulders.

  “Jesus, yeah,” Karen mumbled.

  Dino could only moan his approval in response.

  She was snug all around him—slick and contracting in all the right places. His heart raced as she lifted and lowered on him all over again, making his lungs ache with his next exhale.

  He was more than willing to let her control the pace, if only because he couldn’t think beyond the scent of sex in the car and the beautiful creature working her body above his.

  “There, Jesus, yeah … right there,” Karen said, her teeth catching her bottom lip.

  Dino kissed the reddened, plump flesh when she let her bite go. “Fucking beautiful.”

  He wasn’t a big talker to begin with, and he was even less inclined to talk during sex.

  But he couldn’t help but tell her how she looked.

  That he wanted her sounds.

  That she felt so fucking good.

  It took only a few jerky thrusts after Karen had come a second time for Dino to follow, the sensations coursing from his balls to his spine as he emptied into latex.

  He wanted more of her the second he was done.

  “Two coffees,” Dino said, putting in his order.

  Karen piped up as his hand pressed to her lower back. “Two sugar, three cream in mine, please.”

  “Black for the other.”

  The barista nodded her head, already turning to make the order.

  “Oh, and two cherry cheese Danishes,” Karen added.

  “Working on giving me diabetes,” Dino muttered.

  Karen grinned widely. “Don’t pretend like you don’t have a sweet tooth, Dino. I remember the donuts and cakes you brought in with my coffees, thank you.”

  She had him there.

  “And two Danishes,” Dino told the barista.

  There was no point in arguing with Karen.

  Besides, he was fucking starved. He’d spent the night—happily—with Karen at his side. Driving around Chicago, talking because it felt good and he liked listening to her talk, but also because he wasn’t quite ready for it to end.

  He only realized it was morning when the sun finally started coming up.

  It was crazy.

  Perfect, but crazy.

  “Thank you,” Karen said, bringing Dino from his thoughts.

  Their order was ready, waiting on the counter.

  How easy it was for him to lose track of time around Karen.

  Even if it was only minutes.

  “I never said it last night, but thank you,” Dino said once he had coffee in his hands and his back was turned to the barista working the counter. “I appreciate it.”

  Karen blinked up at him, smiling in the strangest way. Her shoulders lifted under his blazer, as she hadn’t brought a coat with her and he didn’t want to see her be cold. She almost seemed to be swallowed by his jacket, and it was only then that he realized how small she looked next to him.

  He liked that a bit too much. In a way, she was perfectly safe with him. She certainly looked happy to be tucked into his side like she was.

  “You’re thanking me,” Karen replied as they slipped into a booth side by side. “For what, screwing you in the backseat of a car?”

  The laughter that broke free from Dino’s chest was almost foreign to him, as he hadn’t laughed that hard in a long while, and it felt both good and strange. Actually, he had laughed that hard recently—the night before with Kare
n. It was with her that he felt … different; that he felt okay to laugh.

  Karen handed over the Danish sweets she’d been holding, her smile growing. “You’re very handsome when you laugh, Dino.”

  Well, he hadn’t been expecting that.

  “I don’t do it very often,” he admitted.

  “You should do it more.”

  With her, he doubted she would give him much of a choice in that matter.

  He didn’t mind all that much.

  Sipping from her coffee, Karen moved closer into his side, letting him wrap an arm around her waist. It was difficult to ignore how his laughter had gained the attention of several people in the small coffee shop, but it was made easier by having her close.

  He could focus on her, not them.

  Dino’s whole life had been an attempt to stay out of the limelight.

  “Not for last night,” Dino said, chuckling quietly.

  “But we’re definitely going to be working on a repeat.” Karen winked up at him as her lips curved into a sensual smile around the rim of her coffee cup. “Right?”

  How was he supposed to say no?

  “Hell yeah.”

  Karen nudged him with her arm. “Go on—you’re thanking me.”

  “Yes.” Dino cleared his throat, feeling awkward for the first time since they’d fixed themselves up and climbed back into the front seat of his car. “For my mother’s grave. You said you went back, and thank you for that.”

  Her gaze lowered, smile fading. “I intruded on something for you. I felt bad that you didn’t want to come back.”

  “That was the problem,” Dino muttered.

  “What?”

  “The problem—I did want to come back. I did hope you would be there.”

  Karen’s brow furrowed. “But you didn’t.”

  “I didn’t,” he echoed.

  Karen didn’t press him for why.

  Dino was grateful.

  He wasn’t sure that he could properly explain it if she did ask, or if she would even understand.

  It reminded him all over again that his life was a complete mess.

  Dino had no idea what he was even doing being there with Karen.

  Except he liked it.

  So he knew damn well that it wasn’t going to end anytime soon.