“I forgot to mention Toby Fiore was back home. Did you and he have a chance to catch up?” Dante arches an eyebrow as he spears a strip of beef filet with a fork while balancing his daughter on his lap.
I resist rolling my eyes. “You know we did.” I’m well aware that Ash and Henry inform my older brothers of almost every move I make. I’ve tried to stop letting it get to me and accept that it’s an inescapable consequence of being a Moretti.
A slight frown furrows his brow. “Yes, I know he came here last night. I was just making conversation, Joey. I don’t want details.”
I wrinkle my nose. “There are no details to give. He’s my friend, D.”
“I wasn’t suggesting …” He sighs and shakes his head. “Where is this club you’re going to tonight?”
“Downtown. It’s new. They offered to put me and the girls on the guest list. We get a VIP booth and everything.”
“Hmm.” He narrows his eyes.
“What?” I set my silverware down, ready to argue my case if he starts pulling any of his sexist, overprotective bullshit.
“I don’t like people using you for free publicity is all.”
“Free publicity?” I frown.
“Yes.”
“How am I free publicity?”
“You’re Joey Moretti,” he says, scowling. “Everyone in this city knows who you are. You think they gave you a free booth out of the goodness of their hearts?”
I shrug, unbothered. “Whatever the reason, it sounds like it’ll be fun.”
He closes his eyes and sucks in a breath that makes me wonder what he’s thinking. I know he’d rather I stay home where he can keep a closer eye on me, but that’s not the life I want to lead. “Henry and Ash will go with you.”
“Of course.”
“Is this going to be your life now? Partying and going out with your friends every night?”
“I go out two or three nights a week, Dante,” I say with a sigh. “I’m twenty-two, it’s what young people do.”
“I know …” Gabriella starts to fuss, and he bounces her on his knee. “But you could do so much more.”
I lean forward in my chair. “Such as?”
“What do you want to do?”
Narrowing my eyes, I stare at him with suspicion. Is this a trick question? “I want to work in the family business.”
I expect him to laugh at me, but he regards me with curiosity. “You do?”
“Yes.”
“Okay.” He takes another bite of his steak.
“What?” I blink at him. I must have slipped into an alternate universe.
“I said okay. Let me speak to Lorenzo and see where he thinks would be a good place for you to start. Unless you have an idea of what you’d like to do?”
“Are you serious?”
“Yes.”
“Fuck me,” I mutter.
“Don’t curse in front of my daughter,” he says with a slight frown.
“Sorry, but this is pretty epic, D. I mean, you’ve never once given me any indication that I could work with you and Lorenzo.”
Dante shrugs. “Well, things are different now.”
They sure as hell are! “I don’t know where I’d like to start yet, but I’ll think about it. And I’ll consider your and Lorenzo’s suggestions about it too.” As much as they drive me crazy, my brothers are the family business, and they know it inside and out.
“Okay.”
I lean on my elbow, watching him as he eats and smiles at his daughter. “Thank you, D.”
He waves his hand dismissively, unaccustomed to my gratitude. “It’s about time you did something to pay your way around here.”
“Did Kat do something freaky to you before she left or something?”
“Joey!”
“I’m sorry, but you’re in an exceptionally good mood.” I laugh, and Gabriella giggles too, like she understands what I’m saying.
“I’m always in a good mood, aren’t I, sunshine?” he says to his daughter, who squeals in response.
“D?” Max’s voice drifts through the open doorway, and I smile to myself. Any day I get to see Max’s fine ass is a good day.
“In here,” Dante shouts, and a few seconds later, Max walks through the door, dressed in jeans and a shirt with rolled-up sleeves, looking way finer than any man ought to look. He eyes Dante’s steak.
“You want some lunch?” my brother asks, nodding down at his plate.
“No. I already ate. I spoke to Dmitri last night, just wanted to give you an update.”
I know Dmitri Varkov is in the middle of a takeover and that the man he’s trying to oust is the same man my brothers pinned our father’s murder on, but I’m not sure what Dante and Lorenzo have to do with it. I lean forward in my seat, curious to know more.
Dante’s brow furrows into a frown. “Give me fifteen minutes to put Gabriella down for her nap and then I’ll meet you in my study.”
I guess he isn’t quite ready to involve me in all the family business just yet.
Dante leaves the room with my niece, leaving Max and I alone. He sits beside me and steals a slice of tomato from my plate. “How was your night out?”
“Fun.”
He arches an eyebrow at me. “Fun?”
“Yes. You know what that is, right? Something people do when they have a life.”
His eyes darken. I’d like to claim I have no idea why I enjoy pushing his buttons so much, but that would be a lie. I love to get a rise out of him. Seeing that thick vein bulge in his neck and his eyes turn so dark they smolder like coal makes butterflies swirl in my stomach.
“Who did you go out with?” His tone remains cool even as his eyes burn into my skin.
“Monique and Lexi. And Lexi’s guy friend, Nyx.”
He narrows his eyes.
I let out an exasperated sigh. “What?”
“Monique DeLuca is trouble, Joey.”
“Yeah, you’ve been telling me that since I was fourteen, but guess what, Max? You don’t get to tell me who I can be friends with.”
He grunts in response.
“Most guys love Mo.” Does he? He’s never had much time for her, but does he avoid her because he secretly likes her?
He scoffs. “Most guys see her as an easy lay.”
“Max!” I snap. “That’s completely sexist.”
“How is it sexist if it’s the truth? She goes home with a different guy every single time you go out.”
“How do you know? You been keeping an eye on her? Wishing it was you she’d go home with instead?” How the hell does he know who Mo goes home with? And why does he care?
“Don’t be ridiculous. Mo?” He snorts.
“You don’t like her?”
He stares into my eyes when he answers. “Not even a little.”
“You know she’d fuck you just to mess with me though?”
“Yes.”
“Because you and I are friends,” I add quickly, my cheeks flushing pink.
“Of course.” The corners of his eyes crinkle as he fights back a smile. Asshole. “And doesn’t that tell you all you need to know about the kind of friend she is?”
I want to roll my eyes so bad right now. I hate when he’s right. “Anyway, Mo didn’t go home with a guy last night.”
“Well, there’s a first time for everything.”
“I did though.”
His expression darkens, and I feel the heat from his gaze in the very pit of my stomach. Wow!
“You didn’t. Henry and Ash wouldn’t have let you go home with some guy,” he says with a snarl.
How do you know that, Max? Why are you so interested in me going home with a guy? “Well, no. He came here instead.” I shrug casually.
“Who?”
“Toby Fiore.”
“Michael’s son?”
“Yeah. I haven’t seen him since high school, so he came back here and …” I don’t finish the sentence because I’m having way too much fun watching the vein pulse in his neck. What I wouldn’t give to run my tongue along it and taste his skin.
“And what?” he demands. The deep, commanding timbre of his voice rumbles through my bones and goes straight between my legs. I squeeze my thighs together to give myself relief from the throbbing ache building in my pussy.
“We ate waffles and talked about our time away at college.”
“You ate waffles and talked?”
“Yes. You think he’d try anything else?” I laugh. “He probably thought there were cameras watching his every move.”
His dark eyes narrow, his intense stare making me feel like I’m seconds away from melting into a puddle in this chair. “Did you want him to try something?”
I probably shouldn’t answer that, but beneath all the weird ass tension between us, Max is kind of my best friend. “Not last night, no. But that doesn’t mean never. He is kind of cute,” I say truthfully.
Max doesn’t reply. He goes on staring at me, his jaw ticking. And now I don’t want him thinking about me and Toby. It feels too weird. “Anyway, I’m not sure he even likes me.” That’s a lie, but maybe he’ll buy it. “I invited him to that new club opening downtown tonight, but he said he’s busy.”
“Well, maybe he is. He just started working for his dad.”
Toby’s dad is Michael Fiore and he’s been our family’s accountant forever. “What accountant works on a Saturday night?”
“Your brothers’ accountant works when he’s told to, Joey,” he says with a smile.
“I guess.”
“So, this club?”
“Killers.” I wiggle my eyebrows at him.
“Ah yeah. It used to be called Mika’s back when Dante and I went there. But I know the new owners.”
I roll my eyes. “Of course you do.”
He leans forward, and I catch the scent of him, cologne and fresh air and sex. Damn, he is the finest man to ever walk this earth. “One of these days, you’re going to regret rolling those eyes at me, Joey,” he says with a dark chuckle. Then he takes another slice of tomato from my plate, pops it into his mouth, and strolls out of the room.
