Page 4 of Blood Money (Marchesi Loan Sharks #1)
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VALENTINO
T he fear in Liam’s eyes made my cock harden. I wanted this man: his soft skin, his innocent face, and his bright blue eyes that didn’t look away when he had to know how easily I could kill him or make him wish I had. His baby doll tee clung to him and showed off a hint of his stomach, including a dark blond treasure trail. I wanted to see more, a lot more.
I could take him up on his offer and drag him back to my apartment, tie him to my bed, and use him any way I liked until I deemed his debt paid, but then I’d have to answer to Dom.
My father had been very clear about the rules we had to follow working for him. No fucking the clients was near the top of the list.
He said mixing business with pleasure was dangerous because our guard would be down. Like I couldn’t fuck someone and then kill them. I thought the rule was ridiculous, but I also knew Dom wouldn’t hesitate to punish me for breaking it.
I was going to need to find a man to take out this pent-up need on as soon as I figured out what to do with Liam. I’d never been seriously tempted to break the no-fucking-clients rule before. It wasn’t like I had any trouble pulling men whenever I wanted one, but something about Liam did me in. It was more than how stunning he was with his wavy blond hair and his lean dancer’s body. Maybe it was the way he seemed so fucking lost, so out of place?
He had been way out of his league coming to my family for money. I wondered how he’d even found us. I’d done a cursory background check on him, not because we cared what our borrowers had done in the past, but because we could often use that information to fuck with them when their payments were late. It always helped to threaten wives and children, even if the head of the family—and my own moral code—forbade us following through on such threats.
Liam had no criminal record. He’d grown up middle class with what seemed to be a decent family until he’d lost his parents in a car accident and been saddled with taking care of himself and his sister on his own with little to no inheritance. He was also supporting his sister who was in school, but even with that debt, he shouldn’t have been desperate enough to come to us. There had to be better ways to get a loan.
If he’d gotten himself in more trouble, it hadn’t shown up in my search. As far as I could tell, Liam was squeaky clean. I would love to get my very filthy hands on him, and now he was offering himself up to me.
“Do you realize what that would be like for you? I’d wear you out in a single night. You could never keep up with me.”
He straightened from where he’d been leaning against the couch. “I could do what I had to.”
“Yes, but you see”—I slid my hand down his chest and rested it on the waistband of his sweatpants just above the bulge that let me know he was as turned on as I was—“I like when my men are doing what they want to do, even if they’re not ready to admit it. I could make you want me, need me, beg me for more. I’d have you so obsessed with me you’d never want to leave.”
He dropped his gaze to my hand, then looked back up. “I’d leave when the debt was paid.”
He wanted me to believe he was unaffected by me, but his pupils were blown and he was breathing rapidly. He wanted me, at least a little. His fear turned him on and knowing that nearly made my control break. How the fuck was I going to keep my hands off him?
“Unfortunately, as fun as it would be to break you, that would mean I was paying your debt and that won’t work.”
His eyes widened, and he drew in a breath. “I won’t agree to you selling me to others. If I’m going to work off this debt, I’ll chose how or who I work with.”
No way in hell was he fucking anyone else. If I couldn’t touch him, no one else could either. “If you were mine, you wouldn’t be able to handle anyone else.” I did have one potential solution. My father wouldn’t like it, but I believed I could sell it to him. It wasn’t unprecedented to let someone work off their debt, we just usually made them suffer while they did it. When looking into Liam’s background, I’d learned that he’d spent a year or so working at a strip club. If he would fuck me to pay his debt, surely he’d be willing to do a little dancing.
“My family owns Pound, a strip club that caters to gay men. Since you have some experiencing dancing, you can work there until your debt is paid.”
His mouth fell open, and he stared at me for a moment. “I can dance, but how did you know?”
I dismissed his question with a wave. “Knowing things about clients is my job. If you take the job, your pay and tips will go to me until your debt is paid.” I had no doubt he’d do well, but I needed to see his gorgeous body before anyone else got an eyeful. I was playing with fire, but I was going to make Liam do a private audition for me once we got to the club.
He chewed his lip, then nodded. “I guess that’s a good incentive to earn a lot of tips.”
I smiled. “It is. With what you owe and the interest increasing every day, it’s going to take a long time to pay us back.”
“So I’m basically your indentured servant now?”
I shrugged. “You could look at it that way, or you could see it as me giving you a chance to live. How the hell else are you going to pay me?”
“Maybe someone else would be interested in my skills.”
I seized his upper arms hard enough to make him cry out. “Don’t you dare try any shit like that. If I find out you’ve tried to sell yourself to someone else, the deal is off.” He was scared, I could tell by the way he shivered and the wariness in his eyes, but he was still willing to challenge me. He was willing to fight for himself and his sister. I liked that as much as I liked the way he responded to my touch. The longer he stood in front of me, the more certain I became that I was going to have to find a way to possess him.
“Okay. You’re hurting me.”
I eased my grip as I said, “Show me more respect than that.”
“Yes, sir, Valentino…I mean, Mr. Marchesi.”
Damn. Hearing those words and my name from his lips as he trembled in my arms made my head fucking spin. It was all I could do to let go of him and step back. “Better. And you can call me Val. Come on. Let’s go.”
“What do you mean? Go where?”
“I’m taking you to Pound. You can start immediately.” My father wanted results, and I was going to give him some. If Liam was already cleared for work, then selling my plan would be easier.
He tried to pull free of my grasp. “But I’m not ready. I?—”
“We’ll take care of everything. Consider it a full-service club.”
“So your dancers offer more than a show to your customers?”
I imagined Liam providing the services many of our dancers offered and snarled. “You don’t. You’re only there to dance. I meant that we would provide all you need: grooming, clothing, and whatever else.”
He tried once more to yank his arms free, but he was no match for me. “Can you let me go so I can at least change out of my pajamas?”
“Hurry up,” I said as I finally let go of him. “And don’t think I won’t know if you try to slip away.”
He dared to roll his eyes at me. “Where am I going to go?”
“Nowhere I can’t find you. Remember that.”
The defeated look on his face made my chest tighten. Oh, fuck. The number one rule my father had was never catch feelings for a client. That was far worse than fucking them. If he knew I had even a hint of empathy for Liam, he’d put someone else on his ass. If I let myself touch Liam again, I knew things would only get worse. As much as I hated to admit it, maybe Dom was right, maybe it was a good rule for us to keep our hands off the clients.
But that didn’t mean I couldn’t do a little to help him out. I could see what a shithole his apartment was. He had only the most basic furniture and it all looked like he’d rescued it from the dump. Unlike most of our clients, I believed him when he said he didn’t have any money to give me. He was truly desperate—the way Vito and I had been once.
You can’t save them. Stop thinking of them like puppies . I heard Dom’s voice in my head. He’d always been critical of me showing a desire to help anyone outside the family, but somehow I had a little heart left, even after growing up with nothing. When I saw people struggle the way Vito and I had, there was a part of me that wanted to help them. But empathy was no good in my line of work. I’d kept my brother and me off the streets because I did what my father said. How long could I keep that up?