Page 38 of Indulging Temptation (Tempting the Heart #1)

SANTINO

D ante hasn’t stopped lecturing me since we left the restaurant. God, what awful timing. I swear. I was so preoccupied with being judged today, I completely forgot I was supposed to meet him.

“You’re a fucking moron.”

“Thanks.” I laugh off my brother’s dig at me.

“It’s not funny. Tomás is going to kill you.”

I stop walking, standing in the middle of the crowded sidewalk. “He’d kill me if he found out.”

“Santino,” Dante drags my name scoldingly. “The fuck do you mean if he finds out. He’s going to find out. You’re going to be a man and fucking fess up and tell him what you did.”

“Nah, brother, I think you’re the one who is the fucking moron. You want me to what, tell Tomás I was finger blasting his sister’s pussy? That’ll go over like a lead balloon.”

Busy New Yorkers angrily swarm around us, we’re clearly in the way, but as a born and raised New Yorker myself, I couldn’t give a fuck.

Dante, on the other hand, my complete opposite in the sense that he’s overly concerned with what others think, doesn’t agree.

Apologizing to the people flipping us off as he puts a hand on each of my shoulders, guiding me over to stand on the side of the building we’re in front of.

Ironically, it’s the candle shop I order from for the restaurant.

I’ve never been inside; all the communication has been online with the company.

A lovestruck smile creeps on my face, taking our current location as a sign of fate.

Maybe that’s pushing it, but with the odds stacked against me and Lorena, I’ll ride whatever delusional ship I have to.

“Fuck, Tino, why do you have to be so vulgar all the time?”

“I’m actually not, but I can’t help it when it comes to her. She brings out this…” I decide to put a pin in that statement. The unimpressed, shut the fuck up look on Dante’s face inspires me to stop.

“Oh, I know you can’t help yourself. I mean you didn’t think to lock the office door?”

I shrug. “No. I can’t think straight when I’m around her.”

“Great, as if thinking clearly already isn’t one of your problems.”

I get why Dante is acting the way he is.

Aside from having a major stick up his ass most of the time, the fact remains that Tomás has been like a brother to us.

This would complicate the bond we’ve created, and I feel like shit, because the pro of having Lorena outweighs the con of losing her brother as a friend.

“You need to tell him, or…”

“What? You’ll break brother code and tell him?” I challenge him knowing damn well that he isn’t a snitch, so he won’t say shit.

“No. That’s going to come from you. I’m not getting involved any more than I was forced to be.” Dante shakes his head dramatically as if he’s forcing the image of me and Lorena away from his thoughts.

“I will,” I reassure him. Eventually.

Dante lets out a deep breath when his phone rings. He peers down at the caller ID, and the relief he was just displaying disappears. “Give me a second, it’s Luci’s school.”

“Yeah, of course, take it.”

Ever since our brother, Emilio, passed, Dante has stepped up, helping take care of our niece.

I’ll be honest, I don’t see her as often as I should, and I feel like shit about that.

I’ve allowed my work life to overrule my personal one.

But Dante sees her often, helping our brother’s ex, Gabriella, out since she’s a single mom to our niece Luci.

While Dante takes the call, I go to reach for a joint from my pre-roll case but get distracted when I see Lorena’s name appear on my lock screen with a new text message.

Abandoning ship on grabbing the joint, I unlock my phone, eager to see what she has to say.

Lorena: Yes

Me: Yes…

Lorena: I want to be fuck buddies

Me:

Me: So bold of you

Lorena: Shut up. You know what I mean. Your offer, or rather your plea…the answer is yes.

Lorena: Rule number one…

Me: Ooh getting right down to business I see

Me: Lay it on me

Lorena: Work is for just that…work. We’ve had too many close calls already

Me: I’ll try

Lorena: No trying. You will. Say it

Me: I’ll try my best. That’s the best I got

Lorena: Santino!!

Me: That’s not helping

Lorena: What’s not helping?

Me: The exclamation marks. It makes me think you have your hand on your hip with a scowl on your face

Me: You’re hot when you’re angry

Me: I mean, you’re hot all the time

Me: No

Me: Beautiful, sexy. Stop me, or I’ll keep going

Lorena: Stop!!

Lorena: But also…thank you

Me: Okay, so we got rule one, what are the other ones

Me: No kissing right? I hate that rule. I call for a boycott

Me: I’m sorry, but you can’t expect me to kiss every part of you and not want to kiss those lips of yours

Lorena: Maybe

Me: I’ll take it. Any other rules?

Lorena: Not that I can think of

Me: So, in short, since the kissing is back on the table, we just can’t do anything at work

Or at Tomás’, I think to myself. I mean we could, fuck, we’re going to have to. I don’t know if I can survive being across the hall from her and not be tempted to sneak into her bed every night. Though both of us living at Tomás’ brings a complication to it, but we’ll figure it out.

Lorena: Pretty much

Lorena: And remember this is just physical

I’ve never hated the word just as much as I do right now.

Me: Yep…

Lorena: Also…

Oh god, what now?

Me: Yes?

Lorena: Got ahold of the hotel, I ended up calling since their online booking was down

Lorena: We’re all set for an overnight but…

Me:

Lorena: They were almost fully booked, so we got the room, the problem is there’s only one bed

What a shame, just me, Lorena, and one bed, out of the city, away from her brother’s penthouse, where we can be as loud as we want. What torture.

Me:

Lorena: Santino!

Me: Is it fucked that I’m picturing you whimper my name?

And that it’s getting me hard thinking about it…

Lorena: Santino!

Me: Okay, we’ll make the best of our sleeping arrangement

Lorena: I don’t think we’ll be sleeping much considering our conversation…

Me: Oh well

Lorena: Omg. Okay. I’ll see you later

Me:

Lorena: You’re so bad

I close out of the text with Lorena at the same time Dante gets off the phone with Luci’s school.

He seems more tense than before.

“Everything okay?” I ask.

“Honestly, no. The school tried calling her but couldn’t get through to Gabriella, and she’s stuck in a meeting. Luci has been crying all morning, saying she misses her dad. Fuck. I’m sorry but I have to go pick her up from school.”

“Of course. I get it. Give Luci a big hug from uncle Tino.”

“I will. She was happy you came to the concert. You can’t let so much time go by in between seeing her. She’s growing up fast.”

“I know, you’re right. I’ll make a better effort,” I say, meaning it. I’ve been a crap uncle lately to Luci, allowing life to get in the way.

“Yeah, well, I’ll relay the message to her anyway. But on the topic of making a better effort, please figure out what exactly it is going on between you and Lorena.”

I let out a sigh, knowing there’s more he has to say on the topic. “I will.”

“Good. You didn’t forget how Tomás feels about his friends mixing with his family, did you? He’s going to freak the fuck out.”

“Of course, I didn’t forget.”

How the hell could I?

THE PAST

“He has some fucking nerve showing up here,” Tomás mutters, grabbing a coke from the fridge. “My pops must be rolling in his fucking grave right now. The fucking nerve of that man.”

Dante walks over to Tomás as he shuts the fridge, patting him on the back.

“Take a deep breath, man, he isn’t doing anything wrong.

” I know Dante was trying to get Tomás to chill, but it’s having the opposite effect on him right now.

Tossing the bottle cap to his coke on the counter, he looks at his mom’s boyfriend standing with his mom in the distance, with nothing but hate in his eyes.

“Bull-fucking-shit he’s doing nothing wrong. My dad hasn’t even been gone for two years, and that piece of shit traitor has swooped in on my mom, acting like he wasn’t friends with my dad. Best fucking friends, might I add.”

There’s so much resentment and pain in Tomás’ voice.

Both of which I can relate to. Losing a parent, at any age, is brutal, and although my dad didn’t stick around long enough for me and my brothers to see who he would end up with, if he chose to date again after my mom, I can imagine how Tomás is feeling.

Although, Adrian, from what I can see has been nothing but supportive to their mom.

Shortly after his dad passed, she started to have an array of health issues that’s required her to be in and out of the hospital.

All of which Adrian has helped her with by taking care of her.

“I don’t think it’s like that, bro,” I say, backing up my brother in his attempt to calm Tomás down.

He clenches his fist around the glass soda bottle, before slamming it down on the countertop.

“He’s fucking his best friend’s wife. Please tell me how it’s not like that.

Adrian was like an uncle to us, and this is what he does to my dad.

He’s fucking dead to me. I swear.” Tomás finally takes his eyes off Adrian and looks at me and my brother.

“You two are like brothers to me. One day if I get married and have kids, I’d consider you both uncles to them. ”

“Shucks man, you’re making me blush,” Dante says jokingly, but Tomás does not return the smile Dante is giving him.

Tomás glares at me, with a stern expression.

“I’m serious. You two are like family to me.

I’m so lucky to have you both in my life.

I only wish my dad could’ve had the same level of friendship with Adrian, because we wouldn’t be in this mess.

” He scoffs, just as a pair of rubber soles scuff against the linoleum flooring.

I don’t need to turn around to see who just walked into the kitchen.

I already know from the aroma of vanilla, coconut, and another scent that I can’t quite put my finger on, but will figure out eventually, that it’s Lorena.

Tomás’ sister, who I’d love to say is like a sister to me, but the reaction her presence elicits throughout my entire body every time she’s close to me, is anything but the familial ties Tomás has been talking about.

Lorena puts down the clipboard in her hand and looks at the three of us.

I glance down at the clipboard, noticing there’s a long list of what appears to be cities, broken down by domestic and international locations.

She catches me looking, and quickly picks it back up, pressing it against her chest with crossed arms to shield me from it. “What did I miss?”

“Nothing, I was just saying how much I hate Adrian,” Tomás says.

“Tomás! Stop that, he’ll hear you.” Lorena looks over her shoulder, back towards the living room where Adrian and their mom are sitting with friends.

“Good.” Tomás walks over and places his arm around me, bringing me in for a side hug. “Let him fucking hear me. Let him take notes too, on what true friends are like. Right guys?”

“Yep,” me and Dante say in unison. I can feel Dante’s stare on me, but I’m not looking at him, or Tomás, for that matter. I’m staring at Lorena, same way she’s staring at me.

Without taking our eyes off each other, she addresses her brother. “What do you mean?”

“I mean true friends that have become family would never do what Adrian did. They wouldn’t swoop in on their friends’ wives, sisters, none of that. I’m lucky to have these guys in my life, I only wish Dad had the same kind of friendship with Adrian.”

Lorena rolls her eyes at Tomás. “Oh please, like you’d kill one of these knuckle heads if they tried to get with me?”

Tomás laughs, but it’s the kind of dry and sarcastic laugh that’s a prelude to something about to be said that isn’t funny. “No, but they’d be dead to me.”

“Oh,” Lorena says, still looking at me, and I note her shoulders deflate same way my stomach is twisting in a knot, as we see the invisible line in the sand being drawn between us.