Page 5 of Sin City Obsession (De Salvo Empire #1)

Chapter three

Getting Started

The ground floor of Cavallo’s Casino it’s only pissing me off.” She turned on her heel as the woman sucked in a scandalized breath and stomped away.

“It’s not too late!” the woman shouted after her. “He can still save you! ”

Alessa almost turned around. What the fuck?

She’d expected to run into a few crazies in Las Vegas, sure, but not in the main hall of the hotel where she was staying, and sure as hell not before she’d had a drop of caffeine.

If this was any indication of what she could expect for the rest of her stay, she could not wait to get back to Jersey.

She was half surprised no one had gathered by the restaurant door to stare out, or that no one was sliding her surreptitious looks. But none of the five seated patrons or any of the visible staff seemed to pay her undo attention. That was preferable, really.

She took a seat at a booth against the far wall, ordered a cup of coffee, and skimmed over the menu in search of something appetizing. The waitress had just finished writing up her order when Rocco slid into the booth across from her.

The waitress fumbled her notepad, nearly dropping it onto Alessa’s coffee. “O-oh! Mr. Cavallo!”

He flashed the college girl a smile. “I’ll just have whatever she’s having, and a coffee.”

Alessa felt her eyebrows climb up toward her hairline.

“Y-yes, of course,” the waitress said, scrambling to make a notation on her paper. She tipped forward in a sloppy imitation of a bow and scurried away.

Rocco shifted his gaze forward. “Morning.”

Alessa felt her breath hitch in her throat for a lingering moment. She pushed past the sensation and said, “What if you don’t like what I ordered? ”

His lips lifted in a grin. “I’m pretty confident in the food here.” He leaned back and spread his arms wide. “Seemed like a fun way to learn a little about you.”

Alessa balked and reached for her drink. “Maybe I decided to try something new.” She hadn’t, not really. Her daily life was risky enough.

Rocco chuckled. “That would still count as learning something, I think.”

Heat threatened to burn her face and she had a distant memory that this wasn’t the first time in the past twelve hours she’d experienced that problem.

She took a long swallow from her cup in an effort to refocus herself, letting the almost too hot, barely sweetened roast resettle her.

Just think about work. Just because she hadn’t expected a check-in from Rocco so soon didn’t mean she hadn’t expected one at all.

Setting the mug back onto the table, Alessa straightened her spine and lowered her voice to keep it from carrying. “Did you hear anything?” She hadn’t noticed any new messages from home, but there was the odd chance they wouldn’t be sent to her.

“Nope.” Rocco paused as the waitress swooped in with a steaming mug of coffee in one hand and the half-empty pot in her other, which she swiftly used to refill Alessa’s before pivoting and striding off.

As soon as their imaginary bubble was intact again, he added, “I imagine you’d hear that news at least as soon as we did. ”

“Most likely,” Alessa said as she reached for a packet of sugar.

She wasn’t about to confess to this veritable stranger that she’d never been sent so far away on business before, let alone when business involved working with a secondary family.

Usually the long-distance jobs went to Cristiano or Ryōma, but for reasons she was only half privy to, neither had been options this time.

Rocco hummed low over the rim of his cup. “Our mutual benefactors insisted you’re one of their best at this type of work back home,” he said after a moment. “But I’m thinking maybe you’re not as used to it … in someone else’s playground.”

Her eye twitched and she had to fight to keep the glare from her face. “With respect, sir, I can and will see this job through. That’s all that matters.”

There was no mistaking the way his eyes heated as his lips lifted again. “I like when you call me ‘sir’.”

The heat rushed back to her face too quickly to stop it, too quickly to duck her head and hide it.

She had not at all been prepared for that .

More awkwardly than she could remember saying anything in her life, Alessa pushed out, “I’m here for work.

” It seemed like a reasonably good response until she heard it said out loud.

Then she sort of wished she could crawl under the table and hide from herself.

Rocco inclined his head, his grin unwavering. “So you are.” He circled the tip of his index finger slowly around the rim of his coffee mug. “Shame. I would love to take a little time to show you the sights.”

The heat that had burned in her face shot into her blood, warming her in all the wrong places, and it was all Alessa could do not to squirm.

She managed to narrow her eyes at him as he followed his less-than-subtle innuendo up with another sip of his drink.

“I can show myself those kinds of sights,” she said .

Rocco choked on his coffee, or on the spontaneous laugh that burst up around it.

Alessa felt a strange mixture of guilt and satisfaction at seeing his composure shatter so thoroughly, in public—uncrowded though it was—no less.

He was still patting his shirt down with a napkin when their meals arrived, and to his credit, he didn’t let the incident chase him off. Nor did he insist on resuming the unexpected flirting while they ate.

It felt like a victory, which she savored as much as the carb-heavy breakfast scramble.

He hadn’t meant to tease her. Shouldn’t have teased her. But the words had been out of his mouth before they’d even registered in his brain, and the damage had been done. Because then he’d seen her blush.

Alessa’s flushed face emphasized her youth, perhaps even enhanced it. And for as alluring as that was, visually, he hadn’t really lost it until she’d met his unintended challenge and fired back. Breakfast had been decidedly uncomfortable after that.

Which was precisely the reason Rocco had all but run to his office—on the opposite side of the building from his father, on the same floor—and locked himself in the bathroom. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d lost composure so thoroughly.

“I can show myself those kinds of sights,” Alessa said in his memory as the heat in his blood settled in his balls.

Rocco groaned low around the mouthful of his own shirt and flexed his grip as he stroked himself.

His cock ached, his whole damn body burned, and he bit harder into the fabric.

When was the last time he’d even had to stuff his shirt into his mouth to keep himself quiet?

Probably about the same as when he’d resorted to seeking out the nearest available private box to jerk off. Fuck.

And that was exactly what he wanted to do, to be sure.

He wanted to bite those rounded, flushed cheeks to see if she’d gasp.

He wanted to see just how low that blush went before it faded away, and trace his tongue along the skin there.

He wanted—no, he needed —a taste of her.

Her hair tangled around his fist, her body arching as he fucked into her.

Or maybe he’d get her on her knees and find out if she could swallow him.

But none of that before he got her to show him how she pleasured herself.

She may as well have promised.

He pulled more coffee-stained fabric into his mouth and rolled his thumb across the head of his cock as he imagined watching her spread her legs for him.

He imagined sitting back, feigning control, and watching while she stroked two or three fingers over her own center, working herself up.

Was she bare? Trimmed? He guessed the latter, but he was damn near feral to find out .

The Alessa in his fantasy sank two fingers into her pussy and moaned, gyrating as she began to pump them in and out.

Rocco pumped his own hand faster and closed his eyes.