Page 12 of Single Mom's Mafia Daddies

“That’s for customers. You’re not a customer.” She stalked forward. “And you’re not welcome here.”

“I’d like to buy a shirt.” I tugged my collar, running my thumb between the material and my skin. “This one is a little tight.”

“Probably from trying to fit it around your giant, egotistical head.”

“It’s a button up shirt. Pretty sure that eliminates the problem with my…head.”

“Don’t do that.” She poked her finger into my chest, setting my heart racing as the single point of contact rolled through me. “Don’t come in here acting all cute and innocent.”

“We both know I’m neither of those things.” I looked her over, letting her see the appreciation tunneling my vision until nothing remained but her. “I have questions, Lila.”

“Nope.” Her lips puckered on the P sound, making a popping sound. “You lost that right seven years ago, along with the right to make sexual references about any of your body parts.”

“You started it.” I hadn’t come here to banter, but riling her up was an irresistible pastime.

“Hey, Lil–oh, you’re busy. Never mind.” A feminine laugh tinkled out.

“It’s fine, Alexis. Did you need something?” Lila backed away from me without breaking eye contact.

Alexis walked into my peripheral vision. I glanced at her only long enough to assess her threat level. Zero.

She gave me a familiar once over before moving to stand beside Lila. “It’s time to close. You want me to take Leo home with me for a while?”

“No.” Lila resumed her crossed armed stance and tilted her chin so the stubbornness glinted in the light peppering her skin through the windows.

“Yes.” I trailed her across the room, step for step. “We have business to discuss.” I hit her with the one thing I knew would end this. “Unless you’d like to introduce me to your son.”

“I’ll pick him up in an hour.” Lila challenged me and broke me all at once. “You’ll be gone by then.” She delivered it with a coldness I’d never expected from her.

I waited for Alexis to lock the front door and disappear through the back, waited longer for the sound of the rear door closing with a metal screech and for the turn of the lock encapsulating me in this small space with Lila. She stole my breath. Even now, after seven years, I remembered every inch of her, every sound I’d heard her make, all the way down to the way her perfect toes curled in the sheets when she laughed.

There was no laughter in her face now. I placed the expression easily. Hatred. Anger. They swirled together as they stormed across her face. “Why won’t you talk to me?”

“Why’d you leave me?” she shot back.

I took the words as the dagger they were intended to be and dropped my chin to accept the wound. “It’s complicated.”

The wounded sound that keened from her throat mingled with a derisive laugh. “Try again.”

“You’ve been avoiding me.” I took a step, pausing when she threw up a palm, then kept walking until her hand flattened on my chest. “You received my flowers. I called to set up a time to meet. You rejected the call then blocked me. If face to faceis the only way to get this done, then so be it.” I kept walking, forcing her back away from the windows with every step until we rounded the counter and I’d backed her into a corner shielded from view by rows of dresses that spread out on either side. “Why are you avoiding me?”

“I don’t answer to you, Alessio. You left me.” Her chin quivered, her fingertips spasming on my chest before she tore her arm away and tucked it behind her back. A shudder ripped through her body and she sank, her knees giving way.

I caught her with both arms around her waist. “I’m sorry.”

“That’s not enough.” The fire returned in a blink. Her fists rained down on my shoulders. “You’re an arrogant bastard. You expect me to fall into your arms after what you did? I won’t. You left me and you won’t even tell me why.”

“Give me a chance to explain.” My heart shattered. I’d never known she felt this way. I respected the anger, but it was the tears that finished me once and for all.

Her fist struck my shoulder and slid down my chest, her shoulders shaking. “I hate you.”

“I know.”

She opened her fist and moved to slap me.

I drew the line there and blocked the blow with my wrist. She inhaled sharply when I gathered her wrists and raised them over her head, pinning them to the wall with one hand.

“You mean nothing to me.” Her breathing hitched, and her eyes widened, the pupils devouring the irises when I lowered my head.