Monster: Made & Broken (A Mafia Bad Boy Romance) (2 page)

Mustering my courage, I took a quick sip of my drink and then walked over to the seat right next to the guy I was hoping was my mark.

“
It’s a lovely band,” I said as I slid in on the bar stool, somehow managing to get on it relatively gracefully. Being a short girl doesn’t make wrangling of bar stools an easy task.

Talk, Dark, and Mysterious didn’t so much as spare me a glance.

Maybe he didn’t hear me?

“
Do you come here often?” Okay, so it was cheesy, but from my experience, it worked.

His only reaction was to take a swig of what looked like cola from his own glass.

Right, then. So he was an arse. I pinched my lips and reminded myself I preferred it that way—my job was better when the guy Brigs had me lure into a trap was a jerk. It made it easier to pretend like he deserved what happened to him after I left him with Brigs’ goons.

Emboldened by my annoyance, I skipped past the usual smalltalk and instead slipped my drink-free hand underneath the bar and onto his thigh, letting my fingertips graze the bulge between them.

The strength of his muscles clenching underneath my touch surprised me—I could
feel
the power in his thigh against my palm and half-expected him to shoot out of his chair.

It wasn’t what I’d expected. Surprise, sure, but the deathly silence from my unwilling companion made an eerie sense of foreboding tingle down my spine and raise every hair on my body. Slowly, I looked up, my irritation with his previous lack of response replaced by anxiety.

Marcus Steel’s ice-gray eyes met mine when my gaze made it all the way up.

Only the man staring down at me was nothing like his picture. Sure, his ruthless good looks were the same, from the black cascade of tousled hair to the soft lips and defined features, but what was
behind
that icy gaze, the photo hadn’t managed to convey. If it had, I would have tried much, much harder to get out of this assignment.

Everything about that look screamed
danger
, making the reptilian part of my brain wake in a shock of adrenaline.

I trembled as every nerve ending strained to its fullest, making my skin so hypersensitive I could feel the warmth radiating from him. The faint trace of his cologne hit my flared nostrils, along with something else. Something unidentifiable that heated the lower parts of my abdomen and made me squeeze my thighs together, even as a primal fear dug its claws in deep.

Oh.
Maybe
“
it”
wasn’t so unidentifiable, after all.

There was no doubt in mind, after no more than three seconds’ eye contact, that this man was trouble.

But he was also one hundred percent alpha male, and despite the overwhelming sense of peril that rushed over me staring into his eyes, my body was seemingly also perfectly in tune with the
other
aspect of his nature.

The unexpected flood of arousal dampened my initial fear enough that I remembered I probably needed to say something soon.

“
Hi,” I croaked. Not the smoothest of lines, but given how my hand was still grasping his thigh, too petrified to let go, I figured it was better than nothing.

Marcus didn’t respond, and his face remained completely impassive.

“
I’m Evelyn Embry,” I continued, my voice still not much louder than a hoarse whisper. The second my name left my lips I could have smacked myself. I hadn’t meant to give him my real name—it was page-freaking-one in dealing with a mark. But his overwhelming presence had made it slip out without conscious thought, and now there was nothing I could do to take it back. Hopefully, he would have forgotten it before he ever realized my true intentions.

His eyes finally moved then, flicking briefly to my hair, across my face and—finally—to my amply displayed breasts, where they lingered for just a second before he looked back up again. His gaze made a hot blush follow the path of his eyes, and I couldn’t hold back a shaky exhale as I stared into his darkened eyes. His pupils seemed larger, as if the light in the room had dimmed, even though the shine from the polished bar told me otherwise.

“
What you’re selling, little sister, I’m not buying.”

I blinked at the rumbling timbre of his voice. The softness in it completely contradicted everything else about his presence.

“
I’m not selling anything.”

His eyes briefly landed on my hand on his thigh. My fingertips were still brushing ever so lightly against the bulge of his cock.

“
Oh!
No, I’m not… I’m not a prostitute,” I stammered, my blush increasing ten-fold. Yeah, of course he would think the stranger groping him would be looking for a client.
Eleonore
wasn’t your run-of-the-mill nightclub—uninvited touching wasn’t expected.

This wasn’t working out at all like I’d planned. I finally managed to remove my hand from his thigh, placing it awkwardly on the bar between us.

“
I just…” I looked up into those glacier-cool eyes and felt all my barriers come crumbling down. How did a single person shake me so thoroughly? I felt naked underneath his stare, and it both frightened and aroused me more than it had any business doing. “I wanted to meet you.”

“
Why?”

Not the question I’d expect from a guy who looked like Marcus Steel.

“
You’re the most handsome man I’ve ever seen.” I frowned. “Why do women normally want to meet you?”

His face remained impassive, but the darkness in his eyes intensified, pulling at those warring sensations in my gut: the cold dread of adrenaline, and the hot, champagne fizz of pure sexual attraction. “They don’t.”

I raised both eyebrows. “I find that really hard to believe.”

Finally, he turned away from me, relegating his full focus to his glass as he took a swig. “They’re scared of me.”

Well, that I could believe. I looked back at my own drink, mulling over my plan of attack. Now that he wasn’t staring at me so intensely, I could think clearly again—even if every cell of my body was still keenly aware of his proximity.

“
I
want to know you,” I said, glancing out the corner of my eye for a reaction.

Marcus put his glass down, still not looking in my direction.

“
You’re scared of me, too.” The deep rumble in his voice sent shivers up my back. If he knew I was flirting, he wasn’t responding. But he wasn’t ignoring me, either.

“
Yes,” I said, deciding honesty was my best course with this man. Gently, I placed my hand back on top of his thigh, a bit lower this time. Again, he tensed at my touch, but not as rigidly as before.

“
But that doesn’t change the fact that I want you more than I’ve ever wanted another man in my life.” I glanced up at his profile, flustered by the knowledge that this wasn’t just a line delivered to ensnare a mark, nor was it a lie. “Maybe that’s what scares me.”

He looked at me then, and this time, the darkness in his eyes bore the faintest trace of heat. But it wasn’t the kind of lust I’d seen in a man’s eyes before. It was far more volatile, far more frightening than anything I’d known before, and even the barest hint of his desire set my body aflame with unrivaled
need.

“
No,
Evelyn.
That’s not why you’re afraid.”

“
Is it because you’d try to hurt me?” I whispered, my voice breaking.

His nostrils pulled up, a flash of anger mixing with the heat in his gaze. “No.”

A breath of relief I hadn’t realized I’d been holding rushed out of my lungs. I believed him. I had no idea what it was about him, but something at the very depths of my being knew he wasn’t lying. I grasped my drink and downed the rest of the glass in one, burning mouthful. Then I slid off my seat and stood to face him on shaky legs.

“
Come.”

Despite the minimal movement of his mouth, I recognized his question in the gesture.

“
You’re taking me to your place.” I slipped my hand from his thigh up to his arm, resting it on the soft fabric of his shirt. “And then you’ll let me get to know you.”

The slightest crease appeared between his dark eyebrows, his gaze flickering to my hand on his arm before he found my eyes once more. The desire in his own was more prominent now, and I had to clench my thighs together to quell the sudden rush of warmth blooming out from between them. God, I wanted him. In that moment, I didn’t care about my assignment or Brigs or any of the shit I was mixed up in that’d landed me here. I didn’t even care that that barely bridled ferocity in his icy gaze flamed as he looked me over once more, taking in my curves as well as my face.

“
You don’t know what you’re asking for,” he rumbled.

“
Then show me,” I said, swallowing thickly as he stared me down.

Marcus exhaled through his nose. Then, moving as smoothly as a large cat, he got off the chair and held his hand out to me.

Gingerly, I put my palm in his.

When he closed his hand around mine, I knew I would never be the same as I had been before I met Marcus Steel.

* * * *

Chapter 3

Marcus

Evelyn Embry.

She was not meant to be here, not meant to be with
me
.

And yet there she sat, leaning into the passenger seat of my Porsche with her luscious breasts spilling out of her low neckline and the roundness of her thighs easily visible through the tight fabric of her dress.

My cock throbbed, and I fought back a shiver at the memory of her hand grazing against it when she’d so brazenly demanded my attention.

I’d never wanted a woman like I wanted her, from the moment her heat penetrated my trousers and into my skin. It took all I had to not just pull over and fuck her raw on the side of the road, leaned over my car with her dress hiked high around that fine arse of hers.

I clutched at the steering wheel and gritted my teeth.

This was a mistake. I shouldn’t have let her into my car, shouldn’t have taken her hand when she’d told me I was bringing her home.

I had to pull over right this second and tell her to get out.

But everything in me reeled at the thought, the monster in my chest snarling in defiance. It didn’t want to let her go.
I
didn’t want to let her go.

Her scent, jasmine and honey and
woman
, permeated the air in my car, filling my nostrils until my cock was so hard it hurt. Everything about her made me burn with a need I’d never experienced before.

Why are you here, little one?
I looked at her out the corner of my eye, drawn to her like a moth to a flame. Why was she here? She recognized the monster in me; I saw it when she looked into my eyes. She may not have understood
what
she saw, but her body intuited the danger—there was no question about it. And still, she persisted.

It was too late for regrets. Too late to stop, because the moment our eyes locked, the monster had recognized
her.
I had no idea how, or why—why her, why now—but ever since she put her soft little hand on me, I’d been fighting tooth and nail to keep the monster down. Even now, it was roaring to break free and sweep me away in the liberating rush of oblivion I knew all too well.

I should never have taken her with me. I should have turned her down, should have left and not looked back.

I needed to end this, before she was inside my flat. Before the door closed behind us, with no one there but her and me.

I clasped my hands harder around the steering wheel to steady my thrumming pulse at the monster’s roar of denial.

No.

As I pulled into the parking garage underneath my high-rise apartment block, I knew one thing with absolute certainty: this woman was going to be mine, and there was nothing either of us could do to stop it.

* * * *

Chapter 4

Evelyn

The car ride to Marcus’ flat took place in complete silence, and it was enough for my brain to have regained some measure of control once he opened the door to his penthouse in one of the posher parts of London.

I drew in a deep breath as I stepped past him and over the threshold, catching the scent of his cologne again and that certain something behind it that went straight to my core. It made me shiver, partly from want and partly from the knowledge of what I was about to do.

Marcus Steel was sex on a stick, sure, but he was a lot of other things too. I’d never been in the presence of a human being who could awaken my reptile brain like he did. Gerald Brigs and his nephew might make my skin crawl, but my fear of them stemmed from knowing what they could do to me. With Marcus, it was this unmistakable sense that there was something dark and unbridled right beneath the surface, clawing to be set free.