Page 48 of Filthy Little Lies

He nods. “He mentioned there was an issue.”

My brow wrinkles. She hadn’t said anything about a problem. In her text, she’d said she overslept. She would have missed her bus if he hadn’t been there.

“Is she moving to St. Louis if she gets the job?” He asks, shucking out of his long coat and draping it over his knee.

“Probably. She’s tired of Chicago. She moves around a lot. She was in New York last year, and some mountain town a year before that.”

“You don’t ever think of going with her?”

“Sometimes I go with her, but St. Louis isn’t all that exciting to me. And I’m doing good here.”

“You mean you’re making good money, or you’re able to work your scams easily?” He arches a brow.

“I don’t understand your contempt for my work, considering your own. You sell weapons to countries that probably shouldn’t have them, you move illegal things all over the world, and do whatever else you do, all while playing the legitimate businessman for the cameras. How is what I do so much worse than you?”

“It’s not worse.”

“Ah, but it’s small time. I’m a petty con-artist and you’re a big mafia man.” To emphasize my statement, I put my arms out like a bodybuilder who’s gotten too large to put his arms down and deepen my voice.

He huffs a laugh but looks away before I can register the genuine smile.

“It’s not that your operation is small, it’s that you aim your scams at people like me. It’s dangerous.”

“I didn’t know you owned the pawn shop, and to be fair, I didn’t really know who you were to begin with.”

“Exactly. You don’t keep up with who the players are, but you join the game.”

I look out the window, down at the people milling around on the pier. Music plays through the speakers inside the gondola. The lights of the city dance in the background. It’s actually a beautiful view. If I just forget about how we could plummet to our deaths at any given moment, I could relax more.

“You have a point,” I say after a long stretch of silence. “Working with Ricci was a stupid idea. And if I hadn’t done that, I wouldn’t have been in the bind I was in, and I would have had time to research your shop and would have realized who owned it.”

“You’re saying I’m right?”

“I’m saying you have a point.” I correct him with a finger in the air. “It happens to everyone now and then.”

It doesn’t stop the smugness from blossoming in his eyes.

“But,” I continue, leaning toward him with my finger pointed. “Just because you have a larger and more successful operation, doesn’t mean I should be discounted.”

He grabs my finger and brings it to his mouth, wrapping his lips around it and licking. Who knew the pointer finger had a direct connection to the clit?

I do now.

“No, you can’t distract me with all that.” I jerk my hand back and lean against the back of the bench.

We’ve made our way nearly to the top and are stopped again. I keep my eyes away from the windows. Maybe I can pretend we’re still low to the ground if I can’t actually see the direct line of death.

“Distract you from what? We’re just enjoying a nice ride on a Ferris wheel.” The false innocence actually makes him even hotter. His face relaxes and the dark storm that’s usually raging in his eyes calms to a seductive simmer.

“Yes. Which is another thing.” I start to jab my finger at him again, but when his gaze snaps to it, I put it away. “Bosses don’t take their employees on Ferris wheel rides. They don’t tell them to wear a dress for the occasion, either. You’re lucky this bottom isn’t glass. The people under us would be getting quite the view.”

“Are you not wearing panties?” The question comes low and sultry. Thank God I am wearing panties, or I’d be slipping all over this damn bench.

“Of course I am.” I tug on the hem of the dress toward my knees, as though he can see anything from where he’s sitting across from me. “Don’t change the subject.”

“What was the subject? You’re talking in circles, which you tend to do when you’re nervous, so that begs the question. Do I make you nervous?”

“No.” I answer too quickly and too forcefully for him to believe the lie. “It’s this ride. That’s all.”