Deadly Embrace by Jackie Collins (ebook reader for manga TXT) 📕

She gestured towards the refrigerator. He walked over. She was right behind him, transistor radio blaring salsa.

He could smell her–a heady mixture of sweet vanilla perfume and fresh sweat.

‘Michael,’ she said.

‘Yeah?’ he answered, opening the fridge.

‘I think you’re veree sexy.’

‘And I think you’re very young,’ he said, peering at a large chunk of ice jamming the door of the freezer section.

‘I’m not a virgin,’ she announced.

‘Let’s hang out the flags,’ he said, attempting to dislodge the ice with his hand–a fruitless exercise. ‘You got an ice-pick?’

‘Will a hammer do?’

‘Guess it’ll have to.’

She fetched a hammer from the kitchen drawer and handed it to him.

As he turned to take it, she suddenly flung her arms round his neck and kissed him. A big, warm, wet one right on the lips with plenty of tongue involved.

‘Beth—’ he began. Too late. Like clockwork his dick sprang to attention.

She was no slouch. She felt his erection, and before he could even consider what was about to happen next, she unzipped his pants and inserted her hand.

Christ! What could he do? He was only human, after all.

Within seconds she was untying her halter top, revealing the most perfect small breasts with delectable erect nipples. ‘I want you,’ she murmured in a husky whisper. ‘I want you, Michael. I want you now.’

He fingered her nipples. She moaned and began moving her hand on him.

The hell with how old she was! He was at the point of no return, and he wasn’t going anywhere.

They sank down on to the cold linoleum-covered floor. He ripped off her shorts, only to discover she was wearing no underwear. Neither was he.

Her skin was hot, clammy, and inviting. After sucking on her nipples for a few moments, he thrust his hand between her legs, then mounted her.

She moaned with pleasure, moving under him, undulating her hips towards his, somehow writhing in time to the throbbing music.

It was a thrill ride for both of them. So good, that after a few minutes’ respite he was ready to go once more. And he did.

Then, suffused with guilt, he never went near her again.

That had been five months ago. Now this.

‘Anyway,’ Tina said, in full take-charge mode, ‘it’s too late for an abortion.’

‘That nails it,’ he said decisively. ‘She’ll have the baby, an’ I’ll marry her.’

‘Sorry to shatter your wonderful fantasy of every woman begging to be your wife,’ Tina said, ‘but, as you know, she doesn’t want to do that.’

He wasn’t in the mood for Tina’s jibes. ‘What, then?’ he said shortly.

‘She says she’ll move in with you.’

‘I don’t get it,’ he said, puzzled. ‘One minute she won’t marry me, an’ now she wants to move in with me?’

‘She thinks living with you is a good idea.’

‘I don’t want to live with anybody.’

‘Why? You were willing to marry her.’

‘That’s different.’

‘Well,’ Tina continued. ‘I imagine this’ll teach you to keep your pecker in your pants.’

Why did he have a feeling that Tina was enjoying every moment of his uncomfortable situation?

Businesswise, things were on the rise. Working with Gus and his crew suited him fine, and he was making plenty of money investing Karl Edgington’s cash and skimming off ten per cent of the profits before transferring the balance to a numbered Swiss bank account. It was complicated, but Karl had the whole deal worked out. He never made a wrong call about what stocks to invest in. The man was a genius, and Michael was getting rich.

Meanwhile, Gus’s crew was involved in everything from loan-sharking to the protection racket. Once in a while they pulled off a major hijacking. It kept Michael just busy enough.

‘If anyone ever needs me to take anythin’ to Vegas, it’s what I used to do,’ he said, passing the word along.

Gus laughed in his face. ‘Mr Lucchese don’t shift drugs that way,’ he said. ‘He’s smarter than that.’

‘Drugs? I thought I was carryin’ cash.’

‘Vito Giovanni had you runnin’ narcotics,’ Gus said. ‘You’re freakin’ lucky you didn’t get busted. You wouldn’t be walkin’ round today if the Feds had nailed your sorry ass.’

Shit! He’d been ferrying drugs back and forth across state lines without knowing it. What kind of an idiot was he? And why hadn’t Mamie warned him? She was a bitch for not doing so.

He’d noticed that one of Dante Lucchese’s men seemed to go out of his way to avoid him. The man’s name was Bone, and that’s exactly how he looked. Pale skin stretched over a skeletal face, with ice-pick eyes, droopy grey eyelids and a stooped frame. He had to be getting up there–almost fifty. Everyone knew he was Mr Lucchese’s enforcer. If someone needed to be terminated, Bone was the man who took care of it. Michael wasn’t into that side of the business. Killing was not for him. The only killing he cared to make was in the stock market.

‘Has Bone got a problem with me?’ he asked Gus one day.

‘What kinda problem?’ Gus said, vigorously chewing gum.

‘The asshole never says a word to me, never. I don’t even get a nod.’

‘Dunno,’ Gus said, picking at a hangnail. ‘You should try talkin’ t’him. ’S matter of fact, he used to work for your old boss.’

‘He did?’

‘Yeah, he was with the Giovanni family. It must’ve bin before your time. I heard he was tight with the old lady’s cousin.’

‘Mamie Giovanni’s cousin, Roy?’

‘Yeah. Hey–ain’t that the jerk you told me set you up?’

‘Right.’

‘Maybe Bone don’t think you should be here.’

‘How’s that?’

‘I dunno. Talk to him.’

But he didn’t. There was something about Bone that did not invite conversation.

The Delagado twins had several relatives scattered across the country. This was useful, because while Beth was busy moving into the house Michael had found for them, Catherine elected to visit with a distant cousin. Catherine, the quiet twin, was most upset by Beth’s pregnancy. She felt Michael had taken advantage of her sister.

‘How come we’re doin’ this?’ Michael asked Beth, as they unpacked boxes. ‘It’s crazy. We should be gettin’ married.’

‘Why?’ she said simply. ‘You don’t