Also not good.

I turned off my phone and shoved it in my purse as Ren pulled into the parking lot of my complex. I did this deciding that maybe I could still be a sissy for a little while longer.

Ren parked. I put my hand to the handle but stopped and turned to him when I felt his fingers curl around my  knee.

“We go up, you pack enough to stay at my place awhile, but you make sure you got a variety of dresses and heels,” he ordered and I bit back a smart mouth retort at him being bossy. It took me so long to do that, he was able to keep talking. “And you do that shit fast.”

At bossy part two, I failed in biting back the smart mouth and asked, “Should  I salute when you issue an order? Or will nodding and instant compliance do?”

He grinned and replied, “No salutes. No nods. But you could kiss me.”

I gave him a look.

He kept grinning.

I decided to throw out a deal that he couldn’t refuse.

“I’ll kiss you, and comply with your order, if you do me a favor.”

His fingers gave my knee a squeeze and he asked, “What do you need?”

I dug in my purse, got out my wallet and opened it. I found the little pocket that had absolutely no use. A pocket I put a use to. I snapped it open and pulled out what was inside.

I dumped the wallet back in my purse, turned to Ren and lifted my hand between us.

Then I dropped the guitar pendant and it bounced between us from where I held the chain.

“What I need is for you to put this on me,” I said quietly and Ren’s eyes moved from the pendant to me.

His voice was rough when he stated, “You carried it with you.”

“Yes.”

“Always?”

I took a breath in through my nose.

Then I nodded and whispered, “Always.”

His eyes stayed locked to mine, heated and intense, before he grinned and declared, “I was so in there.”

I palmed the necklace and snapped, “Zano, do you want me pissed at you?”

“Semi-sweet Ally, just seein’ how far she goes,” he replied.

“You reached the end, mister,” I returned, twisted to exit the vehicle but instead found myself in Ren’s lap, wedged between him and his steering wheel.

Oh, and he was kissing me.

I decided to forgive him and kissed him back.

Then kissing turned into making out.

After we were done doing that, he put the necklace on me.

When the guitar was dangling in the dent of my collarbone, Ren touched it as his eyes watched.

He lifted his gaze to mine and stated, “You do know you aren’t bullshitting me. There is no semi-sweet Ally. She’s pure honey all the way through.”

I slid my fingers along the dark stubble at his jaw and whispered, “Don’t tell anybody.”

“Baby, your secret’s safe with me.”

I smiled at him.

He smiled back, touched his mouth to mine and deposited my ass in my seat.

We got out of his car and walked hand in hand into my complex and up the stairs.

I was in my head. Precisely what I was thinking up there was which dresses and heels I was going to pack to take to Ren’s.

On the way home, we’d made the deal that we were going to try this together togetherness, not fuck around and not delay. That meant me staying at Ren’s (because, seriously, his house was awesome; he even had a sauna in his bathroom).

This also meant me meeting his mom and two sisters, him meeting my family not as Ren, a member of the Zano Crime Family, but as Ren, the boyfriend of me, and me sitting down to dinner with Vito and his wife Angela.

None of this scared me. Vito liked me. Ren loved me and he was the kind of guy who, if he made that decision, even if his mom and sisters didn’t like me, they’d have to deal. As for my family, Ren was Ren and his family was his family and mine were who they were and usually this would be a Romeo and Juliet type of scenario. But I wasn’t big on Shakespeare so my family was also just going to have to deal.

I was narrowing down my dress and heels choices when I felt his hand tighten in mine and he pulled us both to a dead stop.

I looked up and tensed when I saw The Kevster running our way down the hall.

“Bomb! Bomb! Bomb! Bo—!” he was shouting.

But he didn’t get the last one out.

This was because my apartment exploded. The Kevster was taken clean off his feet and was blown our way. Ren and I rocked backward, Ren tugging my arm and curling me into him so when he landed on his back, I landed partly on his front but my left side slammed into the floor.

Instantly, he rolled me so I was on bottom and he tucked me low so he fully covered me.

Oh man.

Here we go.

Shit.

Chapter Nine

Sixteen to Me