Because after that kiss in the alley, she knew what was going to keep her awake.
Danny.
Every. Damn. Night.
SIX
Danny
The night was a series of 'what the fuck' moments.
First, Max.
He wasn't supposed to be there. It was Danny's job, case closed. He was supposed to butt the fuck out and let him handle things. It wasn't some two man operation and it never was. That wasn't how it worked. When you brought in another man, the chances of getting caught doubled.
Worse yet, the fuck didn't think to at least warn him.
Fuck asking permission. Men like Max didn't do shit like that and it was something that Daniel not only understood, but respected.
But he should have told him he was in.
Because seeing him walk into Lam like he fucking did it every week made him take pause, made him stiffen, gave a reaction that anyone could have picked up on if they were paying attention. And people like Vin, his sons, and their associates were always paying attention.
It was a fuck up.
And they were going to have to have words about it later.
Then, not only had he shown up, he had personally come up to the bar and ordered a drink from Faith. Why? Yeah, that was a good question. Maybe he was just trying to get a feel for her, see if she was some kind of threat. Or maybe he just wanted to flirt with her over some fucking booze knowledge. Either way, it pissed Daniel off. If the first, because that meant he didn't trust Daniel's instincts on her, didn't think he was reading her clearly. If the second, well, it didn't take a genius to know that Daniel wanted Faith, regardless of it being unprofessional and stupid. And Max either picked up on that and was fucking with him or he was attracted to Faith too and was laying groundwork to make a move.
Which wouldn't fly.
No fucking way.
Then, of course, there was the fact that he had charged out into the alley and kissed her.
Stupid? Sure.
Inevitable? He thought so.
Really, when two headstrong and sexually confident people found themselves in close quarters and attracted to each other, it was bound to happen. Usually sooner rather than later. And, fact of the matter was, it was a problem whether it happened or not. If it did happen, you ran the risk of it fucking up the work situation and maybe leading to one of you quitting or getting fired. But if it didn't happen, it would likely mean they would do nothing but butt heads, piss each other off, frustrate the customers and the bosses, and cloud judgement. Most especially, his.
That couldn't happen.
So maybe it was a good thing.
If you'd ask his dick, it was a damn good thing.
Faith kissed like she slung attitude- with every ounce of passion in her. And to his surprise, and other ever loving delight, hard-ass, takes-no-prisoners Faith Costa liked to give up control to the men she was with. That surprised him. Why, he wasn't sure. It was often not the meek, shy little girls who liked things rough, liked an alpha man to take over. In his experience, it was usually the strong, fierce women who liked that. Maybe for them it was cathartic, to be given the permission to let things go, to have someone else take over.
He never used to be into the take control and inflict pain-pleasure kind of guy. Up until his early twenties, sex was nothing but a fun, mutually enjoyable way to spend some time with a woman.
But then life happened. His job happened. He suddenly found himself almost constantly surrounded by the scum of the Earth and in a position where he had to kowtow to them.
Maybe that was where it sprang from- from being so under peoples' thumbs for so long that he liked to take control in one of the few places he could- in bed.
Whatever the hows and whys, it was how he was built.
Apparently due to her own hows and whys, it was how she was built as well.
And damn if that didn't make her all the more appealing.
He wasn't the least bit surprised that once she came back inside, she avoided him like the damn plague. He knew how much she wanted it.
All in all, not an altogether bad night.
He even learned a couple things about the D'Onofrio family. Like Anthony wasn't just a douchebag. And Vin didn't prevent him from going behind the bar out of some kind of show of power. No. Anthony was very likely an extreme alcoholic. By his count, he had drank eight cups of the heavy pour Faith did, shaking her head every time. And if he was drinking that hard in front of his father, brother, and business partners, it only went to follow that he drank more when there was no one to keep him in line.
Salvatore, however, only pretended to drink.
When he came up for a refill and Faith pulled the vodka bottle out from under the bar instead of the back bar where it should have been, he got curious and checked out the bottle when she wasn't looking. What he found was water.
Salvatore liked control in all things, especially business. So having a clear head while discussing business matters was important enough to him to fake drink because he knew that the men at the table would lose respect for him if he didn't have a rocks glass in his hand.