Just a Bit Heartless (Straight Guys, #13)

by Alessandra Hazard

that this supposed tradition started since his little brother had gone missing last year.

Only Damiano seemed immune to the tension, eating calmly. He wasn’t oblivious to it; not at all. This man was perfectly aware of the discomfort in the room. He was enjoying it, Jordan realized after a moment.

All eyes fixed on Damiano, who shrugged slightly, sipping his wine. “Andrea has taken some time off to reevaluate his priorities.” He looked his relatives in the eyes, one after another. Jordan watched in surprise and reluctant admiration as every single one of them dropped their gazes—even the men twice Damiano’s age. Even Ferrara. Jordan hadn’t thought there was a man on the planet who could discomfit Raffaele-fucking-Ferrara. Apparently there was.

was the heir to the clan. He was an orphan no one wanted around and who wasn’t blood related to us.” Ferrara sighed. “Gustavo, Andrea, Paolo and me… You know how cruel kids can be, especially privileged kids. We never really treated him like one of us. My father didn’t treat him badly, but he wasn’t exactly an affectionate man, either. Damiano grew up as an outsider, despite being surrounded by a large family.”

Jordan moistened his lips. He blamed his reluctant fascination with cocks on Bella for all the threesomes she had talked him into while they had been married. He hadn’t had a cock in his mouth since before their divorce. He might have liked sucking cock on occasion, but he was hardly going to go looking for one. He wasn’t gay.

“Andrea attempted to kill me,” Damiano said in a low voice, actually answering his question, to Jordan’s astonishment. “He’s been taught a lesson.”

“Let’s cut the bullshit,” Damiano said, his voice still soft and nice. “I know Raffaele. I know how possessive of his things he is. He would never let us speak alone like this if he didn’t bring you here with an ulterior motive.”

Damiano shrugged, taking another drag of his cigarette. “Believe what you want. I don’t care. But tell Raffaele he can ask me questions himself instead of making his sugar baby make doe eyes at me.”

Jordan had never had low self-esteem.

Frankly, he was more handsome than Nate.

Jordan stabbed the salad on his plate with his fork. “So is the fight for the top dog position over?” he murmured. “Everyone seems to have bared their bellies and submitted to him like a bitch.”

“I think the paranoia is justified, considering that people have been attempting to kill him in his sleep since he was a teen. Once it became obvious how high the ‘bastardo’ was aiming, that pissed off a lot of people. But he survived, and the adversity only made him stronger.”

“And here I was starting to think you might have a heart,” Jordan said, making a show of taking Damiano’s hand with great reluctance. “I do,” Damiano said, closing his eyes again. “It serves to send blood to my organs.”

Ok but that’s funny

“I don’t have sex to feel good.” Damiano’s voice was full of derision. “Sex is tension relief. It’s a physiological need.”

Damiano chuckled. “No. Marco wasn’t faithful to Raffaele’s mother because he didn’t give a damn about her. He was madly in love with my mother. He loved her so much that he kept me around, the filthy bastardo and product of her rape, because I was still her son, even if she hated me enough to kill herself. I was what was left of her, so he tolerated having me around, despite me being the living reminder of what happened to her.”

That’s different from what Raffaele said

Raffaele was a fucking idiot if he was cheating.

He craved Damiano’s come, he realized with baffled embarrassment. He wanted his stomach to be full of it, have proof of pleasing Damiano and making him feel good. The thought appealed to him immensely: to have Damiano’s bodily fluids deep inside him. Like a branding. A branding only they would know about. A tiny part of Damiano inside his body, invisible but there.

was a slut, a slut for this man.

At the ring on his finger.

His face grim, Lorenzo shook his head. “He’s a different man when he’s with you—a better man. You’ve never seen him at his worst and nastiest. People fear him for a reason. He cares for you more than he’s ever cared for anyone. It scares me.”