Maid for the Mafia by Jaylee

You Were Stalking Me

**ROMANY**

Mickey's eyes search mine nervously before he continues. Almost as if he expects his confession might drive me away. He would be wrong, but I'll wait until he's told me everything first. I want to hear it all. "Go on," I prompt him, edging forward so that my bare legs push against the fabric of his pants and I can feel the warmth of him.

He clears his throat, his gaze waltzing around my face as he speaks, "You walked out of the classroom talking on the phone with someone - I think it may have been your mom - and every other sound, every other person, every other thing - just disappeared. I watched you for the next twenty minutes while you laughed and joked on the phone. Bruno thought I'd gone deaf because he kept trying to talk to me and I wouldn't listen, but then I guess he noticed what I was looking at and shut up. When you set off toward another wing - I don't know - probably to your next class, I started to follow you, but that's when Bruno stopped me. He pulled me back down to earth and reminded me that my feet were on the ground and that I was there to handle some business, not chase college girls, and I let it go.

"After I straightened Jensen out on a few things-"

"Wait a minute!" I interrupt, my mind reeling as I remember that day. The mention of my mom is what does it. One of the last conversations that I had with her before her car accident was in the quad after Matthew's class. I could vaguely remember someone staring at me, but at that time in my life I was used to ignoring such things. Especially if they were exceptionally good looking. It was a defense mechanism. I never felt pretty enough back then. I thought I was too fat for anyone to love properly and if I saw a guy like Mickey, I would have avoided the temptation of him at all costs.

"What is it, doll?"

With a bite of my lip, I study his face. "I think I remember that day."

He nods, his eyes shuttering. "Yeah...I'm sorry about what happened to your mom. I-uh...I was there the day your teacher brought you outside. The day you found out she was...gone."

My eyes narrow and I frown as the familiar sadness washes over me the way it does *every* time I think about that day. "You were there? Why?"

embarrassment. "I was getting to that

eyebrow

leg hooks over my shins and under my calves. I smile inside, but keep my face critical. "Like I said, I had to straighten Jensen out a bit-" he

my head. "Nope. I had no idea." Fuck Matthew, that bastard. Wherever he

dealing with some kid in his class that he could threaten with bad grades. Little did he know, Bruno wasn't there for grades. He was there for business. That entire class was filled with degenerates that padded my pockets. But not you." He looks away. "You were different and I wanted to know you." He sighs, shying a little when he says his next words. "It started innocently enough I guess. I asked Bruno who you were. Got him to tell me what little about you that

"My business?" I quip.

baby cousin. When I learned that, believe it or not, I actually had hope. I thought maybe that meant you weren't as 'from another

crossing my arms over my chest in anger. I mean, I already knew that, I suspected it, but it was an entirely different thing to hear that

busy." At my look of indignance, he laughed. "Anyway...when I learned that meeting you was not

me," I say

head. "Er-um-no

"You were stalking me."

then blushes

were. Not maybe.

sighs, burying his face in his hands. "Fine. Yes. I was stalking you." His head jerks up. "But I never wanted to hurt you. I never would have like...abducted you or anything. The Dons - that's what they thought I was gonna do. When they heard I had an unhealthy interest in a college girl, they made me drop the college and pulled Bruno out of school. But I

them up next to me on the seat. Looking in his eyes, I see more vulnerability than I ever thought possible for a man like him to have and it clutches

draw together in outrage. "It would have