Down and Dirty, page 1
Down and Dirty
ITALIAN STALLIONS, BOOK 1
MARI CARR
Copyright © 2022 by Mari Carr
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
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Contents
Down and Dirty
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
About the Author
Down and Dirty
What happens when a down-on-her-luck single mom meets not one, but two sexy saviors? Roommates with twice the benefits.
* * *
Jess has one goal in life—protect her son. But when an overcrowded shelter puts her and Jasper out on the street in the dead of winter, she fears she's going to fail that mission. Help comes in the form of confirmed bachelors, Tony Moretti and Dr. Rhys Beaumont.
Tony and Rhys share the same motto—work hard, play harder. But when fate drops a homeless waitress and her young son on their doorstep, their wild and free lifestyle takes a sharp turn. Their desire to help her is only surpassed by their desire to claim her, share her, make her theirs.
When Tony and Rhys offer Jess a place to stay and security, there's no denying the chemistry between the three of them. All she has to do is let them in. But Jess isn’t willing to get hurt again . . . no matter how persuasive, how determined, how deliciously possessive her new roommates are.
Chapter One
“I’m sorry, but we don’t have any more room tonight.”
“Yes, but—” Jess started.
“Lady, if I had room, I’d let you in. I’m not being a dick. I’m just telling you we’re maxed out. Try the shelter down on…” The man glanced down at Jasper and hesitated. Then he went ahead and finished. “Forty-Eighth Street. They might have some room.”
Jess could tell from the man’s frustrated tone she wasn’t the first person to beg to be allowed in tonight. She also knew there was no way in hell she was taking Jasper to the 48th Street shelter again. There were degrees of homeless shelters in Philly and she’d learned firsthand that 48th Street was one of the worst. While it was open to women only, that didn’t mean it was particularly safe.
Last night, they’d listened to a mentally ill woman cry loudly for hours, while another woman—strung out on God only knew what—screamed obscenities at anyone who looked at her twice. Jess knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that she and Jasper would be safer taking their chances on the streets.
Instead of continuing to fight, she merely nodded, a feeling of utter defeat washing through her as she watched the man close the door to the shelter.
She remained outside the door for a few moments, her mind whirling over what the hell she was supposed to do now.
January is no time to learn how to be homeless, she thought wearily.
“Mommy. I’m cold.”
Jess glanced down at her sweet little six-year-old and fought back the panic threatening to break through the cracks in her fake composure.
“I’m know, buddy. Let’s, um…”
Let’s what?
She was the mom. She was supposed to have the answers, but she was fresh out of options. She was tired, hungry, stressed out, freaked out, and running on fumes. She’d been racing toward this brick wall in a speeding car with no brakes for weeks now. Tonight, she’d finally slammed into it.
Game over.
“Let’s walk back to Miss Debbie’s and get the car.”
Jasper, who was obviously experiencing the same exhaustion and hunger she was, did exactly what she felt like doing.
He whined.
Loudly.
And even stamped his feet, just to make sure he was driving his point home.
“I don’t want to walk anymore. I’m too tired.” The tears in his eyes were her undoing, and she swallowed the lump in her throat. She couldn’t stand to see him cry, especially when none of this was his fault.
She took a deep breath and beat back her panic, her fear, her own tears. She couldn’t let Jasper down, and she sure as hell couldn’t let him see her fall apart.
She also couldn’t blame him for refusing to walk on. She’d taken him on a ridiculous crisscross pattern around downtown Philadelphia, in search of somewhere they could stay for the night.
Debbie, another waitress at the diner where Jess worked, lived ten blocks from here, and there was no way Jess could cajole Jasper into making that trek. It simply wasn’t fair to ask it of him.
“Come on,” she said, bending down. “I’ll carry you. It won’t take us long.”
He lifted his arms and she hefted him up, positioning him on her hip securely. He was growing up so fast, getting bigger every day, and she realized her days of being able to carry her baby boy around were numbered.
“This way, we’ll stay warmer too,” she added, fighting hard to infuse her tone with some optimism, a difficult task, given the fact she wanted to scream the world down right now.
Jasper didn’t respond, either with words or even a smile. Instead, he put his head on her shoulder and closed his eyes, which proved exactly how tired he was. Lately, Jasper had been proclaiming himself too big to be coddled or babied. The fact he was willing to be carried proved she’d pushed him way past his limits today.
The two of them made the trip back across town, plowing headlong into the biting, brutal January wind. Weather forecasters were predicting more snow in the next day or two. Jasper turned his face away from the strong gales, burying it in the crook of her neck and shoulder. Jess wished she could do the same. Her eyes stung, her nose ran, her cheeks were numb, and she shivered violently, even though she was bundled up in a hat, gloves, boots, and a coat. Granted, her coat and boots had seen better days, and the pointer finger on her right hand was sticking out of a hole in the glove.
Nothing had gone right today.
No, in truth, the shit had been hitting the fan ever since New Year’s Day.
That was when she’d finally run out of ways to rob Peter to pay Paul, and her landlord followed through on his months-long threat to evict them. Jess and Jasper had been couch-hopping since then, trying not to overstay their welcome with friends and even acquaintances, people who truly didn’t have room for them to begin with. She’d used up every favor and then some in the past four weeks. So last night, for the first time, they’d resorted to sleeping in the shelter.
Though Jess wouldn’t call what she did there sleeping. It was probably more accurate to say Jasper slept. She’d merely stayed in place, sitting in an uncomfortable chair, clinging to her son, praying no one did anything to hurt them while counting the hours until morning, when she could fight her way through another day. She’d managed to grab less than an hour of sleep, which had left her stumbling around in a fog all day, her brain struggling to function properly.
“I don’t wanna stay with Miss Debbie. The bad man is there,” Jasper murmured against her neck.
Jess wasn’t intending to ask Debbie to take them in. They’d stayed at Debbie’s house the majority of the first three weeks after losing their apartment, but a week ago, Debbie’s husband had given the couch she and Jasper had been sharing to his just-out-of-jail brother, Mario.
Mario was bad fucking news, and there was no way Jess could stay at her friend’s place while he was there. Not with the way he leered and made lewd sexual comments about all the vile things he wanted to do to her—in front of Jasper.
When Mario’s hateful, threatening words confused and frightened her son, Jess had tried to explain, as gently as she could to her sweet, innocent little boy, that there were good people in the world, but there were also some bad ones as well.
Unfortunately, it felt like all she and Jasper had been encountering lately were the bad people, including not only Mario but also a junkie who’d tried to steal her bag on the street, the guy at the grocery store who’d embarrassed them when they didn’t have enough money to buy the few measly things in their basket, and…
Jess sighed and mentally added Brenda, her former babysitter to the list. It was Brenda’s fault they’d been too late to get in line for a bed at the shelter. Brenda was a stay-at-home mom of three rambunctious boys, and she’d agreed to take care of Jasper after school every day until Jess finished her shift at the diner.
That afternoon, Brenda had claimed her husband, Rodney, didn’t want her to babysit Jasper anymore. Apparently, he didn’t like having a houseful of loud kids when he got home from work. Then she informed Jess that Jasper had broken a lamp. Jasper said it was an accident and he was sorry, but Brenda was too pissed off to accept his apology.
Jess tried to explain that removing Jasper from the equation wasn’t going to make Brenda’s house suddenly quiet, but the woman wouldn’t back down, claiming she was done taking care of “someone else’s brat.”
Then she demanded that Jess pay everything she owed her for babysitting, plus fifty dollars for a lamp Jess was certain hadn’t cost more than twenty. It had taken every bit of the tip money she had in her purse to cover the debt—which meant in addition to having no place to stay tonight, she didn’t even have cash to buy them food.
And now she only had two days to figure out childcare for Jasper after school on Monday.
She pushed that worry away until tomorrow. The more pressing problem was getting them through tonight.
Jess blew out a sigh of relief when they arrived at Debbie’s. She considered going in for a moment and asking to stay, but then she recalled Mario’s comments about her tight ass—and how he’d like to fuck it raw. So instead, she reached into her bag and pulled out her car keys.
Her car was the one thing she’d refused to relinquish when facing eviction, even if the money she could’ve made off selling the hunk of junk would have paid a couple of bills initially.
She’d decided against it. For one thing, it really was a piece of shit, and she’d be lucky to get a few hundred bucks for it, nowhere near enough to allow them to rent a new apartment or keep the old one for more than a month or two. Plus, she needed the car to get to her weekend job as a housekeeper at a motel on the outskirts of Philadelphia.
If she was being honest with herself, she knew she was going to have to sell the car at some point. But as she considered the dire straits she and Jasper were in at the moment, she was glad to have the security blanket of a vehicle.
If she could just hold on to it until spring and better weather…
For now, she was able to park it for free at Debbie’s. The only time she drove it was on the weekends, so it wasn’t like she was wasting a ton of money on gas. The rest of the week, she and Jasper either took the bus, the subway, or walked everywhere.
“Come on, Jasper. Hop in.” She opened the back door and secured Jasper into his booster seat, then she reached for a blanket she kept in the car and tucked it around him. Once he was settled, she bopped him on the nose with the finger sticking out of her glove. His scowl finally loosened, and he giggled.
“You’re silly, Mommy.”
She walked around to the driver’s side and climbed behind the wheel, briefly sending up the same short prayer she always did when she turned the key.
“Please start.”
Mercifully—and for the first time today—something went right and the engine turned over. She cranked the heat up on high, even though she knew it would be at least ten minutes before it stopped blowing out cold air. Right now, she was so fucking freezing, even the cool air felt like a blessing.
She pulled out of the parking lot with absolutely no clue where she was going. All she knew was they were out of the frigid night air and off the streets.
“Are we going to get some dinner? I’m hungry.”
Damn. Now that he was sitting down and out of the cold, it seemed Jasper had moved on to the next item on his list of needs.
Jess did a mental inventory of what she had in her gargantuan bag. Ever since losing their home, she was never without her oversized canvas tote, where she kept her wallet, a change of clothes for both her and Jasper, toiletries, and snacks.
“Let’s find somewhere to park and I’ll rustle something up for us.” Jess glanced at her gas gauge and grimaced when she realized she only had a quarter of a tank. She’d resigned herself to the idea that they would have to sleep in the car, even though the thought terrified her. The streets of Philadelphia weren’t somewhere she really wanted to be after dark, and there was no way she had enough gas to keep the car running all night.
She considered her empty wallet again.
No help there, she thought.
Wait. It wasn’t completely empty.
She fumbled around inside the bag for her wallet while she waited at a stoplight. Once she found it, she withdrew the business card tucked inside and looked at the address. The place wasn’t too far from here.
She turned left at the next stoplight, her course decided. When she pulled up in front of the building, she parallel parked on the street in the spot right outside the main entrance and put the car in park. She took a moment to study the large four-story brick building that was a perfect blend of old and new architecture. Connected to the other buildings on either side, it took up a large part of the block, boasting a corner spot.
She’d always been fond of American history, so when she’d first arrived in Philadelphia, she’d enjoyed walking around the city, studying houses and historical sites that had been around since the nineteenth century. It was clear this building was quite old, though it had been beautifully restored.
The tall, arched windows on the first floor were part of the original design, but the glass inside was new, crystal clear and shiny. The sign on the main entry indicated the two businesses—a doctor’s office and a restoration company—that resided behind the dark brown wooden door. The front portico was impressive, grand and inviting, made even more so by the ornate lunette window above the door.
She assumed the businesses occupied the first and second floors, which were both dark, as it was well after work hours. However, there was lots of light coming from the top two floors, allowing her to easily see the third-story balcony that jutted out above a large bay window on the second floor. She found herself wondering about those top two floors, not because she was terribly fascinated in the layout of the building, but because she was curious about the people inside.
She’d lifted the business card several months earlier from a bulletin board her boss had hanging near the front door of the diner—his way of promoting local businesses. At the time, she hadn’t been able to reason out why on earth she thought she’d ever need it. She sure as hell didn’t have a home that needed renovation.
Jess had brushed it off initially as a foolish—and lonely—woman’s silliness. The men who lived here—Tony Moretti, who owned the restoration company as well as the doctor, Rhys Beaumont—were regulars at the diner where she worked, so she’d seen them pretty much weekly ever since she’d started working there four years ago.
She’d overheard them talking about buying this building a couple of years earlier, describing their plans for renovating it to their weekly Wednesday lunch companions, a large group of men who were either relatives or friends. She’d been so enthralled by their intentions for the building, she’d eavesdropped more than was polite, refilling their water glasses far too often.
The men always sat in her section at the diner, and the other waitresses constantly expressed their jealousy over that fact. Tony, Rhys, and the other men were all handsome and funny, kind to her, and good tippers.
Those small tidbits—plus their names, occupations, and this address, thanks to the business card—were the sum total of Jess’s knowledge about them. So coming here had been stupid as hell. Because apart from where she worked and her first name, the men didn’t know her either, and there was no way she could knock on that grand, gorgeous door, and say, “Hey, remember me from the diner? Can my son and I crash on your couch tonight?”
She shook her head, feeling like a fool for thinking the words, and even more foolish for coming here.
Chalk up another stupid decision due to her lack of sleep.
Her mother had always accused her of having too much pride, but damn if it hadn’t taken a beating this month. Regardless, she pushed away thoughts of the strangers inside the building, turning her attention to the more pressing matter.
Unfastening her seat belt, she twisted around so she could speak to Jasper.
“Are you up for a little adventure tonight?” she asked, trying to infuse as much excitement into her tone as possible.
Jasper gave her a curious look. “What?”
“We’re camping,” she said, aware the word alone would help sell her insane idea to her son.
As expected, he lit up like a Christmas tree, his eyes going wide. The two of them had spent a lot of time at the public library this month, as it gave them somewhere warm to kill a few hours so they wouldn’t arrive at her friends’ houses until just before bedtime. She’d been working hard not to overstay her welcome or be an unwanted burden.
