Moving to one of the empty rings, I hopped up and slid between the two ropes. Turning back, I grinned down at him. With his arms crossed over his chest, and leaning against the wall with his feet kicked out in front of him, he raised his brows at me. A slow smile took over that brutally handsome face. There was nothing in this world quite as sinful as Lorenzo Vescovi. I knew it down to my bones, an unbreakable truth imprinted on my soul that I couldn’t even try to deny.
I was no innocent virgin. I'd had my share of fun, but I'd never had him.
If I wanted to maintain my sanity, it should probably stay that way. Even if it felt like a crime against humanity not to take him for a spin and see if he could live up to all the promise in those observant hazel eyes of his.
He’d been quiet, lurking dangerously behind every move I made, but never moving to take out his aggression on any of the equipment. With the rage simmering in his body, I felt the need to tempt it to the surface. To see what he was capable of, and maybe, if I was lucky, I’d annoy him enough that he’d see I wasn’t worth the effort.
Everyone else knew it. It was time he did too.
"Come on, Big Boy. Nobody to see me humiliate you now," I teased. All day he'd watched me, studying every move I made just a little too closely for comfort. All the fixation he kept attuned to me, even while he worked on his tablet, threatened to unravel the carefully laid out disguise I'd cultivated over the years.
It was part of me, but the outrageous behavior also helped protect me from people seeing the little signs of my disorder. Only Ivory knew the truth, and even that was barely a glimpse into the storm surging inside me every time I glanced around any space I inhabited.
He pursed his lips, that smile broadening to reveal perfectly symmetrical teeth, and gave a tantalizing sweep of his tongue over them. "I can't have you knowing what I'm capable of. Not when you're still planning to bolt the second you get a chance." His words were so similar to the thoughts I’d had only a moment before that I had to work not to show him a genuine reaction.
I gasped, clutching a hand to my chest in mock outrage instead. "Come on, Lorenzo," I purred. "Why would I try to run from you?"
He uncrossed those arms, his broad shoulders seeming even larger as he shoved off the wall and approached the ring slowly. There was nothing objective in his gaze as it ran up my body, from my feet to the booty shorts hugging my thighs and bare stomach revealed by my sports bra. My abs twitched, feeling the fire he lit inside me with just that one glance.
Being higher than him, than anyone, never stopped being a strange, heady sensation. It was part of my addiction to the fighting ring. Being above and looking down on other people, I could almost imagine what it might be like to be taller than 4'11".
With outstretched arms, he grabbed the top rope around the ring and tugged it down as he stared at me. A predatory grin played at the sharp curve of his lips, an overwhelming tease in and of itself.
Those lips were made for sinning.
Resisting the urge to move, I refused to let him see me squirm. He hadn't so much as touched me, but he seared my skin with his brand and imprinted himself on my soul with nothing but a look. "You want me to put my hands on you, Baby Girl?" he asked. "I can think of far more interesting ways to entertain you."
I swallowed, shaking off the fog of lust threatening to make me jump his bones.
Well, bone.
"This is the only thing I'm interested in," I said.
"Little Liar," he chuckled, shaking his head. The look on his face held zero trace of the annoyance most men would have felt if they’d thought I was playing hard to get. Instead, my resistance only seemed to spur Enzo on and make him more determined to watch me unravel. Something lurked behind his eyes, a demon simmering below the surface even though his face and words seemed otherwise amused.
I had the distinct impression I was treading water in the deep end and too naïve to realize a current threatened to pull me under.
"Don't be a douchebag," I laughed. "We both know sex would be a blast, but it isn’t going to happen. So put on your big boy pants, jump up here, and show me what you've got, Enzo."
He complied, pulling himself into the ring with a masculine grace that should have been impossible for a man his size. Enzo moved like an assassin in the night, fluid and silent until he wanted his victim to feel that single moment of pure terror before it all ended. Bellandi men were psychotic, often enjoying the thrill and fear they instilled in their victims before they struck.
But Enzo was his own brand of crazy. Determined to win, with zero interest in anything but getting the job done, he didn't do it for joy.
He did it because it was his duty, and I had a feeling he was a killing machine beneath the careful facade he created to hide what lurked inside him.
Standing in the middle of the ring, I watched him unfold to his full height and smile at me subtly. A single step brought him closer until the next one followed and he stepped directly into my space.
Hands came down on the bare skin of my waist, his pinky touching the spandex of my shorts and his thumb grazing the curve of my breast all in one touch. His long fingers
