Yet Ash barely looked at me as he served me, let alone went so far as to have a conversation with me. Without a doubt it was Enzo's doing, his stamp of ownership making me totally off limits. While I didn't want Ash in any way, I would not be owned. I wasn't a fucking pet to be leashed and controlled.
"You know I have words, right? I'm not just a brainless sex doll that he rolls underneath him when he wants to jerk off in a wet hole," I snapped, making Ash finally turn his attention to me. "So when you ignore me and dismiss me like I'm incapable of conversation, it kind of pisses me off. With you. With Enzo. Do you want to be the reason I'm pissed at Enzo? I don't think he likes it much when I'm mad at him," I added with a coy smirk.
Ash's face might have paled at the pathetic threat if he'd been most men, but he just smiled at me and bit his bottom lip. "He said you were a handful. You ain't much more than that are you, sweetheart?" His eyes glanced down to my body for the first time, curled up on my stool. Admittedly, with my legs curled under my thighs, I probably looked even smaller. I'd stopped giving the first shit about my size a long time ago.
Except for when I couldn't reach my clothes in the washer and had to collapse a fucking lung leaning in. That shit sucked.
Picking my knife up off the bar, I aimed it right at his face. "Call me short again, ass monkey." He chuckled, touching the top of my hand until I set the knife down with a clang.
"Right. Maybe you should go back upstairs for Enzo to deal with." The words struck home more than he'd intended. Because I knew deep down, nobody wanted to deal with me. Even Enzo would tire of me as I came out of the stupor he seemed to put me in whenever I got too close to him. The blinding attraction would wear off. It always did. And then I'd be left wondering where exactly I'd gone wrong again.
"No can do," Dom inserted, grinning like he had a little secret. "Rafael Ibarra is upstairs with him. He came in through the back." I had no clue who Rafael was, but the way Ash whistled in respect and glanced up at the stairs made me almost want to find out. It was only the knowledge that these men respected criminals and serial killers that stopped me from leaping off the stool to go stick my nose through the door.
"I'll go check on your cheese fries," Ash said, pushing off from the bar dramatically and shaking his head at me as I eyed the stairs.
"Don't do it," Dom said. "Rafael is not a man you want to meet, little girl." I groaned, choosing to ignore the slight to my size. Just because he was the size of King Kong didn't mean he needed to call me little.
Little. Baby. Cute.
Eff that.
The female bartender who'd watched me curiously while she did inventory on the other bars set up throughout the main space made her way over once Ash was out of sight. "So, you're with Lorenzo?" she asked, eyeing me with distaste. It wasn't surprising that, with her makeup done to the nines and dressed to kill in her little black dress, she'd find me lacking. I was lucky I'd put on jeans, with my hair loose around my shoulders in a dark curtain and not a trace of makeup on my face.
"Depends who you ask," I said with a catty smile.
She smiled. "I guess it makes sense now. He must have a thing for women he can control. I never pegged him as the type to go for that, but I guess that's what a taste of power does, right? Makes them need to exert it in all areas of life." She sighed, picking at her perfectly polished nails. Mine were clipped short out of necessity, the natural color blending in too well with my skin compared to her bright red pop of color.
"I am not controlled," I retorted, turning my attention to her fully.
"No? So you can walk right out that door without Dom preventing you from leaving?" Her words hit that part of me, the rebellion that sparked within my very soul the moment I considered doing what I was told.
"He's my bodyguard at Matteo's insistence. You know, because I'm his daughter's godmother." Her eyes widened briefly, seeming to realize that I wasn't as easy a target as she might have first assumed. The truth was, I was more heavily entrenched in the Bellandi family than she would ever dream to be. Marriage was the only way to get closer than I already was, but I wouldn't use the threat of Matteo to my advantage.
I didn't need him to take care of one jealous woman. "Let me guess, you and Enzo used to fuck?" She pursed her lips, her silence giving me all the answer I needed. "Ah, you wanted to, but he never went there. Well, I'll be gone soon enough. I promise I'll toss him back when I'm done with him."
Maybe.
She glared at me, turning on her heel to storm back to the bar she was meant to be cleaning. For just a single moment, my heart wanted to flutter in my chest. Knowing that Enzo didn't give a woman like her the time of day, but had been very clear about his desire for me from the first moment we met, filled me with a brief flutter of hope.
I studied Dom as he watched her strut, even
