"Did your dick crawl back inside you?" I asked.
He grinned at me, moving into my space and wrapping his arms around me where I floated. My feet didn't touch the bottom in the center like his seemed to do, so I wrapped my legs around his waist and let him support me as he strolled around in the water. It wasn't uncommon for me to feel small compared to the men I dated. It would be hard not to at my height, but something about being in Enzo's arms felt different. Safer.
"I told you about my dating history," he said. "It's why I haven't bothered to date anyone seriously since. I don't want to know a fucking thing about the men you've been with, aside from this one conversation," he muttered, closing his eyes as if he couldn't believe he was asking the question. "Who broke your heart?" The question on the heels of our altercation with Patrick struck hard, and I knew it aggravated Enzo to think that just maybe my heartbreak had been recent. That I still pined away for another man even while I snuggled deeper into his embrace.
No matter how much my brain seemed to know he was bad for me, my body wanted him in a way no one else had ever compared. Even his dominance over me and the subsequent loss of control served to draw me away from the constant battle of compulsions, bringing me to a place of peace I’d never experienced before.
"What makes you think anyone did?" I asked, trying to ignore the way my heart pounded in my chest. Enzo always seemed to get right to the core of my issues, seeing me for everything I wanted to hide and knowing exactly what was bullshit. "Maybe I just like dick too much to settle down with just one. Variety is the spice of life."
He narrowed his eyes on mine, staring up at me before he called me on my bluff. "I don't think you're nearly as casual about sex as you want me to believe, Baby Girl. If you were, you'd be a hundred percent satisfied to have fucked me like a bunny and know we'd go our separate ways when this is done." The confirmation of everything I knew about whatever this was between us felt like a shard in my chest, but I pushed through it with a deceptive smile. He continued, "That's not what's happening here. We both know it, but you never even considered the possibility of that before you dismissed me. Someone who likes casual sex would probably have tried to jump me that first night. Not tried to sneak out of my house in the middle of it."
"Feeling a little sure of yourself, aren't you, Big Guy?" I asked, shaking my head at his arrogance.
"I'm no stranger to casual sex. I know how women who are looking for that act. You are not one of them, Carina. So cut the bullshit and tell me what he did to fuck you up with dating."
With a sigh, I dropped my head down to stare at the water in defeat. "Nobody broke my heart. Not like Ivory, anyway. It was just a lot of lesser hurts, I guess. I've learned that men don't want to know me. They just want to fuck me and then move on once they tire of my personality. I can't blame them. I exhaust myself sometimes." I laughed mirthlessly. "But I just don't see the point in getting attached when I know none of these relationships will be permanent." I shrugged, trying to tune out the way his hazel eyes singed my face with their heat.
"This is not temporary, Sadie," he stressed. "You don't need to keep me at a distance and wait for the other shoe to drop. I'm not going anywhere."
I hummed, trying to ignore the way the words washed over me and made me feel. Trying to believe them for the first time in my life. Something about Enzo tempted me in a way no one had ever managed before, calling to that vulnerable part of me that wanted to believe that someone could want forever with me.
I didn't need every man to love and accept me. I just needed one.
Sometimes it felt like that might be too much to ask.
"Something dropped," I teased, using perversion to change the subject since the hot water had brought him out to play. He laughed, but shook his head with a sigh.
"You're impossible."
"Funny, that's what my mom says right before she yells, Sadie Anne!" He gave another chuckle as he touched his chin to my shoulder, hazel eyes filled with exasperation.
"My mom doesn't yell," he admitted. "She does that disappointed voice. The one where you know shit just got real and you better run out of the house before she gets her wooden spoon? My sisters and I learned a long time ago not to fuck with that voice."
"How many sisters do you have?" I asked.
He gave me a lopsided grin that sent my stomach tumbling over itself with nerves. "I think that's the first time you've asked anything about me. Hard to deny you care if you ask about my family." He kissed me briefly, and
