“He’s lucky he still has ten fingers and toes,” Enzo admitted, answering the question I didn’t dare ask. “If I hadn’t been unwilling to let you out of my sight, he might not be so lucky.” He brought me over to the bar where Ash dried glasses, depositing me on a stool. “I need to talk to Seb to make sure he’s aware Sean was in the Underground. Wait here,” he ordered, getting in my face pointedly, though a playful smirk crossed his face. “If you move, I’ll belt your ass this time.”
“Enzo!” I gasped, swatting at him. Fairly confident in his words being an exaggeration, I shrugged it off with a laugh as he smiled at me darkly and went to have words with Seb at the base of the stairs.
At least, I hoped he was kidding.
I figured I’d stay put for once just to be safe.
The sight of the woman with the slinky black dress coming towards me nearly made me roll my eyes, but I plastered an overly fake, bright smile on my face as I spun to face her. “Sadie, right?” she asked, setting her box full of liquor on the bar counter. Ash glared at her for a minute, rolling his eyes when she returned the look with a sultry smile meant to seduce him into a puddle of compliance.
“She sneaks out again after talking to you, and Enzo might put it together and fire you, Vanessa,” he warned, shaking his head as he moved to the other end of the bar. He gave the distinct impression that he dealt with her drama more often than was normal, and my already dismal impression of her sank even lower.
“That’s me,” I agreed, smiling up at her brightly. “You’re the girl who wishes Enzo would fuck her, right?” Ash snorted, filling a glass with water and sliding it down the bar toward me. “I’m in a bar and you give me water? What the shit is that?”
“It’s noon,” he said, shaking his head.
“Fair enough,” I agreed. “You’re still here, huh?” I asked as I shifted my attention back over to the woman.
I spun around on my stool, facing Enzo and Seb. Hazel eyes met mine briefly, a slight smile curving his lips as he spoke to the other man. “He didn’t seem happy when you took off last week,” she noted, not seeming to get the hint that I wasn’t interested in a conversation with her toxic ass.
“He worried about me. The horror, right?” I feigned exasperation, letting it shift off my face as a sly smile took it over. During my last conversation with her, I’d told her I’d toss Enzo back when I finished riding his dick. Things had changed for me since then, as ridiculous as it sounded. I wouldn’t be tossing him back willingly. I leaned in, dropping my voice to a whisper. “He punishes me with sex. Let’s face it. That’s no punishment at all. He’s got it, and he knows how to use it. He’s like the magical unicorn of orgasms, with a really big horn if you catch my drift.”
She leaned back, staring down at me with her face twisted in disgust. “He’d be ashamed to know you’re talking about your sex life,” she accused, her disgust turning cunning for a moment as I watched her consider if she could use the information to cause problems.
“Lorenzo,” I called across the room, dropping my voice down to a throaty rasp when he turned his attention to us immediately. His eyes narrowed on Vanessa briefly, but his undivided attention returned to me quickly after he dismissed her with annoyance on his face.
Ouch.
“Are you ashamed of me telling Vanessa how you like to fuck me until my legs don’t work?” I asked. Seb hung his head, pinching his nose between his thumb and forefinger. I hardly knew the man outside of the few times Enzo mentioned him in passing, but I got that reaction a lot.
Enzo chuckled, patting Seb on the shoulder as he sauntered his way across the room to stand in front of me. Leaning his hands on the counter behind me, he trapped me between his body and the bar. “Carina, I’m not ashamed of anything to do with you,” he murmured, leaning forward to take my lips with his in a soft kiss. The gentle claiming did nothing to ease the unfamiliar jealousy that consumed me. The thought of him touching Vanessa in the ways he touched me, of her stripped down and vulnerable in his office.
It should have appeased me that he’d never touched her, and it did to some extent. But there was a part of me that wouldn’t be soothed by the knowledge.
I’d hated Enzo’s attempts to claim me as his, but the further I fell down the rabbit hole of feelings for him, the more I found myself returning those notions. He could own me.
As long as I got to own him too.
When he pulled back, he took my hips in his hand and helped me down from the stool. One hand sliding to the small of my back with his fingers curved over the top of my ass in my jeans, he guided me to the stairs. Leaning to curl his head over mine as we walked up the first steps, he whispered with a voice full of longing and amusement all in the same breath. “You’re jealous.”
“She wants your dick.” I gritted my teeth when he laughed in response.
“Plenty of women do,” he said, the unabashed arrogance stunning me. Such
