“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 a simple observation, to know that women all around him wanted to fuck him. He usually seemed so oblivious to them, I didn’t know how I felt about his stealthy knowledge. “But they’ll never have it. It's your cock. Just like what’s tucked away in your jeans is my pussy,” he said. He opened his office door, following me through and closing it behind him.
“I don’t want to feel like this,” I admitted. “It can’t be healthy.”
Enzo chuckled, walking toward me as I spun to face him. His body nudged mine back until the glass wall touched my spine. He raised his left hand, wrapping it around the base of my jaw where it met my throat and pressing me back into the window firmly, tilting my head back with that hand. I panted up at him, my jealousy instantly bleeding into arousal.
The press of his hand at my throat was all it took for Enzo to seduce me. His hazel eyes blazing down on mine, while he held me still, and leaned his weight into me. “I like that you’re jealous. I want you to claim me as yours the same way I’ve done with you.”
His right hand slid inside my jacket, maneuvering it off my arms without ever releasing his hold on my neck. It fell to the floor with a loud thump and he slid his foot around the side of my leg to kick it out of the way.
In any normal circumstances, it would have driven me crazy. But with his hand at my throat and his possessive stare burning me up, I couldn’t be bothered to care. His brand of fire was cheaper than therapy, quieting the compulsions in my head until nothing existed but him.
Releasing me, he spun me to face the glass so suddenly that only my hands and quick reflexes catching myself stopped me from smashing into it.
Brutal. Rough. My jealousy spurred him on and tempted the beast to the surface. I recognized it as the other part of Enzo, the one I knew he tried to hide from the world around him. But to be with Enzo, I had to accept all of him.
The good. The bad. The dangerous.
His hands opened the fly of my jeans, sliding them down over my ass and tugging them off my boots. “She’s downstairs thinking about what you said. Imagining all the things I do to you and how I make you scream, Baby Girl,” he murmured. His hand came down on the flesh of my ass, drawing a strangled gasp from my lips.
The sound of his zipper sliding down behind me was the only warning before he placed his hand at the base of my head, gripping my neck harshly and pushing the side of my face into the glass. “Do you see her down there?” he asked. My eyes went to the bar Vanessa claimed as her own, watching as she restocked her liquor and straightened out her glasses to prepare for the night rush.
“Yes.”
“Do you like imagining that she could easily look up and see you getting fucked, Carina?” he asked, sliding the head of his cock through the wetness between my thighs. “I think you do.” His voice was a dark chuckle, seductive as sin brought by the devil himself.
Shoving himself inside me harshly, he did nothing to quiet the strangled scream that escaped my throat. He set a brutal rhythm, giving me no time to adjust to the feeling of him inside me before he took me in punishing thrusts. “Lorenzo,�
� I gasped.
“Who does my cock belong to?” he asked, shoving to the end and stilling with himself planted inside me. Wrapping my hair around his fist, he tugged back until my back arched for him.
“Me,” I answered. “It’s my fucking cock.”
“That’s right, Baby Girl,” he grunted, withdrawing his hips and then slamming them against my ass again. “My little pussy is perfect for it.” The main floor of the club faded from view as I focused on the feeling of him. Of the pressure at my scalp and the hand on my hip. Of the glide of him inside me and his heat at my back.
He brought me to the edge with no other stimulation, then drew back just to torment me and chuckled as I whined at him in response. He spun me, my back colliding with the glass window as he lifted me into his arms. Wrapping my legs around his waist, I gasped when he slammed back inside me. Tossing my head back and appreciating the way he ground against me with every thrust.
My orgasm built, returning to the point he’d already built in me quickly. Tossing my head back, and moaning as it approached, I lived for the adrenaline he brought me.
For the perfect combination between a rush and safety. Enzo was everything I needed to find my balance.
I bit down on his shoulder as I came around him, my legs twitching with my release. He supported me through it, holding me against the glass as I caught my breath. My head tipped back, digging my short nails into his back through his suit. Something about him being fully dressed as he fucked me in his office appealed to the darkest part of me, a reminder of the power play between us.
Looking over at the door, stunned brown eyes met mine as Vanessa watched us. She stood frozen to the spot, watching as I bit my bottom lip to suppress my smile. Turning my face into Enzo’s neck, I breathed in the familiar scent of him, urging him on with small gyrations of my hips against him until he groaned out his own release.
Vanessa was gone by the time I turned my attention back to the door and Enzo set me to my feet, kissing me long and deep. I didn’t mention that she’d seen us as I retreated to the bathroom to clean up.
Staring in the mirror, a smug smile took my face, knowing that without a doubt, I’d staked my claim on my man. He wrapped his arms around my waist from the back, touching his lips to my jaw gently.
“Feel better?” he asked, quirking his brow in a way that I wondered briefly if he’d seen her.
“You have no idea,” I said instead of asking. It didn’t matter one way or another, because I wouldn’t give Enzo up without a fight.
Not once I’d finally found my perfect balance.
22
Enzo
It would have seemed ballsy for Murphy to accept an invitation to a meeting at Liam’s estate, had he known we’d be crashing it. But since he thought it was just a meeting with his future father-in-law, I wouldn't deny how much I looked forward to seeing his face when we strolled in. Watching his world crumple around him would appease a little of the blood lust I felt for what he did to the women of our city on a daily basis.
As much as Ryker had wanted to get to the fun part where he could kill him, Tiernan had allies going beyond the scope of the city. From what we knew about, it would take time to understand what ramifications might come from his death when the day finally came, but having a strong force to make our stand was in our best interest.
That was why the allies coming to lend their support were so critical. With Rafe and Calix in the city and the remaining allies pouring into the limits in droves every day, there was no doubt that tensions would rise. We had men on damn near every street corner at this point. Men in all the clubs. Men at the bars. Men on campus.
We protected women in the most targeted areas of the city.
"Are you ready for this?" I asked Yavin, watching as he adjusted the piece in his holster. He wasn't foolish, and he knew that by accepting Aoife as his wife and signing Liam's contract, he'd put a huge price on his head where Tiernan was concerned. "Is she worth it?"
"I texted her to ask how classes were going yesterday," Yavin said, re-buttoning his suit jacket to keep the gun at his waist slightly more discreet. "She said that she was having a blast in her art classes drawing naked men, but her teacher didn't appreciate that she depicted them with a bloody stump where their dicks used to be." Trying to stifle my chuckle, I failed when I heard Ryker's hysterical laugh as he strolled by.
All amped up and ready to start the process of Murphy's destruction, he didn't bother trying to hide his weapons.
It was slightly more difficult to hide a hatchet than a handgun. I'd give him that. The holster strapped across his back on top of his suit jacket wasn't exactly even attempting to be discreet. Lino glanced our way, sighing when Yavin refused to make eye contact with his brother-in-law. "You ever gonna forgive him?" I asked, turning to fall into line. With Ryker and Georgio at the front of our group, Yavin and I took the rear.
"He's fucking my sister," Yavin said, grunting as if that settled things.
"Well, she is his wife. And they do have a son, so yes. I'd say it's a given that they have a sex life of some form, Yav. But from what I know, he was hers before he was your friend. Didn't she introduce the two of you, not vice versa?"
"What difference does that make?"
"None really," I rolled my eyes so hard they threatened to pop out of my fucking head. He was as stubborn as his sister. "Just that you need to realize that he loves her. He protects her, and he treats her like a fucking Queen. What more could you want for her?"
He sighed, stepping forward as the group in front of us moved to enter the foyer. "Not much."
"Right. So the time has come to pull your head out of your ass. You and Aoife will be married soon, and I think you'll understand a little better once she stops threatening to cut off your junk." Yavin didn't respond, his face turning serious and focused as we made our way down the hall that led to Liam's office. The door was closed as expected, but Liam's man knocked twice and shoved it open so we could file into the space.
Tiernan was on his feet, his second-in-command getting twitchy fingers that shifted for his gun. "I wouldn't do that if I were you," Ryker warned, leveling the man with a glare. "Believe me, I'm just itching for you to give me a reason to paint the room with your blood, but I don't think Liam would appreciate the decor change."
"I wouldn't," the old man piped up. "Aoife is very fond of my blue-grey walls, and I like my girl to spend as much time in here with me as possible before she leaves the nest." His eyes went right for Yavin, a conspiratorial wink transforming his aging face.
Aoife stood from her place looking out the window, gliding on smooth footsteps until she stood next to her father. "Red clashes with my hair so terribly," she admitted with a shrug, turning her attention to her blue nail polish.
"What is this, Liam?" Tiernan asked, glancing at the man who he so cleverly pretended to respect while he made plans to stab him in the back.
Literally.
Yavin moved to stand behind the desk with Liam, taking his place next to Aoife. She didn't flinch away from him when he leaned in to kiss her cheek slowly, playing a dangerous game with Murphy. But Liam's guffaw of amusement was worth the risk as he clapped his hands together once in excitement. Aoife's cheeks flushed pink at the contact, her cerulean eyes looking up at Yavin as he drew away.
Her face hardened when she turned her attention back to Tiernan where he glowered at her, all the promise of a caged snake ready to strike her the moment she left her father's protection and became his. Aoife might have fought against the requirement that she marry a man of her father's choosing, but the undeniable reality was that she was far better off with Yavin than she'd have been with Tiernan.
"I do not appreciate you allowing him to touch my fiancé," Tiernan warned, his voice deepening as he glared at Yavin. Matteo stepped further into the room, flanked by Simon and me as we lined up to the side of the desk.
"Then I suppose it is fortunate for me that I am no longer your fiancé," Aoife said, holding h
er chin high as she glared at him. "Thank God for that."
Tiernan glowered, his brow furrowing with his confusion as he turned to Liam. "What's she talking about? Aoife has been contracted to me for years."
"That was before you conspired behind my back to see me dead and went against my alliance with Bellandi. There is to be no sex trafficking in the city, Tiernan. Surely it cannot be that difficult to obey what is essentially the only rule we have," Liam said, leaning forward in his chair to flip open the manila folder sitting there so that the photos we'd provided him with were plain for Tiernan to see.
"This is just another Bellandi game to turn us against one another. Bellandi has always desired my business."
"I'd rather see your pathetic loan shark enterprise burn to the ground than touch it with a ten-foot-pole," Matteo laughed. "I tend to believe I'm as dirty as they come, but even I wouldn't touch that unless I wanted to contract an STD from the money you've touched. Dirty is as dirty does, Tiernan, and you are dog shit stuck to my shoe."
"Fucking Italians and their dramatics," Tiernan rolled his eyes before turning his attention back to Liam. "It isn't too late to go back to the way things were. We can discuss what you think you know like men as we always have."
"Aoife and Yavin are to be married on May 9th. Unlike your marriage contract where she refused, Aoife has signed, and the ink is dried. I've booked the Church, and the wedding will happen, Tiernan. You've disappointed me, and what's worse is you've betrayed your father's memory. He gave everything for this family, and you would throw it all away for what? Money from selling unwilling pussy?" He shook his head, sighing in defeat. "I'll allow you to live out of respect for your father, if you agree to leave Chicago and never look back. There will be no vengeance or retribution against the Bellandis or my daughter."
"You think I would leave the city that has been my home all my life because you demand it?" Tiernan laughed. "Your so-called family is no longer yours! They turn their backs on your antiquated generation without a second thought." He moved quickly, reaching into his pants to grab the gun tucked into his waistband.
Shielded Wrongs: A Dark Mafia Romance (Bellandi Crime Syndicate Book 4) Page 22