by Bethany-Kris
She was still caught in watching the way his cock pulsed and looked covered in her when her gaze darted up to find he wasn’t seeing the same thing she was.
He couldn’t.
He was too busy watching her.
Those russet eyes of his locked on hers, and Lucia was gone. High, blissed, and crawling closer to the edge with every flex of his hips.
“You gonna come for me?”
“So hard, Ren.”
He gritted his teeth, and she bared hers.
“You gonna come with me?”
Fuck.
“Yeah.”
Her words weren’t even really words now. Just whispered punctuated by hard gasps of air as pleasure swam through her bloodstream. She could feel the tension in his back with every thrust. The way he tightened, and released. His hands still hadn’t left her throat, and she let him tip her head back, so he could fit his mouth on the hollow of her throat.
He sucked.
Bit.
She fucking flew.
He came then, too. She felt it in the way his dick jerked inside her, and his shoulders loosened. He groaned against her skin, and all she could do was sigh.
“Not so hungry now,” she heard him murmur.
Lucia laughed breathlessly. “Just tired, I think.”
“Yeah … shit, yeah. The couch, then?”
“Do I get to use you as a pillow?”
Renzo’s laughter was far louder than hers as he pulled her in for a soft, trembling kiss. “Yeah, I’ll be your fucking pillow. Whatever you want, Lucia.”
• • •
It was a constant, loud banging in the back of Lucia’s dream-filled mind that first made her open her eyes. The banging continued even as she wiped the sleep from her eyes, and realized exactly where she was.
Still with Renzo.
On top of him, as a matter of fact.
He shifted under Lucia, his face still a mask of relaxation in his sleep. One of his arms kept a firm hold around her waist, while his other had been shoved under the pillow beneath his head to give him extra support. For a second, Lucia took the minute she had to enjoy the sight of him like this. Unbothered, and quiet. His mind filled with dreams instead of everything else she suspected he was always needing to worry about.
Did life ever really let this man enjoy that he was alive?
She didn’t think so.
She couldn’t help but trace Renzo’s lax lips with her fingertips before memorizing the shape of his cheekbones by touch, too. It was only the slow curve of his lips that told her he wasn’t sleeping at all.
“Morning,” he said, cracking his dark eyes open. He looked directly at her, making her breath catch. “You’re a nice sight to wake up to. Especially when you’re on top of me, you know. In case you can’t feel it, I definitely like it.”
Oh, she could certainly feel just how much he liked having her right where she was. The man just woke up hard, and she happened to be in the perfect position to feel his length pressing against her aching pussy. She was probably wet, too. It didn’t matter that she had gotten to enjoy him the night before—she just wanted more.
That’s what Renzo did to her.
Lucia might have been a little embarrassed over that fact on another day, but today was not it. She wasn’t going to be ashamed of the fact she wanted Renzo—wanted to fuck him … just wanted him.
“What was that noise?” he asked.
Lucia pressed a kiss to the underside of his jaw. “What, the banging?”
“Mmm, yeah. The banging.” His hands slid under the thin blanket to grab tight to her ass. His fingertips dug in, surely leaving behind pink marks that she would love to stare at each time she undressed in front of a mirror. “Shit, I want to tell you to keep doing that, but someone is gonna get up really soon, and we shouldn’t be—”
Renzo’s words cut off when that banging in question picked up again. Only this time, it was accompanied by a female’s voice shouting along with it. It took Lucia a second to realize who it was practically trying to put their fist through the apartment door. It was the sheet of dark anger that slid over Renzo’s features that only confirmed it for her, really.
“Open the fucking door, Renzo! You can’t keep me from seeing Diego!”
“Jesus Christ,” Renzo snarled under his breath. Lucia was quick to climb off of him, and search for her discarded clothes from the night before as he pulled on a pair of jeans, but didn’t bother with anything else. She didn’t even have time to admire the sight of him shirtless before he headed for the apartment door. “Right, she’s back for Diego. Fucking bitch.”
“Ren,” Lucia hissed, her gaze darting to the hallway where she was sure if Diego wasn’t awake, he soon would be because of the noise. “Don’t say that about her where he can hear. I know it’s true—she’s terrible. But he loves her, doesn’t he? Don’t let him hear you say awful things about her; it’ll hurt him.”
He met her gaze over his shoulder, and nodded quickly. She made fast work of pulling on the rest of her clothes, and he waited until she was fully dressed before yanking open the door. Not that it mattered, really. She figured she probably still looked like she had spent the night wrapped up in a man given the state of her hair when she tried to run her fingers through the waves to smooth out the strands.
And her makeup?
Probably ruined, too.
Lucia still couldn’t find it in herself to regret it.
How could she?
“What, are you bringing whores into your apartment now, Renzo?”
Lucia came back to reality with a harshness that felt like a slap to her face. Renzo’s mother came down the hallway with a sneer already affixed to her face, and it only became worse when Lucia met the woman’s gaze. At least, she thought, Carmen Zulla looked a hell of a lot better than the last time Lucia laid eyes on the woman. She didn’t look so goddamn close to death.
Shame, really.
In that moment, death might be preferable to Carmen than the way Renzo was glaring at her like he was seriously considering killing her right where she stood.
“Shut your mouth,” Renzo snapped. Then, to Lucia, he tried to smile, but it didn’t come out as true. “You should head out, baby. I’ve … got some work to do today, anyway. I’m sure someone is wondering where you are and all.”
“Baby?” Carmen’s screech and high-pitched laugh felt like nails raking down a chalkboard. “Please tell me you’re not throwing money or something at that, Renzo. You won’t even give me anything and—”
“Because you deserve fuck all,” Renzo said, hate coloring his words. “Lucia, please …”
He trailed off with a wave toward the door. The last thing Lucia wanted to do was leave him there with his awful fucking mother to battle her alone, and deal with the aftermath when Diego finally woke up, but she could tell he also didn’t want her there, either. She didn’t think he was trying to protect her from seeing the awful parts of his life, though.
Maybe … he was just trying to protect her from the vileness of one woman in his life.
“Number’s in your phone,” Renzo said as Lucia passed him by, his hand coming up to snag her wrist in his tight grasp. “Call me, Lucia.”
She nodded, and gave him a quick kiss. That only served to have his mother ranting again. This time, though, Carmen’s words didn’t bother Lucia all that much. She barely even heard the insults the woman hurled at her back.
They weren’t worth it.
Neither was Carmen.
“I’ll call,” Lucia promised.
“You better.”
• • •
Lucia saw her father leaning against her car long before she even stepped foot on the shelter’s parking lot. She really hadn’t thought much about what she was going to say or do to explain where she had gone missing to for an entire evening and night. She’d stopped even looking at her father’s messages, and didn’t bother to pick up any of his calls.
Besides, he said it himself, didn�
��t he? He had people watching her. Surely, Lucian knew exactly where Lucia had been the night before if his people were any good at doing their job. Or, if they hadn’t lost her again.
“Morning,” Lucia greeted, hitting the unlock button on the fob for her car. “You—this—couldn’t wait until I got home, Daddy? At least let me get some food into me before you go on another rant about who I can or can’t spend my time with. Makes your hypocrisy a little easier to swallow, maybe.”
Lucian made a thick noise in the back of his throat. She could tell—without a doubt—her careless attitude bothered him more than anything else ever would. “Lucia.”
She gave him a look from the side. “Yes?”
“Do you know how fucking worried I was about you last night?”
“Because I went to a gallery in Brooklyn, and then stayed the night with someone? Why would you be worried—”
“I told you—that young man is bad news!” Her father’s shout echoed over the quiet parking lot. Lucia was unmoved. “You know nothing about that boy, Lucia. Not how he grew up, or the things he’s seen. All you know is the fact he looks half decent, and is paying you a bit of attention. That’s it. And what about when something bad happens, huh? What are you going to do then? Go on and tell me. I’ve apparently got time to stay up all night getting updates on where you are, worrying myself fucking sick over you, and then make my way over here this morning instead of waking your mother up like I do every morning. So yeah, go and tell me, I will wait.”
Lucia blinked. “Daddy, stop.”
“You don’t know anything—”
“You keep saying that like you know it’s true. But I bet I know a hell of a lot more about him than you do. Or, I actually made the effort to learn things about him while you only got to see what you could pull on him. Deny it.”
Lucian didn’t.
Lucia wondered …
“You know I’m not Liliana, right?”
Her father’s jaw stiffened at that question. She bet he was clenching his teeth so hard, his molars were aching. Years ago, her oldest sister had gotten involved with a man who nearly killed her when he beat her up in the back of a limo. At the time, Lucia had been way too young to really understand the kind of impact that must have had on her sister, and even her father … Lucian was so close to his children, but especially his daughters. She didn’t think that was easy on her dad. Not at all.
“Did you feel like you failed her back then?” she asked quietly.
Her father’s gaze blazed. “Every single day.”
“This isn’t the same thing. That’s not who Renzo is, and—”
“Liliana would have said the same thing back then, Lucia. She didn’t know either. Not until it was too late.” Lucian scrubbed a hand down his jaw, and peered down the lonely looking street. “That man was also nothing that Renzo is—he had money, contacts … clout behind his name. He wasn’t the kind of man you saw and thought, abuser.”
“But you do for Renzo.”
Her father’s gaze snapped back to her. “Lucia—”
“You look at him, you know he sells drugs—but you don’t care why—and you see his life, and think … he’s a terrible person; he must be a horrible man. He’s not.”
“I don’t want to find out if that’s what he is, Lucia. And I do not want to wait around for you to find out that’s what he is, either. I may not know everything about him, or his life, but what I know is enough to tell you to stay the hell away. His father—a fuck up of a man—has a serious gambling problem that he likes to aid with a bottle of liquor. Do you know how many times he’s been brought in on charges of domestic violence? He’s got a rap sheet longer than you are tall, dolcezza. Boys don’t wake up one day and hit girls. They learn it.”
Lucia was still unaffected. “He’s not like that.”
She was going to keep saying it until her father heard her.
“You’re to stay away from him. That’s the end of it.”
“Your feelings are clouding up your judgment, Daddy.”
“They are not.”
“They are.”
Lucian’s jaw clenched again. “I made myself clear, didn’t I? He’s not the type that I want you to be mixed up with. You’re going to force my hand, Lucia, and you may not like what I do, but I will do it if it means keeping you away from that young man.”
“What does that mean?”
Her father simply gestured at her car, and stepped away from the vehicle at the same time. “I will see you at home.”
TWELVE
“I don’t mind waiting for you, Ren,” Rose said. “You should be back soon, right?”
Renzo pulled the phone away from his ear to do a quick check of the time. “Probably not,” he replied when he put it back to his ear. “I’ve got a drop off to make, and that’s going to take a while.”
By drop off, he meant the drugs he was currently taking to his guys, so they would be well supplied for the next little while. His sister didn’t like all those details, and so he didn’t offer them to Rose. She’d worry too much, and then he would have to listen to that as well. Renzo didn’t have the time for any of that today. The faster he got this shit into the right hands on the street, the quicker he could get back to Rose and Diego.
“You know, you’re going to have to head back to your place soon.”
“I’m fine here for a couple more days to help you with Diego,” Rose said.
“Diego is fine,” Renzo argued. “He’s got a spot in the daycare as long as I get him there early enough, and a chick down the block who can watch him otherwise, so—”
“He hates her.”
That wasn’t a lie.
Well, hate was a strong word. The woman had a couple of her own kids, and they were little brats, to be honest. Always picking a fight with Diego who was just too nice for his own good. He much preferred to go to the shelter daycare if he couldn’t go out with Renzo … which most days, he couldn’t. It just wasn’t safe.
“I have Diego figured out,” Renzo said, wanting to get his sister back on track for her life. She was always willing to put shit on hold for him and Diego, but Rose didn’t need to be doing that at all. He had his shit handled. “You need to get back to school before you miss a whole damn week of classes, and it starts showing on your grades.”
Rose sighed.
Renzo just laughed.
“You’re impossible to talk to, do you know that?” his sister asked.
“I have heard that a few times, yes.”
Renzo wasn’t even bothering to pay attention to what was ahead of him on the street. At dusk, it was very unlikely someone was going to jump out and try something with him. Not when he mostly used alleyways for the majority of his travels. He was almost to the meeting spot with his guys now, though, so it wouldn’t be much longer before he didn’t have the drugs on him at all.
And even if someone did try some shit with him, the gun at his back would keep him safe regardless. As long as he had time to pull it.
“Listen, don’t wait for me to get back. I know what time the movie starts, and I won’t make it back in time. He’ll miss forty minutes of it, at least. Take the money I left on the counter, get him to the movie, and take him somewhere to eat after. I’ll be home by the time you get back, and he’ll have just as much fun with telling me all about the movie.”
“But—”
“Rose.”
“Fine,” his sister grumbled. “He asked about her again today. Wanted to know if Carmen was coming back, or if she called. I didn’t know what to tell him, so I said nothing. Distracted him with something else.”
Renzo’s lips twitched, threatening to turn into a scowl if he didn’t fix his fucking face and get in control of his emotions. He really didn’t want to go into a meet with his guys being pissed off, not when there were already enough rumors about his life on the streets as it happened to be. He didn’t want to give them something else to talk about and make them believe he wasn’t on his best game.
“Distracting him is the best thing you can do when you don’t want to answer.”
“Oh, I wanted to answer … I also knew it wouldn’t be a kind answer. He’s little—he doesn’t understand.”
Renzo rubbed at the spot on the back of his neck as he slipped into the last alleyway that would bring him around to the spot just across the way from the corner store’s parking lot where his guys were waiting for their pick up. He’d realized that Lucia had a point the other morning when she told him not to slander his mother anywhere near Diego. It wouldn’t do anything good for his brother, but it would make him angry and confused.
The last thing Renzo wanted to do was turn Diego into him.
Because that’s all he was, too.
Angry and fucking confused.
“I told her to stay the hell away,” Renzo muttered, “so let’s hope she does that.”
“Yeah, hope.” Rose made a quiet noise. “And until you really do have Diego figured out, and stuff slows down, I can afford a couple more days off school.”
“No, you can’t.”
“Ren—”
“Take him to the movies, all right? We’ll chat when I get home. Later.”
He didn’t give his sister the chance to argue with him further. Instead, he just hung up the phone before she could get started again. There was no point in arguing with Rose over the phone. Like him, she was too stubborn for her own good, and once she set her mind on something … well, that was it. Renzo was going to have to try another direction to make his sister understand he was fine, he did have Diego handled, and she needed to get back to school.
End of.
“Figured you’d be around these parts tonight, Renzo.”
Halfway down the alley, and Renzo hadn’t even thought to look up from the ground once as he chatted with his sister. Maybe he was getting too cocky on these streets—too stupid. Maybe he was overconfident in his belief that nobody was going to purposely try to cause him any kind of shit because they knew him well enough to know better.
Tightening one hand around the messenger bag strap hooked over his shoulder, and slipping his other up under the back of his coat to get a good grip on the butt of the handgun tucked into his jeans, Renzo found the man who called his name. He recognized the voice, of course, but it wasn’t like this man to hang around in alleyways just because. His usual motive was to drop off Renzo’s shit—when it was him doing the drop-offs—and go on his way until it came time to collect payment … if he was the one who wanted to collect the payment, that was.
