by Bethany-Kris
Renzo smiled in that lazy, sexy way of his that had her heartrate picking up all over again. “Good. I thought maybe you would stay with me, so just in case, I have one more surprise for today.”
“Oh?”
“Yeah, baby.”
“You didn’t have to … do anything for me. Just show up.”
Prove you don’t care about what they say.
“You know, the car, whatever other surprises you have,” she said, pushing up to rest on her knees and leaning in close enough that their noses were touching. “None of it. I don’t need any of that from you.”
Something she couldn’t place flashed in his eyes as they dropped to her mouth. “Ever?”
“It’s not about things for me, Ren. It’s about us.”
She was the one to kiss him that time. Harder, and faster than he kissed her. She wanted another taste of him because she just couldn’t get enough.
“Still yours, right?” she whispered against his lips.
Renzo smiled. “Can’t be anyone else’s, can you?”
Not at all.
That was the thing …
The words slipped out easily, then.
Three little words she thought might not make a difference to what she already knew, but at the same time, would probably change everything.
“I love you.”
His hands on her waist tightened. “Do you?”
“Like crazy. Stupidly, apparently. That’s what people keep saying.”
“But you still do.”
“How can I not? I don’t care what they say, anyway. They know I don’t care—maybe that’s what scares them the most.”
She didn’t expect him to say it back even if she thought she knew what he might say. She didn’t say it just to make him tell her the same thing. She said it because it was true. That was all that mattered to her. That she said it; he heard it; it was true.
Renzo kissed her again, his tongue flicking out to strike against the seam of her lips before he murmured, “It doesn’t matter what they think. It only matters what you want, Lucia, and if you want to be here, then nobody is ever going to take you away from me. Do you know why?”
“Why, Ren?”
“Because, girl … I love you more than you know, Lucia. It’s never gonna be enough, but I do.”
He was wrong.
So very wrong.
It was always going to be enough.
It was okay that he believed he wasn’t enough for her, though. She didn’t mind taking the time to prove him differently. He’d taken the time to see who she really was, after all. She already saw him, too.
He just needed to see himself.
SIXTEEN
“You got a hotel room?” Lucia asked him, giving him one of those sweet smiles. “You know you didn’t have to—”
“But I wanted to.”
It wasn’t like him to drop six-hundred a night on a hotel room because usually, he didn’t have that kind of cash to drop anywhere. He was careful with money because he had to be, no excuses. If it was just him depending on the money he made, then that would be one thing. But it wasn’t just him. He needed to take care of his siblings, too.
Renzo handed the keycard over for the room, and let Lucia open it up for them. The room probably wasn’t up to her level of taste, but he knew it wouldn’t make a fucking difference to her, either. Just the fact that he’d done anything at all for her made Lucia happy. She was easy to please like that, and he loved that about her, really.
Inside the room, which was roomy enough with a king-size bed, a small sitting and eating area, plus a large attached bathroom—yeah, he’d checked it out earlier—Lucia dropped her things over the side of the couch, and spun a small circle. The room wasn’t fancy, but it was nice, and comfortable. Which was all he needed to make his night better, especially because Lucia was there with him.
“Way better than going home tonight, Ren.”
He chuckled, and fished his cell phone out of his pocket. “Check it out, if you want. I have to make a phone call.”
She bit her bottom lip, grinning. “I think I need to wash the sand off, actually.”
“Shower is in there,” he said, gesturing at the one room with the door closed.
Sweetly, she asked, “Are you going to join me, then?”
It took him a second.
He blinked.
Glancing up at her, Renzo said, “I will if you want me to.”
That smile of hers turned sexy in a blink. All too suggestive, really. He loved it. “Make your phone call. I’ll be in there when you’re ready.”
“You got it, Lucia.”
Renzo waited until she had closed the bathroom door with a wink over her shoulder before he dialed a familiar number and put the cell phone to his ear. His sister picked up on the third right.
“Ren, hey.”
Shifting on his feet, and putting his back to the bathroom door to keep his thoughts from drifting there for the moment, he asked, “How’s Diego?”
“Fine. Why do you always think he melts down when he spends a night with me?”
“I don’t always think—”
“Yes, you do.”
Fine.
But it was mostly because he knew how much Diego depended on him for practically everything. He had woken up to Renzo basically every single day of his little life. Renzo put him to bed, for Christ’s sake. Taught him how to use the bathroom, and how to properly hold a spoon. And yeah, sometimes, Diego panicked when his brother wasn’t around.
So did Renzo.
“He is fine,” Rose promised. “Loved all his new clothes, and even got a couple of toys.”
Renzo smiled. “Good.”
“And speaking of money …”
“What about it?”
“Did my landlord get it right when she said you paid my expenses up until the end of the year, Ren?”
Ah, yeah.
Lucian Marcello made a threat, and Renzo answered accordingly to keep his family safe and secure as much as he could. He had some money saved up that he didn’t like to touch unless absolutely needed. Mostly, he pretended like that money didn’t even exist, really. Add onto the ten thousand he’d made on the car boosting job, and he made sure his rent, his sister’s expenses, plus a safe daycare for Diego was paid for up until the end of the year. He had an envelope for Rose to use for other things like food, and whatever else she might need over the coming months, too, plus, he knew during her gallery exam that she’d sold some pieces which would help her out a lot.
So yeah, fuck Lucian.
Even if the guy did try to screw up Renzo’s ability to make money, they were safe for a few months. At least until the end of the year. That would give Renzo far more than enough time to figure something out.
Hell, go straight, even.
Get his work off the streets, and into something legal. Not that any money he made from a regular job—considering he didn’t even have his high school diploma—was going to be enough to take care of his sister’s schooling and expenses. It wouldn’t even come close. Sure, it would take care of his needs, and Diego, too, but not Rose.
Which meant …
Fuck.
He was still going to be selling drugs, and doing whatever else he needed to do to make sure his sister stayed right where she was. Making something of herself, and not screwed like they were.
Didn’t matter.
Renzo would always do what he had to. But at least until the new year, he had his shit figured out, and taken care of. Including his sister and brother. Lucian could screw him over all he wanted, but Renzo was going to be fine. He’d have all the time in the world to work something else out if he needed to.
Simple as that.
“Yeah, you heard the landlord right,” Renzo told his sister. “And I’ve got extra for you, too, as a just in case, or whatever.”
“Ren—”
“And don’t bother to ask where it came from, either. Because you know it’s none of your b
usiness, Rose.”
“You know if you get caught,” his sister murmured, “then we’re all going to be—”
“Except I won’t get caught, so drop it.”
Rose sighed. “You won’t even entertain the idea that—”
“Nope.”
“Impossible. You are absolutely impossible, Renzo.”
“I like to think of myself as resilient.”
He had to be, didn’t he?
He had to be so they didn’t have to be.
“I’ll be around to pick him up tomorrow, but if he asks for me tonight, just call,” Renzo said.
“I don’t think he will. He did fine the last time he was with me.”
“That was then.”
This was now.
He left that unspoken.
“All right, Ren. What are you doing tonight, anyway?”
He grinned, and glanced over his shoulder to peek at the closed bathroom door. “Hanging out with Lucia.”
Forever the perpetual seventeen-year-old girl, his sister made a high-pitch squealing noise that might have burst his eardrums had he not pulled the phone away in time. He just shook his head when Rose started going off on the phone.
“I will talk to you tomorrow,” he told her.
Without a goodbye, although he suspected his sister didn’t really give a shit either way, Renzo hung up the phone. Dropping it to the foot of the bed, he already had his shirt and jacket tugged off and his jeans undone by the time he reached the bathroom door. Behind it, he could hear the water running, and a soft humming, too.
He listened for a moment.
Waiting.
Turning the knob and opening the door to step inside the bathroom, he heard it again. Clear as day, and sweet as could fucking be.
She sang in the shower.
He stood there, watching through the frosted glass of a shower that was big enough to hold at least five people comfortably as Lucia danced behind the glass, and sang a song that was way too popular on the radio.
It wasn’t really the singing.
Or the song.
It was just her.
And the crazy thought that filtered through his mind of, I’d like to hear her doing that every single day, not just today.
“Hey.” Lucia popped her head out of the shower, and eyed him with a sexy grin. “Coming in, or …?”
God.
How could she even ask that like he might refuse or something? There was no way he was ever going to tell this woman no when she offered something like that to him while naked, wet, and … yeah, Renzo was so fucked.
Renzo stumbled over his own damn feet in an effort to get what remained of his clothes off so he could jump in that huge shower with Lucia, and find the heaven waiting for him between her beautiful, creamy thighs. Her laughter only spurred him on to move a little faster when he growled, “Keep laughing at me, and I’ll give you something to fill that pretty mouth of yours full, Lucia.”
Sweetly, she asked behind the glass, “Promise?”
Yep.
He groaned.
So fucked.
He didn’t even think about the condom in his pants—he was always keeping one on him because he couldn’t seem to keep his hands off of Lucia whenever she was around—and slipped into the shower. Hot water hit his back, but he didn’t even feel it. He was too busy coming for the woman backed against the far wall that had tiles replicating rocks. Above her head, three large showerheads poured down, and she grinned at him.
“Took you long enough.”
“Tease,” he muttered.
“I know, I’m terrible.”
Yes, yes she was.
But in the best ways.
Renzo closed the distance between them in a blink, his lips crashing down on Lucia’s as her hands came up to grab tight to his face. Her wet body tucked in close to his, warming him in a way the water would never be able to. Already, his fucking cock was hard, and jutting out between them.
He didn’t have to keep his promise to fill her mouth full. She did that for both of them when she dropped to her knees, grabbed the base of his dick in one hand, and took him in her mouth.
“Holy fuck,” he groaned, his head falling back.
But as much as he wanted to enjoy the feeling of her mouth on his cock while he squeezed his eyes shut and got lost, he really wanted to watch her do it, too. Renzo stared down, captivated by the sight of his cock slipping between Lucia’s grinning lips. Her tongue laid flat to the underside of his cock, her cheeks hollowed, and she sucked him hard.
“So fucking beautiful,” he murmured. “Are you gonna swallow all of me, too?”
She winked.
Yep, fucked.
He’d certainly like that—watching her swallow his come—but what he really wanted was just to be inside her. It almost killed him to pull her off his cock, but he did, standing her up so he could get another taste of her mouth. Lucia’s leg hooked around his thigh, and she rolled her hips, letting his cock slide through her slick folds.
All it took was a shift of his hips, and hooking her other leg around his hips, and he was sliding home inside her pussy.
Finding heaven.
Inside her again.
Right where he wanted to be the very most.
Lucia’s soft sigh matched his own. Relief, he knew. All he felt when he was inside her was the sweetest kind of relief. He never got that from anything else. Life was always fucking him over in one way or the other.
But not with her.
Never with her.
She kissed him again.
The rest of the world disappeared.
• • •
Renzo decided Lucia looked best when she was wearing nothing but his white T-shirt, and her skin. Even if she was trying to get away from him after throwing popcorn and hitting him right in the face.
Goddamn woman.
“Get back here right now,” Renzo muttered.
Lucia’s teasing laughter colored up the hotel room as she jumped on the bed, and just out of his grasp. She tossed him a sexy smile over her shoulder, and threw another piece of popcorn at him. He managed to duck this one at least. He took the time to enjoy the sight of her standing on the bed in his clothes, her bare legs smooth, golden and silky. Every single time she moved, he got the nicest peek of her ass and the heaven between her thighs.
Because yeah, she wasn’t even wearing panties.
She was nothing but fun and sin like this. His good time, ride or fucking die. It kind of hit him right in the chest all at once. Sure, he knew it. He fucking said it. He loved this girl like nobody could ever possibly know. No one would ever understand the way just looking at her made his chest tight, and his heart fucking explode.
Sure.
He knew it.
He said it.
But it was that moment right there when Renzo really understood what it all meant to him. That he would do anything for this girl. Die for this fucking girl. Love her to the ends of the earth and back if that’s what she needed from him. He would do it. All of it. And he would never even question it.
God.
Somebody loved him.
Someone was looking out for him.
Maybe that was the gift of Lucia Marcello. Maybe she was his reward for everything that had happened in his life up until this point. She was the thing he was given to make up for literally everything else.
Lucia smiled down at him. “What?”
Renzo laughed. “What?”
“Nothing. You just went still, and … stared at me.”
“I can’t stare at you, princess?”
She rolled her eyes, and threw a whole handful of popcorn at him that time. Renzo didn’t even try to duck the mess coming his way. The popcorn sprinkled over his head and shoulders before falling to the floor. They’d made a mess with the whole popcorn fight, but that was fine. He didn’t mind picking it up. Especially if she helped, and that meant he got to stare at her pretty ass every time she bent over to pick stuff up
.
Yeah, shit.
His mind went back there quick.
“You’re doing it again,” Lucia said in a sing-song way. “Staring at me like that, I mean.”
Renzo shrugged. “I was just thinking about how much I love you, actually.”
Lucia blinked. Her shoulders relaxed, and her grip on the bowl of popcorn softened just enough to give him an opening. He took the chance without thinking, jumping onto the bed before she even realized what he was doing. Yanking the bowl out of her grasp with one hand, and locking his arm around her waist with the other, Lucia’s laughter echoed in the room as he took them both down to the bed. It made an even bigger mess, sure. Popcorn everywhere.
He didn’t regret it at all.
Not when he had her tight body under him, moving in the very best way. He hadn’t bothered to pull his clothes back on after their shower. Besides, she took his shirt anyway, and he didn’t see the point in getting dressed. Not when he was liable to spend the rest of his night trying to keep Lucia out of her clothes.
His head tipped down, and he caught her mouth in a bruising kiss. Those hands of hers slipped down his chest as her thighs wrapped tightly around his waist, dragging him even closer. The sensations of her nails dragging lines down his skin while her naked sex ground against his hardening cock made him crazy.
So fucking insane.
It never failed to amaze him how every touch from this woman felt like the first time. Each kiss, every stroke of her hands across his body, and the way she felt under him. Her sounds were music. Beautiful, and addicting. If there was a silk he wouldn’t mind paying for, it was the softness of her body under his hands.
He’d die to feel that all the time.
“Please, please.”
Her words whispered along his skin as his mouth found her throat. She tasted like candy and salt and sex. Him, too. She tasted like he’d been all fucking over her. Because he had.
Those fucking hands of hers slipped under his boxer-briefs, and found his length. His teeth found her pulse point at the same time she squeezed his cock, and stroked him from base to tip. All the while, she kept rolling her hips, and making those noises he just couldn’t get enough of.
So responsive.
