I bent down and kissed her forehead and she nuzzled into me. She placed her head against my neck, seeking the shelter she craved from a man. I felt strong with her in my arms. I felt wanted with her pressed salaciously against my body. I pressed my cheek against the top of her head, then pulled her even closer, if only to make sure she knew she was safe.
Then I felt something I’d never experienced in my entire life.
I felt my heart flutter in my chest.
Chapter 10
Serena
“Hello?”
“Rena! Girl, where the hell have you been?”
“Jamie! Whose number are you calling from?” I asked.
“Dropped my phone in the toilet. This is my new number. So, what gives? Why haven’t you been coming out lately?”
“I’ve been busy. The school year’s wrapping up and my parents have been asking a lot of extra things from me,” I said.
“Well, you’re ours tonight. Tell your parents you’ve got plans,” she said.
“Whatcha got in mind?” I asked.
“Dancing. Drinks. Guys. The usual.”
“Well, I can do the dancing and the drinks. I’m not sure about the ‘guys’ part,” I said.
“Uh oh. I feel a story coming on,” she said.
“I can tell you about it over drinks. It’s a strange one though, so brace yourself.”
“Oh, I love strange. Strange is my middle name. Pick you up around nine?”
“I’ll see you then.”
I had dinner with my mother and she couldn’t stop talking about Enzo. How handsome he was and how courteous he was and how happy she was that I was finally going out on dinner dates with him. She started discussing wedding plans and colors and dates, but I wasn’t paying attention. The only thing I was zoned in on was how my body reacted when she said his name.
I didn’t like it.
My heart leapt in my chest and my lips tried to smile. It was like my body was betraying what I knew was right. I didn’t need to be falling for someone like him. I didn’t need to be getting myself wrapped up in some fantasy. First impressions were everything, and they were always the truest form of someone. People always put up facades or tried to mimic the other person’s antics to make someone else feel comfortable. That first smile or handshake or hug was the most genuine interaction anyone could get from someone.
And Enzo’s had been less than honorable.
Not that my intentions that night had been any better, but at least I didn’t try to paint myself as something I wasn’t. I was a woman looking for a bit of fun and that’s what I got. Then I got burned when I broke one of my rules. The encounter should’ve either stayed at the club or taken place on neutral ground. I had opened myself up to a possible world of hurt by going back to his place.
Even then, my body had been drawn to him.
Another thing I didn’t like.
I finally got away from the dinner table and went upstairs to get ready. A night out with Jamie would definitely do me some good. And she would have some great advice for how to navigate this situation. Not that she was in an arranged marriage or anything, but she always kept things real. She never sugar-coated anything and if someone was being a wimpy little dick, she told them.
It was why I loved her so much.
“Serena!? You up here?”
“Jamie?” I asked. “You’re early. You’re never early.”
“What? Can’t a girl be ready to spend time with her best friend?” she asked. “How much more time do you need?”
“Um… three minutes? I’m just putting in earrings.”
“Come on. You can do that in the car. I passed the club on the way here and it’s busy tonight. We gotta go, girl!”
Jamie dragged my downstairs and I had just enough time to grab my purse. She threw me into the car before she sped out of the driveway, and I fumbled to put my earrings in. Enzo was already falling to the back of my mind as we raced across town, blasting music through her speakers. We pumped our fists and sang at the top of our lungs, and when we pulled up to the club I saw everyone else standing there.
“Rena!” they all shouted. “About damn time.”
I hugged the necks of my friends before we stood in line. It didn’t take us long to get pushed up to the front, and ten minutes later we were standing at the bar getting drinks. The music was pumping and our hips were swaying, but then there was movement out of the corner of my eye.
Someone that looked familiar.
“So, guess what guys?” Jamie asked.
“What?”
“I think Rena has a guy she’s dating,” she said.
“What!?”
The all started hounding me with questions as my eyes panned over to the man in the corner. Sitting at a table with his back to the wall. Enzo was there. With his tailored suit and his strong frame and his cheeky smile. I felt my heart trying to leap out of my body as a smile crossed my face.
I wanted to introduce him to my friends.
After all, they’d need to get to know him anyway.
“Earth to Rena,” Jamie said. “You there?”
“Yeah, yeah, yeah. Sorry. How would you guys like to meet him? I think he’s here,” I said.
“No shit. Where the hell is he?”
“Is he hot? I bet he’s smoking hot. You always get the hottest guys.”
“Where should we be looking? Is he dancing on the floor?”
My eyes whipped back over to the corner, but the excitement soon fell. I saw a massive smile cross Enzo’s face as he stood, then a woman came bouncing into his arms. She wrapped herself around him and laid her head on his chest, and he held her like that for quite some time. He looked down at her and smiled, his amber eyes crinkled and sparkling.
My stomach well to my toes when the woman went in for another hug.
“Rena? Where is he?” Jamie asked.
“Sorry,” I said breathlessly. “I thought that was him.”
“He really must be something if you’re looking for him in the club,” she said.
I didn’t even know how to respond to her statement.
Enzo turned his gaze to scan the crowd as the woman continued talking to him. And for a moment, I thought his eyes found mine. But I didn’t want him to see me. Not like this.
Not with tears welling in my eyes.
“Rena? You okay?” Jamie asked
“I’m uh… not feeling well,” I said. “I think I’m gonna catch a cab home.”
“Let’s go splash some water in your-”
“I said I’m going home, Jamie.”
I pushed my drink into her hand and made my way for the exit. I felt sick to my stomach. I stumbled out on my heels as tears slipped down my cheeks and the bodyguard came over to ask if I needed anything.
A ride home.
What I needed was a ride home.
He flagged me down a cab and made sure I got in safely. I felt my head spinning as the world began to turn dark. I knew it. I knew a man like Enzo would never change. He was a player the first night I met him, and he would be a player for the rest of his life.
I would be the woman he kept at home for convenience, and the rest of the time he’d spend his nights with women of his choice. Women he wasn’t forced to be with.
Women he’d rather love more than me.
I felt my phone vibrating and I pulled it out of my purse. Of course, it was Enzo. Probably calling to figure if it was me he saw. I ignored the phone call and turned my phone off, not wanting to take any more calls. I didn’t want Jamie or the girls pestering me. I didn’t want to see Enzo’s name pop up anywhere until I had to stare at him on our wedding day. Silent tears slipped down my cheeks as the cab drove me home, the road humming beneath the tires.
I don’t know how I could’ve been so stupid. To think a man like Enzo could change and be a decent man was a concept I’d convinced myself to be true. They didn’t make men like my father anymore. Men who would rather fight endlessly with their wives than
consider being unfaithful. Or maybe my father had been unfaithful and my mother was simply forced to live with it.
I didn’t know what to think any longer.
The cab pulled into the driveway of my home and I stepped outside. But I knew if I went inside looking the way I did that my father would poke and prod until I answered. So instead, I walked around to the backyard and found myself sitting on the back porch.
I gazed up at the stars and allowed the tears to freely fall. This wasn’t supposed to happen. I wasn’t supposed to experience this kind of hurt with an arranged marriage. That was the entire point. That was supposed to be the upside to this plan. No pain, no broken hearts, and no crying over stupid men.
I closed my eyes and saw Enzo with that woman again. The way his eyes twinkled and the way his arm gripped her a little too tightly. I saw the second hug the woman went in for. I saw the look in his eyes when he finally found mine. I felt myself growing sick as I replayed the moment in my mind. Over and over and over again as the moonlight drenched me in its pale glow.
But I knew what I had to do. I knew my father would hate it and I knew my mother would be upset with me, but I couldn’t do this. I couldn’t marry a man like Enzo. I couldn’t marry a man that couldn’t abide by the one rule I set forth. Just one. Only one. All I needed from him was for him to stay faithful. That was it.
And since that didn’t seem to be something Enzo could do, there was only one thing I could do.
I had to tell my father the wedding was off.
Chapter 11
Enzo
I woke up that morning to a very flirtatious text message from Serena. She had sent me a picture of herself in a mirror, wearing a very interesting number to school. It was Spirit Week at the elementary school she worked at and they were supposed to be wearing their school colors for the day. Her makeup was done in orange and gold and she was wearing a very tight pair of black pants and a form-fitting orange tank top. The only thing that covered the paramount curves on her body was a golden white cardigan she was wearing over her shoulders.
Oh, the things I could’ve done to smudge that makeup.
I thought about that picture all day. Through meetings with my father and wedding planning ideas with my mother. Through money collection reminders and actual waste management practices. I thought about asking her out for the evening. Or possibly having her over so I could cook her dinner. I could tell her to leave on the makeup and leave the cardigan at home so I could bask in the beauty of her form while I seared off some steaks.
But work always called.
What was supposed to be an easy collection of a monthly payment turned into a very bloody affair. This particular customer was uncooperative, which set a bad precedent for the Conti family. It was a matter I had to consult my father on, which already pissed me off. I didn’t enjoy having to call my father in the middle of a job. It made me look weak. Stupid. Unintelligent in the ways of how our business operated.
But I needed his input on how to proceed with the client.
There were some things that were hard for even myself to stomach. For instance, the way bloodied men begged. They were tough when they had leverage, but when you stripped them of it they were nothing but sobbing bags of skin. The worst part of my job, however, was when the women would walk in on the moment. When the women saw what was happening to the men in their life with my stance looming over them. I didn’t enjoy making people frightened of me, but they always were.
After seeing my fist aimed at their husbands, they always became frightened.
I needed a way to calm my mind, and that wasn’t going to happen with Serena. So long as I was with her, the only thing I would want to do was have my way with her. Strip her down, sheath myself within her, and take what had been rightfully given to me by her father. And I was trying to woo her. I was trying to get her to trust me again.
The last thing I needed was to destroy that.
I went home and changed my bloodied suit before cleaning myself off. A strong drink or two at a club with loud music would help erase my mind of the day. When I was married, I could do that with my wife. Pin her down and make her beg me to stop before my tongue made her beg me for more. I shivered at the thought of Serena pinned underneath me, her legs spread open and thrumming with heat as my cock slid up the inside of her thigh.
Soon.
Soon, I would be able to do just that. But until then, a strong drink and a pumping bass line would have to do.
The club was vibrant and full of life. I went and took up residence in the seat I always sat in. The darkened table at the back where I could sit against the wall and overlook the crowd. My eyes scanned everyone, not landing on one particular person for the night. Those days were over. The days of picking a woman who was lucky enough to sit on my cock for the night was done. I was an engaged man whose sights needed to stay on my fiancé at all times.
Especially given the fact that it was all she asked of me on our first date.
“Enzo? Is that you, handsome?”
I cringed at the voice as I plastered a smile on my face.
“Oh my gosh, it is you! It has been so long. How have you been?”
“Hello, Gia. I’ve been well. And yourself?” I asked.
I stood as the woman approached me, clad in nothing but a tight neon green dress and matching heels.
The woman really was gaudy when she wanted to be.
“Better now that I’ve seen you,” Gia said with a smile. “What’s kept you away for so long? I told you to call if you ever needed anything.”
“Well I never needed anything,” I said with a smile.
“You’re such a tease. Come here.”
She wrapped her arms around me and I hugged her. This woman was an embarrassment to herself. There were some one-night stands that were harder to kick than others, but she was relentless. Every time she saw me in a club, she would come up to me like we were the best of friends. My father raised me to be the kind of man to never disrespect a woman, so the last thing I was going to do was embarrass her.
But I wanted her to leave me alone.
“Mind if I join you?” Gia asked.
“I do, actually. I’m here on business,” I said.
“In a place like this with a drink like that? I don’t think so,” she said with a grin. “Come on. What’s the real reason why you don’t want me to sit down?”
“Because I want to be left alone,” I said with a grin.
“Oh, does Enzo need some cheering up? Come on. I’ve got another hug for you to help.”
She wrapped her arms around me again and I rolled my eyes. This time, I only patted her with one hand on her back. My eyes panned around the club, trying to find an excuse to leave. To get out of here and find another club where people would leave me the fuck alone.
Then, I saw her.
Serena.
Staring straight at me.
She was in a group of women with their drinks held high in the air. My arm went slack around Gia as Serena turned her gaze away from me. I went to take a step towards her but felt Gia’s grasp strengthen around me.
“Where are you going, handsome?” she asked.
“Somewhere,” I said as I unraveled her from me.
I needed to get to Serena. She was moving too quickly towards the exit.
“Come on. Share a dance with me,” Gia said.
“No,” I said.
I looked down at her with a stoic stare as I clenched my jaw. Gia took a couple of steps back, her face twisted in angry confusion. Her eyes flickered around, taking in the people that were staring at us. A flush of embarrassment cascaded across her face before she drew in a deep breath.
“Well, that was all you had to say in the beginning,” she said.
“I highly doubt that. If you’ll excuse me, I have something to tend to.”
I had to get to Serena. I had to explain to her what she had just witnessed. I pushed through the crowd, tossing people left and right. I grew close
r and closer to the exit as my heart rate picked up.
I couldn’t see Serena standing anywhere outside.
I stumbled out of the club and kept my head on a swivel. I saw a bodyguard standing on the edge of the curb, looking down the road instead of standing at his post. My eyes followed his gaze and I saw a cab racing down the road. Going much faster than it should have been going given the area we were in.
Serena was in that cab.
And I had a feeling I knew where she was going.
Chapter 12
Serena
The longer I sat there on the porch, the angrier I became. How stupid I was to believe Enzo could change. How idiotic I was to believe the heir to some underground criminal mafia world would ever obey some stupid rule I put forth. That man had no obligation to love me. Hell, he had no obligation to like me. The only obligation he had was to marry me. To take me as his wife before he kept me locked up in some apartment, obeying his every command while he did whatever the fuck he wanted.
Well it wasn’t happening with me.
Not by a longshot.
I stood up from the chair on the porch and made my way inside. My mother was in the sitting room, working on something she was crocheting. My father had a drink in his hand and was reading a book, and I cleared my throat to get their attention.
“Serena,” my father said. “When did you get back in?”
“About thirty minutes ago,” I said.
“I thought you were going out with Jamie?” my mother asked. “Did she bring you home?”
“No. I took a cab,” I said. “I didn’t feel much like staying out.”
“Why?” my father asked. “What happened?”
He sat his book down and eyed me carefully as I leaned against the doorway.
“I know you guys are going to be upset at me, but I can’t do this,” I said.
“Can’t do what?” my mother asked.
“I can’t marry Enzo.”
My father’s gaze hardened on me as he set his book off to the side. He rose from his chair, his lips sipping at the amber liquid in his hand.
Amber. Like the color of Enzo’s eyes.
Girth (Marked Skulls MC Book 1) Page 82
