Cruel King: An Enemies to Lovers Romance

by Jillian Quinn

  I didn’t understand why my father was so hell-bent on taking down the man who had approached me at the nail salon. He was weird, and somewhat creepy, but I got a few good hits on him before Stephan and Nino kicked the shit out of him. There was no reason to kill him over a little scuffle.

  I pressed my back against the wall and listened.

  “We’re working on it.” Giovanni’s tone indicated Chris’ death was imminent.

  But none of it made sense to me.

  “Both of us will be implicated if this goes further,” my father said, lowering his voice. “Make sure you take care of this. I can’t have any more issues with my campaign. I’m having a hard enough time getting the vote to swing my way. A scandal is the last thing I need.”

  “It won’t go any further than it already has,” Giovanni promised. “How are the numbers? Any changes this week?”

  “No, not by much. But they will soon. I have a new plan in place.”

  After they switched over to boring talk of politics, I crept down the hall and out the rear door. It was dark outside, well after nine o’clock at night. I was forced to work late to assemble signs and gather promotional items for the team. It was all busy work my father gave me just to spite me. My fingers hurt from all the wooden sticks I’d handled over the course of the night.

  I removed the key fob from my purse, stuffed the soda inside my oversize bag, and clicked the button to open my car. It was a new Mercedes my father had purchased for me after I graduated from college. It was more like a bribe. The cars, handbags, jewelry, and clothes were all distractions he used to make me feel loved, when I knew the truth.

  He was just priming me for the day when he’d attempt to force me into marrying someone like Karl Vos. How dumb was I to think he wanted anything from me other than my cooperation in return for all of his generous gifts?

  I pulled on the handle, attempting to scream when a hand covered my mouth and strong arms wrapped around me. Struggling to break free, I attempted to elbow the person behind me in the stomach and failed. Panic shot through me, sending my body into overdrive.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Isabella

  “Shh… it’s me, raven. Calm down.”

  Relief washed over me. Hearing Stephan’s voice had an instant calming effect on me.

  I settled into his arms as he removed his hand. Leaning back against his chest, I peeked up at him. “What are you doing here? And why would scare me like this?”

  “Nino told me your car was still in the parking lot when he drove my dad over to meet yours.”

  “You stopped answering my texts, didn’t bother to call, and then you show up here and try to kidnap me.”

  “I wasn’t going to kidnap you.”

  “I kinda wish you would,” I confessed.

  It was the truth. I wanted more than anything to get away from my father. Graduate school sounded more appealing with each day I was back in my old house, in my old bedroom, and with my father hovering over me, breathing down my neck.

  “I need to talk to you about something. It’s important.” Stephan moved his hands down to my ass and squeezed. “Get in. Drive to the park. Don’t talk. Just do what I tell you to do.”

  My entire body was on fire, my skin tingling from his touch. He did things to me I could never understand, and because of that, I couldn’t deny him.

  He got in the passenger side without speaking a word to me. My head swirled with questions I wanted answered. Five minutes later, I pulled into the lot at the park, which was desolate.

  Stephan pointed to a space at the far end, where it was shrouded in complete darkness. “Park over there and turn off the engine.”

  I glanced over at him. “What do you want to talk about?”

  He scratched the stubble along his jaw, his eyes fixed on me. “Nino was held at knifepoint a few days ago. The guy who hit you at the nail salon, Chris Rizzoli, he had his men send us a message. The last thing he said was your family is involved.”

  “I don’t have a clue what that means.” I leaned my elbow on the center console and slid my hand onto his thigh. “My dad keeps things from me. He acts like he hates your family, when he talks to your dad all the time. But I’m not allowed to be with you. It’s a double standard. I’m sick of my dad controlling my life. Take me somewhere, Stephan. Get me out of here before my dad makes me do something I don’t want to do.”

  He eyed my hand on his thigh and sucked in a deep breath, before his gaze returned to mine. “What does he want you to do?”

  “Marry Karl Vos.” My tongue burned when I said his name, as if I drank acid.

  Stephan seemed confused, as he should have been. It didn’t make sense to me. “Why would he want you to do that?”

  “Because he thinks it will make us like American royalty and will help him win his campaign. Instead of his numbers climbing, he’s falling out of favor. He needs something big to win this election.”

  Stephan threaded his fingers between mine, holding my hand. Through his slacks, I could feel his growing erection. “What did you tell him?”

  “That I wouldn’t marry someone I don’t know and don’t love. He’s been controlling my life for too long. I want to get away from him. No, I need to get away. Help me, Stephan.” I moved closer so our mouths were almost touching. “Please.” I unzipped his pants, and his thick cock poked through the slit in his boxers. “I want to be with you. Remember in high school when you said you wanted me to be free?”

  His expression changed from unreadable to pure hunger. He stared at me as if he wanted to devour me, and I was hoping after all the waiting he would do just that. Stephan took my hand and wrapped it around the base, aiding me in sliding my hand up and down his length.

  He growled, his eyes closing for a second. “Fuck, Isabella. Give me your mouth. I want to fuck every part of you.”

  Without hesitation, I got on my knees, leaning over the arm rest, and positioned his cock in front of my mouth. His fingers wove through my hair, and he lowered my mouth onto him until my tongue made contact with his sensitive skin. Taking him one inch at a time, I went slowly at first, until he gripped my head in his hands and helped me find a groove. Each growl that fell from his lips made me work harder, move faster.

  When I felt his body tremble, and I thought he was about to come, he ordered me to stop. “Take off your panties and bend over the hood.”

  “You want to have sex outside? Stephan, we’re in a park.”

  He looked out the window, a smirk turning up the corners of his mouth. “No one is around. Do it. Take off your panties, push up your skirt, and bend over the hood. Now.”

  I was already wet from sucking him off, but this was fucking sexy. When Stephan bossed me around, it turned me on for some reason. I hated being told what to do, but it was different with Stephan. He wasn’t trying to control my every waking moment. All he wanted was to control me in the bedroom. And I was more than okay with that.

  I opened the car door and got out, with Stephan following behind me. In a hurry, I slid my panties down my thighs and left them on the front seat, before closing the door behind me. Stephan removed his jacket and loosened his tie and collar. With a sexy-as-fuck glaze in his eyes, I stared at him across the hood of the car, salivating over my gorgeous and completely forbidden enemy.

  But I could never think of him as the enemy, not when my body responded to him this way. In this moment, nothing felt wrong. Everything about Stephan felt right.

  Careful not to dent the hood, I placed my elbows on top, my skirt already bunched up to give him better access. Stephan rolled on a condom, and then he gripped my hips, pulling my ass into his erection.

  He leaned forward to whisper in my ear, “You’re such a good girl, Isabella. You should have listened to your dad and stayed away from me.”

  It was a threat, but I didn’t care. When I was with Stephan, I lost myself, my body doing most of the talking for me. The only thing I cared about was seeing Stephan again. In these brief enco
unters with him, I began to wish we could have more, even though a life together was impossible. We were both greedy, taking what we wanted from each other. This was as simple as a business transaction, or at least it was what I’d told myself. That was how it started.

  “I don’t want to stay away from you,” I admitted, hoping he felt the same about me. “I never did.”

  He moved his hand beneath my chin and tilted my head up until our eyes met. His finger caught in my choker, which made it harder to breathe. “I gave this to you for a reason. You’re mine. You were then and you are now. I never wanted to share you. I still don’t. I’m a selfish bastard. But that doesn’t mean I can have you.” He ran his hand over my ass, massaging my skin. “This is all we can ever be. Sex when no one’s watching.”

  “I’m okay with that,” I hissed, closing my eyes when his hand slipped between my legs to feel my wetness. “Stop torturing me, Stephan.”

  He slid his hand beneath my shirt, fingering my pussy as he cupped my breast over the lacy bra. I almost cried when he twisted my nipple.

  “Is this what you want, princess?”

  I moaned when he pinched my nipple harder, his fingers moving filling me to the hilt. “You know what I want.”

  He dragged his fingers along my channel one last time, withdrawing them long enough to replace his fingers with his fat cock.

  “Always so wet for me.” He pulled out and slammed back into me, each time harder than the last.

  It hurt a lot, but not as much as the first time we’d had sex. I told him he didn’t have to take his time with me, teased him via text message. Stephan was punishing me with his cock, showing me how much he missed me with each thrust.

  “Stephan,” I moaned. “Ohh, yeah… right there.” I closed my eyes from the blinding pain, which eventually turned to pure pleasure. He spread me open, shoving himself deeper and deeper, burying himself inside me. I took every inch of him, and with each second I grew closer to reaching my climax, he tore another scream from my throat until I was speechless.

  Stephan came hard, his fingers finding my nipple once again. He squeezed as his body trembled, shaking through me. He crashed on top of me and kissed the top of my head.

  “I didn’t want to see you again. I planned to stay away.” Stephan sounded conflicted about his choice to be with me. “But you’re making it too fucking hard.”

  “Don’t fight it,” I whispered, out of breath. “I know I can’t.”

  He pulled out of me, and my juices ran down my inner thigh.

  I spun around to watch him tie off the condom and tuck himself back into my pants. He zipped up and chucked the condom into a trashcan close by.

  “I need to see you again.” He stroked my jaw with his thumb. “I don’t know when, but I want to take you somewhere. Don’t call me. Don’t text me. I’ll get a hold of you when I can.”

  I smiled up at him in answer and leaned into his hand.

  No matter how much we didn’t want to be together out of family obligation, we couldn’t deny the chemistry between us. And that was how everything in my life slowly began to fall apart.

  Chapter Fifteen

  Stephan

  I shoved Carmine onto the plank in the basement of the warehouse with a gun to the back of his head. Nino strapped down his legs, and I worked on his arms and head, fastening Carmine to the wooden board so he couldn’t move an inch. He thought he could hold a knife to my brother’s throat and continue breathing.

  What a stupid motherfucker.

  Carmine was from the old regime. Nothing and no one could scare him. I had to look hard, but the fear was evident in his eyes. He hadn’t spoken since we dragged his sorry ass out of a whorehouse with his pants down, mid-blowjob. I’d tracked him down through a tip from a friend. Nino had the bright idea to ambush him while he was getting his dick sucked.

  Because he’d wronged Nino more than me, I reached for the jug of water on the table behind me and handed it to Nino.

  His eyes lit with excitement when he popped the top on the bottle. Nino wanted to be the one to make this man suffer. We’d made a deal that Carmine and his men were his kills. Their blood would be on his hands. And I would help him.

  Nino tipped the bottle, dumping water in Carmine’s mouth and down his nose. He fought it, his body thrashing and begging to rip free from his shackles. Even the strongest men couldn’t handle being waterboarded. It was one of the cruelest forms of torture.

  “Where’s Chris Rizzoli?” I yelled at Carmine, and Nino eased up for a second to give him a chance to answer.

  A beat passed where Carmine turned his head to the side and coughed on the water.

  “Answer me.” My voice echoed through the vacant room in the basement of the warehouse my father owned.

  “You’re gonna kill me no matter what,” Carmine muttered, out of breath. “Go ahead and fucking do it.”

  Nino repeated the same process as before. This asshole would tell us what we wanted, or he would drown to death. It was his choice. All we cared about was information. Carmine was right. He was a dead man no matter what. Chris Rizzoli and his new crew were traitors. He was a loose end our family had to tie up.

  “Keep going,” I told Nino and then looked at Carmine. “Easy way or hard way, doesn’t matter to me. We can do this all night.”

  Carmine wasn’t phased by our threat. He was a man of honor, willing to die for a pointless cause. Between my father’s connections and Senator Parisi’s, Chris and his men would pay for whatever information they had on the Senator. The cover-up was deep, that much was obvious.

  But what the hell were they hiding that was important enough to go after our own men and start a war? I was helping Nino with Carmine to give him the revenge he deserved. But I was also pursuing Rizzoli because I wanted to know what secret he was hiding. If it warranted a full-scale search party, it had to be big.

  Nino tipped the bottle over. It was like a flood taking Carmine under, as if he were being held under water. Men always caved under this much pressure. Over the years, I’d learned a lot of torture techniques in this room. I knew the scent of blood, bleach, and death anywhere. It was a familiar smell no one should have known by heart. But the abandoned warehouse where we tortured our victims was becoming like my second home.

  My childhood was far from normal, and my adulthood was even more unusual. When kids my age were taught how to ride a bike, I was shown how to shoot a gun. I was a perfect shot by the time I was ten years old. With the cold metal in my hand and my finger on the trigger, I felt alive, in control. I was never more in my element. That’s how I knew my father made the right choice to raise Nino and me to become members of his army. No son of Giovanni DeLuca would be anything other than a Made man.

  I laughed at Nino for the way he taunted Carmine. Every time he thought Nino would ease up, he went even harder on him. Nino loved the thrill of the kill, the high better than sex for him. Unlike my brother, I saw torture as a means to an end, though I would have been lying to myself if I didn’t admit I enjoyed a just kill on occasion. Some men had it coming to them.

  I cupped my hand on Nino’s shoulder. “Take a break.”

  Moving my hand from his shoulder, I stepped forward and hovered over Carmine. “One more chance, Carmine, before I shove that bottle down your fucking throat.”

  “Fuck you, DeLuca,” Carmine spat, water and mucus streaming down his chin.

  I looked at Nino and nodded at the water bottle next to Carmine’s head. Nino understood and drizzled some of the water on Carmine’s forehead. A wicked, joker like grin turned up the corners of Nino’s mouth as the water ran down Carmine’s nose and into his eyes. This was how he would die.

  Chapter Sixteen

  Isabella

  Another week had passed before I received a text message from Stephan, telling me to be ready for dinner. He wanted me to lie about where I was going, which wasn’t easy with my father up my ass all the time. Someone was always watching me, or at least that was how it felt.
To my knowledge, he had no idea I was with Stephan in the park. If he did, he never let on to it. I was kind of hoping his private detective would be the one to bear the bad news that I was fucking the son of his so-called enemy.

  I met Stephan at the park again, and his eyes raked over my body in admiration as he studied the tight black dress that hugged my curves and stopped a few inches above the knees.

  Nino was in the driver’s seat of the Mercedes I parked next to, staring over at me as if he wasn’t sure what to think. He didn’t seem happy about Stephan meeting me. With my back against the door, I ignored Nino and smiled at Stephan as he planted a kiss on my cheek.

  “You look beautiful,” he said in my ear. “I love this dress. I can’t wait to take it off you.”

  Stephan turned around to lean into the open window of the car and spoke to Nino, their voices so low I had trouble making out the words. It was clear Nino wasn’t thrilled with us going behind out father’s back to see each other, but neither of us cared. After Stephan finished exchanging words with his twin, he knocked on the roof of the car, telling him to leave.

  “Is Nino meeting us somewhere later?”

  He nodded. “I’ll call him when we’re closer to home.” Stephan moved me to the side to open the car door. “I’m driving. Get in.”

  “Where are we going?”

  “It’s a surprise. Now, will you do what you’re told? We won’t have long.”

  Considering how hard it was for us to see each other, I followed his order without complaint. Any time I had with Stephan was limited. He was never supposed to be mine. It was as if I was borrowing him from his family, only allowed to steal minutes. I hated the restrictions on our relationship—if I could even call what we had a relationship. It was more of a sex arrangement than anything.

  Stephan drove us to the restaurant with his hand on my thigh. His unusual smile caused my heart to skip a few beats. He wore a black suit with a white shirt and a navy tie. Like every man in his family, he wore custom suits, tailored to fit him perfectly.