Chapter Eleven
Aria Bianchi
The strain between us was palpable enough that I stayed in my room any time I heard his presence in the house. I quickly learned the differences between his gait and Jaimie’s, and I found myself leaning into her company.
I tried not to build attachments, but she was different. She didn’t solely rely on Enzo, and maybe after everything went down, she wouldn’t hate me the way I knew Enzo would.
“It’s not for a lack of trying,” I joked as I squinted through the tears of chopping an onion. “Short of onion goggles, I can’t help it.”
Jaimie, sitting at the other side of the bar looked at me with raised brows. “I’ve never had that many issues cutting an onion.”
“Thanks for the boost of confidence,” I said through an uncontrolled sniffle. I scooped the onion pieces and sealed them in a glass container before turning to the sink and washing my hands. “Do you even have tear ducts?”
She lifted a glass of wine to her lips with a smirk at the same time as the door to the house slammed open. I heard something fall from the wall and shatter as multiple loud boots stormed into the house.
I had never seen anyone move as quickly as Jaimie.
Her wine glass was forgotten on the counter, tipped over, and its contents dripped on the floor. In an instant, she had a gun in her hand. She stormed around the counter and reached the side closest to the entryway before her shoulders loosened and she dropped it immediately.
“Fuck, Enzo,” she shouted, tucking the gun away in an instant. Whatever she saw had her eyes veering around the room, almost as if compartmentalizing each detail before speaking again. “Do I need to call Doc?”
Doc ?
I dropped the knife onto the cutting board and rushed around the corner. Enzo stood there as three other men panted behind him. One had his hands on his knees as he caught his breath. The other two paced in front of the door.
Blood dripped from each of them. Their noses. Clothes. Skin. Small splatters of it dripped beneath them onto the floor.
So much blood.
I couldn’t find words as my gaze fixed on Enzo, involuntarily scanning him for any sign of injury. He clearly favored one of his legs, but he stood tall enough to tell me that this blood hadn’t come from him.
“Jaimie, go and take them back to the compound to be stitched up. Doc’s already there.”
“What about you?”
“I can handle myself. Go.”
If it were me, I would have never listened to him without pushing for more questions, but Jaimie did just that. She escorted the three men through the front door, demanding that they refrain from bleeding in her car, or there would be hell to pay.
In a different situation, maybe I would have asked about the “compound,” but not now. It didn’t feel relevant now.
I still couldn’t bring myself to move from my spot, even when it was only Enzo and me in the house. I didn’t know what it was about the look in his eyes. The hard brutality. There was an edge that could cut right through me without effort.
I had never seen a man look as deadly as Enzo looked right now.
This was the man who people feared. This was the legendary Enzo Rissi, and I didn’t have a single defense against him.
I wasn’t even sure he saw me through the haze of bloodshed.
“What… what happened?”
Nothing cleared from his expression as his eyes focused on me. They darted across my face and then down my body. Despite the modest, high-waisted shorts and cropped top, I felt vulnerable. A tremor ran down my spine at the look in his eyes.
“Fucking Russians.”
I wanted to ask about Noemi, but from his state, I wouldn’t push my luck. Not now.
My eyes locked on a spot in his skin where I could see blood oozing. The rest of it had begun drying on him. I broke my stillness and walked toward him with my hand outstretched.
“Stop.”
I didn’t listen despite the harshness in his tone. I moved forward and reached for the cut.
His hand wrapped tightly around my wrist and held it a mere inch away from his skin. I stiffened, and for the first time, I wondered if I had made the right decision. It had felt like an involuntary pull toward him. I needed to see what was wrong. I needed to inspect it and make sure it was okay.
“You can’t touch me right now, Aria.”
“Why not?” I pushed back, meeting those cold eyes. Emotionless. Terrifying.
But the more I stared into them, the less terrified I became.
“It’s too soon after the attack. I will hurt you.”
I thought back to all the time we had spent together. I considered our wedding and the gentle touches he had offered, even through his frustrations. I considered the way he had gone out of his way not to hurt me on our wedding night. He hadn’t reacted when he learned of my communications with Noemi.
Enzo was the monster everyone said he was. As he stood before me covered in blood, I knew that without a second thought.
This still felt like uncharted territory.
“Let me help you,” I begged him.
Even now, he held my wrist with tight, trembling fingers, but he didn’t hurt me. I couldn’t escape his grip if I tried, but it wasn’t painful.
“You don’t know what I had to do today.”
Would a true monster be this affected by killing people?
My mind flashed to my father, and I shut down the line of thinking before it could sink in any further.
“I don’t care, Enzo.”
His fingers trembled on my wrist, and from closer, I could see the rapidness of his breathing. But his eyes… God they were cold, unseeing, and hardened by whatever he had done.
“The Russians taunted my men and they reacted. It wasn’t an orchestrated ambush. They just attacked on a whim, and when my guys were pinned down, they called me in to negotiate. I didn’t have to say a damn word to figure out they were there for blood. And they got it.” He huffed out a hoarse, unamused chuckle. “They fucking got it.”
“Enzo—”
“These mother fuckers think we’re confined to the Bronx. I control all of the Bronx. I have my hand in half of fucking Manhattan. The Russians didn’t know that they were picking a fight they couldn’t win. Even your fucking dad has his head shoved so far up his ass that he doesn’t know—” He cut himself off and shook his head, eyes darting. “We have five times the men anyone knows about, Aria. Do you know what that means?” I shook my head quickly, feeling slight tendrils of fear rising in me. “It means five times more reasons to kill the assholes who threaten us.”
He finally released my wrist with a deep exhale and stepped back before turning and walking toward his personal suite. I hesitated for no more than three seconds. I had never gone into his suite. It had always felt too risky. But now, there wasn’t a single thing in the world that would stop me from following him. I wanted to say it was from sheer curiosity and purpose. If I were less in tune with myself, maybe I could chalk it up to that.
But I knew my motivations.
I knew I cared to some extent about seeing him okay.
By the time I walked into the room, he had already grabbed the first aid kit and headed for the attached bathroom. I had only enough time to take in the basic room. It was as if an interior designer had decorated the entire house, barring this room. Only a basic wooden dresser sat beside the large bed. A small sitting room sat on the other side of the room, a flatscreen adjacent to it.
All the furniture in this room was worn. Old and used. It was a startling contrast to the rest of the house.
I turned and stepped into the attached bathroom, and I froze, mouth falling open.
I should have focused on the blood that stained every part of his body. Or the clear black bruise on his right thigh. I should have been examining his skin for more injuries. But I couldn’t look away from a physique that had undoubtedly been forged from years of hard work and physical challenges.
If I were to paint the portrait of a God in mortal form, he would be my muse.
No questions asked.
“I… I…”
But he didn’t give me a chance to say anything. He lunged toward me and captured my arm, pulling me along with him into the shower that had already been started. I pulled my arm, but he didn’t release me as I stepped across the barrier and into the spray.
Blood began running off of him in streams, but he didn’t break my gaze.
“What are you doing?” I asked breathlessly.
“Do you know how much I fucking want you, Aria?”
“Enzo, you’re hurt and bleeding. You—”
“Shut up and fucking listen to me.” I inhaled sharply, unable to ignore the harsh demand. “I have wanted you since the day in your father’s office. You’re an enigma, and I can’t figure you out. You hate me, or you say you do, and then you do shit like this. You insist on helping me. Me . The man who took you away from your home and the sisters you love. You continue being friends with Jaimie even though she betrayed you. You do everything for other people, and I have never once seen you do a thing for yourself. Not once, Aria. Why the fuck do you do that?”
I didn’t know what to say. I found myself stepping back, but he moved forward with each word until my back pressed into the jarringly cool wall behind me, and his warm body pressed into my front.
His naked body.
Suddenly, the blood didn’t matter. Nothing did.
“You’re not yourself right now.”
“Why are you so fucking perfect. You’re too perfect to be married to someone like me.”
He lifted his left hand and ran a single knuckle down my jawbone. Shudders ran through my entire body at his touch, and I closed my eyes involuntarily.
“I’m not,” I whispered.
He leaned into me, his forehead resting on mine. “I should hate you for who your family was, but you’re intoxicating, Aria. Fuck.” He groaned, almost as if trying to find the control that he clearly lacked.
My hand moved on its own accord, reaching up and wiping a smear of blood from his cheek. I bit my lip, unable to think objectively about the situation. Not when I stood so close to him. Not when I craved more of his touch.
I needed to bring him out of this. I needed to remind him of who I was and that I wasn’t the “perfect” woman he was envisioning in his blood haze. He needed something, and I only had one solution.
“Kiss me.”
He didn’t hesitate before slamming his lips down on mine.
I realized immediately what my mistake was, but once the warmth of his lips captured mine, I no longer cared . I wanted him in a way that I shouldn’t. A way that was both forbidden and… not. He was my husband, after all.
His hands grabbed my hips and pressed them into the shower’s slick wall, almost as if he was trying and failing to keep me at an arm’s length. To be both close and as far away as possible.
Still, his lips devoured . His tongue claimed me in a way that had my legs trembling from the effort of holding myself upright.
He pulled back, resting his forehead on mine. “Aria, you need to go.”
“What?” I asked breathlessly.
“You don’t want to fuck, but if you stay here right now…” He shook his head, the damp tendrils of his hair dripping water into his face. “You need to go.”
I realized at that moment that it didn’t matter. None of it did. My body yearned for him in a way I couldn’t fully put into words. And he was my husband . I didn’t have to turn him down. I was allowed to do something that I wanted. My life had always been about my sisters and my father’s wishes.
This would be for me.
Fuck the consequences.
“What if I do want that?” I asked quietly.
His head whipped up as if he couldn’t possibly be hearing me right. He waited one second. Then another.
Then he pulled me forward and back into the water. He grabbed the hem of my shirt and pulled it over my head effortlessly. Then he dropped to his knees before me and slid my pants down my body. All hesitations or uncertainties faded as the warmth of his trailing fingers lingered and soothed me.
I should be concerned about his erratic, blood-drenched behavior. What he had done today had worn on him and made him unpredictable and catastrophic by nature.
But when his head nestled between my thighs and his darting tongue swept upward, hitting the exact spot that most craved him, my protests fell away. All thoughts of protests fell away. I tipped my head back and wound my fingers in his hair. The water beat down over the peaks of my breasts and then his head.
He was my husband, and God , he knew what he was doing. Every sweep of his tongue became a scorching flame that ignited me in a way I had never experienced, not like this.
His fingers dug into my hips as he pulled me so close to him that his hair tickled the inside of my thighs. I tightened my grip, and he groaned in an almost animalistic way. I didn’t care. I could focus on nothing but the growing tension within me. The trembling of my legs and difficulty I had standing upright.
Somehow, he steadied me.
It could have been seconds or hours. No time existed here as my breathy moans turned loud and uncontrollable. I shouted Enzo’s name as I tipped my head back and cried out. The pleasure oozed through my core, leaving shuttering pulses in its wake.
And Enzo didn’t wait.
I found my front pressed into the shower wall as he grabbed my hips and lifted them. I braced my hands against the shower as he pressed his long hard length between my thighs.
Oh my…
He was so big. Too big.
As my mind began drifting from a place of pure ecstasy, he leaned over my shoulder and nipped at my neck, whispering in my ear. “Are you going to be a good girl and take me, Aria? Or do I need to make you cum harder first?”
“Oh my God,” I moaned as he created friction between us, rubbing himself in a way that stimulated every part of my core.
He moved my hair across one shoulder before leaving scorching kisses down my back. When his fingers tightened in my hair and pulled my head back into his chest, another spasm of need rocked through me.
It didn’t matter that he had made me cum already.
“Yes,” I cried out.
“Yes, what?”
“I want you inside me, Enzo. Yes.”
He continued teasing me as a deep chuckle wound its way all the way down my spine and sent another throb into my core.
He did something with his hips that sent his cock thrusting upward and into me, and every part of me tensed.
This… this hurt . I wasn’t expecting the pain of him entering me to feel like this—to bring the haze of need crashing to a halt.
But he seemed to expect it as a hand gently massaged me. He went in and out slowly, a bit further with each thrust.
“It’s going to feel good, Aria. Relax into me.”
His tone had been so hard with everything else he had said, but this sounded different. This was a comfort I hadn’t known I’d needed. I did as he instructed, bucking lightly into the tight circles he wound around my clit.
I hardly even noticed when he filled me entirely. The heavy, hard presence of him within me sent a deeper ache through me. A more consuming one. This was entirely unlike before. The edge of discomfort morphed into pleasure that felt more refined and erotic.
“It feels good,” I whispered.
“Does it hurt?”
“No, not at all,” I panted. “Oh my God, I’m going to—”
I didn’t even finish my words before Enzo grabbed both of my wrists and guided them to the shower’s railing. I bent and held it as he deepened his thrusts. Making them harder and faster. A tempo that drove me wild. I gasped as I felt the telltale signs of a final orgasm—one that would rock me in a way I wasn’t sure I could handle.
And Enzo seemed to realize it too. He thrust himself out of me in an instant, turning me and pressing my back into the same wall. He thrust back into me, and I gasped, eyes closed from the sheer gravity of my emotions.
My eyes shot open as he spoke. “You’re fucking mine and only mine, Aria.”
“Yes,” I cried out.
“Look at me when you cum.”
His eyes were wild with the same need I experienced with every ounce of my being.
I erupted for him.
And Enzo… he did the same.
I ignored the expression that crossed his face as he came alongside me. The look of longing and need.
The look of utter captivation.