Chapter Twenty-Five
Enzo Rissi
Aria looked at me every few seconds, sitting ramrod straight and biting her lip as if she wanted to say something but wouldn’t start the conversation. My words ran through my mind fueling the combination of anger and terror that rushed through me.
For the entire drive to my home in Morris Park, only the faint sound of the driver’s jazz music drifted between us.
I wanted to scream at her.
I wanted to hold her and shield her from anything like this ever happening again.
I wanted to fucking strangle her.
I kept all my thoughts—all my emotions—on a tight leash. I had kept everything under control since learning of her betrayal, and the floodgates had burst when we settled in this car alone. I allowed everything to spill into my thoughts as I considered what I would say and do about all of this.
But for the hour-long drive, I stewed in all of it.
The driver parked and as we approached my house, finding yellow crime scene tape covering the door, I tore it down and stormed inside. She followed behind me. Slowly. Cautiously.
“If anyone else is in here, get the fuck out,” I shouted through my house.
A handful of guys wearing the crime-scene cleanup gear rushed up the basement stairs and nodded at me as they left. They were my guys, all dressed in a way that wouldn’t make the neighborhood suspicious.
When the door slammed, I whipped around to face Aria.
She took a small step back. “I… I’m sorry.”
I didn’t allow her to speak as I raised my voice. “Why the fuck would you do this?” I shouted. I needed an outlet for the rage that had been brewing, so I grabbed a potted plant and threw it against the wall. It shattered, and she flinched. “What the fuck were you thinking?”
She took another step back.
Away from me .
“I… I had to keep my sisters safe. And when I learned who you were… when I learned that you weren’t a monster like everyone made you out to be… I tried to call it off. I tried to tell my dad not to do this anymore. I swear, Enzo, I tried. But then he sent me a picture of Evelina being auctioned off, and—”
“You could have been killed!”
Her mouth fell open in surprise, and she hovered a hand over her stomach absentmindedly. “Wh—what?”
“You went back there, knowing that he could have killed you without a second thought. If I didn’t have Vito there, do you know what could have happened? If Vito were any other man—” I stopped myself and forced in a sharp breath. That had struck more of a chord than anything else—what could have happened to her? “You knew you were putting yourself in danger, and you fucking did it anyway.”
She continued gawking at me as she crossed her arms over her chest. “Of course, I did. I messed up. I almost got everyone killed.”
“Your actions did get people killed,” I roared back. She flinched. “But that’s not why I’m pissed at you, Aria. Alonzo would have found a way to get to us, and without you, he may have succeeded.”
“I thought you would hate me for what I did. You should hate me.”
I had hated her briefly. When I thought that she had betrayed me for no reason aside from blind loyalty, I regretted letting her go. But when I learned what was at stake—when I learned that once again, she was doing this to protect everyone other than herself—how could I hate her? When Jaimie sent me the listing of her sister on a black-market site, everything was verified. It all made sense.
Aria never cared about herself when the people she loved were in harm’s way.
For that alone, I could throttle her.
I moved toward her and grabbed both of her arms tightly, holding her in place in front of me. “If you ever put yourself in danger like that again,” I shouted, my hands shaking as they gripped her. “I will chain you to a fucking chair in my basement. Do you understand me? I won’t watch you be killed because of me.”
My voice broke on the last word, and I sucked in another breath as her brows knitted together.
“Enzo, I did it because I couldn’t watch you die.”
I didn’t know what else to do. Words wouldn’t convey what roared through me as I slammed my mouth over hers. I felt her melt beneath me. I felt every ounce of her reaction to me as her hands wrapped around my waist and held me there. The image of her lying on that bed, kicking and screaming, burned into my mind, and I knew nothing would ever erase it.
“I love you,” she whispered against my lips.
Despite everything—the anger and heat from the kiss, the way she had betrayed me in a way I had always been terrified someone would do—I still loved her. I still wanted her with every part of me.
“I won’t lose you because you think you are less important than everyone else in your life. Because you feel like you are not as valuable,” I said against her lips.
“I won’t do it again,” she swore.
“I have Jaimie working on getting Evelina out. She’ll be safe. But if Alonzo calls and tells you that he’s going to hurt Livia—”
“I have my own family to worry about now, Enzo. I told her that.” Her eyes turned down, but I grabbed her chin with my left hand and pulled it up until she was forced to look at me again. “Livia will be fine. I don’t know what she’s planning, but I trust her.”
“Why didn’t you tell me,” I asked her. “About any of it. I could have kept you safe. Protected you. You know I could have done that.”
“I planned to tell you everything. I needed to think it all through first, but I was going to tell you. I was never planning on letting it go this far. I’m so sorry.” A tear fell from her eye, and I captured it with my thumb. “I can’t live with myself if I’m responsible for the death of someone I love.”
“You won’t be. I’ll make sure of that.”
I placed a hand on her still flat belly. I couldn’t believe that she had kept this from me. But with everything else weighing on her, it made sense. I could understand everything that had happened. If in her position, I would have done the same thing.
“Let me make it up to you,” she begged, tugging at the hem of my shirt. “Let me show you how much I love you.”
I didn’t say anything as she pulled the shirt over my head. I watched as she leaned forward and kissed my chest, then a bit lower. Her hands unbuckled my belt as she worked her way down slowly.
I couldn’t stop her. Not when the heat in her eyes burned through me and cemented me to my spot. I should have hated her for everything. Seeing the similarities in her story and my mother’s burned at something in my chest.
My biggest fear had happened.
But Aria wasn’t my mother. She had done this out of pure selflessness, and my mother had been the opposite. She had tried to stab my father in the back for her own selfish reasons.
Aria wasn’t evil.
Aria was too good for her own good.
My pants fell to the ground, and I stepped out of them as she kneeled before me and gripped my cock in her hand. Fuck. The sight of her kneeling before me gripped my stomach, and as she licked from the shaft all the way to the head, my world exploded around me.
She took me in her mouth, moaning against my skin as she sucked me deep into the back of her throat and gagged lightly on my length.
“Fuck, Aria,” I groaned as she quickened her speed.
I let the sensation of her lips around me wash away everything. The memory of her on that bed. Knocking her unconscious. The way she had flinched away from her father when I had first met her.
She had allowed herself to be hurt and abused for too long, and I would never let anything like that happen again. Aria was too kind and too loving for this life, and I would keep her safe.
I would protect her.
I felt my climax building, and I sucked in a breath as I tangled my hand in her hair and pulled her head back. She gasped, licking her lips as I pulled myself out of her mouth. I could have cum on her face at the sight of those sensual lips and the aroused look in her eyes.
I knelt on the ground and picked her up, allowing her to straddle my hips as I carried her into my bedroom. “I want to do this for you,” she told me, pressing her lips into mine.
“You’re done doing things for other people without getting anything in return.”
She squealed as I threw her on the bed.
It took a matter of seconds before I had her bare before me. Every inch of her body was an utter masterpiece. One that had me throbbing for her. My eyes focused on her stomach—at the life growing undetected inside her.
I never thought I would want that. The thought of having a child for the sole purpose of growing the bloodline had never felt appealing. But to know it was half Aria made all the difference.
I settled on top of her, nestling a hand between her thighs as I looked into her eyes. I moved my fingers slowly, teasing her as she gasped and thrust her hips.
“Do you forgive me?” she asked.
Did I forgive her?
The answer was immediate. I didn’t even have to give it a thought.
“Yes.”
I brought her to the edge a handful of times, enjoying watching her wiggle beneath my fingers. When I finally inserted one into her, then another, she spoke again.
“He wanted me to give him an heir, and I was going to do it if it meant keeping you safe. I was going to let someone else…” She trailed off her words, and my jaw ticked. “I didn’t. I backed out. I’m not completely selfless. I—I couldn’t do it.”
“Good,” I said immediately.
“Good? You could have been killed.”
I stopped. “I would do anything to keep you safe, Aria. If that means giving my own life, so be it. You are mine. That means it’s my job and my honor to protect you. To make sure you never face a choice like that again. Your only job is to stay safe.”
I thrust another finger into her and cut off whatever she had been about to say.
“I don’t give a fuck who threatens me. I can take care of myself. I can take care of you and our child. I could bring down a fucking army if that’s what it took to see you safe, and if you doubt that for one second, you don’t know me very well. Do you know what I had to do to get to you?”
Her breath hitched as I curled my fingers inside of her. “I can guess,” she moaned.
“I would burn down the fucking world to see you safe. Don’t ever do something like that again.”
She moaned, but I retracted just enough to keep her on the edge of her orgasm. “Enzo,” she cried out. “Please.
“Tell me you’ll never do something like that again.”
She met my eyes. “If it would keep you safe—”
“Aria,” I demanded with more force. I ran my thumb over the bundle of nerves at the base of her thighs, and she bucked into me and moaned. Then, I slowed.
“Oh my God, I’m so close,” she cried.
I grabbed the hair at the base of her skull and tugged her head back until she was forced to meet my eyes. “Tell me you’ll never pull shit like that again.”
“To keep you safe—"
I rubbed into her so hard that she cried out, screaming. But this time, I let her come. I let her ride every ounce of that orgasm until she began bucking my hand away, but I held firm, drawing every ounce of that pleasure out of her.
And then I thrust into her and continued.
“It’s too much,” she moaned, bucking and shouting my name.
“Be a fucking good girl and tell me what I want to hear,” I demanded.
“Jesus, Enzo.”
I slammed into her, and her eyes rolled, but I didn’t release her. I continued my assault, grinding my thumb into her and rubbing my cock just so…
“I swear,” she screamed.
“You swear what?” I asked, my voice turning softer.
“I swear I won’t do anything like that again. I swear.”
I slowed, allowing my body to soothe hers back into pleasure. Her moans continued, though less severe. “Good, girl,” I growled into her ear. I nipped the lobe, and she wrapped her arms around my back, digging her fingers into it.
The sharp pressure had heat rolling through me. Consuming me. Her soft moans in my ear brought me to my breaking point, and I held myself back for a few more seconds until her sounds grew uncontrollable. Until she spasmed, and I felt her come right alongside me.
Together.
As it would be from now on.