Chapter 14
ENZO
I’ve left her alone most of the day, wanting her to calm down a bit before she sees my face again. As I pull up to my house, my cell vibrates with an alert coming from her room, the app letting me know there is increased movement.
My pulse quickens as I fire up the app, parking the Bugatti, then running out.
As I storm into the house, my eyes on the phone, I see Joelle is just fine.
But the guest room, well… The clothes I bought her are everywhere as she grunts with fury, banging on the windows.
I’m surprised she hasn’t tried to lift the television—or maybe she has.
I should rewind the recording and see for myself.
Just when I think she’s about to throw one of the armchairs into the window, she drops against the wall, lifting her knees, hiding her face, and rocks gently. I can’t hear her cry, but I know she is, and fuck that makes me want to rip out my very own heart.
I run up, two steps at a time, unlock the door and push it open, needing to hold her, to ease her pain. As soon as I’m inside, she captures my gaze, brushing under her eyes, the red streaks within them slamming into my chest.
I did that. Me.
Fuck.
My hand runs through my hair as I tread slowly, every step seeped in cement. Heavy. Burdened. Knowing she won’t want me. She doesn’t want my arms to make her world right. I’m the one who set it on fire.
But I go anyway. I go because she needs me, even when she fights it. Even when she thinks she doesn’t. Because her heart, it knows me, even when her mind forgets. The ghosts of who we were then—they’re still here, trapped in the bodies of who we are now.
If only she’d remember.
“Joelle,” I whisper, extending an arm. “Come here, baby.”
Her shoulders tremble, eyes watering over, those brows pinched so tight as she looks at me. But she doesn’t move, and I don’t give up. I lower to the space beside her, stretching an arm around her back, pulling her closer. Her head falls to my chest as my palm brushes up and down her arm.
We stay that way for a while, her body convulsing, her tears soaking my shirt as she seizes it tight in her fist.
“We’ll probably need to do something about this mess you created.” The words roll out with a faint smile.
She sniffles, her laughter weak. Seeing her this way, it breaks my resolve. I don’t want her locked in this room all alone anymore. If she decides to break every damn thing in my house, so be it. I can always replace that shit, but her—there’s no replacing that.
“How about we go downstairs and get some snacks? I have all the good stuff.”
“Like what?” She lifts away from me, cheeks stained with a shade of pink, wetness clouding over them.
“I’ve got like three different cupcakes.” My eyes dart to her mouth. “Maybe four ice cream flavors. Wait, make that three. I may have finished one last night.”
She squints. “The whole thing?”
“Well, there wasn’t that much left.”
She stares at me with huge, bright eyes, thinning her lips to conceal the laugh bubbling out.
“Fine.” I throw a hand in the air with a chuckle. “There was a shit ton left. What can I say? I’m a sucker for chocolate fudge.”
“Is that so?” She hikes a brow. “So if I smeared some on my body, you’d lick it all off?”
Fuck.
My jaw twitches, a fist curling at my side to stifle the image going to my dick. Yeah, too late on that. My cock jerks.
“Really, baby?” My hand clasps the side of her neck, fingers roughing into her skin, eyes delving into the endless ocean of her gaze. “Don’t do that,” I groan. “I can’t think about your naked body dripping with chocolate ice cream when I’m supposed to be comforting you.”
“You’re doing just fine.” She places a hand on my knee. “This is distracting me, and I kind of needed the distraction.”
“Well then…” I jump to my feet. “I’ll distract the fuck out of you.”
Just as she tilts her head to the side with a curious glint in her eyes, I scoop her up by her hips and throw her over my shoulder.
“Hey!” She giggles adorably. “You probably don’t want to be this close to me. I haven’t even showered.”
“You smell good enough to eat, baby girl.” My palm lands on her ass on instinct, and I test the waters, squeezing tight, and her breath hitches.
Her hot panting skims across my back, and knowing how much she wants me, knowing that maybe all those feelings I had back at the club weren’t just mine, only makes me want her more. Maybe we were real, however fucked up it was.
I walk us down the stairs, my hand still on her ass, needing to touch her everywhere. Goddamn, I’ve never wanted to fuck a woman this badly. Hell, I’ve never waited this long to do it either.
They’re more than willing to get into my bed, or anywhere else really. But none of it meant anything, not until Joelle.
We make it to my kitchen and I reluctantly put her back on her feet. She fingers her hair, fluffing it up as she clears her throat, her cheeks a deeper red now as she looks up at me.
“Where’s this ice cream you promised?”
“Damn, woman. You’ve got no patience.” I pull out a bowl and spoons from the cabinets, placing both down before strolling to the fridge and opening the freezer.
She follows me, standing too damn close as her attention flows to the cartons of ice cream surrounded by a crap load of frozen veggies.
“So that’s how you manage to keep all those muscles in check? Ice cream and broccoli?” Her face lights up with laughter.
“You’re a real damn fucking comedian.” I bump into her with an elbow on purpose and she does it back, pushing past me to kneel and retrieve the coffee flavor.
“I’ve got what I need.” She eyes me playfully, opening the carton as she heads back to the counter to get her spoon. “You may go.”
“Damn, I’ve been replaced by dessert, huh? I see how it is. Okay. Well, I know when I’m not needed.”
“I was kidding.” She sucks on the spoon, then dips it in for more. “I kind of need you to show me around first.”
“Brat.” I move toward her with a chuckle, grabbing the ice cream from her grasp and taking a spoonful into my mouth.
“Hey! I never said I share.”
“You do now.” I fill the spoon. “Open your mouth.” And she does, slamming her gaze to mine. Gradually, I slip the spoon inside, and without my eyes leaving hers, I watch her suck on the cold metal until it’s licked clean.
“How’d that taste?” My thumb replaces the spoon, stroking her lips.
“Good.” Her whispery breaths got my cock in a chokehold. I inhale deep, dick throbbing for her lips. Both sets of them. I need inside this woman. Need to watch her come. For me, and me alone.
I grit my teeth.
“Come on.” Grabbing her hand, I thread our fingers together, stepping away with her next to me. “I’ll take you on a small tour, then I have to go to work for a little, so you’ll have to manage alone without me.”
“I promise not to die from boredom.”
“Just try not to break the sculpture by the door.” I pull her flush to my side, curling my arm around her hip. “I kinda like it.”
“That’ll be the first thing I break.”
“I shouldn’t have said anything, huh?”
She side-eyes me with a tiny flicker of a smile. “Now you’re catching on.”
JADE
He’s taken me through some areas of his luxurious place, from the high-tech movie theater to the game room with a huge trampoline in the center, to the outdoor tennis courts and cabanas by the pool.
He’s introduced me to all the men who work for him too. They seem decent enough, but people can’t be trusted.
But my heart, it trusts Enzo. I don’t know why, but it does. He may not be allowing me to leave, but I believe he’s doing it to protect me, even though I’d rather die if it meant Robby was safe. But I don’t think anything will convince Enzo to let me go. Even the truth.
If I tell him about my son, he’ll try to save him. If he’s too late, if Faro finds out I talked, Robby is done for. No. I have to figure this out on my own.
“Okay,” he says as we return to his pristine, white kitchen, stepping onto the dark wooden floors set beneath. “Now you can enjoy as much ice cream as you want while I’m gone.”
“And hopefully a nice, hot shower after I clean the apocalypse that is your room,” I grumble, remembering what I did. His hand snakes around my hip, that powerful body slamming to mine.
“Shower, huh?” His eyes turn heavy-lidded, and he leans close, so close a shudder races up my spine, his mouth hovering over my ear. “I kind of wish I had a camera in the bathroom right about now.”
My body grows warm and tingly, my core achy, growing wet in the way it only does for him. His gaze bores into mine, and that feeling of lust—it’s back with a vengeance.
How would it feel to be touched by someone whose touch I crave? Would it feel good that first time he enters me, knowing all the other times have been to hurt me? Would I want him in that moment, or will I be clutched in everlasting fear?
I want to know. I want to feel with him. The way only he makes me feel.
But what happens after? I’ll still need to run. I’ll still need to let him go. Again.
“I really gotta go, babe.” His voice beats with a sultry rasp, his knuckles brushing along my cheek. “Even though the last place I want to be is anywhere you’re not.”
“Enzo…” I murmur his name, wishing the intense connection between us was enough to make me whole again, but I’m ruined beyond recognition. He still doesn’t know me and all my hidden scars. It’s easy to remember, he may reject me once he does.
“I’m still mad at you,” I tease, tethered with an emotional edge.
His gaze wanders tenderly over every inch of my face.
“That’s the way I like it, baby.” Those full lips dip to the corner of my mouth, and he kisses me there so lightly, one would barely feel it, but I do.
I feel everything. The force of it. The touch, tingling over my entire body.
He makes me feel this. Always. And with him, I never want to stop feeling.