Chapter 12
Chapter Twelve
Chloe
Less than a minute after Liam left, I'd just gotten my key into the lock when I heard footsteps rushing up behind me.
Before I could react, hands came from behind—one clamped onto my shoulder, the other shoved the door wide open. The force propelled me forward. I stumbled into the entryway.
A scream tore from my throat until I whipped around and saw who it was.
Enzo.
He stood in the doorway, his silhouette backlit and filling the entire frame. Dark suit, but the collar was loose, sleeves rolled to his forearms, several buttons undone at his chest. His hair wasn't slicked back like usual—a few strands had fallen across his forehead.
"Where the fuck did you come from!" My back hit the wall, heart hammering. Fear turned to pure rage in three seconds flat. "You scared the shit out of me!"
Enzo let out a dark laugh and kicked the door shut behind him. It slammed closed, cutting off the cold wind and streetlight glow.
"You didn't want to see me?"
Enzo planted his hands on the wall on either side of my head, arms caging me in. His face was so close I could hear him breathing.
"No! Back off!" I shoved at his chest, but my push did nothing against this brick wall of a man. Not only did he not move back—he caught my waist and pinned me between him and the wall.
"Why did you turn him down?"
I blinked. He meant Liam. He'd seen everything?
"Are you stalking me?" My voice shot up.
Enzo didn't deny it. Didn't even look guilty.
"If you'd said yes." His fingers brushed my lips, voice dropping to a murmur. "Liam would be a corpse right now."
A chill ran through me. The ice in his words made it clear—he meant it. This was the first time he'd shown me the dangerous man underneath. Then anger flooded in. "You're insane!"
"I am insane." He didn't hesitate to admit it.
"I'm fucking insane, Chloe. The thought of another man wanting you makes me want to rip him apart piece by piece."
I stared at him in disbelief, fury churning in my gut. After everything, how dare he say this? Like he actually gave a damn about me. Like he wasn't the one who vanished for a whole week and got engaged to someone else.
I raised my hand and slapped him across the face.
The sound cracked loud. Enzo's head snapped to the side, a red mark blooming on his cheekbone.
He slowly turned his head back, tongue pressing against the inside of his struck cheek, eyes boring into mine.
"You have a fiancée." My voice shook, but I forced myself to shout.
"You have a fiancée named Valentina Lombardi, and you're about to marry her.
What gives you the right to mess with me?
You disappeared for a week—not a single word—what gives you the right to show up now?
What gives you the right to threaten my friends?
What the fuck gives you the right to interfere in my life? "
"You done?"
"No!" My eyes were starting to sting. Shit. I didn't want to cry in front of him. Not now.
"What am I to you? You come find me when you're bored, disappear when you're busy. You fuck me in that booth and say, 'That's all for today,' and walk away. Do you think I'm your toy? Take me out when you want to play, throw me back in the box when you're done?"
"No."
"Then what the hell do you want! Enzo Falcone, what the fuck do you want from me!" I was practically screaming, falling apart.
"I want you." His hand slid down from my hair, thumb brushing my cheek. I didn't know when I'd started crying, but his thumb came away wet.
"Valentina is an arrangement. There's nothing between us—it's business. The woman I love is you. Just like you love me." Enzo's dark eyes locked onto mine, chest heaving with raw emotion.
"Don't flatter yourself." I shoved at his chest again. This time, I managed to create some space. I immediately stepped back, roughly wiping away those damned tears with the back of my hand. "I'm not interested in someone else's husband. Get out of my apartment."
"That's not true, Chloe." Enzo stepped forward, closing the distance I'd just created. "You know that's not true."
"I told you to leave." I turned my head, refusing to look at him.
"I can't leave. Not when you're crying. Baby, if you really didn't care about me, why are you crying?"
God, why wouldn't he just let me go? Why did he have to cruelly strip away the last shred of my dignity?
That tiny bit of pride was all I had left.
"You don't need to know why I'm crying! You just need to worry about your fiancée!" My voice cracked. "I'm just your plaything, disposable, aren't I?"
I was shaking as I said it, too many emotions crowding my chest with nowhere to go. I broke free from his hold, sniffed, and opened the door. "Please leave my home!"
Enzo's expression was hard to read in the dim light. I couldn't tell what he was thinking.
But he still didn't move. I took a breath, about to repeat myself more firmly.
"Please just—mmph!"
Enzo grabbed my chin and kissed me. Through the chaos, I heard the door slam shut again.
I tried to push him away. Didn't work. He kissed me too hard, teeth catching my lower lip until I gasped in pain. But then his tongue pushed inside, swallowing my protest and my breath.
His arms locked me against him—nothing like Liam's gentle, careful embrace. This was suffocating in its dominance.
I didn't want to respond. I shouldn't respond. But my body completely ignored my brain.
I kissed him back hard.
With all the hurt, longing, and fear I had bottled up over the past week, I let the tears continue streaming down my face, mingling with our lips and breath in a hot, messy tangle.
The metallic taste of blood spread between us. I couldn't tell anymore whether I had bitten his lip or he had bitten mine, but that rusty flavor seemed to awaken some primal, beast-like instinct inside him.
Enzo's hands turned rough. He tore at my clothes with raw force. Buttons scattered across the floor. Fabric ripped. He slammed me hard against the wall in the entryway, forcing his knee between my legs to spread them apart.
My body's honesty hit me like a wave of anger and despair, but his familiar warmth and scent demolished what little reason I had left.
"I hate you," I gasped against his mouth, even as my fingers dug deep into his shoulders.
"No, you love me." His voice was gravelly, laced with dangerous sin.
Enzo scooped me up and carried me straight to the bedroom. My torn shirt hung off me in tatters. His hands were everywhere, rough, possessive, and impatient.
He pinned me down on the bed, his lips trailing over my throat and collarbone before moving lower. Even though my brain was screaming at me to stop, I arched into him.
Enzo hooked his fingers into the waistband of my pants. The moment they slipped inside, clarity slammed into me, and I kicked him away hard.
"You're a liar, you asshole!" I choked out, fresh hot tears sliding down my cheeks. "If you're horny, go find your Valentina! Get the hell out of my apartment!"
Enzo lifted his head, searching for my eyes in the darkness.
Then, ignoring my wildly kicking legs, he pulled me into his arms, cradling the back of my head and pressing me tightly against his chest.
"Baby, you look so fucking sexy when you're jealous." His lips brushed my temple, then trailed over my wet cheeks. His tongue traced the paths of my tears. "But I only love you, and I only want to fuck you."
I knew that in moments like this, in bed, men would say anything to get a woman's panties off. The last thing I should believe was these cheap promises made in the heat of lust.
Yet hearing him say he loved me so bluntly, almost brutally, made my heart tremble violently against my will.
"You're lying. You left me."
"Because I couldn't believe it either, that I actually love you.
" His thumb swept gently under my eyes, wiping away another tear.
"The past week has been hell. I couldn't stop thinking about you.
I couldn't sleep. I couldn't focus. I've never—" He let out a heavy breath and pressed his forehead to mine.
"I've never been this obsessed with anyone.
You've completely ruined me, Chloe. No one has ever made me this hard, this crazy. Only you."
My mind buzzed. From the moment he said he loved me, everything started to feel unreal, like some absurd and seductive dream.
Even as my brain kept screaming: Don't be stupid, Chloe! Don't fall for his lies!
Another desperate urge roared through my blood, urging me to lunge forward, kiss him, and silence every word.
"Only you," he repeated, his voice hoarse.
Then Enzo's lips covered mine again, but this time his movements turned devastatingly gentle. He stripped away the rest of my clothes, his mouth following the path of his fingers.
If he had been rough and aggressive like before, maybe I could have fought him with everything I had. But this lethal tenderness left me completely powerless to push him away.
I closed my eyes in defeat and had to admit the shameful truth to myself: I wanted Enzo's touch. I wanted it so badly I was losing my mind. My body, my soul, everything trembled and surrendered to him.
When he finally settled between my legs, the thick, blunt head of his cock pressed against my drenched entrance. I was soaked, aching, clenching around nothing. Enzo let out a deep growl from his throat and pushed inside, slow and deliberate, stretching me open inch by inch with his massive size.
The burning fullness made me arch sharply off the bed.
"Fuck," he groaned against my neck, his voice already ragged. "You feel so fucking perfect."
Enzo sank deeper, forcing my inner walls to take every heavy inch of him until he bottomed out, his balls pressed tight against me.
I could feel every pulsing vein, every ridge, the way he throbbed inside me as if he had been made to fill me completely.
My nails dug into his back as broken moans spilled from my throat.
He pulled out almost completely, then slammed back in, setting a deep, punishing rhythm.
Every brutal thrust was accompanied by the wet, filthy sound of skin slapping skin, echoing through the room.
He fucked me like he was trying to bury himself in my soul, long, powerful strokes that hit that deepest spot inside me again and again, making my toes curl and my vision blur.
I couldn't speak. I could only cling to him, feeling him drive into me harder, his hips slamming, his muscles tensing under my hands.
Sweat slicked our bodies. My breasts bounced with every savage thrust. He leaned down, sucking one stiff nipple into his mouth, teeth grazing the sensitive peak before biting down just hard enough to make me cry out.
But the tears came again. I couldn't stop them.
Enzo froze instantly. "Did I hurt you?"
"No." My voice broke. "I just… I can't believe anyone could actually love me."
His expression fractured with some deep pain. "Chloe—"
"I just can't believe it…" My tears fell like a broken dam as choked sobs escaped my throat. All the rotten past I had kept buried inside spilled out in front of him without restraint.
"I was born into a fucked-up family. My stepfather touched me with his filthy hands, and my mother called me a dirty little slut who seduced men. No one has ever loved me, Enzo… never. I always thought it was because I wasn't good enough, that I didn't deserve anyone's affection…"
"Baby." Enzo cupped my face with both hands, his thumbs brushing away the tears on my cheeks. "What I'm trying to say is, you deserve all of this."
"We're more alike than you think in the strangest ways.
I never got any love either. My father was a piece of shit," he said quietly.
"Carmine hated me because I'm a whore's son.
He never even looked at me. From a young age, he sent me on every dangerous job, and I knew early on he didn't actually want me coming back alive. Pretty fucked up, right?"
His hips began to move again, slow and deep, grinding against my clit with every thrust and making me gasp, tightening around his thick cock even harder.
"But at least we have each other now," he murmured against my lips. "I love you, just like you love me, baby. Stop denying it."
"Enzo—"
"I'm breaking off the engagement," he said, his voice turning fierce. "I'll deal with the Lombardi family. I'll handle my father. I'll protect you from all of it. Just be my woman. Let me take you away from this shitty apartment, away from everything. Let me take care of you."
"I—" He suddenly changed the angle and drove upward with devastating force, slamming straight into my G-spot. Sparks exploded behind my eyes. He kept that brutal pace, fucking me harder and faster. The headboard banged against the wall as he pounded into me like a man possessed.
"Say it." His thumb found my swollen clit, rubbing tight circles while his cock stretched and filled me without mercy. "Say you're mine."
I was so close, teetering right on the edge, my brain a hazy mess of pleasure, emotion, and exhaustion.
"Say it, Chloe."
"Yes," I gasped. "Yes, yes, I'm yours. I'll promise you anything, just—oh God—"
"Good girl."
Enzo growled and drove into me even harder, riding me through a lightning-hot orgasm that tore through my entire body.
My inner walls clenched violently around his thick cock, pulsing and contracting wildly.
I screamed his name, shaking uncontrollably beneath him as wave after wave of intense pleasure crashed over me.
Seconds later, with a rough, guttural groan, he came too. He buried himself as deep as possible, his cock swelling and throbbing inside me as he released thick, hot spurts of cum, filling me completely. Even as he came, he kept grinding deep, as if he wanted to brand every inch of me as his.
For a long while, neither of us moved. We stayed tangled together, hearts pounding against each other, his cock still buried deep inside me, twitching with the aftershocks.
"I meant every word," he finally said, his voice still hoarse. "I'm serious."
I wanted to believe him. God, I wanted to believe him so badly.
"Okay," I whispered.
He tightened his arms around me. "Okay?"
"Okay."