14. Lorenzo
CHAPTER 14
Lorenzo
“ D id you really expect that telling her that marrying you meant she would have to eventually give up her little sister was going to go well?”
I glared at Damian over the rim of my whiskey. “ Vaffanculo .”
“I’m just saying?—”
“Don’t,” I cut him off. “I don’t want to know whatever you’re ‘just going to say.’” I took a long sip from my glass, but where whiskey usually left a soothing warmth in my belly, now it burned like I’d swallowed battery acid.
“Enzo, she’s been through the ringer,” Damien continued, as if I hadn’t interrupted him at all. Fucker . “Her sister is nothing to anyone here.”
“That nothing could end up a liability to Isabella. I can’t have her putting herself in danger recklessly; her life is going to be hard enough being in the position that she’ll be in.” I wasn’t going to even entertain the idea that she wouldn’t give in to me eventually. I had no intention of ever letting her go.
Damian glanced away from whatever he was doing on the computer to look at me. “She’s not going to end up like Sienna if you ease up the reins a little bit.”
I stood, tired of his mouth, and to his credit, Damian didn’t flinch. He knew that I could smash his face to bits with my fist, but he refused to back down. I admired the man as much as I wanted to crack his skull open in that moment. “Enough.”
He hadn’t been appointed to my vicecapo without cause: Damian knew when to push, but he knew when I’d had enough. He nodded and went back to his work. “I assigned the men to help ensure that our and my uncle’s shipments got to their destinations in one piece.”
“Good,” I said, glad for the change in topic. “What do you think about our hosting the annual meeting for the minor families?”
Damian’s jaw clenched. “I can’t tell you it’s a good idea, Enzo,” he said. “You’ve never been to one of those meetings, but I have. On a good year, it’s boring. A stuffy dinner filled with politicking and kissing ass to snag future favors.”
“And on a bad year?” I prompted when he went quiet.
“People die.”
I had heard that, of course, from my father. He had aggrieved families come to him after such meetings who wanted his help in avenging their lost loved one. He almost never obliged because what happened during those meetings weren’t his business. They had to solve those particular issues on their own. He advised me to do the same, but so far, I had never had to heed that advice.
“Your uncle wants me to put the minor families at ease by telling them that the rumors that I am engaged are untrue.”
Damian’s jaw clicked. “You didn’t tell him that they were.”
“I may not be engaged now, but I intend to remedy that.” Once Isabella comes to her senses. “Either way, that information needs to come from me directly.”
He agreed, even if he didn’t like it. Damian understood what I did about information: who controlled what others knew had the most power. Right now, we controlled the narrative about Isabella. That would all be ruined if anyone untrustworthy got a look at her before I had a chance to release the news myself. “I guess I need to get started on the event planning.”
“Get Carbone’s to cater it. Ask Amalia for recommendations for desserts.”
“You got it,” he hummed, fingers already flying over the keyboard. I was halfway out the door when Damian called me back. “Talk to Isabella,” he said. “She deserves to understand the why of things. She still may not like it, but at least, she won’t have it in her head that you’re just a heartless bastard trying to take away the only family she’s got.”
I didn’t say anything in reply, but it was a win that I didn’t break his nose, and we both knew it. I hadn’t planned on bothering Isabella until dinner, but Damian’s words wouldn’t leave me alone.
I found her at the piano, plucking out a thin melody on the keys. “I don’t want to talk to you right now,” she said without looking at me. “Go back to work.”
“Lunch break,” I said. “Have you eaten?”
She nodded but didn’t elaborate. Her fingers missed a note, and she swore out loud, backing up to pick up the key that she didn’t hit. When I didn’t leave, Isabella closed the lid over the keys with a loud thud . She pushed herself to her feet and tried to go around me, but I grabbed her arm. “Let go of me.”
I didn’t. “So, is this the only way to get your attention?” I asked. “You were just going to pretend I wasn’t there?”
If she could have set me ablaze with her eyes, I would have been a walking inferno. “Let go of me, now .”
“We have to talk.”
Isabella tried to yank herself out of my grip, but I held firm. “I’ll scream, Lorenzo, I swear to God.”
“To what end?” She deflated at that, and I was able to lead her over to the couch. We sat, but I still didn’t let go. I wasn’t going to let her squirm away from me. “Damian pointed out that I didn’t explain myself well enough before.”
Her face scrunched inward. “I don’t care what the explanation is,” she said after a moment. “You think that I have to give up my life outside the Cosa Nostra.”
“You would have to give up that life,” I agreed. “That’s the price of admission here.”
“I thought that meant giving up school,” she said. “I thought I would have to give up my dream of becoming a proper RN. Not that I would have to cut Gemma from my life.”
“Wouldn’t it be selfish of you to keep her in your life?” I countered. “What if someone comes after her because they realize that she’s your weakness? I can’t send my men with her to her classes or to the café. To properly protect her, I would have to bring her here and turn her world upside down completely.”
Her frown deepened. “I don’t want that for her.” Her eyes grew wet, but she rubbed at them before any tears fell. “Damn you,” she murmured to me, voice thick with emotion. “You’ve stolen me from my entire life.”
I wouldn’t apologize for that. Not for a second did I regret dragging Isabella into my world, and I wasn’t ever going to let her go. I brought her hand to my mouth, brushed her knuckles with my lips. “You’re mine, dolcezza .”
She whimpered now, and then she was shoving me against the back of the couch and slinging her leg over my lap. “Damn you,” she cursed at me again before she crashed her mouth into mine. “If I’m yours, make me feel good,” she demanded between biting kisses. I tasted copper and couldn’t tell if she had cut her own lip or bitten a hole in mine. “Make it so that I only remember what I’m gaining here, not what I’m losing.”
With a groan, I stood and turned us around. “Hold onto the back of the couch and spread your legs.”
Isabella, shaking, knelt backwards on the couch. I pushed her pants down to her knees. I reached between her thighs and brushed over her pussy, teasing her clit just enough to make her moan softly.
“You have to be quiet,” I murmured against her throat, even as I sank the tip of my finger inside of her. She wasn’t dripping just yet, but I knew she would be soon. It never took her body long to get ready for me. “What if someone heard you? We aren’t in our bedroom, dolcezza .”
Isabella clamped her lip between her teeth, shivering, but I grinned because I could feel her getting wetter. I fucked her with one finger, and then, added a second, pushing and gliding against her sensitive walls.
“Enough,” she begged. “Put it in already.” I teased her with the tip of a third finger, but she practically hissed as she reached back and cupped my cock through my jeans. “Fuck me,” she commanded, no longer the squirming, embarrassed woman from a few nights ago. This was my savagely beautiful girl who knew how to get what she wanted.
I lived to remind her of her place…but that was for another time. For now, I would give her exactly what she wanted. I continued to fuck her with my fingers, curling into that spot that made her muscles clench around me, as I unzipped my jeans with the other hand. Once I got my cock free, I pressed Isabella more into the back of the couch so that I had a better angle to slide inside of her.
“ Oh !” Isabella moaned as I bullied my way in. She reached back and wrapped an arm around my neck, holding me against her as we rocked together. “Faster,” she pleaded, shoving her hips back against mine.
I grabbed her by the waist and slowed her down. “No. Like this,” I said, low and just for her ears. “I want you to feel it every time I push inside you.”
“I do,” she sobbed out, trying to keep her voice down and failing spectacularly. “I feel it. Please fuck me.”
I didn’t speed up, but I put more force behind every thrust, and it let loose a babble of praises and pleads from Isabella. “You were made for this,” I panted and reached around to thumb over her clit. She wailed before slapping her hands over her mouth. “You’re so receptive to every little touch.” I bit the back of her neck, just the gentle setting of teeth into her skin, and Isabella cried out again.
Her body was starting to tense beneath my touch, and she tried, once again, to shove herself back at me, to force me to speed up. Instead of fucking into her faster, I quickened my touch on her clit. That tipped her, screaming, over the edge, and the sudden vice grip around my cock set me off as well. I grunted against the back of her neck as I pumped my hips against her.
Once we had both settled, I slid out of her. She slumped back into my arms, looking up at me with a dazed expression. “I can make you happy, dolcezza ,” I promised, kissing her.
She didn’t reply, but when I pulled away, she yanked me back down again. “Again,” she pleaded. “Do it again.”
I kissed her again. “Let’s go upstairs,” I told her. “I can take a long lunch break today.”