Chapter Eighteen
Aira Bianchi
I ran my hand over the bulge in my pocket as Enzo walked into the room, dropping a briefcase beside the door. Jaimie gave her brief in record time before leaving. On the way out, she gave me a single nod that told me she would be working hard to find and retrieve Evelina and Livia.
Enzo approached with his impeccable posture, but his face told me that today hadn’t gone as he had expected.
“No good news?” I asked.
He shook his head from side to side briefly, not saying a word as he pulled a bottle of liquor from beneath the center island and poured a triple shot on the rocks. He held it up as if to ask if I wanted any, but I shook my head no.
I hadn’t decided how I would tell him about the pregnancy. I didn’t know how I would tell anyone about it. Enzo’s family wanted an heir, but he had not seemed keen on offering one to them. Would he be disappointed? Excited?
I cleared my throat, feeling the uncomfortable silence between us.
“I had Jaimie take me out today,” I told him. “I got you a present, if you think it will make you feel better.”
“Only if it will make me feel better?” he asked, amusement dancing in his eyes.
“Well, if it won’t, you can wait until your birthday.”
“I don’t know how I will ever make it through two days of not knowing.”
The sarcasm in his tone had me rolling my eyes. “Then I can wait.”
A smile pulled to his lips, some of the stress from today falling away. “I would love to see what you got me for my birthday, Aria.”
The encouragement had me hesitating. I hadn’t gotten him something wonderful. I had access to his entire household fund, so I could have done something extravagant, but I felt like a gift shouldn’t be paid for by the person receiving it, even if I knew that he would never miss a few hundred—even a few thousand —dollars.
I had used a twenty that had been lingering in my totes of belongings that my father had sent over.
I brushed my hand over my pocket again. “Promise me you won’t laugh at it.”
He steeled his expression. “I would never.”
I could see the amusement there. I had no doubt that he would certainly laugh at it.
I pulled a small dog figurine from my pocket and held it between us in my flattened palm. He stepped close to me, his brow creasing. An uncontrollable laugh bubbled up his chest when he got a better look at it. He tipped his head back, and his voice filled the entire house.
I didn’t think I had ever seen him laugh so freely. So wildly.
It warmed my heart in a way I hadn’t expected.
“You remembered,” he said, grabbing the small figure from my hands. It was a hand-carved Corgi, and the shop owner had written “Muffin” on the plaque. It had been one of the first genuine things he had told me about himself. How could I possibly forget that?
“I know it’s not much—”
He held it between us. “This is the most genuine gift I have ever received.”
I brushed him off. “It was a cheap knick-knack.” I laughed. “I know this is an arranged marriage, and it doesn’t mean much, but you deserved to be given something for your birthday.”
My words seemed to sink into him slowly. He stepped toward me, and I took a small, involuntary step back, placing my palm on the counter behind me. “It means everything.”
“I just… I know you feel forced to be here with me. I know there aren’t any real feelings, and I try to make this tolerable for you, but—”
His lips cut me off. They smothered all my words, and I sank into his touch without thought. It was like an addiction. Like a drug. His touch seemed to be the only thing that could calm my ever-present nerves and the tension in every part of my body. I knew it shouldn’t be like that. I knew I had no right to take that comfort from him after everything I had done, but it was inevitable.
A man who I thought was a monster had instead become my safe place.
He pulled away. “You really think you mean nothing to me?”
I bit my lip. “I mean, I know you enjoyed yourself when we spent the night together—”
“I didn’t just enjoy myself, Aria. I found myself in you. Fuck, I had never felt anything else like that.”
I forced a smile and nodded. It was just sex, and he had made that clear. “Good,” I whispered.
“You don’t understand what I’m saying,” he replied more forcefully. “I will never want another woman in the way I want you. Not just because I like fucking you. It’s your compassion. Your selflessness. How you look away when you’re uncomfortable with a topic like you’re doing right now.” He grabbed my chin and forced me to look into his eyes. His earnest, emotion-filled eyes. “Loving you was the one thing I refused to do going into this marriage, yet somehow, you made it happen without even trying.”
Loving you.
Love.
I couldn’t wrap my head around the words. I had seen all the signs, but I had pushed them away. I ignored when he had called me perfect and devoured my body. I had disregarded the way I found him staring at me when he thought I was paying him no attention. I didn’t let myself linger on the possibility that someone like him could ever fall in love, let alone fall in love with me.
All the pieces of the puzzle fell together effortlessly as I considered what to do next.
If he loved me, I could tell him the truth of the pregnancy. I could tell him about my father and his plans, and I could reveal that I had fucked up.
There were two roads ahead of me.
I could follow my father straight to hell and let him use my sisters as collateral for the rest of my life.
Or I could create a family with Enzo and do everything in my power to get my sisters out with me. It would be a risk, but I couldn’t lose this. I wouldn’t break apart my family for the sake of a man who didn’t care for his.
I had to take the gamble.
But before I could say anything, Enzo lifted me on the counter and rested his head on my chest. I felt the vulnerability wafting from him, and I knew that right now was not the time to tell him everything. Soon. I would tell him soon.
There was something else I had to tell him first.
“I never thought I would love someone, either.” His head rested on my chest as his shoulders rose and fell softly. It was soothing in a way. “But how could I not fall for you?”
He jerked his face upward, and my heart pounded so hard in my ears I wasn’t sure I had heard his reply. But I didn’t need to hear anything as he grabbed my face and pulled my mouth back to his.
This time, the kiss scorched through me, straight to my core. Straight past every wall I had tried to build against him. I couldn’t put my finger on a reason. Maybe it was how fiercely he loved his family or the way he had been protective over me even when I had been no more than a stranger.
Maybe I loved him because he helped the people who worked for him rather than using and lying to them.
But I didn’t think any of those things were synonymous with the way I felt for him. It was all of them and then some. The way he smelled and the way he presented himself as completely put together, no matter the situation.
His hands traced every line of my body as he pulled me from the counter and lifted me. I straddled his hips and held on as he marched us toward his room.
“From now on, you won’t be sleeping in your own room,” he told me. “You’re moving into mine.”
“What happened to wanting space?” I teased.
He deadpanned. “I will never want space from you.”
I wrapped my hands around the back of his neck and ran my fingers through the longer strands of hair on top of his head. The gel that held them in place parted beneath my touch. I wanted to tease him for the sentiment in his words, but I couldn’t bring myself to do anything more than trail my lips across the stubble of his cheeks and neck, the meticulous hairline, and the smooth lines on his forehead.
As he sat me on the bed, I realized that this was a future I wanted and that my choices would allow me to have it. I didn’t have to suffer beneath my father forever. I had been so jealous of Noemi and her ability to get away with Anton. I had never considered that I had the same opportunity.
I had Enzo, and he wanted me.
It wasn’t just an arrangement anymore.
“You’re sure?” he asked as he grabbed my foot and removed a sandal from my foot. The slow way he moved his dexterous fingers was a gesture that should have been mundane, but instead, it aroused me more than I wanted to admit.
“I have never been so sure of anything in my life.”
He tossed my other shoe aside before he tugged my pants down my legs quickly enough that it sent me sprawling on my back. The bed cradled me in its clutches as he leaned down and lay one gentle kiss on my lips, then down the valley of my breasts and in a line down my stomach.
And when he reached my lacy panties, he ripped them with his teeth and pulled them downward.
God, my chest rose and fell uncontrollably as he stood over me and looked over my entire body as if it were a canvas that he would do with as he pleased.
“So fucking sexy,” he growled as he slid over me.
He gripped both of my hands and wove our fingers together with a firm grip before planting them to the bed above my head. His mouth fell to the side of my throat where he licked and peppered nipping kisses.
“Lemons and lavender,” he said with a sharp inhale. “It’s intoxicating. It’s not a soap. It’s just you. Fuck, you don’t know what you do to me.”
“I’m the only one who isn’t wearing pants right now,” I whispered against his skin. “But if you take off yours, you will figure out exactly what you do to me.”
My need and his frantic excitement seemed to coincide and create an impenetrable aura around us as he slid off his clothes and settled above me. His warm body seemed to settle the last missing piece inside of me. It acted as the super glue that repaired a damaged fragment that my family had long ago shattered.
There were so many more pieces left to fix, but the one that came together was engrained in an ability to love. To trust. To believe in Enzo in a way I never had before.
My mind reeled as he filled me. I opened my mouth, but I couldn’t hear what came from my lips. Maybe his name or a shout for more. All I knew was the pressure that built within me so fast that I shattered beneath him.
When I focused on his face, I found him staring intently down at me.
“You’re all I ever dreamed I’d have,” I said as my body took every ounce of him and loosened. Heat filled every part of me, and my eyes rolled back into my head.
“Look at me when you cum,” he demanded.
I didn’t listen, unable to fully ground myself in the moment. I was so close. So damn close, and—
Both of my hands slid into one of his, and no amount of tugging could remove them from above my head as he gripped my hair and tugged it back enough that I gasped.
“When I tell you to do something, you say ‘yes, sir,’ and you do it.”
Oh God .
“And what if I don’t?” I teased.
He tugged on my hair again, and the slight tinge of pain shot through me and sharpened the pleasure in my core. “You want me to punish you?” he asked.
I could see in his eyes that he wanted to do that, and I had a feeling I would like whatever cruel kind of discipline he offered. Maybe one day, I would let him “punish” me. I had a feeling I would fall apart beneath his ministrations but for now…
“I want you to do your worst.” I paused and bit my lip. “Sir.”
The sound that reverberated through his chest shook me to my core. In less than two seconds, he pulled out of me, and the warmth of his body left mine. I gasped as he grabbed one of my ankles and expertly flipped me onto my stomach.
“Crawl to the top of the bed.”
His voice was predatory and so demanding. I didn’t hesitate before following his instructions.
“Hold the headboard.”
I placed both hands on the headboard and looked over my shoulder. He prowled toward me with a wicked grin on his face. I trembled at the thought of him entering me again.
“Ass up, Aria.”
Without a second thought, I did exactly as he demanded, arching my back and offering every ounce of myself to the God of a man behind me. I shouted as he thrust into me, simultaneously gripping my hair and rubbing a finger against my clitoris in harsh circles that had me shouting.
Stars erupted behind my vision as I came hard. Every piece of me convulsed and realigned, just in time for me to become a shaking mess. But he didn’t stop. He continued on, working me harder than I thought possible.
“Oh my God,” I cried as his hand tightened almost unbearably in my hair.
But the sensations—all the touches and unfettered caresses of his fingers—destroyed me. I had never considered there was such a thing as too much pleasure, but he pushed every one of my limits as he pounded into me with a force I couldn’t imagine taking.
Yet my body knew what it was doing, and I felt the beginning of another climax coming. Enzo didn’t slow. He didn’t faulter as it came crashing through me, bringing up a noise that had never left my body in the past. A feral cry that had him groaning my name behind me.
“Aria,” he shouted, pounding into me one last time.
His fingers stopped, and I found myself breathing so erratically I had to rest my head on my arm. My fingers had left indents in the fabric headboard, and it took me a long moment to find a single word or thought.
I loved him. I loved him so fucking much, and I couldn’t keep something as important as the truth from him. Not anymore.
He pulled me back into his chest and lay down across the bed and the silk duvet. He pulled a thin blanket from the foot of the bed to spread over us, and I found myself entirely relaxing in his grasp.
He rested a single small kiss on my temple as he held me.
“Tomorrow,” I whispered through a hoarse voice. “Tomorrow, we need to talk about everything.”
Tomorrow, I would tell him everything.