2. Renzo
“ A nd why would you need to hide from the fun?” I wouldn’t turn and face Giulia if she was determined to resist making eye contact with me. I’d wait until she caved first. Women always did. They couldn’t hold up to any kind of pressure.
“You call that fun?” She jerked her thumb over her shoulder as she straightened from the railing she’d been leaning her arms on. Although she only gave me her profile, I wasn’t out of luck for a treat. Giulia Acardi, my sworn enemy, was a beautiful woman no matter how she stood, her slender curves, her long, raven hair, and those rich, dark eyes. I tried my best to avoid looking at her for too long, and only when she wouldn’t notice. It felt a lot like staring into the sun.
I snorted a laugh, no longer bored since I had her company out here away from all the others. Ten minutes ago, my answer would’ve been simple. Fuck no. My brother’s wedding was a bore, and this reception barely held my interest. I was a fan of parties. Living the easy life was more my style, but this grand ball after the ceremony was anything but fun.
Like usual, it felt like politics. Like every single person in there was the same old, operating under the same old dramatic motivations and always playing the field.
They weren’t in there genuinely celebrating my brother marrying Cecilia Romano. I doubted any of them actually gave a fuck at all. All those Mafia lords and leaders were doing business as usual.
I sure as hell didn’t care. I was here because I had to be, and it wasn’t until that feisty, flirty server suggested I “accompany her on her break” that I woke up at the prospect of a quickie in the courtyard.
“Not really,” I admitted. It wouldn’t kill me to agree with her. That reception wasn’t fun—not for me. “I’m just glad it wasn’t me getting married today.”
Luka could have all the responsibilities of giving our father a son to carry on the Bernardi name. Not me. I was spared from having to live up to any important expectations, and that was just the way I liked it.
“I bet that would crimp your style.”
I smiled, still holding out to face her. She’d cave. Giulia Acardi couldn’t last against me.
“And what’s my ‘style’?”
She splayed her hand out, gesturing to where that lusty server almost got my pants unzipped. “Screwing around. Chasing an easy lay.”
I shrugged. “Not like I couldn’t do that while I’m married too.”
Her sigh was a long and heavy one. “True.”
“Don’t tell me you’re one of those hopeless romantics who actually believe in monogamy.”
“And don’t tell me you’re one of those idiotic players who actually think they can make all the women in the world come.”
“I wouldn’t want to make them all come.”
She turned, propping her elbow on the railing to narrow her gaze at me. “Of course not. Why should a spoiled, useless man like you care about pleasing a woman?”
I pivoted, smiling easily at her haughty expression. She was just as high-maintenance as the other mistresses, wives, and daughters were inside the hall, but she still stood out, gorgeous from within with that flare of a challenge that always burned in her brown eyes.
“Do you doubt that I can make a woman happy?” I stepped closer, taunted by her carefully schooled expression. She wouldn’t cower. She wouldn’t retreat.
Giulia was off-limits. But knowing that didn’t stop me from getting into her space and looking down at her.
I had no interest in the number of women I could fuck. It was becoming all the same thing, over and over again.
Gazing into this woman’s dark eyes, I felt a flicker of something new. Something different. And something so addicting that I couldn’t think of stepping back.
Our Families had never seen eye to eye, but staring into hers was like walking on a tight line of the ultimate dare.
“I doubt you would be able to discern when a woman is faking it,” she quipped dryly, lowering her hooded gaze to my chest, then dragging it up to my lips. “Not that any would ever admit it.”
Oh, fuck you . I grinned, turned on by her bickering and trying to belittle me.
“How about you teach me the difference?” I reached for her waist, sliding my hand along her side and reveling in her softness. Making contact was forbidden, but I didn’t care. I couldn’t. Surrendering to the temptation of feeling her was too good to resist.
Her breath hitched, but she kept her gaze low, locked on my lips and unwavering.
“You’d admit it.”
The tip of her tongue peeked out to trace along her lips. “I would.” She cleared her throat, stepping toward me until our bodies were flush. “I’d be happy to tell you how lousy you are.”
You bitch . I grinned wider, wrapping my other arm around her. “Not as happy as I’d be to prove you wrong.”
“As if my opinions matter?” she shot back as she laid her hand on my chest.
Beneath her fingers, my heart thumped wildly. She was forbidden. Off-limits. If my father saw me with her, he’d be peeved. If her parents noticed how close we stood, they’d flip out.
But nothing could have pulled me away. Nothing. I was riveted, locked and stuck on holding on to her and showing her a fraction of the pleasure I was capable of giving.
I pushed into her, letting her feel the bulge of my dick hardening under my pants. She did this to me. Her refusal to back down. That spirit and fire to challenge me right back. This woman turned me on like no other lover ever had. “They don’t. Not at all.”
She slid her hand higher, moving it over my shoulder, almost to hug me. “Then why bother proving anything?—”
“Giulia?”
She tensed. Still and holding her breath, Giulia froze at the sound of her mother’s voice from the doors closest to the ballroom.
I already knew she was hiding, but I didn’t know how badly she wanted to keep it that way.
“Fuck.” She exhaled it as she backed away. From me. From the doors. Retreating from the threat of her mother looking for her, Giulia began to escape to the next level down.
“I doubt she’d be out here,” Rocco Acardi said, slurring already.
Dumb old drunk.
“Well, she has to be somewhere!” Isabella snapped. “Giulia!”
Gritting her teeth, she backed away. Slowly, quietly, and likely hoping I’d stay right where I was to block her.
Nope. Not happening. I wasn’t done flirting with trouble. If Giulia was the source of it, I’d chase her right into her next hiding spot.
I followed after her, making sure to block her from her parents’ view behind me. Once she realized she wasn’t running off alone, she frowned, trying to turn and hurry away faster.
As we reached the stairs, her parents’ voices dimmer in the distance, I caught her before she slipped and tripped on the first step down. Keeping her within my embrace, I hastened to take the stairs three at a time, almost carrying her with me.
“What—”
I didn’t give her a chance to reply, tucking her against the wall on the next level down.
When I came out here, I intended to have that server suck me off on this level of the smooth stone terrace overlooking the gardens.
Now that I’d happened upon Giulia looking as bored as I’d felt, I caged her against the wall instead of that stranger.
“What…?”
Again, Giulia hissed, her sharp gaze searing me and taunting me. Her whisper should’ve warned me off. She spoke defensively, as hostile as ever.
But the second I slammed my lips to hers, she melted under my touch.
If she wanted to hide, I’d help. I’d tuck her into this dark corner and keep her company in the shadows.
And she was all for it. Kissing me back harder, she urged me to hold her close. Her sassy lips tasted too sweet to deny. Her tongue slipped into my mouth and slid with determination to explore. Most of all, her greedy hands latched onto me, first on the back of my head. Her nails scraped over my scalp, tingling my nerves as she held me low to her. Then as she draped her arms over my shoulders in a loose hug, she gave herself up to me.
This was wrong. It was stupid. It was impulsive, rash, and not at all planned.
But I couldn’t stop. Nor could she. With her parents calling out for her on the level above us, she made out with me. While knowing she was the last woman I should ever want to fuck or hold, I devoured her and shoved my body against hers.
Hell, yes.
Now I was alive.
I wasn’t bored.
She spurred me to wake up and dared me to demand more.
Most women submitted too easily, but this one… Giulia was too damn bold to resist.
“I’m telling you, she’s not out here,” Rocco told Isabella overhead. He sounded near tears, but I doubted it was out of sadness for not finding his daughter. That loser was always so dramatic and emotional, and his fondness for alcohol didn’t help.
“Then we have to find her elsewhere,” Isabella scolded.
Giulia clung to me, pulling me closer. I couldn’t tell whether she was scared her parents would come down here to look for her or she was that into kissing me.
Air no longer mattered. Only the stubborn push of her lips against mine mattered. Just the weight of her body and the force of her touch mattered. Nothing else could register.
“I want to go back inside,” Rocco said.
“Oh, sure, you do.” Isabella’s heels chased after him, but I didn’t bother listening anymore.
Without her parents near, I focused on Giulia. Her soft mewls that made me harder. Those sexy moans I felt through our kiss. Every inch of her soft, petite body flush with mine.
After sucking on her tongue, I nipped her lower lip and parted for much-needed air.
“Try not to scream,” I taunted as I lifted her dress up. Breathing hard, I stared at her expressive face as I reached between her legs and slipped my fingers along her wet pussy.
Dripping. Wet for me already.
I groaned, drowning with potent desire at the idea that I'd made her cream like this.
She grinned, lifting one leg to set her heel on the step closest to us. Blocked by the stairs, we were hidden in our own little bubble. It hardly mattered where we were, just so long as I could keep my hands on her.
“Scream?” she sassed back hotly, catching her breath. “Don’t flatter yourself.”
“You’re such a hateful, spiteful bitch,” I argued before I kissed her again. Only once I had her moaning against my mouth again did I push my fingers into her tight, slick heat. Leaning back to whisper against her wet, kiss-swollen lips, I dared her to argue. “You want to judge me. You want to try to piss me off by suggesting I can’t please a woman?”
I pressed my two fingers in deeper, harder, and she dropped her head back against the stone wall.
“Shut up,” she bickered weakly as I slid my digits deeper inside her. “Just shut up.”
“You want me to stop?” I rubbed my palm over her mound, giving her clit a little rub.
She growled, gripping the back of my head and pulling me closer for a deep, brutal kiss. Her reply came in her thrusts, too, and soon, she rode my hand as I stretched her tight cunt.
“Don’t make the entire night a waste of my time,” she weakly answered.
I barked a single laugh. “Who invited you, anyway?”
“The bride’s family,” she whispered, her breaths hot against my lips.
“Sure as fuck wouldn’t have been us,” I promised, making sure to rub harder over her mound. “But I guess I should be grateful for this chance to take pity on you and show you how good a real man can make a woman feel.”
“Do you ever shut up?” she retorted.
I lowered one arm to grab her ass. Once I had her cheek in my hand, digging my fingers into her flesh, I held her in place to piston my fingers into her harder.
She groaned, closing her eyes as she let her head fall back again, but I wasn’t having it.
“Open your eyes, Giulia. Open your fucking eyes and see who’s doing this to you.”
Narrowing her gaze at me, she listened. She watched me, looking down to stare at my hand up her dress. She felt me, feeling my fingers pumping into her tight heat.
“You want to imply that I don’t know how to handle a woman? Even someone like you?” I growled.
She whined, reaching for my head to thread her fingers through my hair. Holding me close, she sealed her mouth over mine and kissed me. Punishingly, thoroughly. I angled my head and craned my neck to meet her in the middle. Between holding her ass and fingering her cunt, I was limited in how I could hold her, but she made up for it. Securing my face to hers, she kissed me until we were both ragged for air.
“You…” She breathed faster, still humping my hand. “You shouldn’t?—”
“We shouldn’t.” I nodded as I lowered my mouth to her neck. Just below her ear, I began to trail wet, hot kisses down the delicate skin there. “We really shouldn’t be doing this.”
“Oh, fuck, Renzo,” she groaned as I added another finger. “Oh, fuck.”
I grinned, kissing down her neck and wondering how loud she’d be. Soaked and squeezing my fingers, she promised a hard orgasm. One I’d relish as a victory forever. One I’d?—
A scream cut through the air.
Not hers.
She went still at the sound.
I stopped, freezing with my fingers up her cunt and my mouth open over her neck.
Another scream.
The music stopped overhead.
“What…” Giulia swallowed, shoving at me. I straightened, lifting from her neck as I pulled my fingers free. Staring at each other open-mouthed, we waited.
What the fuck was that for?
“He’s dead!” My new sister-in-law’s voice rang out clearly from the ballroom. Through the open doors leading into the reception, her news reached us.
“Luka!” she screamed again. “He’s dead!”
I stepped back from Giulia, opening my eyes wide as I let it sink in. Panic and anger replaced lust. My heart thundered, and I struggled to breathe fast enough as adrenaline hit me hard.
My brother had been killed at his own wedding.