Chapter 28
28
In the end, Enzo and I made our way back up to his place where I wake up the next morning, sore between my legs and my jaw is tight. I’m not sure there’s a place inside my body Enzo hasn’t been.
I wake up first and can’t help but stare at his immaculate bone structure and thick lashes. He’s carved by the angels, and now, he’s become one.
I wasn’t prepared for how much further I’d fall after having sex with him, but the puddle of emotions I am now, simply staring at his profile and the way a sliver of light through the curtains dances on his lips, is enough to make me faint.
Am I lame that sex made me feel closer to him? I’m pretty sure it’s normal. I hope it’s normal for him, too. If not, it’s going to be even harder on me when I tell him about the text. If he’s angry, it will ruin me.
Just then, my deep thoughts are interrupted by a low mechanical hum, and his curtains draw open automatically; warm morning light floods the room.
Enzo rustles now, too, stretching his arm that’s underneath me, but he doesn’t open his eyes, he simply turns his head, searching for my lips, and I press a kiss to him.
“Sorry about the curtains.” He combs his fingers through those hot, disheveled black locks, eyes still shut. “I forgot to turn off the timer.”
I glance at the clock beside his bed and his sexy glasses folded beside. “Do you always get up at six on the weekends?”
He opens those intense brown eyes. “Five if I’m working. I don’t like the stable hands doing my horse every day so I take care of her on the weekends. Animals wait for no man. Honestly, she’ll already be kicking the door down when I get out there.”
“Can I come? You can teach me to clean the stable and stuff? I enjoyed our ride the other day but I’d love to learn about being a cowboy.”
He kisses my forehead. “You thought I was going to let you lie in bed all day?”
“Only thing is I get hangry very easily. Do we have time to eat?”
He rolls over on top of me, and I giggle. “For you, I’ll make time.”
He nestles his dick between my legs.
“I think I need to be iced down there after the night we had. ”
“No rush, baby…”
The way he presses his lips to mine with so much tenderness is more than I bargained for. Maybe men do get attached, too.
“I got you…” He rolls off and stands, dick half hard.
I wish I had it in me to ride him again but I think I’m raw down there now.
“Omelet?” he asks, while walking into his deep closet. When he emerges he tosses a t-shirt at me.
I wiggle it in my hand. “I could just walk to the room next door and get dressed.”
“Wear the t-shirt.”
I follow him into the kitchen, ass cheeks hanging out, because even though Enzo is a lot taller than I am, I’m still a tall woman. But I love letting it hang out for him because the way his gaze snags on me over and over again is an appreciation I’ve waited years to have. I’m not shy about my body. Maybe I should have been, but perhaps being so sheltered, not having had to deal with how shitty men act toward women in real life, or even really see how my peers would have judged me, I didn’t have to deal with anyone criticizing my body. I was allowed to live in the fantasy world of men who looked at their women that way Enzo looks at me.
The last twenty-four hours have been real-life fiction.
With just as much drama around the corner. Should I tell him before we go to the stables?
He dips into his fridge, pulling out some eggs and some fresh herbs. He places the pan on the stovetop and pours in some oil, then pops on the gas.
“The secret to a good omelet…”
“Is having a great chef? ”
“Scottie, I’m teaching you some life skills here. Pay attention.”
The playfulness and tone of his voice is all new. And that adorable nickname? I’m the one who’s cooked now. I’m done.
I sit on a stool at his breakfast bar and lean on my elbows, listening intently even though if I have my way, greedy as it sounds, Enzo will cook for me every morning from here on out. The last few weeks, I haven’t been a fan. I cannot understand why anyone would find it fun. Though I’m pretty sure my impatience with cooking stems around the fact I always wait too long, I’m too hungry, and the time it takes becomes a serious annoyance.
“Obviously you have to crack the eggs first.” He cracks one. Then two… He cocks an eyebrow, teasing me about last night. “You’re not going to make me do all the work, are you?”
I get up and go to his side, immediately feeling the magnetic force between us. I need to let my body settle but I don’t miss that this counter would be a fun place to try. I grab an egg and tap it on the side. It’s a pretty hard shell, so I tap harder, harder, until of course, I splatter the thing on the side of the bowl.
I try to fish out some of the broken shell that falls in but it keeps running away from me. “I’m no Gordon Ramsey.”
Enzo has all the patience in the world. “My mom taught me how to deal with this.” He snatches half of the shell I just broke and dips it in the bowl. “The shell is almost like a magnet. It works better than your finger.”
A warmth spreads through me, but it’s not the kind that makes you happy, it’s the kind that makes you melancholy. I wish the Mendez family still had her. Especially my friend, Luis. What would she have made of me? Maybe not much, given I lied to her son. Then again, I still haven’t given up on being useful to his company.
She would have known how much that means to him.
“So…” I hesitate to ask, because it might open a can of worms, but I have to. “Any news from Rio yesterday? Updates on the hacks?”
The threat of these hacks still looms in the background, though with the attackers making no demands for such a long time, it’s no wonder we’re able to take a day off to play house.
“Uh… yeah…” He turns away from me to look in the fridge but he doesn’t pull anything out.
Is he avoiding eye contact?
He scratches his stubble, and when his gaze lands on me there’s something that wasn’t there before. “There was an employee data breach.”
I try not to let him see my sharp inhale. Could that have been Anton? My mind swirls with thousands of horrible thoughts. Now, I know I need to tell Enzo more than ever before, but it’s also scarier than yesterday.
I lied to him. And it’s possible his system was compromised again because of me. Because of Anton? He couldn’t have. How could I have spent years with him and not notice he was a hacker? It’s not the kind of thing you can get good at without spending a lot of time behind a computer. He was never behind a computer.
I’m speechless and yet I have to muster up something. “Unless the team up there figured it out, I’ll add it to my list.”
He considers me deeply. Does he know?
“Yeah. We’d better.” Enzo swirls the pan of oil, which looks hot, so he cracks more eggs, chops herbs, and adds them along with seasoning, then pours it all into the frying pan, giving it another swirl. He’s an expert. “Four employees reported it. There could be more though I’d like to think any others would have reported by now.”
Am I even going to be able to eat this omelet? The details are pouring on thick, and with every moment I pretend that text was from Pen, I seem to fall down a deeper and deeper hole, but just as I had to practice so many times before in my life, I act normal.
He finishes off our breakfast and plates it up, one big omelet, on one big plate with two forks.
We dig in, having totally skipped any sort of eating other than each other last night.
“Mmm. The fresh herbs…” I say, pointing to the plate because I want him to think it’s delicious instead of telling him my taste buds aren’t even working any more.
“Makes all the difference.”
We eat in silence, stealing occasional glances at one another. I offer a chipmunk smile, and he gives me the cutest wink. I didn’t think Enzo would ever wink, but damn is he panty-dropping when he does. I love this simple life. Enzo has me rewording those three wishes constantly. I want this life more than anything.
My heart swoops, and I place my fork down and search for the tips of his fingers so I can touch him.
I won’t let anything ruin us. I have to make this all right. Maybe I should go back to making myself useful. I’ll find the source of the hacks. I’ll find out who took those numbers yesterday, even if it leads to Anton.
Then, and only then, I’ll beg for his forgiveness for lying.
It’s greedy. It’s selfish. But I want more of this. I just can’t bring myself to stop this momentum.
Apparently, he wants the same .
“I could get used to this.” He envelops my hand in his. “You being here.”
“Me, too.”
Watching Enzo with a horse is sexier than him throwing me over his shoulder and effortlessly carrying me out of the pool last night. And man, was that hot. He’s all jeans and black t-shirt, cowboy boots peeking out of the bottom. His muscles flex frequently from digging the fork into the bedding to carrying a heavy bale of the shavings and throwing them down. He’s so capable, so sexy, and so unafraid of the huge beast that, though she is beautiful, seems a little scarier now that she’s tied up loosely outside the stall and isn’t under Enzo.
The horse I rode to book club, Hector, is in the stall next door and can’t seem to stop whinnying. Enzo said he thinks we have food. He seems to know what the creatures want, what they’re thinking… I wonder if all his years of patience with these animals growing up is what made him so intuitive. He never could have guessed my exact situation, but on many levels, he has me pegged.
Still, he believed my stupid fib after the fair. Is he not intuitive? Or am I just a top-notch liar? Both suck.
Enzo teaches me everything he knows, and I finish putting the last of the dirty bedding in the wheelbarrow. Mucking out a horse stall isn’t nearly the gross job I thought it might be. Horse poop is surprisingly not stinky. Just the opposite; I love the natural, earthy scent out here. And it gets even better when Enzo opens a tightly packed bag of wood shavings.
“Mmm.” I inhale the scent of fresh-cut pine. “That is the great outdoors in a neat little package.”
“I’ve been doing this for years and I always love that smell when I cut into a new bag of shavings.”
We work together, pulling down the older, but still clean bedding onto the rubber mats he has, and then, those strong shoulders of his dump two bales of feathery wood flakes out over the rest.
“Spread these out with your fork.” He shows me his technique, forearms veiny and flexing. “And then we need to make some banks along the back and sides.”
The flakes break apart easily and remind me of snow, and no matter how hard I try, I can’t get the sly idea out of my head. I throw my fork aside, bend down, scoop up as many as I can, and throw them straight at Enzo. They’re light and don’t hit him hard, but rather spread out over his head and face like confetti.
His jaw is wide open. Sand-colored flakes collect in the brim of his sexy hat and rest on his shoulders.
“You wanna play, do you?”
I giggle. “I couldn’t resist.”
The frisky glint in his gaze tells me I either need to run from the stable now or accept his revenge. The man catches me by the waist on my way to safety; somehow he bends down, biceps bulging as he makes a scoop with his arm and sends a flurry of shavings all over me. It’s the snow fight I never had. Childish laughter erupts from me instantly, and I bend down to return fire. The next thing I know, the entire stable is a wood-flake storm, they’re everywhere… in my hair, down the front of my tank top, all over Enzo. I giggle uncontrollably while he absolutely bombards me, clearly ha ving done this before; he has the technique down. I’m no match for his speed.
I step back and away, laughing so hard I can hardly cover my face, my whole body succumbs to this pure joy, and eventually, I’m leaning against the wall, legs of absolute jelly, tears leaking from my eyes.
“Mercy!” I manage to sneak out through my giggles. “Mercy.”
He steps into my space and pins me to the wall. “You didn’t think I’d let you get away with that, did you?”
“I should have known better.” My cheeks hurt.
And he’s smiling, too. It’s a broad, authentic, unstoppable smile. The serious lines between his eyebrows are gone, replaced by creases to the sides of his deep-brown eyes, shining bright, so present… he’s nowhere else but here. My Lord is he glorious with those lips and those bright teeth spread out in happiness. I’ve never seen him like this before and I’m hell-bent on creating as many moments like these as I can for him.
I will make this all right. I will. And then he’ll smile like this every day.
His gaze deepens, and he seems to consider every inch of my face. His smile falls, but not into the usual scowl, instead, his features are full of reverence. He pins me with one arm to the side of the stall. With his free hand, he reaches up and takes his hat off, shakes off the flakes… and puts it on my head.
“Mine.”
My heart races, I’m sure he can hear it. I don’t know exactly what Enzo means with that word. His girlfriend? It doesn’t even matter. I’ll be his anything…
He lifts an eyebrow, looking for a response.
I nod slowly. “Yours. ”
He sinks his fingers into my tangled hair and grips my skull, tipping my lips up toward his and places the most sumptuous, delicious, heart-stopping kiss on my lips. The cowboy hat falls to the bed below. My hands find their way to the sides of his face, his tongue dives into my mouth, and he lets out a low groan like a satisfied beast. Our kiss deepens, and he peppers hot, open-mouthed kisses to my neck, lacing his fingers through mine and raising my hands, pressing them against the wall.
When his hand glides up my side and his thumb brushes my pebbled nipple, I’m ready to fall into this bed and take him right now.
But instead, baritone sounds enter the barn area— Santi’s voice, then Rio’s, then Luis’… Enzo takes big, thick tastes of my neck, one, two, three more times at the sound of each voice, then leans back, letting his forehead fall to mine. He brushes my plump lips with his thumb, and his voice is husky.
“You’ll be the end of me.”
My God, could I have ever dreamed someone would talk to me like this? Take me like this? Care for me like this?
I am falling so damn hard… he’ll be the end of me, too, if I don’t fix this.
Just then, Luis steps by Estrella tied up outside and pats her on the neck.
“What are you doing tied up here, potra ?”
Then he’s startled by the sight of us. “ Dios mío !” He grabs his chest as if we gave him a heart attack. He quickly assesses the stable that is such a mess. It looks like we spent the whole night romping in here.
He averts his eyes politely. “Sorry to interrupt…”
He steps away as to give us privacy we no longer have anyway because Rio and Santi poke their heads around the corner, handsome cowboys in their hats.
A sly grin spreads across Santi’s face.
Rio’s lips spread into a crooked smile, too.
I brush flakes off my shoulders as if that will wipe away their dirty thoughts.
Enzo doesn’t bother dignifying their assumptions and merely offers a simple, “Morning.”
“It certainly is a fine one, isn’t it?” Rio lifts an eyebrow.
Enzo’s brothers receiving this sign of us being more makes my heart swell. I always wanted a sibling. The way Enzo talks about his brothers and sister would make anyone yearn to be a part of this.
They shove off, clearly needing to do jobs of their own.
Enzo gives me one last kiss then cleans a few flakes from my hair, but I’m sure it looks like a bird’s nest. He picks up a fork and sets to finishing the job.
I lean against the wall, admiring him. My chest is so full it’s almost unbearable. Sometimes my feelings are so big I think my rib cage will snap.
But my thoughts of how much I care for this man, how gorgeous he is and how very much I do want to be his end are all interrupted by my cell buzzing in my back pocket.
And when I slide it out, the words send my swollen heart right down into my shoes.
UNKNOWN
I can make it to Mount Hamilton in two days. Can you offer me a safe house?