Chapter 35
Chapter Thirty-Five
LOLA
Not even a shower or the terrible coffee Lyndall made refresh me.
My eyes are full of grit, and they ache. And somewhere inside is a queasy heaviness that won’t leave me alone.
I pick at one of the waffles on a plate in the kitchen, but honestly, I’m not hungry.
Enzo appears. Even though I don’t look up, I know it is him, because with the queasy comes a sudden wild flurry of beating wings somewhere in the vicinity of my lower stomach.
“Where’s Lyndall?” I ask as he swoops in, body pressed to mine.
This time, I glance at him.
Oh, boy. Enzo is looking like he always does.
Hot as hell.
There is a little strain that etches into his face, probably from lack of sleep, but my heart thuds hard.
No man should look this good.
Or smell like I want to bury my face against his chest and swoon, both at the same time.
I try to breathe as I skitter back, trying to find a little space.
There are so many directions I’m being pulled at inside, I almost lose my mind.
Or maybe it is him and how close he is standing.
He slides up closer, his hand coming down on mine on the cup, and he eases it free. “You look good.”
“I’m wearing your clothes.”
Jean and T-shirt and a hoodie.
I feel enveloped by him as he drops a kiss on my lips.
“As I said, you look good.” And he kisses me again.
Somehow, I manage not to fall to my knees or worse, a swooning heap on the floor. Like those are my only options, blowjob or faint.
I just look at him as I pull my hand free.
Enzo takes my mug and lifts it to his mouth, taking a sip.
“Because I didn’t plan on any of this. What about work? And how long is this going to go on for?”
“Work’s fine. You’re off sick, working from home, and I’m at some conferences back-to-back.”
“Conferences? On what?”
I don’t think there are any tech expos or conferences happening, not that I know of, and it is something other employees love to talk about, mainly because they get to go.
“This and that.”
“But—”
“I wasn’t specific. And there’s work if you want to do it. You can use the computer in Si-Simon’s office.
There it is, the hesitation with his friend’s name.
But I bypass it. I don’t care, not really, and even if I did, there are lots of reasons, like he calls the guy something else most of the time, an inside joke among friends. Which I’m not.
Besides, I want the truth about the wild things he said to me about this whole scenario.
That someone is after me.
That my father what? Sold me as a prize?
“Please explain about this being about me and my dad causing someone to, what? Collect?”
“Lola.” Enzo puts the mug down and pulls me into his arms, kissing me.
I melt against him, I can’t help it.
He tastes dark and faintly sweet, the sugar in the coffee deepening that delicious taste of him, the one that promises pleasure and sex and heat.
I moan as I kiss him back, and his hand slides down my body, unbuttoning the top of the jeans, his hand slipping in, and my blood pressure leaps as he slips over my clit with his fingers.
I’m not wearing panties because mine are air drying in the guest bathroom attached to the room I chose.
It means he has an open playing field of wet, sensitive flesh, and every touch is like the sweetest fire that makes me want more. Makes me crave him.
Enzo keeps kissing me, his fingers parting my folds and thrusting slowly inside me, his thumb on my clit.
It is a slow burn of a finger fuck, as he pushes into me, curling his fingers to rub my G-spot.
I want him to hurry, but he doesn’t.
He shifts, pinning me between him and the kitchen island as he stokes the flames of my desire into an inferno.
I can’t even think beyond what is happening now, a tingle of expectation of what is next skitters down my spine. I’m locked in on his hand, his fingers, and what they are doing to my pussy.
Enzo bites and sucks on my lower lip, and then he kisses a trail to my ear, his breath hot in my ear, his tongue licking, mouth sucking on my lobe.
I start to rock against him.
This is my reality right now. It begins and ends with him.
And my pussy throbs. The pleasure builds until I try to fight him.
He holds me there, the relentless slow onslaught of his fingers almost too much.
And then something breaks, and I want more. I need more.
He picks up the pressure but not the pace. He goes harder, and I explode.
My body clenches down on his fingers, and I shake and shudder as the waves of bliss consume me.
As the waves gentle, slow and stop, he kisses me again.
“Enzo…” I breathe his name.
“Lola?”
“Enzo.” This time, I push him, and he takes the hint, stepping back, pulling his fingers from me.
He licks them, making me heat, my face a haze of embarrassment.
“Last night, you said someone wants me—”
“I will be taking care of it, okay?”
I frown. “I still want to know.”
“We’re wasting time,” he murmurs, coming back in close. “We could be doing other things.”
He takes my hand and places it on his erection beneath his jeans. Its girth something I automatically wrap my fingers around as I marvel that it actually fits in me. And—
I snatch my hand away. “Your sister—”
“You didn’t worry about her when I was getting you off.”
I narrow my eyes. “I never asked for you to get me off. And she could have walked in.”
“No, she’s practicing violin. That’s a couple of hours of time.”
As he says that, I can hear some strains of notes.
“First, she spends time going through everything without putting the bow to strings. I don’t actually think that is how most do it, but that is what she does. Then she starts working on her technique, as she wants… But you don’t care about that.”
I push him. “I care.”
“It’s boring. I don’t. I care about her face when she plays. it is like she’s part of it all.”
Damn him, softening me with words like that.
“Can’t make coffee to save her life, though.”
“Enzo, about this threat—”
“I’m working on it.” Then he cocks his head. “Simon’s back. Maybe Cade’s here, too.”
He steps away, taking the cold waffle from me and leaving me the terrible coffee. “Look, it is going to be fine. You’re here, under my protection. That means something, right?”
I take a wobbling breath. “Yeah. I guess it does.”
If what he says is true, if Dad sold me to some mafioso man, or if someone thinks I have got the information Dad had that must have kept him alive until his conscience caught up along with the authorities and he went and took his only way out, then I have never been protected.
Dad didn’t protect me.
And who else is there?
I breathe in.
Enzo.
Right here and now.
“Good.” He kisses me once more and then turns and marches out of the kitchen.
I sink against the kitchen island, my legs shaking.
I want to text Alex and let him know what is going on. And I want to let Ruby know I won’t be in. But from how Enzo spoke, it sounds like the office knows I’m not coming in.
Christ, it must look as suspicious as it is. Both of us not there.
I straighten up.
Alex is the worst for me. Being cut off from him is like losing a limb.
It sounds stupid, I know.
But he is the person I’m the most honest with.
There might be feelings for Enzo, but the ones for this man I have never seen, just felt, are just as strong. And we have the kinky aspect I don’t have with Enzo.
I don’t want to think about Enzo. And I can’t think about Alex.
Shit, I can’t even think about Ruby.
I need to do something, and doing work will make me feel better.
I grab the stuff he left for me on the table and stop.
His laptop is there. Open.
The screen is black, so I start to turn away.
Then I stop.
What if it is just asleep and not locked? I could, I decide, work from here, on his laptop, if it is not off.
I reach out a shaking hand and touch a button.
It comes awake, and there is a whole lot of code on a split screen.
Somehow, I find myself sitting and going to open another screen when I stop.
I will do some work, sure, but maybe some of the answers to who is after me are on here.
Enzo might be trying to protect me, but I deserve to know the truth.
So, I start to poke around.
There are encrypted files, and I can’t open them. But I can…
I don’t finish the thought as voices rise from the front of the house.
I have got a thumb drive in my bag. I have got a number of them.
Rushing out, I get my bag, finding a clean thumb drive and thanking myself for being so organized. I write on all the ones that have something on them. A name, a bad picture, whatever it is so I can know the difference between work files.
And the one that has the only copy of family photos on it.
I look around, but I think they are at the front door, so I rush back to his computer and copy the encrypted files.
Then I put things back as I found them and take the work and go into the study.
The computer in there is on. Open to ‘guest’ setting.
Like Enzo had it ready for me.
I load the drive and start trying to hack the encryptions.
After a few minutes, I start seeing results.
“Yes!”
There is a lot of stuff, but the one I’m interested in has my name.
At first, the cascade of information is overwhelming.
But it becomes clear as I open the inner files one after the other.
He has been stalking me? I’m not sure stalking is the right word, but it is like my entire life is here, documented, for people in the far future to marvel over.
There is a comprehensive description of every detail of my life going back months.
Comings and goings. The bars and places I go to with Ruby. My fucking bank account contents fluctuate in front of me from nothing to something.
I stare at it, feeling a little sick and a lot of shock.
But maybe this is what he has on everyone at Barwon.
I know he didn’t just take over because he has yearned to be a CEO. Maybe someone has been stealing? I don’t know.
I take a breath and move on to the next one.
Oh. Fuck.
This one, I can’t explain away under a broad banner.
This is me. In intimate detail.
He has been watching me for years. And not just watching me.
Enzo paid for my college, made sure it was subsidized by a scholarship that never existed.
And then…the correspondence with him and that woman who told me how to get a job by changing my name a little, that is here. And it wasn’t like this shows he looked into it and found out.
No. He told her to tell me that. And then he paid her.
What the fuck is going on?
He helped me get into college and then paid the occupants of the apartment to move out, the one I’m in. The one that is in my family. Or I thought was.
But he bought it years ago, quietly, kept the names on ownership the same but…
He pays a lot of the utilities and taxes.
And my current job.
He is behind it.
He has been paying my salary way before he took over the company.
Every major achievement in my life I can now trace back to Enzo.
There is a third file, and I’m not sure I want to open it.
Photos of me. In my day-to-day life.
That is creepy enough.
But it gets worse. Way worse.
And I want to throw up.
Because all the texts that went missing and the photos I sent Alex are here, in screenshots. And worse, me, in very intimate situations at home.
In that backyard.
Oh, God. Oh, God. Is there video? His father owns that place, he told me himself.
But things that seemed cute glow ugly in this new light.
Me in the shower at home, naked in my bedroom.
Thank goodness there aren’t any shots of me and Alex.
And yes, I want to see his face, but I don’t want to have Enzo looking at me having sex with someone else.
I don’t even want the shower ones or me in my bedroom to exist.
I don’t want him to see me on my fucking sofa, either.
I pull out the drive, making sure the computer is clean of any files, and I put an X on the tab of the drive.
Fuck that.
Fuck Enzo.
He has violated me.
And I know in that instant that I’m trusting the wrong man. Not that there is anyone else.
I guess I could go to Alex.
I could run.
But I know one thing.
Enzo is the one I need to stay away from.