Chapter 6
Zeno
“The hell happened to you?” The words felt heavy on my tongue, but I forced them out as Clara crawled into the back seat of the car I’d had to call to bring me to her.
The full power of her scent hit me a moment before she slammed the door, but that rush of air made everything that much stronger, until I felt like I was drowning in her.
For one delirious moment, I imagined her crawling over me, straddling my lap, grinding her pretty little pussy against my cock. Then I was shaking the thought away, demanding my focus stay on her and what was actually happening.
“I don’t want to talk about it.”
“You’re going to fucking talk about it. If you don’t do it here, you can do it in front of your parents when I get you home.”
She spun toward me, but my reflexes were off, and all I could see was the bright red lipstick coating her perfectly plush lips.
“Zeno, please.” Her hand landed on my thigh, and my mind started to tumble into dangerous thoughts, only for her voice to pull me back to the car. “Don’t make me go home. Let me stay at your place tonight. I just… I can’t…”
Her voice broke, and she jerked her hand away from my leg, covering her face as she turned her back on me.
“Hey, kid.” I inched closer, put my hands on her bare shoulders and nearly died as her scent and her warmth assaulted me. “What’s going on?”
She melted under my touch, curling in on herself as she pivoted in her seat, tucking herself into my chest like she belonged there.
My heart fucking raged, telling me that was true. That the feel of her against me was the only thing right in this world.
She sniffled. “Please don’t make me go home, Zee.”
Fucking hell.
Saying no to Clara had never been my strong suit.
Saying no to her when I was high as a kite and she was clinging to me like I was her savior was fucking impossible.
Still, I tried.
“Clara—”
“Please?” She curled her fingers into my shirt, pressed herself harder against my chest.
A silent sigh left me. I gripped her hands, yanking her away from me, if for no other reason than to try to retain that last bit of clarity still rolling around in my head.
I looked down at her, intent on demanding an answer to my questions, only to be caught off guard by the movement of her perfect lips.
“I’ll be good,” she promised, and the broken plea in her voice had the last vestiges of my anger toward her crumpling at her feet.
“Fuck!” I slumped back in my seat and wiped my hand down my face.
“So… where am I taking you?” The foreign voice had me reaching for the gun I hadn’t even brought with me. I blinked, bringing into focus the kid in the driver's seat.
Clara lowered her head, turning her face toward the door she’d crawled in just a moment ago, and my chest squeezed as I said the only thing that could possibly bring happiness back to her pretty brown eyes. “Back to my place, where you picked me up.”
The kid punched something into his phone, then pulled out into traffic. As we drove under a streetlight, Clara’s hand found mine. She squeezed my fingers. “Thank you, Zeno.”
The fog in my brain had begun to clear, but I pretended it hadn’t. Pretended I didn’t notice this girl’s fingers woven between mine.
I couldn’t take away her happiness. Not over something as simple as seeking the comfort she could gain from holding my hand.
“You need to learn how to drive.”
Her pretty eyes widened, and her fingers clamped down on mine. “No.”
“No? What do you mean, no?”
She pulled her hand from mine—it was just as well—and crossed her arms over her chest. I forced my gaze to her face, forced myself to not stare as I noticed the way her posture pushed up her tits.
I swore, I could see her bottom lip trembling as she averted her gaze. “The last time I tried to drive, my anxiety was so bad, I hit two cars before even leaving the driveway. My mother refuses to drive with me, and she won’t let her driver do it either. She said I’ll never figure it out.”
A breath huffed out of me. “And you believed her?” Clara didn’t move, so I pushed myself up in my seat, closing some of the distance between us.
“Remind me how you backed down when your fourth-grade teacher told you you’d never amount to anything.
Remind me how you walked away when your fifth-grade teacher said you couldn’t be in the advanced classes in middle school because of the grade on one single test.”
Clara turned her head slowly in my direction, until we were so close, I could have pressed a kiss to the smooth skin on her forehead.
“Remind me,” I said, cocking an eyebrow at her, “how you listened when your parents said you weren’t supposed to go to Stephano’s club.”
She rolled her eyes, turning away again. “What’s your point?”
“My point is, Clara Vinci doesn’t back down from adversity, even when she should.”
“Why do I need to drive? Mom and Dad have drivers. Paulo has a driver. Hell, everyone had a driver last time we were at Paulo’s.”
“That’s not true. None of the Paternelos use drivers. And I don’t.”
She rolled her eyes. “Why not?”
“Because I can’t be dependent on someone else in an emergency. What if someone needed my help?” I gave her a pointed look. “What am I going to do? Call my driver to come pick me up so I can go pick you up?”
“Ummm…”
Clara stifled a giggle, pointing to the kid in the driver's seat. “He has a point.”
“Shut up!” I snapped, and the kid made a show of clamping his mouth shut. I turned my gaze back to Clara, to the beautiful storm clouds hovering over her head despite the smile that touched her lips. “What are you going to do if I can’t come rescue you?”
“Call a car?”
“I mean it, kid.” I wiped my hand across my face. “What if someone else needed you? What if something happened to Arik, or Paulo, or your parents? What if it was a true emergency? What if it was life and death?”
She bore her delicate throat as she tilted her head, and the lights shining down from the streetlamps made a kaleidoscope of colors dance over her skin. If I hadn’t been so high, I might’ve made a mental note not to be anywhere near her when I was high.
It only made wanting her harder to fight against.
“Maybe she needs a good teacher,” the kid up front said as he flipped on his turn signal and turned onto my street. “Like, someone who cares enough to call a car to save a girl when he’s too fucking high to drive himself.”
“Hey! Watch your fucking mouth!”
Clara giggled again, and the sound went straight to my dick. “I like you.”
The kid perked up. “I can give you my number. You can call me anytime you need a ride.”
“Don’t even think about it.” The words came out on a growl, and all the much needed Zen I’d been able to find prior to Clara’s phone call had been sufficiently snuffed out. Weeks' worth of stress from having this girl in my space had been wiped out with a single strong joint.
And it was all for nothing now.
“Clara, get inside.” She gave me a smirk, then slid from the car and strutted her way up the sidewalk to my door. I turned to the jackass who thought he could flirt with my girl.
Like he had a right.
Like a girl like Clara would ever take a ride with a piece of shit like him.
Hand on the handle of the door, I caught the kid’s eye in the rear-view mirror. “If I ever catch you talking to her again, I’ll fucking kill you.”
I climbed from the backseat, taking a deep breath of air that wasn’t tainted with Clara’s delicious scent. Then, grabbing my wallet from my pocket, I pulled out a hundred-dollar bill and tossed it over the seat into the kid’s lap.
“Thanks for the ride.”
Clara had my door open and was just stepping inside as I stalked up the front steps after her. She didn’t stop once I was inside, kept going up the stairs to the second floor as I paused to flip through all the locks to secure the door.
I raced after her, but she was nowhere to be seen when I reached the landing. Hesitating, I glanced up the next flight of stairs. It would be just like Clara to go straight to my bedroom and climb into my bed. Just like her to pick a fight with me when I wasn’t firing at full speed.
But something about the way she didn’t look back as I followed her inside tugged at what little sanity I had left.
She’d looked hurt when we pulled up at the curb next to her. There were no lies on the tip of her tongue when I tried to make her tell me what was going on. She had real tears in her eyes when she begged me not to send her home.
Thoughts of those tears guided me toward her bedroom. Sure enough, a dim light shone from the crack under the door.
There was no answer when I knocked. I opened the door slowly, eyes darting wildly, searching for the girl as I steeled myself for whatever state I’d find her in.
I wasn’t prepared for what I found.
Clara was curled around a pillow on her bed, still wearing the skimpy little dress that had my body reacting in ways I wasn’t proud of. With her back to me, I took a moment to adjust my erection before I made my way to her side.
In light of her current state, the anger I so often relied on to make it through my interactions with her was nowhere to be found.
“Clara.” When she didn’t respond, I took a seat on the bed. My hand hovered over her for one long minute before I allowed myself to give in.
Fuck. The silk of her dress was as smooth as her skin, and the thin fabric did nothing to stop the heat emanating from her body. I shifted uncomfortably, because my dick didn’t get the message that this was not the fucking time.
“What happened tonight, kid?”
“Do we have to talk about it?”
Irritation bubbled under the surface of my skin. “You called me in a panic, begging me to come pick you up. Then you beg some more to come here instead of going home? What’s going on with you?”
Her chest rose, then fell with a slow breath. “I went to the club.”
My lips pressed into a firm line. “Obviously.”
She sighed again. “Chloe and Sadie and I got drinks. We were dancing. And someone tried groping Sadie, and we couldn’t get him to stop. Then Stephano showed up and acted like it was all my fault before he kicked us out on our asses.”
I bit my tongue, because there were so many things I wanted to say, but I knew they wouldn’t be helpful.
You’re too young to be drinking.
Wearing shit like this dress was a sure-fire way to draw attention from the wrong kind of boys.
Your brother’s a fucking idiot if he thinks a guy groping your friend is your fault.
Before I could come up with something more helpful to say, Clara spoke again. “Sadie and Chloe felt the same way.”
“What are you talking about?”
“They blamed me. They left me there.” Her voice shook and something inside me broke. “Told me to find my own way home, even though they brought me there tonight.”
“Clara—”
“I thought we were friends, Zee.” She flipped over on the bed, showing me her tear-stained face. “Friends don’t abandon you after something like that.”
Her tears. I couldn’t take the sight of them. They made me weak. Made me want to go to the ends of the earth to fix whatever caused them, do whatever it took to make them go away.
Before I thought to do so, I found my hand upon her cheek, fingers wiping away the tears. “You don’t need people like that in your life.”
Clara gripped my hand, pressing her face into my palm. With her eyes closed, she looked like an angel. So perfect. So innocent.
She was anything but.
But she was Clara Vinci, and I wouldn’t want her to be anyone else.
“Will you really teach me how to drive?”
Felt like I swallowed my tongue when her pretty brown eyes found mine. I wanted less time with her. Needed space between us if I was going to survive this.
But I couldn’t say no to this girl, not when she looked so damn broken and hopeful at the same time.
“Sure.” I had to force the word from my tongue, because every-fucking-thing inside of me knew this wasn’t a good idea.
Clara gave me the saddest smile. “Thank you. And thank you for coming to get me tonight.”
“Of course,” I told her, taking my hand from her grip as she curled around her pillow and snuggled into her mattress.
I grabbed the throw blanket from the foot of the bed, draping it over her and tucking her in.
I pressed a kiss to her temple, breathing in that rare showing of innocence. “Sweet dreams.”
“Sleep well,” she murmured, eyes closed and half asleep. I rose from her side and reached for the door. “And Zee?”
Taking a small step back into her room, I asked, “Yeah?”
“I love you.”
My heart twisted and pulsed, feeling full and broken and like it was taking a ride on a rollercoaster in my chest. “Love you too, kid.”