inside me had claimed her long ago. But my head, my fucking head, knew it couldn’t ever be.
This was as good as it got. Stolen touches in the dark. Whispered words in the night.
I didn’t know how to love a girl like Nora. Not the way she deserved. I knew how to make her scream, to bring her body pleasure over and over again… but love?
What the fuck did a guy like me know about a thing like that?
“Enzo… we can’t keep doing this.” Nora touched her head to mine, inhaling a breath so deep I felt it down to the pit of my stomach.
“You make it quiet, Gattina. You.”
“Sometimes I wish I didn’t.” Her lips curved into a sad smile, the raw honesty in her words gutting me like a fish.
It wasn’t fair to do this to her, not again. But I’d never claimed to be a good guy. I needed her. I needed to sink inside her warm, wet heat and chase away the demons that haunted my every waking thought.
She was strong.
So fucking strong. It would hurt when the sun came up and our masks slid back into place but for now, right here, I wanted to pretend that I wasn’t the villain.
“Be with me, Gattina. Make it all go away.” I ghosted my mouth over hers, feeling her shudder beneath my touch.
“You already have me,” she whispered, and it was all the permission I needed.
In one swift motion, I rolled Nora underneath me, pinning her against the mattress with my hips. Her skin felt like heaven against mine. Soft and smooth and fucking alluring.
“Nemmeno immagini cosa ho intenzione di farti.” Her lips parted as her breath caught. “I am going to fuck him right out of you, so you never forget who owns this pussy.” My hand slipped between us, cupping her roughly.
But Nora didn’t protest, she arched into my touch like the greedy little kitty I knew she was.
“You want this?” I slipped my fingers into her pajama shorts and teased her.
She pressed her lips together, nodding.
“Say it,” I demanded. “You want it… say it.”
“Y-yes.” Nora gasped when I slowly pushed a finger inside her. “Yes, I want it. I want you, Enzo.”
“I’m going to make you purr, Gattina.” I kissed her jaw, trailing my tongue over the seam of her lips as I worked another finger inside her. “And then I’m going to make you come so hard you see stars.”
Chapter 16
Nora
Kissing Enzo was like drowning. He stole the breath from my lungs and all thought from my mind. I melted into him as his tongue curled around mine in slow, expert licks. He didn’t just kiss me—he devoured me.
I’d known the second I opened the door to him tonight, that this was inevitable. We couldn’t be in the same vicinity without something happening between us.
We were magnets.
Drawn together by some invisible force.
But like magnets, we attracted and repelled, and I knew come morning, this moment would all be a distant memory. But I could live with that. Enzo needed me right now. He needed to lose himself in me. He needed me to chase away his demons and I would.
There wasn’t much I wouldn’t do for this complicated guy. I knew Arianne wouldn’t understand. Later, when the sun rose and she heard it in my voice or saw it in my eyes, I knew she wouldn’t understand why I continually let Enzo back in.
Maybe part of myself didn’t quite understand it either. But when we were together, in these rare moments of tender touches and desperate kisses, I felt at peace.
So I would give Enzo this, I would give myself this, but I was under no illusion that it meant anything more than this moment.
Enzo couldn’t love me, couldn’t love anyone, until he chose to a) believe himself worthy of love and b) believe himself capable of love. Whatever had happened in his past—and I’d gleaned snippets from his cousins—had done a real number on him. Nicco and Matteo had their sisters, they had a strong female influence, but not Enzo. He had himself and his father.
And now Vincenzo Marchetti was gone.
I couldn’t imagine losing one parent, let alone two. Yet Enzo acted indifferent. I saw the cracks though. The rare moments when he chose to let his guard down, like right now.
Bringing my hands to his face, I took control of the kiss, pouring everything I felt into each brush of my lips, every flick of my tongue. I cared for this