But he wasn’t going to make him talk about that. Not now when he was already so vulnerable. “Have you ever sucked at anything in your entire life?” Enzo asked. “You were perfect. Beautiful. I still can’t believe you’re mine.”
Seven glowered at him. “Let’s not go overboard.”
Enzo booped his nose. “I can do whatever I want. You’re exceptional at everything you do. That’s why everyone loves you so much.”
Seven scoffed. “Not everyone.” He glanced up at him, miserable. “My dad seems to think I’m worthless.”
Or maybe they would talk about it now. Fuck that man for making someone so beautiful think he was somehow unworthy of everything he deserved.
Enzo pressed another kiss to the top of his head, his forehead, his cheeks, his nose. When Seven tipped his face up for more, Enzo obliged, pressing their lips together softly. Seven deepened the kiss, lips parting with a needy little sound. Enzo bit back a groan, lazily exploring his mouth until Seven pulled away.
“You mean your dad, the career criminal and serial philanderer? The man who turned abandoning children into an olympic sport? That guy?”
Seven gave a pathetic sniffle once more. “Well, when you put it that way…”
Enzo squeezed him tighter. “Youshould put it that way, too. He’s a scumbag. Don’t let him have all the power when he deserves nothing.”
After a minute, Seven snickered. “A scumbag? Sometimes, you’re so old.”
Enzo grinned. “Sometimes? I’m always old. And I’m gonna keep getting older. You just like me that way.”
“I’m such a cliché. Shitty dad equals weird kinks,” Seven mumbled, dropping his head back on Enzo’s shoulder.
“Not everyone who’s into kink has daddy issues. For some people—like me, like Vince—it’s a way to safely fulfill a need for structure, for control. There’s safety in that predictability. And I get off on knowing you trust me enough to let me have that power over you, that you trust me to keep you safe when we play like this. I like being the one who takes care of your needs. Providing for you makes me feel needed. And that doesn’t come from some traumatic childhood. My life was pretty bland,” he said before tacking on, “aside from the bullying, I suppose.”
“What was your real dad like? Do you remember him?” Seven asked after a minute or so.
“Yeah, kind of.” The words stuck in his throat as a sudden wave of emotion hit him.
“Tell me about him?” Seven asked. When Enzo hesitated, he hastened to add, “You don’t have to.”
Enzo smiled, resting his chin on top of Seven’s head. “No, it’s okay. I just don’t really think about him much anymore. Which is kind of fucked up, I guess. But it’s more self-preservation thananything. If I think about him…likereallythink about him, I miss him too much.”
“So…what was he like? Is he like your stepdad? All hot and polished?”
Enzo couldn’t stop his laugh. “No, not at all. My dad was loud. Not in a mean way. He just had this big, booming voice. With all those kids, I guess he had to be loud for us to hear him, but no matter where we were in the house, we always knew the minute he got home because he would call for all of us like he’d just returned from war and not from work.”
Enzo clenched his jaw, trying to remember exactly what his father sounded like. It got harder and harder as the years passed.
“If he was mad, he would get really quiet. It was terrifying. He was definitely a swing first, ask questions later kind of guy, but he always sat us down and explained everything to us afterwards. It didn’t really make getting our asses beat any less traumatic, but we knew he loved us.”
“Was he…” Seven trailed off.
“Was he what?”
“Was he…” Seven hedged. “Did he…commit crimes?”
Enzo smiled. “My dad was no criminal. If anything, he was too moral, too black and white when it came to the law. My mother has always been the one who did what needed to be done. She said that what’s just and what’s right aren’t always the same thing.”
“She sounds like Jericho.”
“She’s always saying, ‘When the law protects the powerful and punishes the poor, justice lives outside its margins.’ When my father died, my mom just kind of shut down for a while. My stepfather was the one who swooped in and taught her how to be a better criminal…for the greater good. They’re both very in sync with each other when it comes to doing bad things for good reasons.”
“And does his family know what your family does?”
Enzo nodded. “The Conti family enterprise extends far past our own family. My stepfather is a Durante.”
He waited for Seven to connect the last name. “As in the—” Seven dropped his voice to a whisper. “As in the mob?”
