“Enzo, please. I just want out.”
No.
“I want to leave. This was a bad idea, and I was stupid to take you up on it. And I apologize. I don’t want your money. I don’t want anything. I just want to leave. I don’t feel safe here.”
“You don’t feel safe with me?”
“No.”
An aching chasm opened in my chest as color rose in her face, and I knew exactly what she was talking about. “I didn’t know you were a virgin, Sera. You can’t blame me for that.”
But she was shaking her head. “No. No, that’s not it.”
“Then what the hell is it?” I was growing impatient with this conversation.
She threw her hands up in the air. “Enzo, I know next to nothing about you except that you’re one of Luca’s soldiers, and your life is exactly what I’m trying to escape.”
“What do you want to know?”
Her eyes softened. “Enzo, it’s too late.”
“WHAT do you want to know?”
She shook her head, the ends of her pink hair brushing her shoulders.
Leaning forward, I jabbed my hands into my hair. This wasn’t fucking happening. Resting my elbows on my knees, I forced down my panic. “I’m sitting here, offering to tell you whatever the fuck you want to know about me. The least you can do is give me a fucking chance. Sotell mewhat you want to know.”
At first, I thought she wasn’t going to answer. I glanced over at her. Her chest rose and fell with quick breaths. Her jaw was set stubbornly, but then our gazes clashed, and I saw a flash of uncertainty in her eyes. “Something,” she finally said. “Anything!”
A flicker of hope sparked within me. “All you need to do is ask me, Sera.”
She crossed her arms over her chest and gave me a hard stare. “Okay. Tell me. How many other arrangements like this one have you had with women? Or men, for that matter?”
That was easy. I stared back, hoping she would see the truth in my eyes. “I’ve never done this before.”
That seemed to take her aback. “So, this isn’t a thing with you? Taking women off the streets and offering them money to have sex with you?”
I smiled at the surprise in her tone. “No. This isn’ta thingwith me. I prefer the emotional distance of escorts. Plus, they’re a lot less expensive. I only have to pay them for one night at a time.”
“Then I don’t understand why you’re doing this now. With me.”
“What is there to understand? I wanted you, Sera. And after you tried to run from me, this was the only way I could have you.”
“You could’ve just asked me out to dinner. Like a normal guy.”
But that would’ve given her more of a chance to turn me down. “I’m not normal. And neither is my life.”
“So you’ve never loved anyone? Never been in a relationship?”
“I didn’t say that.” She waited for me to say more. I didn’t want to. “It’s not important.”
But I’d piqued her interest. “I’d like to hear about it anyway.”
I scrubbed my hand over my face, feeling the growth of stubble on my jaw. I didn’t like talking about my wife and son. That was a different time. A different me. Well, maybe not so different. But I could tell by the look in her blue-gray eyes that she wasn’t going to let this go. “I was married. Once. When I was young. And we had a son.”
“Where are they now?”
“They’re not here anymore.”
