CHAPTER11
Enzo
“Ihave to tell my father she’s here, Enzo. I’m sorry.”
I shook my head. “You can’t do that.”
“I have to.”
“Why?” I shouted before I could stop myself.
Luca sat calmly behind his desk, non-reactive to my outburst. Only his eyes followed me as I paced back and forth like a caged animal. “You knew the deal when you went to go get her. And I’m sorry. If you would’ve told me about her before Tristan found her, I could’ve—”
“What?” I broke in rudely. “Could’ve what, Luca?”
“I could’ve given you more time.”
“So, this is my fault.”
“I didn’t say that.”
“Then what the hell are you saying? I should’ve left her in fucking Mexico?”
“ENZO.”
I stopped my pacing abruptly, took a breath, and turned to face my friend. The expression on his face told me he was done taking my shit. I bowed my head. “I apologize. I shouldn’t take my shit out on you.”
Rising from his desk, Luca came to stand in front of me. “I know you feel some sort of obligation for this girl…”
I laughed.Obligation. What I felt for Sera was far from any sort of obligation. It was a fucking obsession.
Luca’s blue eyes narrowed in on me. “What’s really going on with you, Enz? Talk to me.”
But I couldn’t. Because how was I supposed to explain to him the things I was feeling when I didn’t even fucking know? How her eyes and voice haunted every one of my thoughts and my body craved her more than food or water. How I’d spent the last few days learning every single fucking inch of her. Jesus, I could still taste her on my tongue and yet my mouth watered for more. The needy sounds she made were a constant orchestra in my ears. Even now, I was half hard. I walked around in a constant state of arousal until I could have her again.
And more than that, I was learning who Sera was. Her wants. Her needs. Her dreams. The things that had happened to her in that house in Mexico weighed on her now, dimming some of her light, but it was still there beneath the surface. I would catch glimpses of it every once in a while, and it would lighten my own dark soul the way nothing else could.
I craved that light, even as I tried to block it. She was a distraction. A dangerous distraction. But one I couldn’t bring myself to give up. I wasn’t ready to let her go. And yet, I knew that I would have to.
Just not yet.
Luca studied me. “There is one other possible solution,” he said, “that would allow you to keep her.”
My eyes met his through my sunglasses, and I knew what he was going to say before he said it. I shook my head. “No.”
But he voiced it anyway. “You could marry her. We could make her father an offer of an alliance.”
“No.”
“Enzo…”
“No, Luca. That option is not on the table.”
But he wouldn’t back down. “Take off your sunglasses.” It was a direct order. One I couldn’t disobey, even though I’d left them on specifically because I knew Luca would see too much.
He waited patiently, and, knowing he would rip them from my face if I didn’t do as he said, I raised my hand and yanked them off of my face, keeping my eyes averted.
“Look at me, my friend.”
