“Oh, Enzo.”
“Don’t pity me. I don’t need it,” I spit. The words are harsher than I intend them to be. I grab a strawberry, dip it in whipped cream, and lean over the table, offering it to her. She opens her mouth and takes a bite of the fruit. A flash of my cock in her mouth invades my mind. I’m desperate to distract her from the conversations about my fucked-up childhood. I plop the rest of the berry into my mouth. “I always have strawberries in the house ever since that night, because that’s what you tasted like.”
She peers up at me, shock flashing in her pretty brown eyes. I want to pull out my guitar and start serenading her with some sappy shit like Van Morrison’s “Brown-Eyed Girl,” but that’s not who I am. She deserves all that shit, but she got me instead—a broken, fucked-up man who kills people for a living. Life could’ve been different for her, for us, if I hadn’t come up the way I had, but I can’t change any of that. I can’t promise her flowers and poetry, but I can promise her she’ll never be alone or unsafe. Two things I would give the world to hear out of her lips about me.
She touches her lips, and I fuckin’ lose it. I am actually jealous of her fingers. I fuckin’ made fun of my best friend, and here I’m more pathetic than he is. “Fuck this.” I haul her out of her chair. Her pretty eyes go wide. I’m an asshole for scaring her, but confused anger flares in my blood. I’m not sure if I want to strangle her or kiss her until all she can think about is me. The passion fueling me for this girl is all-consuming, so powerful that it replaces by all other facets of my life. “You’re driving me fuckin’ crazy.”
She nods as she bites her bottom lip. “I know,” she whispers before she flings her around my shoulder and presses her lips to mine.
My body relaxes in a way it hasn’t for six fuckin’ months.
Chapter Seven
REESE
I melt into him. I’ve heard that cheesy expression my entire life in one form or another. Usually I roll my eyes, but in this moment as I’m nestled in Enzo’s arms, pushed closer to him as if he can’t get enough of me, I melt into him. Finally, I get it. That desperate need for another human being. The ache you harbor at the possibility of losing them. The fuckin’ stars you see when they simply brush a finger against your skin.
He pulls away first. I almost cry out at the loss of his lips against mine. His hands cup my face, his dark eyes searching for something before he presses his forehead to mine. “You on the pill?”
“Yes. But it’s a little too late to be asking that now, don’t you think? I could be six months pregnant for all you know.”
He pulls back from me, moving so fast that you’d think I was on fire and he’s scared to be burned by the flame. “I pulled out. What the fuck are you on the pill for?”
“What?”
He steps to me, his hands grabbing on the flesh of my upper arm, and he squeezes, a warning about what he is capable of. When I wince, he drops his hands and moves away. His hands are in his hair, tugging at the black strands. Enzo paces back and forth, muttering to himself. “I’m a fuckin idiot.” He moves back to me, making me flinch. I’m not sure what he’s going to do. He’s volatile. “I’m sorry I grabbed you. It will never happen again. I would fuckin’ rather burn my own eyes out than ever hurt you. I’d burn my whole body. Head first just like I did to Luc for laying a hand on you.”
When I don’t answer, he falls to his knees, his lips on my feet. “I’m so fuckin’ sorry. Just… The idea of you being with anyone else makes me see nothing but red. I want to burn down the world, kill anyone who thinks of you like that.”
My hand cradles his cheek as I join him on the ground, pushing up against his face. When he glances at me, I can see the horror in his eyes. “I haven’t been with anyone else, Enzo. I’ve been on the pill since I was twelve. It was a precaution I took.” I don’t add why I took the precaution at a young age. That I was afraid of things that no little girl should be fearful of.
He scrubs his face. “Thank fuck.” He cocks his head, as if examining me. “Why did you go on the pill at twelve?”
“People go on birth control for many reasons.”
“I want to know,” Enzo demands.