“Because I want to touch you.”
He paused for a second before letting my right arm go. The left he kept pinned above my head. “How’s that?”
Breathing hard, I swept my right hand up the inside of his leg and smiled—he was hard already. I stroked him like I had in the stairwell, my pulse kicking up as he brought his mouth back to mine. Determined to have the real thing, I opened his coat, pulled his shirt from his trousers, and slipped enough buttons through their holes to slide my hand down against tight, hot skin. Wrapping my hand around his cock, I kept my grasp loose at first, allowing him to slip easily through my fingers. When I felt his breath coming harder and faster on my lips, I tightened my grip, further aroused by his moan of pleasure. His hold on my wrist weakened, and he braced himself against the wall. I’m doing this. I’m bringing him to this. The surge of power was intoxicating.
But just when I thought he was over the edge, Enzo pulled up my dress and hitched up my right leg, hooking my knee around his hip and holding it there. I had to throw my arms across his shoulders to stay balanced on the toes of my left foot. Our insatiable mouths came together again as his other hand snuck under the loose edge of my step-in. I gasped when he brushed the sensitive skin beneath the lace, and panted softly when he slipped one fingertip inside me. Shallow, feather-light strokes left me breathless and immobile. Clutching the back of his neck, I thought my left leg would give out with the unbearable pleasure of his touch. My breath stilled as he slid the fingertip up to rub the tiny spot that made my belly tighten and my legs tremble. His tongue slipped into my open mouth as his wet finger traced soft little circles on my throbbing clitoris. A divine pressure began building deep within me, and his name fell from my lips.
Oh my God oh my God oh my God…
“Still want to leave?” he asked.
“I’m going to scream,” I whimpered, fisting my hands in his coat.
He bit my lower lip. “Good.”
He wants me to scream. He wants me to lose control first. He wants all the power.
Summoning every ounce of strength I had, I dropped my leg to the floor and let go of him. “On second thought, I don’t think I’ll give you the satisfaction.” Because I was panting so hard, my words didn’t have quite the sting I wanted.
“Oh no? And why’s that?” He brought his arms to the wall again, boxing me in.
“Because this is all a game to you. And it’s my life.”
I waited for him to spout some nonsense about life being a game, but he didn’t. After a pause, he dropped his arms and backed off. Although I still couldn’t see anything, I sensed movement and figured he was buttoning his pants.
“I’ll pay you the six hundred dollars as soon as I get it.”
“Fine.”
“Are you going to tell your father I was short?”
“Not tonight.”
My heart thumped an irregular beat. “What does that mean? You might tell him tomorrow?”
Enzo sighed. “I do a lot of things well, Tiny, which you would know if you ever let us finish what we start, but not even I am good at divining the future. I have no idea how I’ll feel about this tomorrow.”
Rage shook my body. “You can’t keep doing this! Kissing me one minute and then making threats the next! You went behind my back and stole Al Murphy’s business from me, making it impossible for me to get the ransom money, and tonight you play the hero?”
“It seems to me you’re playing some games of your own as well.” His tone had gone serious, and he threw the deadbolt with a loud, angry thwack. When he opened the outer door, streetlight spilled into our private little space. “Now if you’ll excuse me, I should get back to my table.”
I scooped up my purse where it had fallen and rushed up the steps two at a time. My heels clicked on the cement as I hurried through steam rising from the street without turning my head.
The metal door closed behind me with a bang.
Chapter Ten
I drove home in a fog, my hands shaking on the steering wheel and my legs nearly numb with shock. What had I done? What was I thinking? No good could possibly come of fooling around with Enzo like that. My father was trapped somewhere at the mercy of the DiFiores—had I lost my mind? One minute I hated Enzo, and the next minute I couldn’t keep my hands off him. Yes, he’d lied to protect me tonight, but I had the feeling that was more about his desire than his guilt or sympathy. He could rat me out any time he felt like it. And handsome as he was, I had no idea if he was one of the good guys. He was partly responsible for my father’s suffering, wasn’t he? He’d lured me into Angel’s trap, hadn’t he? Stolen my business? And he had a girl he was betraying every time we were alone, whether I liked her or not.
I had plenty of reasons to stay away from him, and only one to go near.
But when I was in bed later that night, it wasn’t his faults or transgressions I thought about as my hands wandered over my yearning body. No one had ever made me feel so free and yet so restrained, so powerful and yet vulnerable, so delirious with pleasure and ache all at once. It was too much—his magnetism clouded my judgment worse than any alcohol I’d ever tasted. I had to stay away from him. I had to pay him back, and forget his existence. Forget about how he touched me here—I brushed my fingers over one breast—and here—I ran a hand up my inner thigh—and here—I placed my palm between my legs and pressed with the heel of my hand, trying to relieve the tension that had settled there since I’d pushed Enzo away.
Stop it! This isn’t helping!
But I couldn’t stop—I thought about his broad shoulders and hooded eyes and sculpted lips and whisky kisses and talen
ted fingers and the way my hands wrapped around his hard—