"It's like thirty degrees out, Enzo," I laughed. "I don't know about you, but I don't feel like freezing my tits off."
"Heated pools are a thing, you know," he teased, reaching behind him to grab his shirt between his shoulder blades. He pulled it over his head, dropping it into a pile on the floor as his hands went to his belt. The sight of him working the clasp and his olive skin
against the black leather only reminded me of what he'd done to me the day before, and my chest flushed with heat. It was almost enough to distract me from the shirt lying on the floor and the desire to pick it up and fold it.
Or put it in a hamper.
"It's killing you, isn't it?" he asked, bending down to pick it up and fold it with an indulgent smile. He set it on one of the stools at the kitchen island. There'd never been a day in my life where my obsessions weren't an annoyance to the few people who knew about them. There was a reason I'd started hiding them. The thought that maybe, just maybe, Enzo could handle them passed through my head. But the thought was fleeting, reality pounding at the door immediately after.
It was cute now, but even if his house was oddly clean, no man wanted to deal with a woman who needed everything just so. Convincing myself that Enzo would be different was just wishful thinking, and frankly giving him too much credit.
My mouth was probably next on his list of orifices to fuck, and he'd kiss ass long enough for that to happen.
Shrugging his jeans down his legs, he observed me as he went through the awkward motion of taking off his boots and pants without sitting down. With only dark grey boxer briefs to cover the anaconda swinging between his legs, he folded his pants and stretched out his hands and grabbed the hem of my shirt. I let him strip it off me without a fight. Even if he hadn't already seen everything I offered, I wouldn't have fought something as ridiculous as my nudity.
I knew some women hated their body, even if they were beautiful exactly the way they were. I was the opposite. Comfortable in my skin. It was what was inside my head that made me question my self-worth. It was only one of the reasons I took my fitness so seriously. My mind was beyond my control, but my body wasn’t.
His fingers worked open the button of my jeans, sliding down the zipper and tugging them over my hips. I hadn't felt like putting a fresh bra on after my shower at the gym, so cool air pebbled my nipples as he knelt at my feet and worked to take off my boots and jeans. Enzo licked his lips briefly as he stared up at me in nothing but a pair of hot pink panties, but when I suspected he would lunge the way he tended to do, he only stood and took my hand in his.
My callouses touched his, rubbing against the rough skin of his palm that felt so similar to mine. He led me to the sliding glass door at the back of the house, stepping out onto his immaculate patio around the in-ground pool with a cover. Releasing me long enough to press a button, he waited as the cover retracted beneath the patio itself and steam rose from the water in the pool as the cold air touched it. I made for the steps instantly, shivering against the cold against my skin and wanting nothing more than to dive in headfirst. Still, I didn't want wet hair in this cold, so I piled it into a bun on top of my head and walked down the steps, pleased with the temperature of the water the second it bathed me in warmth. Sinking until only my head was out, I watched Enzo push a button on the side of the house and the lights within the pool floor came on. He hurried down the steps as soon as that was done, drawing a chuckle from me as water splashed from around his stupidly long legs.
"Did your dick crawl back inside you?" I asked.
He grinned at me, moving into my space and wrapping his arms around me where I floated. My feet didn't touch the bottom in the center like his seemed to do, so I wrapped my legs around his waist and let him support me as he strolled around in the water. It wasn't uncommon for me to feel small compared to the men I dated. It would be hard not to at my height, but something about being in Enzo's arms felt different. Safer.
"I told you about my dating history," he said. "It's why I haven't bothered to date anyone seriously since. I don't want to know a fucking thing about the men you've been with, aside from this one conversation," he muttered, closing his eyes as if he couldn't believe he was asking the question. "Who broke your heart?" The question on the heels of our altercation with Patrick struck hard, and I knew it aggravated Enzo to think that just maybe my heartbreak had been recent. That I still pined away for another man even while I snuggled deeper into his embrace.
No matter how much my brain seemed to know he was bad for me, my body wanted him in a way no one else had ever compared. Even his dominance over me and the subsequent loss of control served to draw me away from the constant battle of compulsions, bringing me to a place of peace I’d never experienced before.
"What makes you think anyone did?" I asked, trying to ignore the way my heart pounded in my chest. Enzo always seemed to get right to the core of my issues, seeing me for everything I wanted to hide and knowing exactly what was bullshit. "Maybe I just like dick too much to settle down with just one. Variety is the spice of life."
He narrowed his eyes on mine, staring up at me before he called me on my bluff. "I don't think you're nearly as casual about sex as you want me to believe, Baby Girl. If you were, you'd be a hundred percent satisfied to have fucked me like a bunny and know we'd go our separate ways when this is done." The confirmation of everything I knew about whatever this was between us felt like a shard in my chest, but I pushed through it with a deceptive smile. He continued, "That's not what's happening here. We both know it, but you never even considered the possibility of that before you dismissed me. Someone who likes casual sex would probably have tried to jump me that first night. Not tried to sneak out of my house in the middle of it."
"Feeling a little sure of yourself, aren't you, Big Guy?" I asked, shaking my head at his arrogance.
"I'm no stranger to casual sex. I know how women who are looking for that act. You are not one of them, Carina. So cut the bullshit and tell me what he did to fuck you up with dating."
With a sigh, I dropped my head down to stare at the water in defeat. "Nobody broke my heart. Not like Ivory, anyway. It was just a lot of lesser hurts, I guess. I've learned that men don't want to know me. They just want to fuck me and then move on once they tire of my personality. I can't blame them. I exhaust myself sometimes." I laughed mirthlessly. "But I just don't see the point in getting attached when I know none of these relationships will be permanent." I shrugged, trying to tune out the way his hazel eyes singed my face with their heat.
"This is not temporary, Sadie," he stressed. "You don't need to keep me at a distance and wait for the other shoe to drop. I'm not going anywhere."
I hummed, trying to ignore the way the words washed over me and made me feel. Trying to believe them for the first time in my life. Something about Enzo tempted me in a way no one had ever managed before, calling to that vulnerable part of me that wanted to believe that someone could want forever with me.
I didn't need every man to love and accept me. I just needed one.
Sometimes it felt like that might be too much to ask.
"Something dropped," I teased, using perversion to change the subject since the hot water had brought him out to play. He laughed, but shook his head with a sigh.
"You're impossible."
"Funny, that's what my mom says right before she yells, Sadie Anne!" He gave another chuckle as he touched his chin to my shoulder, hazel eyes filled with exasperation.
"My mom doesn't yell," he admitted. "She does that disappointed voice. The one where you know shit just got real and you better run out of the house before she gets her wooden spoon? My sisters and I learned a long time ago not to fuck with that voice."
"How many sisters do you have?" I asked.
He gave me a lopsided grin that sent my stomach tumbling over itself with nerves. "I think that's the first time you've asked anything about me. Hard to deny you care if you ask about my family." He kissed me briefly, and I listened to the cadence in his voice as he spoke animatedly about all five of his sisters and his niece and nephews.