Total pages in book: 86
Estimated words: 79991 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 400(@200wpm)___ 320(@250wpm)___ 267(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 79991 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 400(@200wpm)___ 320(@250wpm)___ 267(@300wpm)
And when her eyes open, I can’t help but smile down at her, even as I curse myself for being too weak to resist her.
25
ALICIA
Is this really happening? Is this my life? Waking up in Enzo’s bed, where he pulls me in to hold me tight against him? And what about the fact that I don’t really mind. What about how good it feels to be wrapped in his arms, his firm chest under my cheek? The slow, steady beating of his heart soothes me and almost lulls me back to sleep.
Almost.
There’s still reality to contend with. Like the reality of how incredibly sore I am after last night. I knew he was big after seeing him naked, but it’s a totally different story when he’s hard.
Then there is the fact he was my first and that I’m not a virgin anymore. I’m not exactly thrilled that he’s the one I lost it to, but at least he made sure I enjoyed myself. He took his time with me until I was practically begging for it.
The morning after, though, is another story. I never even got out of bed to clean myself up, thanks to the way I passed out soon after we both came, and now I’m wishing I had. When I manage to carefully unwind Enzo’s arms to give myself some room, I look down between my legs and find dried blood on my inner thighs. Wonderful.
Getting out of bed is an experience. Not only do I feel a little twinge of pain with every step I take, but my legs are a little shaky, and my feet hurt after dancing for so long in those ridiculous—if sexy—shoes. I take one careful step after another, moving quietly across the room with the intention of using the bathroom in the hallway rather than Enzo’s en suite bathroom.
But I stop when I hear voices at the foot of the stairs. There are men down there the way they’ve been for days now, even if I don’t know why. Heightened security? I guess, but right now, they’re seriously ruining my escape.
I could try creeping past the stairs to cross the hall, but there’s a risk of them seeing me if they look up here. And I’m not exactly dressed. I pull back a little, closing the door softly before tiptoeing to Enzo’s bathroom instead. I really don’t want to wake him up, so this is pretty inconvenient, but he didn’t so much as snort in his sleep when I got out of bed. Maybe I wore him out.
I catch sight of my little grin in the bathroom mirror and immediately frown at myself. There’s nothing cute about this. “Get it together,” I whisper while running a washcloth under warm water, then rub soap on it. I’ve already let things go way too far—not that I could have stopped him if he was really, truly determined to have sex last night, but I didn’t have to be such a willing participant, either. Now he probably thinks I want him, or like this is going to be a normal occurrence, but it’s not. It can’t be.
Especially since he came inside me.
That can’t happen again. Not only because I don’t want to give that old man what he wants, but because I truly don’t want to carry Enzo’s child. I can’t be tied to him like that, which is exactly what pregnancy would do. There would be no way of escaping this nightmare if we shared a child.
When I’m finished cleaning myself up and open the door, Enzo is still sound asleep. I have to force myself not to stare too long at him—he makes a beautiful sight, stretched out in bed, one arm flung over his head. His perfectly sculpted body is on display. Each muscle protrudes out, beckoning me to touch it. If I knew how to draw, I would sit down and sketch him for hours on end. His physical beauty is the kind of thing that should be captured and frozen in time.
All the more reason for me to get the hell out of this room as soon as possible. The longer I spend with him, the easier it is to forget how this all started. How he terrorized me and tortured me. This is not some lost soul in need of redemption.
I go to the door leading to the hallway and open it a crack, listening hard in case those men are still near the stairs. Dammit, they are. Their voices ring out, loud and clear, echoing up the stairwell. I glance over my shoulder to see whether they’ve woken Enzo, but it doesn’t seem like they have.
“This whole thing is fucked,” one of them grunts.
“No shit. But the old man has a plan in place, and you know there’s no changing his mind.”