Page 25 of Always Mine
She may have consented to letting me own her body in the heat of the moment, but will she take a real chance on us and open her heart completely after six years of pining? No doubt she thinks I’m a playboy and shit at keeping my word, but the reality is the willpower I’ve relied on to date has been completely eviscerated. The biggest mistake I ever made was convincing her to leave when I should’ve kissed her and asked her to be mine.
Now she’s back for good, I need to show her I’m a safe bet. Her safe bet. I will do whatever it takes to make her believe it. Patrick be damned.
When I enter Johnny’s Gym, I hear her little grunts before I see her. Evie may be five-feet-nothing, but that girl works out like a machine. Since she’s Sophia’s best friend, I’ve known her for almost as long as I’ve known Seb. Like me, she’s an extension of the Princi family. She also happens to be Seb’s one true weakness—except she’s totally oblivious to the effect she has on him or how deeply he cares for her. She’s driven, ambitious and has had to make it on her own for a lot of her life. She’s a tough cookie who doesn’t like to rely on anyone. Yet, if she let him, Sebastian would absolutely give her the world—but that’s a whole other story.
Arms crossed over my chest, I lean on one of the big black concrete pillars covered in posters and take in her form as she assaults the heavy black bag hanging from the beam. Beyoncé blaststhrough the speakers, and her current stance puts her back to me so she doesn’t notice me watching. She runs through a punch combo finishing off with a roundhouse kick. Her technique is good, but she keeps dropping her guard.
I make my presence known. “Guard up, Evie, or you’ll get your pretty face all bruised up.”
Turning towards the sound of my voice, a sly grin takes over her face. “Well, well, well. If it isn’t the beast himself.”
Letting out a howl, I play into her game, which earns me a hearty laugh. I walk over and grab hold of the bag.
“C’mon, Pocket Rocket, show me those roundhouse kicks,” I instruct. “Ten each side, three sets. Go.”
“So how’s your morning been?” she huffs as she strikes the bag with her shin, repeatedly.
“Too fucking noisy. Too many notifications, too many messages, too much buzzing in my brain.”
“Yeah. Well getting snapped looking at Sophia Princi like she’s your next meal and having it put on blast will do that, my friend,” she counters, amused at my current predicament.
I don’t know how much Sophia has told her friends about our little rendezvous last night, so I play the smartass card to be safe.
“Well, a man has to eat.”
“Uh-huh,” she says as she swaps sides and continues laying kicks into the bag. “Clearly, this man has a taste for expensive hosiery. I specifically know Sophia was wearing stockings when she entered that DJ booth last night, but by the time she returned to the VIP area, they had mysteriously disappeared.”
Finishing off her kicks, she steps to the side. Pursing her lips, she stares me down, her signature raised brow a warning to cut the shit.
I know I can trust Evie. She doesn’t rely on anyone, so when she confided in me recently about some trouble she was having, we formed an unspoken bond. I installed security measures in her home and office and insisted she take up boxing. She agreed to my help on one condition: Sophia and Sebastian couldn’t know. I’m loyal to a fault, so her secret is safe with me. For now.
“We didn’t fuck, if that’s what you’re asking. But, I guess you could say things escalated in the heat of the moment. I don’t know where it leaves us now or how Sophia feels about it, especially after that damn blog blast,” I explain truthfully. “All I want is for her to be happy and to have everything she’s worked so hard for.”
“Don’t play with her heart, Marco,” Evie warns. “She’s one of the strongest women I know, but she’s loved you from the shadows for so long that turning a spotlight back on those feelings will completely unravel her. Love her loud or let her go.”
All I want to do is love her loud, but confessing that to anyone else but her doesn’t feel right.
Speaking of loud, Sebastian, Luca and Raf walk through the door, bantering and jostling each other and placing bets about who’s going to dominate the boxing ring.
Evie says her hellos and makes a quick exit, but not before silently warning me again not to fuck it up. If only it was that easy. Right now, I feel like I’m smack bang in the eye of the storm.
“Come on, you dickheads. Who’s going to put their money where their mouth is first?”
Chapter twelve
Matters Of The Heart
Sophia
IhearStella’sloudcackle before I see her. She’s sitting at the gorgeous circular pink marble bar in the center of our favorite cocktail bar downtown, Le Sip, which is influenced by all things Paris, including luxe furnishings with ornate fixtures, brass accents and low lighting.
Juliette, the owner, is in her early thirties, and the epitome of liberated out loud. She’s whip-smart, warm and unapologetic about her needs and wants.
As I approach the bar, I catch the end of the story she’s telling Stella about her latest bedroom conquest while she’s vigorously shaking up her signature cocktail, Le Moulin Rouge, an ode to her former life as a showgirl.
“One minute I’m on all fours, my pussy in his face, then without warning, he just groans, andpoof,comes all over my ass,“ she explains dramatically in her sexy French accent. “Five licks of foreplay before the main event. Well, for him, anyway. Luckily, I had Gabriel on standby in the drawer to finish. You know, I’m an equal opportunist, but younger men do not know how to handle their artillery.”
Stella doubles over in laughter at Juliette’s sex-capades. Meanwhile, the feel of Marco’s rock-hard erection against my back last night feels branded onto my skin. I’m one hundred per cent certain he’s not a two-pump chump, and that he knows how to use his artillery very well. Except, I didn’t get a chance to find out, and he didn’t push me to reciprocate after giving me the best orgasm I’ve ever had. Heat lances my core at the memory. I wonder if he went home and took care of himself to a replay of his head between my thighs? Maybe tonight I’ll get a chance to be the one to lighten his load like his texts suggest. God, what has Marco done to me! Even in my panicked state, overthinking what to do about him, us, my father, I can’t help but get lost in my dirty thoughts.