Page 50 of Enzo

I grabbed her arm, needing to explain. “No, I?—”

“Don’t touch me!” she shrieked, wrenching out of my grip. The sheet she kept herself covered with loosened, exposing one of her breasts. My gaze dropped, causing her to look down and immediately bring it up.

My heart pounded in my chest. I needed to touch her again, to pull her against me and soothe her worries.

“Please, Penelope, let me explain,” I rasped, reaching for her again.

She jumped back, her eyes flashing with anger. “Fucking touch me again and I’ll kill you, Enzo Marchetti, so help me God.”

Fuck!

She was furious, but even worse was the hurt that stared back at me from the depths of her blue-topaz eyes.

“Okay,” I said, keeping my voice even. “I won’t touch you again until you’re ready.”

She scowled and turned away. “That’ll be never.”

“Never say never,” I retorted wryly.

She pushed her hand through her hair. “You really arepazzo. Jesus Christ.”

“I didn’t want to scare you. I just… I’ve craved you for so long and?—”

Her breath faltered and her eyes bulged. Fuck, I was doing this all wrong.

“I want a divorce,” she said, her voice even.

I gritted my teeth but kept the reins on my temper. “You know as well as I do there’s no such thing in our world.”

Penelope scoffed.

“I’m such an idiot,” she whispered harshly. “I should have known something was off the moment I told you that I slept with someone else and you didn’t react. You must have been laughing the entire time. Laughing atme.”

“You’re not an idiot.” She turned her face away from me, but not before I saw the tears clinging to her lashes. My gaze traced her flushed skin, her trembling lower lip. I couldn’t resist touching her again.

I gently took her chin between my fingers, urging her to look at me. “You’re not an idiot. I just wanted—” Fuck, how could I explain myself and still keep her? I lowered my forehead, pressing it against hers. “Mia anima, you’re not an idiot. I am.”

She didn’t say anything, only regarded me with sorrow-filled eyes.

“Say something,” I begged.

“You stole my virginity. My first real kiss. But that’s not even the worst of it,” she whispered, turning her head and shifting out of my reach. “You made a fool out of me. You… lied.”

Fuck, didn’t she see that I was the fool here? I was so fucking in love with her that I couldn’t see straight anymore. And yeah, she was right. After three years, I caved and arranged a night with her, thinking one taste would end it all. Would release me from her hold. It didn’t. It was like giving heroin to a recovering addict.

“That was never my intention,” I murmured.

“You’re a fucking psycho,” she said, a look of desperation in her eyes. “Of all the fucking people on this planet, I get hitched to a villain. A walking red fucking flag.”

Okay, that stung a bit.

My jaw tightened and I gritted my teeth before I finally found the words. “I never wanted to be your villain, but if you need me to be, so be it. But don’t pretend there’s nothing between us. You searched for me after we went our separate ways at Revelation. Besides, even villains deserve their happily ever after.”

At least her books said so.

“I searched for a man who didn’t exist,” she yelled, tears streaking down her cheeks now. “And if you truly believed therewas something between us, why hide? Why not come forward and admit what we shared at the club? Why hide your true identity? And don’t you dare lie to me, Enzo.”

I dragged a hand across my face, the stubble rough under my palm. In order to answer truthfully, I would have to divulge everything, and that was out of the question. So I settled for a half-truth.