Page 7 of Enzo

“She’s not just any woman. She’ll be mywife.”

“So you’re really going through with it?” He scoffed, the disbelief clear on his face.

“Yes.”

No hesitation. No delay.

“The date hasn’t been set yet,” he pointed out.

“It will be,” I deadpanned. “The sooner the better.”

“Somehow, I have a feeling it has nothing to do with the arrangement Father made all those years ago and everything to do with whatever you’re up to.” He threw his arms out on either side and sighed.

I didn’t bother answering him. Instead, I focused on the young woman with midnight hair and eyes the color of the Aegean Sea as she shifted from her reception desk duties to assisting a nurse drawing blood.

It had been a month since my little scheme at Revelation, and unfortunately, it didn’t help to ease my obsession. She thought she could wield her body like a blade and offer it to a stranger just to spite me. Give away what was mine.

She should have known that no sane man would ever let her do that. And I wasn’t entirely sane. I was fucking obsessed with her.

The moment I saw her in that club, the invitation I sent her clutched in shaking fingers and defiance burning in her eyes, I knew we’d reached a point of no return.Dio mio, she looked so beautiful in that dress that captured the sway of her hips perfectly. It was as if she were performing for me. Or maybe punishing me. I was still undecided on that one.

There was one thing that Penelope didn’t anticipate, and that was how far I’d go for her. I’d intercepted all the other men who thought they could have her, and she was too naive to know I’d never allow her to give her innocence to anyone but me.

I was the one who stepped out of the darkness. The one she reached for with trembling fingers. The one who pulled her into the candlelit room and took what she thought she was giving away.

Her first time. Her last rebellion. Her innocence.

And she was still oblivious.

She still doesn’t know it was my hands on her waist, my mouth stealing the breath from hers, my voice whispering in her ear—low and reverent, like a prayer laced with obsession. She thought she was breaking free. That she was choosing someone, anyone but me.

But I was always the choice. The shadow behind the curtain. The hand guiding the knife she thought she held. And God help me, I’ve never stopped thinking about that night.

About her.

How soft she was. How unguarded. How she bloomed under my touch like a secret garden I wasn’t meant to find.

I should have revealed myself, told her the truth, given her the dignity of choice. But the moment I saw her standing there—ripe with fury and innocence—I knew I wouldn’t.

I’d worshiped her for far too long to let anyone else touch what was mine. So I stole her virginity, her moans, and her touches.

I’d have to ensure she never learned of my deceit because she would never forgive me for it.

My jaw clenched at the memories, especially the one from three years ago. It was that night that’d thrown me into this state of mind. A seemingly insignificant day in Paris changed everything.

At eighteen, she’d managed to awaken something in me that had been dead for a long time. However, she’d been too young to pursue back then, so I resigned myself to being patient.

But my patience was waning.

I’d thought up a plan to scratch the itch and hoped it would cure me; unfortunately, it backfired big-time.

Since the night we shared at Revelation, she’d been all I could think of. If I’d known that my obsession would go into overdriveand it’d be game over for me, I would have reconsidered my plan to seduce her.

Jesus, I’d fucked up. Massively.

But what should I have done? Ever since we first crossed paths, I’d wondered if she tasted as good as she looked. Imagined the sounds I could coax from her. And damn if she didn’t taste even better, like she was made for me. Sounded even better, too. Shit—enough. I didn’t need an erection on top of all my other problems right now.

I seriously considered seeing a goddamn therapist. Maybe my mother’s mental instability had rubbed off on me despite my father’s best intentions to protect me and my brother.