Page 23 of Enzo (Legacy of Heathens #3)

ENZO

P enelope sat up, clutching the sheet to her chest and glaring at me like I’d just killed her favorite pet rather than given her the best orgasm of her life.

“It was you!” she breathed, eyes wide as she stared at my single thorned rose tattoo, then at my vintage Rolex around my wrist. She scooted away from me like I had a disease, her fury like a hot brand. “You’re my masked stranger. You tricked me.”

Fuck! I’d hoped I would have more time to work on our relationship before she connected the dots.

But really, did she expect I would let her give herself to another man? I’d lie, cheat, and kill to keep her safe and with me. After all, it was me who’d been eliminating the men who had tried to hook up with my woman. Because she was my weakness, and even more importantly, she was mine .

She already had all of me. Devotion. Fidelity. My love and obsession. Was it too much to ask for the same in return?

“I can’t believe this,” she rambled on. “Of course I get stuck with a fucking psycho. A stalker, for Christ’s sake.”

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 are pazzo . 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 at me .”

“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 there was 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.

“I first saw you three years ago.” Her full mouth parted in shock.

“Oh my God, you’re… you’re a full-blown stalker,” she whispered, almost to herself, and I pinched the bridge of my nose. This wouldn’t end well if she kept coming to these kinds of conclusions. She wasn’t necessarily wrong, but I wished she’d focus on… positives, I guess.

“I learned you’d be performing in Paris, so I bought a ticket to the symphony. I was curious about you.”

“So that’s how your stepmother knew,” she murmured.

“Yeah, you were pretty great on that stage.” She was better than great. She was fucking amazing, but that was neither here nor there.

“Why not just introduce yourself? It would have been the normal thing to do,” she countered.

“There’s never been anything normal about our marriage arrangement.”

“Don’t I know it.”

“I was going to introduce myself to you after the show,” I admitted. “But then—” Fuck, could she even handle the truth?

“But then?” she urged me on, her anger making way for mild curiosity.

“Then I heard you talking to your cousin, Hannah Morrelli, about a date you were about to go on.” The memory of that evening was as vivid as ever.

“Are you sure that’s smart?” The girl lifted an eyebrow at Penelope. “I mean, dating’s one thing, but you’re arranged to marry Enzo Marchetti.”

“Hannah, shhh.” Penelope glanced around. “I can’t believe you, of all people, are lecturing me.”

“Well, it just doesn’t seem like you,” the girl—her cousin Hannah, maybe?—said, sounding baffled. “Going on a date with a random stranger. You believe in fairy tales and want the love that your parents and grandparents had.”

“I do, but this business with the Marchettis is standing in my way.” Penelope’s shoulders slumped. “I haven’t even met the guy and I despise him already.”

I didn’t know what compelled me to stick around after that statement, but I stayed lurking in the shadows, wondering what else I might learn from my future wife.

Hannah shrugged. “Okay then, go on your date. Want me to cover for you?”

Penelope flashed her a sheepish smile. “Please.”

“It’s not a problem at all. I’ll tell our parents we’re shopping and then just go alone.”

Penelope squealed excitedly and hugged her cousin. “Thank you so much.”

“Don’t mention it,” she deadpanned. “For real, never mention it, or we’ll both be in trouble.”

Penelope stared at me for several seconds that seemed to stretch into an eternity.

“You killed Gino?” All the blood seemed to have drained from her face as she stared at me.

“I still remember him, Enzo! It was you ?!” She sucked in a sharp breath.

“All the dates… I always wondered what happened to them. I mean, I suspected, but I never could find out for sure. And all this time?—”

“You were mine, and I wanted you to myself.” Not wanted. Needed. I didn’t tell her that she had an iron hold on me, nor that I resented her for it.

“You’ve been stalking me ever since?” she asked, her voice dull.

Guilt flared up in my chest, but I shoved it down.

She couldn’t possibly understand these emotions that I’d been drowning in for the past three years. I’d never felt them before, and once I did, I had to hold on to them—to her—with both hands.

“I’ve been watching over you. Protecting you.

” She stared at me, eyes wide as dinner plates.

“You really didn’t have good taste in men or you simply didn’t do your homework.

Every one of them had dubious intentions.

And none of them deserved what belonged to me.

You would have been hurt, and I couldn’t allow that to happen. ”

“How could I belong to you if I didn’t even know you?” she hissed. “You don’t really know me either.”

“I know you, Penelope.” My voice was unrecognizable. Raw. Rough. “I know you and your friends like to read romance books. I know you learned to play cello for your sister, to help ease her suffering. You listen to Lana Del Rey on repeat so much that I even know the words to her songs.”

“Jesus Christ, you… That’s not normal. I should have run,” she muttered under her breath.

“But you didn’t because you love your family more than anything, and I… fuck, I hope you’ll come to think of me as family one day.”

My wife didn’t respond. Just stared at me like I was crazy, and that look in her eyes would haunt me for a long time.

I would have laughed if it was happening to someone else, because we ruled the criminal empire through torture, murder, and blackmail, and yet it was the betrayal in Penelope’s eyes that disturbed me the most.

“I want a divorce,” she rasped.

“I’ll give you anything—the world if you so wish. But I can’t give you that.”