Chapter 11

“I don’t know what to say,” Enzo said sincerely.

“Nothing to say.”

“I want to kill Andy McGuire. If I ever see him…”

“Ironically enough, I heard he was in a motorcycle accident about a month ago and died.”

“Good. Got off easy.” Enzo’s jaw twitched. He was so angry with…everything. He’d lived this charmed life—maybe his family had been cold and perhaps he hadn’t been able to do the things in life he’d wanted to do, but it was a good life. Compared to Jamie Lynn’s it had been a fucking fantastic life. He felt like scum for ever having complained about anything. This woman in front of him was a fighter. A real fighter—not the kind that he wanted to be. Not to win a belt, show off some skill, collect another trophy, but a fighter in the truest sense of the word. And he was in awe of her.

“I wanted you to know, but I don’t particularly want to talk about it¸ okay?” she said as she lay back on the bed, their faces close together, almost nose to nose.

If Enzo hadn’t already been in love with JL when she’d made her declaration earlier that night, he was head over heels by the time his eyes began to droop at four in the morning. They’d spent the rest of the night talking, something he’d never done before. Pillow talk, she’d called it. When she noticed how uncharacteristically angry he’d become, she quickly changed the subject. He had so many follow-up questions, but she wouldn’t let him in. It was as if she’d needed to get it off her chest but didn’t want to have a conversation about it.

The exchange morphed into nonsensical chatter about everything and nothing. She’d asked him what his favorite color was, about his first kiss, about Brazil, and he answered candidly about everything while drawing lazy circles around her belly and the valley between her breasts. He probed deeper into her art and the Walls, and she excitedly told him how much she enjoyed painting on such a large scale.

At one point he’d turned his body and rested his head on his pillow, his arms tucked under, his head facing hers. She mirrored him as he told her all the reasons he’d always envisioned himself being a professional fighter, even though it seemed so unimportant now. He never felt judged as he spoke about his passion—things he’d never discussed with anyone before. He’d never felt so supported as when he told her how passionate he was about the sport. She almost jumped off the bed in enthusiasm for him. And her earnestness was refreshing. Marianna had always tried to manipulate him into getting what she wanted.

A pang of guilt hit him as he lay there with Jamie Lynn with thoughts of Marianna running through his head, but he couldn’t help it. Marianna had been in his life for so long, and even though it had never been his choice, he’d accepted his fate, believing that eventually he’d love her. But with Jamie Lynn, there was no hidden meaning to anything she said. She was excited because he was excited, and that was it. There was no doubt in his mind that if he decided to quit his job and live off his winnings from fighting on the amateur circuit, she would stand next to him cheering him on.

Brazilian jiujitsu had begun as his secret need to rebel, but it had eventually turned into a passion. It was something he just loved doing: the camaraderie between the fighters, the feel of his fist against the bag, the total concentration it took to get out from under a really good jiujitsu fighter who was pinning him down. As he spoke about things he was sure she didn’t have any real knowledge about, she pulled his foot closer to hers, using her own foot. It was as if she wanted—no, needed—the connection. Her eyes began to close first, and he couldn’t help but caress her face as her breathing evened out and she finally fell into a peaceful sleep. He smiled as he looked at his fiery pixie. She had so much fight in her; he couldn’t imagine such a little thing surviving and thriving such a hard life. She deserved so much more. But her story put all the pieces in place. It explained why she’d been so standoffish at the beginning, why she demanded honesty, why she didn’t give a shit what people thought of her. Why she never let him be on top of her when they had sex. She was the truest person he knew. If she wanted to wear a purple wig and clown shoes, she would. If she wanted to make love by the beach, she would. She lived her life to the fullest, which made him see that he wasn’t living his life at all. He was shackled to his family, whom he would probably never be able to please anyway.

Enzo had done everything by the rules up until a year ago, and look what that had gotten him: a divorce and a transcontinental move. He decided right then and there that if he learned any lessons from his time with Jamie Lynn, it was that he needed to start really living, his family be damned. He would do everything in his power to stop the cogs that he’d set in place to destroy the Walls and her art. Four days ago, when Jamie Lynn had asked him out, his life had been irrevocably changed. As he drifted off to sleep, the thought of her not being in his bed after tonight caused an unfathomable ache in his chest.

“Okay, seriously, I really have to go.” He stood up from the bed, but she got on her knees, grabbed his neck, and pulled him close. He was dead on his feet, having gotten barely three hours of sleep after spending most of the night in bed making love. She, on the other hand, seemed rested. He’d learned she had terrible insomnia and rarely slept a full night. Clearly she was accustomed to little sleep, whereas he was a mess.

Completely ignoring his plea, she said in a husky morning voice that made his dick twitch, “I love the beard.”

“I haven’t had a chance to shave since Thursday, and now I won’t have a chance before I have to get to the office. My staff’s going to fall over in surprise when they see me.” He kissed her deeply. “I already missed work on Thursday and Friday, I missed a teleconference on Saturday, and I completely disappeared on Sunday. I have to go in today, sweetheart. Mondays are always busy.”

She pouted.

“And won’t someone miss you somewhere if you keep missing work?” he added in between kisses to her jaw and neck.

“Yeah, I really do have to go in.” She sighed. “I have no one to cover me today.”

“Okay, I’m cutting you off.” He leaned down and kissed her cheek one last time, then stood to leave, but she grabbed his neck to pull his scruffy face against her cheek. “I’m glad you like the facial hair.”

“Oh yeah.” She took his hand and placed it on the apex of her upper thigh. “Especially here. Where it rubs against my skin while you’re licking me.” And she slid it up higher. “Here too.” He groaned when she pushed his hand against her mound.

“You like my beard there, baby?” he asked, his voice husky, and ran a finger through her wet and needy folds. She closed her eyes and arched her back in response, his fingers drenched in her juices.

“Screw it.” He threw his phone on the bed and dropped the Armani suit he’d been holding. “You’re insatiable. I feel like your sex slave,” he said as he kissed her neck and shoulders.

“Now you’re talking.” She groaned when he kissed her neck. “I think I’m at your command too. My knees still hurt from sucking your dick in the shower last night.”

He flipped her over and pulled her roughly to the edge of the bed, making her yelp in surprise. “Don’t have much time,” he whispered in her ear as he slid his finger over her pussy. “But it doesn’t look like you need much priming.” He reached into his boxers and pulled out his dick and rubbed it up and down her slit. “You ready, sweetheart?”

She answered by pushing back. Had she not told him the story about Andy, he’d have slammed into her, but now he just couldn’t. He rubbed his cock up and down and then slowly pushed it inside with his hands at the base. “Enzo, please,” she said urgently, pushing back against him again, but he continued to move agonizingly slowly in and out. “Damn it, Enzo, I swear to God, if you don’t fuck me right this very instant—”

He chuckled and began to move faster, though still with careful strokes. After a moment she stopped moving and pulled away. “Are…are you being careful because of what I told you? Is that why you were so gentle yesterday?” He didn’t respond right away, which was apparently all the answer she needed. “Lorenzo!” She turned her back to him and wiggled her ass in the air. “You’d better put your dick in me right now and fuck me correctly. You said I could trust you, but if you start holding back and start treating me with kid gloves, this won’t work between us,” she said. “Do you want me to remember that night every time I look at you and see that sad face?”

That made him snap out of it. He did not want her to remember. He wanted to erase that man—no, boy—from her mind and from every crevice of her body. He grabbed the base of his cock roughly, spread her cheeks, pushed into her pussy, and began to move in and out, hard and fast. Her hand gripped the sheets as his fingers dug into her skin. “Oh God…”

“You won’t think of anyone but me from now on,” he grunted. “I’m the only one who’s ever been inside your pussy, understand?” His tone was strangled. “I want me all over you. Inside and out. Only.” He pushed harshly inside, his fingers digging into the skin by her waist. “Me.”

“Oh yes. Just you, Enzo.”

“You’re mine, Jamie Lynn. Mine.”

“I’m coming!” she screamed as he continued to pound into her relentlessly. Her pussy clenched around his cock like an iron fist, and when he felt she’d taken all she needed from him, he bought his knees to the bed, spread her legs further apart, and pushed her back lower and ass higher as he rammed harder into her. His body covered hers, his strangled breaths coming harshly against her ear. He continued to chant “mine” as he felt himself about to come. He pulled his dick out at the last second, continuing to stroke himself, his cum spilling out all over her ass and back. Seeing her marked was something he’d not known he wanted, but it was a beautiful thing, and a moment later he crumpled down beside her, exhausted.

“What the ever-loving hell was that?” she asked breathlessly.

He didn’t answer because, truthfully, he didn’t know what that had been. The thought of another man taking advantage of her made him want to claim her. It had resulted in a surge of possessiveness he hadn’t known he had in him. “Damn, sugar, that was good,” she said, bringing her arm to the side and squeezing his ass. He laughed as he stood and helped her up.

“Come. We need to shower.” He led her to the bathroom. “Sorry about that. I don’t know why I did it.”

“ ’S okay. It was unexpected, but it was hot. I told you, I like to see this side of you. The out-of-control side.”

“It’s all you, sweetheart. You make me crazy and reckless.”

“And you love it.”

“I do.”

Sex had never felt so good. So intense. He hadn’t known that sex could be this way, full of reckless abandon. It physically hurt to leave her snuggled in his bed an hour later, after their shower. They hadn’t talked about the future—hell, they hadn’t even talked about what would happen that afternoon—but the thought of Jamie Lynn not being there when he returned from work…it caused his chest to ache.

“Good morning, Mr. Silva.” Lisa, a temp he’d hired when he’d set up his Florida office, greeted him upon his arrival. He hadn’t intended to be in Florida for longer than a few months. Now, nothing seemed temporary. Those few months had turned into a year, and the thought of returning to Brazil made him sick to his stomach. “Good morning, Lisa. Any messages?”

She grabbed a handful of notes and handed it to him. “Mostly from your father.”

He nodded before stepping into his office. Reality began to seep in, and he felt the air beginning to escape that happy bubble he’d been living in since Thursday. He needed to figure out what he was going to do with the Walls. Now that he’d seen how much they meant to Jamie Lynn, and now that Jamie Lynn meant so much to him, he couldn’t knock down those abandoned buildings. It would destroy her and their blooming relationship. But the area surrounding the Walls was the reason he’d come down to Tarpon Springs in the first place. It was what he’d worked himself to the bone for over the last year. He put a hand against his chest, feeling the heartburn that always came when he was stressed.

Normally he avoided talking to his father as much as possible. When Enzo had left Brazil, they hadn’t been on the best of terms. His father had been of the opinion that Enzo should have turned a blind eye to his wife’s infidelity in order to keep the Silvas in her family’s good graces. “Just get a mistress, for Christ’s sake. Don’t ruin this marriage.” Those had been the words that cemented the fact that he needed to get out from underneath his father’s thumb as soon as possible. He hadn’t been the one to ruin their marriage. In fact, he had done everything in his power to keep the soulless shrew content during their loveless years together. He hadn’t been the one to stick his dick into another woman. Nope. She’d been the cheater; that had been all on her.

But now he was in Florida, still under his father’s thumb, but with a lot more freedom because he was a continent away. The problem was that the reason he was in Florida would undoubtedly ruin any relationship he planned on having with Jamie Lynn, and he felt guilty about not having told her. Still, he’d decided he’d be stopping the project right now, so there was no reason to upset her now by telling her, was there? The Walls would survive, and she didn’t have to know that he’d been single-handedly responsible for her friend’s arrest.

He reached for his phone and dialed.

“Pai,” Enzo said, using the Portuguese term for “father.” The elder Silva spoke English well, but they both reverted to Portuguese when they talked.

“Where have you been? The investors finally sent the documents we needed. We need to move on that. We’re so close to finalizing this deal.”

“Hello, Father. How are you? How’s Mother?”

He heard the sound of the old man sucking his teeth, and he could just picture him with a sour look on his face as he poured himself a scotch. “She’s fine. How’s Florida?” It was probably the only pleasantry he’d get.

“Hot. Rainy. But overall it’s good.”

“So about the project. BIA Inc. wants to break ground as soon as possible, but we’re waiting on the final environmental report. We need them to hold off just a little longer until we have that report, but these guys are not very patient. There’s a charity event in Tampa on Saturday. Go to the event and charm them into giving us a few more weeks. Help us close this deal, Lorenzo.”

“Pai, I was thinking.” Enzo sat back in his chair. “A mall in that area isn’t going to work. I think we should reconsider—”

“What are you talking about?” His father’s voice boomed over the phone. “Absolutely not! You know how many hours you’ve put into this. You need to get this done or I’ll go there and do it myself.”

Enzo felt the blood rise to his face. He stood and paced as he spoke. “I’ve been doing more research. This town isn’t like the others we’ve built in. The people here are close-knit. They won’t like a mall. We should try something different. I’m going to send you a new proposal by the end of the week.”

“What the hell are you talking about, Lorenzo? Go to the charity event and do what you’re paid to do,” he said, dismissing his son’s idea. “This divorce has cost us enough. I don’t need you screwing this up too.” The line went dead.

Enzo slammed the phone down and dropped his head to his hands. Then he grabbed the first thing he saw on his desk, a stapler, and threw it against the wall. His family owned countless malls throughout the world. They vetted up-and-coming areas, something that took years of analysis and study, bought the land dirt cheap, used inexpensive labor, and made a fortune. Not just from the build itself, but from the management of the mall after retailers had leased the space. This particular project would make them millions upon millions. But it meant clearing acres of land, including Jamie Lynn’s sanctuary. He’d had almost two days to tell her the truth, but he couldn’t bring himself to end the perfect long weekend they’d been having. And this information would surely cause all the fun they were having to come to an end.

He stood up and flung his office door open, startling Lisa. “Take messages,” he said, running his fingers through his hair. On second thought, he told her, “Fuck it. Just take the rest of the day off.”

“But Mr. Silva…”

He took a breath. He never cursed, and she looked startled by his outburst. “I’m leaving, Lisa. You can go too,” he said in a calmer tone before walking out.