Chapter 16
Serena
The man came out of nowhere and all of a sudden my back was cold. All of the girls had gone to the restroom, leaving me to fraternize with the man who had come up behind me to dance. He was good-looking enough. Not really my type, but then again my type seemed to be the cheating type. His eyes were closer set than Enzo’s and his muscles weren’t as strong as his. And his breath. Yikes. If he wanted anything to do with me, he wouldn’t be kissing me during it. He was subpar to Enzo, and it pissed me off that all I could do was compare him to that asshole.
But I couldn’t help it. Enzo was many things, and many of those things he was good at.
The moment I felt his body ripped from mine I knew what was happening. So it didn’t shock me when I turned around and saw Enzo standing there. What shocked me was Enzo’s blatant violent outburst at some man being around me. We weren’t getting married so my actions were of no consequence to him.
He didn’t still get to own me simply because we fucked.
That wasn’t how that worked.
“Enzo! What the hell are you doing!?”
The man stared at me with a mixture of confusion and drunkenness in his eyes. The night had been ruined, so there was no sense in staying. Everyone had just seen Enzo beat the ass of this guy who touched me, which meant no man in this club would want me tonight. I threw my drink at Enzo’s feet and stormed away, grabbing my purse from a cubby I had stuffed it in.
But I felt him right on my heels.
“Get the hell away from me,” I said.
“We need to talk, Rena.”
“First off, ‘Rena’ is a nickname people I love get to call me. I don’t love you. So get that name out of your mouth.”
My words stopped him in his tracks. Like a blow to the gut or something.
“What? It shocks you that I don’t love the man who intentionally went back on his word?” I asked. “We aren’t engaged anymore, Enzo. You don’t get to go around beating up men who put their hands on me.”
“So you wanted that man’s hands on you?” he asked.
“Yes. I did. He came up and asked me to dance and I said ‘hell yeah’.”
“Hell yeah,” he said.
“Yep. But you didn’t see that part. All you saw was something you thought you owned. Like every other pompous windbag I’ve been good at avoiding until my parents pulled you into my life. Go the fuck away, Enzo.”
“Serena, wait.”
But I was already storming out the side door and dumping out into the alleyway.
“Rena, it’s not safe for you to be out there alone.”
“Stop calling me that,” I said. “If you want, you can address me as Miss Conti.”
“Are you serious?”
I threw him a glare and he stopped in his tracks.
“Miss Conti-”
“What the fuck do you want?” I asked.
“For you to calm down and act like an adult so we can talk,” Enzo said.
I clenched my jaw, trying not to fire back as he looked down at me with those amber eyes. I had no idea what it was about them, but they made me weak in the knees every single time. Coupled with his thick black hair and the throbbing muscles I knew were pulsing in anger underneath his beautiful suit?
I was angry at my body for feeling as weak as it did.
“I saw you with her that night,” I said.
“I figured. My father got a lovely phone call from yours,” Enzo said.
“Good. Then you know the wedding’s off.”
“Look, Miss Conti. What you saw that night wasn’t what you thought it was.”
“Really? Then explain it to me,” I said.
“Gia was the woman you saw. She’s my cousin.”
“I don’t believe you. That woman sure as hell didn’t look like your cousin, the way she was wrapped around you.”
“By marriage. She comes around whenever she needs money. She drains her own family dry, then seeks out other family who she thinks might help. She was getting friendly with me probably because she owed money to someone and was looking for someone to help her out.”
“That was a pretty friendly hug you gave your cousin,” I said.
“I don’t disrespect women. At least, I try not to. But I sure as hell don’t disrespect family. Ever. If a family member gives me a hug, I will return it. I was raised better than that.”
“I haven’t seen that fact in play.”
“Because all you see is what you want to see. You want to convince yourself this will never happen because you were shocked to see me that day after the night we spent together. And I get it. Maybe you wanted me to wake up next to you and kiss you through your morning breath and tell you how beautiful you were with the sunlight pouring against your skin. But that type of language is reserved for my wife. The woman I marry. No other woman deserves that from me other than the woman that’s going to put up with me for the rest of my life. I wasn’t giving it to you that morning because you weren’t my wife. Then I met you that afternoon and realized you would be, and my tune changed. Not because I was trying to save face or hide things from our families, but because your status in my life changed. Immediately. So, I changed along with it.”
His words hit me like a slap across my face. I wanted to be angry with him. I wanted to yell at him and scream at him and berate him for what I saw. But if what he was saying was true, then it defined him as a decent man. It meant I had called off a wedding to a decent human being. Which meant I was the one that overreacted.
And I wasn’t ready to admit that yet.
That I was in the wrong with this one.
“I don’t believe you,” I said.
“It doesn’t matter if you believe me, Serena. The only thing that matters is that I’m telling the truth. And despite how you think I feel, I’m not angry with you. Confused and frustrated, yes. Because marriage requires communication.”
“We aren’t engaged.”
“Doesn’t change the fact that any relationship requires communication. And you’d rather ignore my calls and send your father after me than talk with me like a woman should. You’d rather run for the shadows and live comfortably in your parents’ home for the rest of your life than take a chance on something you keep tossing away because you won’t communicate when you think I’ve screwed up.”
“This is not my fault,” I said.
“No. Because nothing’s the daughter’s fault. If you want to be a grown woman, Serena, then start acting like one.”
I felt my anger flare back up. I didn’t have to stand there and take that kind of language from him. I didn’t have to stand there and listen to some sexy asshole reprimand me like I was a child.
“Are you done communicating?” I asked.
“Yes,” Enzo said.
“Good. Because so am I.”
Then I turned down the alleyway, put one foot in front of the other, and stormed off.
The only issue?
Enzo was hot on my heels.