Strapped: A Second Chance Mafia Romance (17 page)

As he finally thrusts inside of me, I scream out loudly with joy. He feels incredible, much better than I ever knew he could, and from the way he’s angled inside of me, he’s hitting spots that I didn’t even know I had. He’s making me feel amazing, and I never want this to end.

I find myself quickly teetering on the edge of desire already, and I pant and gasp wildly against him, grabbing onto Enzo for dear life.

“Oh fuck.” He moans, moving his hands from the small of my back, to hold onto the table, which allows him to thrust against me harder and more powerfully. This feels wonderful, and it doesn’t take long for the hot pool of pleasure to spread from my stomach and creep around the rest of my body.

I’m boiling hot and dizzy with lust, and I don’t even know where to place myself.

“Oh my God,” I yell out loudly. “Oh Enzo, this is... it’s...” I’m getting close, and I think from my words that’s totally obvious. Instead of replying, Enzo leans backwards and wraps his lips around my nipples, teasing and tugging with his tongue and teeth. Somehow, this sends a million and one unexpected sensations around my body and I almost lose it right there and then. He’s brought out something inside of me that I didn’t even know was there, and I don't know how to feel about that.

Then the waves of pleasure begin to shatter through my body, causing me to shudder and tremble. I’m falling apart in Enzo’s arms and he’s holding me upright, keeping me sane. As the orgasm consumes me, Enzo kisses me hard, making me feel more connected to him than I ever have before.

As soon as I’ve crumbled and I’ve stopped yelling out in joy, Enzo wraps me around him and collapses onto the floor on top of me. He thrusts, bringing himself to the peak of joy, and this extra moment makes me feel even more wonderful. I can see him fall apart too, experiencing a bliss that’s come only from me, and it gives the whole experience an extra level of wonderment.

With one final yell, Enzo falls on top of me; both of us completely breathless and panting, but smiling at one another happily.

Maybe this will all be okay after all, maybe we can make this work...

But then his phone rings out shrilly, zapping the magic from the room.

“
H
ello
?” I say a little breathlessly into my phone. I really don’t need a distraction from what’s just happened, but I also know that this might be important. I can’t ever miss a phone call, I never know what it’s going to be.

“Where are you, brother?” My best friend Diego asks me. “You were supposed to be at Teasers already.”

“Oh shit!” The memory of a meeting comes flooding back into my mind. I’m never one to normally forget anything, but I’ve been so distracted by everything Sophia that it just slipped my mind. God, it’s a good thing this isn’t a real wedding or we’d be off on our honeymoon right about now! How would everyone cope without me? Sometimes I genuinely don’t think that they’d be able to. “I’ll be there in ten.”

“Oh I see,” he teases, somehow sensing what just happened. “We’re second best now that you’re a married man!”

“Give it a rest dude,” I reply snarkily. “I’ll be there.”

As I hang up the phone, I start grabbing at random clothing items around me, chucking them on without even thinking. My mind becomes so wrapped up in work that I almost forget that my very beautiful, naked wife is still there.

“Are… are you okay?” She asks nervously, looking very vulnerable now. “Where are you going?”

“I’m sorry,” I tell her, wanting to go over to kiss her, but somehow not quite feeling able to. “It’s work stuff.” I can’t even tell her what it is, because she still isn’t one of us. I don’t really know if she has any loyalties to either side, especially after our conversation about what she wanted to do with her future, but I can’t risk it all the same. “I shouldn’t be too long.”

As I give her a lingering look, I want more than anything to be able to forget everything to do with the business, and to spend the day making love with her, but I know that I can’t. A lot of expressions cross her face, but she doesn’t seem to settle on any of them, proving to me that she really has no idea what she’s feeling. I wish that I could help her with that, but instead, I force myself to spin around and walk from the apartment, leaving her alone.

As I ride my motorcycle over to the nearest strip club, my mind is everywhere. This wedding was never supposed to be about feelings or anything, it’s a political move between the two mafia sects, but somehow it feels like it’s quickly becoming more than that. I hope that I’m not getting sucked in too deep, just to end up with a broken heart. After all, Sophia was honest that she really never wanted to get married.

Fucking hell, what on Earth is wrong with me?

I jump off my bike and pull my helmet from my head before stalking inside. One of the mob members owns this place, so we often have meetings here, and even though it’s only us, he always has girls up on the poles, shaking their asses for us.

Usually I like it, it gives me something more interesting to look at, but now I barely even glance. It’s as if something inside me has shifted, and I don’t know what to do about it.

“Hey!” Diego calls me over to the table he’s already chosen for us. “How are you?
Husband
?”

“Ha ha, very funny,” I reply sarcastically, taking my seat. “Now what have you got for me that’s so damn important?”

One of the scantily glad girls hands us a whiskey each, and I murmur a thanks. I have to watch Diego flirt with her for a little while, as I grow increasingly bored. I don’t even want to be here, not really, so to be forced to take even longer over all of this is driving me crazy.

“Can we just get on with this please?” I eventually snap.

“Ooh, we’re a bit touchy aren’t we?” Diego jokes. “Is it because you’re henpecked now? Do you have to be back home in time for dinner?”

Having a meal with Sophia doesn’t sound too bad actually, I realize that I actually would like that very much, and an embarrassment shoots through me.

“Fuck off,” I reply sharply. “Can we just get down to business already?”

“Right, fine,” Diego huffs in an irritated manner. “Well, we
really
need to do something about Danny May,” he tells me. “He still hasn’t paid back that loan, and if you let it go on much longer, your dad will start to get involved.”

I sigh loudly, knowing that I’ve let things slide a bit with my incessant protesting against the marriage. If all of that hadn't been going on, I would have had a much better handle on things.

“Stupid dry cleaners,” I mumble angrily. “We should never have got involved with that drug dealing money launderer! He’s been nothing but trouble.”

“I know,” he replies. “But it’s too late for that now. We need to go and put an end to this.”

“Okay,” I check my pocket, feeling the small handheld gun that’s always on my person there. “Let’s go and get this done.” I don’t particularly anticipate any major trouble from this guy – he isn’t one of the main players – but I know more than anyone else that it’s always better to be safe than sorry. “Let’s go now before he opens for business.” I always prefer to do things in the shadows, out of the public eye because I never want to draw any unnecessary attention from law enforcement. I’m pretty sure that my dad must have some sweet deal with them to have stayed out of trouble for this long, but I don’t want to rock the boat anyway, just in case.

We walk down the street toward the dry cleaners, and I half listen to Diego’s ramblings the entire time. He’s telling me about some hot chick that he met at the wedding and banged last night, and normally I would want all the details – either that or I would be sharing too – but this time, I don’t want to. I don’t feel like I need to know anything about his sex life, and I don’t want to talk about mine either.

What the hell has happened to me?!

When I realize that I just can’t listen any more, I try to refocus my attention. I need to get pumped for this if it’s going to go well. I never go into these things without a degree of anger and frustration, because I find that it makes people respond much faster to my threats and demands, but today I just can’t muster it.

Diego looks ready though, which is a good thing. I can leave most of the talking to him. He’s a massive, tough, muscular guy anyway – his appearance alone terrifies most people – which is why I’ve always kept him close. He’s been a good friend of mine too, living it up with me for the last couple of years, which helps. We have a bond, which makes working together a lot more fun.

“Hey!” He yells are we burst through the door. “Where are you, May? And don’t even bother trying to hide from me. I know that you’re here, and I’m pretty sure you know why I am too.”

A resounding silence rings out over the place, which disappoints me. It means that this is going to be more difficult than I thought it would be.

“Come on, Danny,” I say resignedly. “Let’s just talk. You already know that you can’t avoid us forever. We aren’t going to leave until you come out here, so you might as well get it over and done with.”

Nothing.

“Right, I’m going to fucking smash through this desk in a minute…” Diego starts, but luckily it doesn’t get that far because soon enough our target shows his face.

“Alright, alright!” He cries, holding his hands above his head. “I’m sorry, I know I owe you guys money, I’ve just been having some financial difficulties.”

“You know as well as I do that we don’t accept excuses,” I warn him, looking deep into his eyes, wanting him to see how serious I am. He’s lying to us of course, his business is doing really well (both his legal and illegal ones). He’s as slippery as shit, and I know that eventually we’ll end up leaving here with at least some of the money. I don’t know why he always insists on making us go through this dance – one that’s going to wind up getting him hurt one of these days.

“Don’t fucking bullshit me…” As Diego starts on his rant, I allow my mind to wander once more. Sophia is still very firmly on my mind, and I really don’t know what that means.

Do I like her… really like her?

What does she think of me?

What would she think if she knew the real me?

All these questions spin around and around in my mind, driving me insane. I have never cared about a woman’s opinion of me before, and it’s really weird. Usually, as soon as I’ve fucked someone, they go right from my mind, but for the first time ever, I find myself wanting to have a repeat performance.

That was the best sex I’d ever had, and it wasn’t just because of the physical. There was something more there, and I really want to explore that further…

Ring, ring.

Ring, ring.

Ring, ring.

That sound is there, somewhere in my mind, but it doesn’t register until Diego nudges me, pulling me back into the present moment.

“Dude,” he hisses. “What the fuck? You’re kinda ruining this here!”

“Oh fuck, sorry!” I mumble, spotting the name across my phone screen.
Dad.
“I’ve got to take this.” And I walk from the room, not even waiting to hear Diego’s arguments. He seems to be holding his own in there, so he doesn’t need me anyway.

“Hello?” I ask into the receiver.

“Son?” My dad sounds oddly panicked, which sends a bolt of worry through me. I’ve only ever heard him sound this way when Mike was killed… but it can’t be that again, we supposedly have peace now! “I need to tell you something.”

“What? What is it?” I gasp out, hating the anticipation.

“Something happened, last night after the wedding. It’s going to… I don’t know what it means.” He’s a mess, I can already tell and that’s screwing with my mind too. “It’s Patrick Murphy… he’s been killed.”

“What?” I scream. “Sophia’s father? Who did it?”

“I don’t know,” he replies, sounding genuinely honest. “I also don’t know what it means for the future.”

“Fuck!” I yell. “I’m gonna have to go, to tell Sophia.”

I hang up my phone and start running, completely forgetting everything that was just happening. Diego and Danny spin from my mind as I realize how much this could affect my whole life. I was just coming around to the idea of having Sophia as a wife forever, and now that might be taken from me.

Plus the peace… not only will that go, it’ll get so much worse. You don’t kill the head of a mafia sector without some serious consequences.

“Shit!” I cry out to myself, as I tug my helmet on and swing my leg over my bike. My heart pounds painfully as I realize just how bad my life could be about to get.

Please don’t think that I’m a part of this,
I plead, trying to picture what Sophia’s reaction is going to be.
Please don’t think that this was the plan all along…
I suddenly realize that it could have been, and that I was dragged into something huge without my consent.
I honestly didn’t want this… any of it.
But of course I have no idea how she’s going to react…

I
pace
up and down the apartment with confusion coursing through my veins. I don’t know what the hell is going on with me at the moment, and I’m trying my best to figure that out. What the hell made me sleep with Enzo like that? Sure, he’s very attractive, but I know that he’s the enemy really. I should keep that in mind at all times. I might fancy him, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that he’s the sort of person I should be just jumping into bed with!

There’s just something about him, something in his eyes that makes me fall for him every single time.

I don’t know which version of him is the accurate one, which doesn’t help. Is he the sweet, kind man who I had sex with this morning on the kitchen table, the one who seemed to know exactly what I needed during our wedding? Or is he the cold and arrogant man that I met in that hallway? The one who walked out on me the moment his phone rang this morning without even glancing backwards?

It suddenly hits me that I’m in his apartment alone, and I have no idea when he’ll be coming back, which gives me a unique opportunity to try and find out more about him. If I know more about his life, maybe I’ll be able to glean what sort of person he is. I’ve already acknowledged that his apartment tells me things about him that I wouldn’t have learned otherwise, so why not explore that further?

I decide to start with his bedroom because it’s the only room I found myself unable to look closely at yesterday because I was so worried about being made to sleep in there, and although it makes me feel overly anxious to even be in his personal space, among his most private things, I quickly realize that I’ve made the right choice. If I’m going to find anything useful, it’ll be in here for sure.

The first thing I spot is a massive bookshelf filled with classic literature – the sort I like to read myself. 1984 by George Orwell, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain, To Kill A Mocking Bird by Harper Lee… I never would have thought of Enzo as someone who likes to lose himself in a book, but from the way that they all looked very thumbed through, it’s obvious that he is.

As I’m running my fingers gently over the books, I suddenly notice something else. A selection of well-kept photo albums. Knowing that I’m breaking a trust, but also unable to resist, I grab the first one and I sit on Enzo’s bed as I have a look through it. I don’t know what I’m expecting, but this whole range of seriously sweet family photographs isn’t it. There’s Enzo as a baby, with his parents, with his friends growing up… it’s an insight into his life, a window into his soul, that I wouldn’t have been able to get had I not done some sneaking around. It may be an invasion of his privacy, but it’s helped me to clear my head somewhat.

I really do think that Enzo might just deserve a chance after all. There seems to be a lot more to him than what meets the eye.

Plus, if I could
really
make this work, then we can all have peace for evermore. It would be worth it, all of the stress and heartache, just to keep everyone in my life safe.

Knock, knock.

Someone loudly hammers on the front door, which makes me jump out of my skin. My pulse rate kicks up as I realize that I have no idea who that could be. It could be someone for Enzo, someone dangerous… but I live here too now, so it also could be someone for me too.

What should I do?

Knock, knock.

Knock, knock.

Knock, knock.

It seems like they aren’t going away, whoever they are, so I don’t think I have any choice but to answer. I stand up nervously, my legs shaking beneath me, and I start to creep towards the door like a frightened little mouse.

“Sophia?” A booming voice calls to me, and from the Irish accent I can already tell that it’s someone I know, so I swing the door open with much more confidence. This has to be a friend, someone who cares about me, so I cannot wait to see what he has to say.

“Hello?” I say, as I see two men standing in front of me. “Ben? Max? What are you guys doing here?” I flick my eyes between the two men who are like midlife crises on legs, and I wait impatiently for one of them to explain what’s going on here. They aren’t who I was expecting at all – they’re my father’s men for sure, but I’ve never had any real connection with them. I’ve seen them in our house from time to time, but that’s about it. “What are you doing?”

“You need to come with us,” Ben tells me stoically, grabbing onto my arm. “We need to get you out of here.”

“What?” I gasp in surprise. “What the hell are you on about?” I try to pull my arm back, but he has too much of a tight grip on me. This is wrong, this shouldn’t be happening. The whole point of this peace treaty was for me and Enzo to be married. Why are they trying to ruin that? What is their plan? I certainly don’t want to be a part of it, no matter what it is. I’ve only just come to the conclusion that maybe this life won’t be so bad after all!

“I’m not asking, I’m telling,” he threatens, wrapping his arms around my waist. I struggle and kick and punch, but it gets me nowhere. He’s holding me close, which means he intends to take me no matter what I want – he isn’t here as a friend, that’s for sure. As soon as I bite his arm to get him off me, he throws me to the floor in frustration. “Fucking bitch!” He cries out in anger, shooting one kick into my chest for good measure.

“What the fuck is going on here?” Suddenly I hear Enzo’s voice above the racket, and my fear levels start to drop again. It’s strange, to know that an Italian is about to save me from the Irish, but that’s how dramatically things have changed in a very short time period.

“Enzo?” I whimper, but far too quietly for him to hear. “Help me.”

Suddenly a whole ruckus kicks off above me. I don’t know exactly what’s happening, but I can surmise from the sounds and activity that a fight has kicked off. I try to scramble myself to one side, desperately needing to see, to know if Enzo is being hurt, but my aching body means this takes far longer than it should do.

Insults and terrible words are exchanged and these get increasingly worse as time goes on. Why is this happening? Why did they force me and Enzo to get married if it wasn’t going to achieve anything? What the fuck is going on? I don’t understand any of it!

Eventually I manage to get myself by a wall, and I use that to force myself into a standing position, just for a moment. As my eyes refocus on the scene in front of me, I don’t see what I’m expecting to. One of the Irish guys has been knocked out, and Enzo is beating the shit out of the other one. They are two massive soldier-type men, and Enzo is alone, yet somehow he’s kicking their asses.

I thought he was like me, not a part of the violence at all, but looking at what’s happening, now I’m not so sure.

“Enzo,” I shriek out in shock, looking at the blood covering his apartment. “Enzo stop.” He’s pummeling Ben, even though he’s far too injured to fight back and I’m afraid that if he continues, he might take it too far. He might end up killing him. “Enzo!”

As if he’s snapped back to reality by the desperate sound of my voice, Enzo’s face turns to see mine and his fists instantly stop swinging. It doesn’t escape my knowledge that he almost killed Ben, but he did it for me, to protect me, and I don’t know what that means. I don’t know what anything means anymore – everything that I thought I knew for certain now seems to be meaningless. Everything has changed, and not in the way that I was expecting it to.

As soon as our eyes connect, a sob racks through me and I slump to the ground in tears once more. Enzo races to my side, forgetting everything else, and he wraps me up in a warm and comforting embrace. I feel safe with him, despite who he seems to be, and I mold into him, allowing him to comfort me, allowing him to make me feel whole all over again.

As I lose myself in the emotion, I see Max coming back around and without even a seconds thought, he instantly grabs hold of Ben, waking him up too. I begin to panic, thinking that round two is on the cards, but then they both shoot Enzo one terrified look before racing out of the building, leaving us alone once more. They run off like defeated schoolyard bullies, and I’m so unbelievably happy that they’re no longer around.

“Oh God,” I spit out, looking at the devastation left behind. “That was awful. What the hell was that all about?”

“You don’t know?” Enzo asks me, looking down on me with concern. I shake my head, terrified, wondering what the hell I’m missing. “Oh my God, they didn’t tell you?” He starts pacing the room, dragging his fingers through his hair, looking increasingly stressed with each passing second.

“What? What is it?” From the way that Enzo’s face has gone completely pale, I know that I’m not going to like what comes out of his mouth next. A million and one possible scenarios run through my mind, each worst that the last, until I feel like I’m about to explode under the pressure of it all.

“Sophia,” He holds onto my shaking hands, with a true look of sadness on his face. He stares deep into my eyes, and utters the words that will change my life forever, all over again. “I hate to be the one to tell you this but your father has been killed.”

Everything spins. I grasp onto my head, staggering around like a drunk person because the world has gone topsy-turvy around me. I can’t see, I can’t hear, I can’t think… everything is a mess.

“What?” I hear myself whisper, as my brain tries its best to make sense of it all. “What do you mean?”

My dad… dead.

I only did all of this to protect him!

Was this the plan all along?

Did someone know that they were going to do this?

Did… did Enzo?

I glance up at him suspiciously, wondering if he was a part of all of this, but from the terrified, genuine expression on his face I can tell that this has shocked him as much as it has me. I don’t think that he’s that good of an actor to have me fooled.

“I… I don’t understand,” I can hear myself saying thickly, through the fogginess of my brain. “I don’t get it.”

Then a shriek bursts from my chest, and I wail a hollow, guttural sound that is barely human. My trembling legs give away and my body hits the ground with a thump. My eyes are wet, my face is wet, the floor beside me is wet.

And then everything goes black…