Enzo took the napkin from his lap, folded it neatly, and set it on his plate. Time to go. “She says what I was too polite to say. And she’s right. I’m not going to beg you to take this deal, Shelia. There are plenty of companies just like yours who would jump at the chance to be in your place right now, around this table. I thought I’d go with you because you seemed like you would be different. Now I know that I was wrong. Lilith. Let’s go.”She rose in unison with him, causing Shelia to stand, too. “Don’t be an idiot, Enzo,” shelia said. “This isn’t personal. It’s just business. Sit. Let’s iron out the details. Of course we want to work with VI Tech.”The dinner was a resounding success after that, and Enzo insisted that Lilith have champagne with her dessert. She deserved it. She deserved much more than that.Back in the car, something came over him.He had been attracted to Lilith on a gut level since he had first laid eyes on her. But this was different.She was so goddamn beautif
And — oh, someone help her — She wanted him. She wanted Enzo Casello so bad.Lilith gasped and he took the opportunity to slip his fingers into her mouth, gently probing her tongue. It was awkward and invasive and somehow so impossibly hot that her body reacted of its own accord, rocking back and forth so her knees slotted around his waist. Lilith didn’t know what she was supposed to do. Didn’t want to think of how she looked in the backseat of that car, all splayed open and willing.“Get them wet for me, zolotse,” he murmured, kissing her neck, moving down, mouthing over her breasts through the satin of the dress, leaving wet spots that cooled quickly, making her nipples hard.“What?” she panted, helpless against his ministrations. “What does that mean? Zolotse?”“Don’t worry about it,” he chided abruptly, silencing her as only he could.Lilith didn’t have a choice, not with those big fingers pressed into her mouth, she moaned around them, dragging her tongue sloppily between the dig
Enzo grabbed her legs and unwound them from his waist, settling her back astride him, straddling his lap. The delicious shift of his length inside het, pressing against her inner walls, was enough to make Lilith see stars.It was nearly impossible to think — equal parts pleasure and disbelief. How was she losing her virginity to Enzo Casello in the backseat of his car? Was she lucky? Cursed? Both? What would happen afterward? Would they do it again? Would he take her out to dinner? What did it all mean?"Move, zolotse,” Enzo growled, spanking her lightly on her bare butt, dress hoisted up around her waist. He demanded her complete attention, and the questions that troubled and distracted her ebbed as she rocked against him.All Lilith could do was hang on for dear life as she bounced against his brutal pace, enzo snarled and palmed her breasts, urging her to go faster, pumping upward, pulling at her hair, until she came completely undone, wailing out her completion as he buried his fa
The first time Enzo suspected that something was amiss was the very next morning, when he actually slept until his alarm woke him up.That never happened.Enzo rarely slept the night through, rising before the sun. There was too much to do to spend life sleeping. His alarm actually serving its function made him feel disoriented and groggy. Like he had missed something.There was no way he was going to abstain from sex for so long in the future. If one fucking orgasm was enough to knock him out for a full night's sleep, then he had gone too long without.Or maybe it was just one woman who had done it. Lilith Rumero.Intent on banishing that unwelcome thought with caffeine, Enzo flung the covers from his body and stalked into the kitchen.“Alexei, what the fucking fuck?” he groused, jumping out of his skin at the sight of his brother making himself at home at the marble countertop, drinking Enzo's espresso, and reading his newspaper."And a good morning to you, too,” his brother said p
"Good talk, brother.”Alexei just needed a distraction. A challenge, even. It was difficult with the background they came from, always looking for the next thing. Enzo was fulfilled because of his company. But his brother was adrift.Truth be told, he had been somewhat listless himself until Lilith Rumero came along. He just had to find his brother a hobby like this one was turning out to be.Enzo couldn’t hide his grin in the backseat of his car on the way to the office. His driver painstakingly cleaned everything after each ride, and he had decided to leave him something of a present, neatly folded on the console where he usually got his drinks."Today was going to be an excellent day" Enzo thought out loud."Today was going to be an awful day" Lilith facepalm herself.She felt like the biggest brat in the world, but she couldn’t sleep in the new place. Everything was state-of-the-art, her brand new mattress included, but it just didn’t feel like home. Not to mention going over eve
Lilith knew this was going to be bad. Sge just hadn’t anticipated how badly it would go. “No. I mean, I just think we should talk about what it means. What happens next.”“What happens next is I go to my next meeting.” Enzo stood as if to dismiss her — or at least end this thread of conversation. “You were supposed to go to that meeting, too, but it seems like you have too much on your mind.”“I’m fine,” Lilith snapped before taking a deep breath. Hold it together! Lilith. “I just want to make sure that we are fine. That work won’t be weird.” Well, weirder than it already was on the morning after she had hot sex with her boss in the back of his car and he had given her a condo and a personal driver in exchange."Whoa — wait a minute. Had he paid me for sex? Oh my God, did my first sexual encounter make me prostitute?" Lilith almost gasped out loud.“I can keep work and play separate,” Enzo said. “Can you?”With that, he drew his hand from his pocket to show Lilith her lost thong from
“I …” Careful, Lilith. God, this was tricky. Because as confused as she was, as much as she might regret all of this, Lilith did want him. She wanted to feel him inside of her again, to have his lips on hers, taking everything, breathing for her. Lilith wanted all of this and none of it — without even really knowing what it was — and she felt like she was going to be torn apart."You don’t understand what this can be,” Enzo said, his voice soft and deadly. He was close — too close — and she didn’t have any more room to back up. “I can do things for you — and to you — that you could never even imagine.”God. He was right. Lilith couldn’t imagine it. Couldn’t fathom it. Wanted it bad and hated this entire situation.“The concert starts at 8 p.m.,” She whispered, terrified and electrified.“Excellent.” Enzo turned away. “Your dress will be delivered shortly. Alexei and I will be there at 7:30 sharp.”"What was I doing?" Lilith muttered under her breath.It was hard to discern what Enzo e
“My brother thinks he’s a comedian,” Enzo said loudly enough for Alexei to hear as he sauntered away to find their box. Alexei chuckled and waved at enzo over his shoulder. Enzo lowered his voice and turned back to Lilith. These words were only for her. “But he’s a fool if he thinks that you’re anyone’s but mine.”Lilith shuddered, gooseflesh prickling the smooth skin of her shoulders and back. she could tell. he was touching that expanse of skin, enjoying the effect he had on her.“How do you like the dress?”“I love it,” she gasped as Enzo kissed her jaw line as gently as he could. “Do I know where I’ll wear it next? No. But it’s beautiful.”“You’ll wear it into this performance with me,” he reasoned, following his brother’s path through the chaos of the lobby. Lilith kept pace, and Enzo had to turn his head to hide his smile. This entire event was a godsend — something to keep his brother occupied and hopefully snap him out of his funk, and another opportunity to continue to make L
“When my daughter told me of her internship at Volkov Telecom, she did not tell me it was directly under the company’s CEO,” her dad said tightly, barely touching the range of foods on his plate. He didn’t look up at Enzo, but Enzo smiled." I saw something special in her, and I wanted to take her under my wing,” Enzo said. “I’m surprised she didn’t tell you. Lilith, why didn’t you tell your father that?”Lilith plucked at her skirt, wishing that she had worn something a little lighter. She was feeling hot — She didn’t know if it was the bodies around the table, the lingering oven heat still emanating from the kitchen, or just the utter awkwardness of this situation.“We’re both pretty busy,” she said. “You know how busy I am, enzo.”“I keep her very busy,” he informed her dad. “But what do you do to stay busy, Aron?”“I have many things to occupy my time, Enzo” her father snarled.“That’s Mr. Casello, to you,” Enzo said mildly.Lilith pressed his leg under the table. “Please stop. Bo
It wasn’t as good as the neighbor’s trash, but there was no way she would be able to slip away, especially now.When Lilith returned to the kitchen, her dad made me jump out of my skin. He was rocking back and forth on his heels, his hands jammed in his pockets, regarding the copious amount of wine that had materialized in the kitchen while he was outside.“Your strays here, Lilith?” he asked, eyeing her. “Can we get this over with?”“Oh, stop it,” Lilith said, brushing a few ashes off the front of his pullover. “You love Thanksgiving as much as I do. You can’t fool me.”“It’s hard not to like all this food,” my dad remarked. “It’s the inane socializing I dislike.”“Just think of it as the price of admission,” she reasoned. “Besides, you like talking to Lora.”They both entered the living room in a lull of conversation. At least, that’s what Lilith told herself when everyone looked up first at her, then at her dad. Lora looked worried, but she knew more than anyone else here. Alexei l
As soon as She was sure she could hold it together, Lilith stepped around and looked up at him. He was wearing a simple but cozy sweater and a wash of jeans so dark and rich they could have rightly been mistaken for dress trousers. At least it wasn’t a suit and tie.“You look really nice,” she said, smiling up at him and pinching the inside of her wrist to keep from crying. “I’m really glad you’re here.”“Wait until you see what he’s brought for the feast,” Alexei declared, hauling in a case of wine.“I told you to have some restraint,” Lilith complained softly, frowning up at Enzo's mischievous eyes.“I could’ve done a lot more,” he reminded her, “Every party needs wine.”“I need wine,” Lora confirmed, making grabby hands at the case Alexei held. “Let’s go. Break it out. Let’s do this Thanksgiving the right way.”The turkey was perfectly cooked. It was time to let it rest — and to figure out what she was doing with the rest of her life. Or the rest of this evening, to start off with
Lilith's heart hammered within her chest and she only dully registered the sound of her dad talking with Lora downstairs — not their words, just the rise and fall of their easy conversation. What was it like not to have anything to worry about? To tease and chat with someone like the world wasn’t about to end?Because her world was about to end. She was pregnant. She didn’t need another test to tell me what she already knew. The lateness of her period. The way she had been feeling and acting. She just didn’t understand what had happened. She was on birth control. Maxim had used protection.All she knew was that nobody could find this. That no one could ever know.Lilith wrapped the test and its box up in some toilet paper and stuffed it down the waistband of her skirt. She would use the first opportunity to go outside and drop it in the trash — no, the neighbor’s trash. That way, it couldn’t be traced back to this house. She would get through tonight. she had get through the internshi
They didn’t keep in contact often. It just wasn’t the way their relationship worked, her and her dad. He thought small talk was boorish and preferred only speaking when there was something to be said. Lilith spent her life guessing at what those important things were — he was less excited about her internship with VI Tech and downright offended when she neglected to tell him about an award she had won on a paper she had written. As much of a puzzle as he was, she still appreciated him. When Lora had trouble understanding the dynamic between the father and daughter, lilith told her to think of her father as a mad scientist. The two of them were much closer after that.“So, which strays are you bringing home this year?” her dad asked, snipping the end off a cigar as he watched her sprinkle chopped pecans on the top of a sweet potato casserole she needed to get into the oven.“Just a few,” Lilith assured him.“Me, obviously,” Lora said, sidling into the kitchen with her arms full of pape
To say that Lilith was apprehensive about having the casello's brothers at her father’s house for their annual Thanksgiving celebration would’ve been something of an understatement.She had been an absolute mess these past few weeks, barely paying attention at work while she alternated a wheel of worries in her thoughts — what to wear, what to cook, how to cope if things got awkward, and what her dad might say if and when the inevitable topic came up of why, exactly, she had invited Lorenzo Casello into their home.Her dad was somewhat rough around the edges, and didn’t like new people. He was happiest when he was alone, occupying his time with his hobbies and his cigars. There were some times when she felt like he preferred to keep her at an arm’s distance, but Lilith knew how hard it had been for him to raise her without her mother.Lilith didn’t blame him. It just made her excessively wary about who she brought home. Certainly never any boyfriends — particularly since there never
“I didn’t mean to spend the night,” Lilith said, scooting away from him, they hadn’t so much as rolled over, and Enzo grunted as he worked some life back into his sleeping arm — the one that had cradled Lilith throughout the night.“I would have insisted,” he said, not sure of the truth of that statement even as it left his mouth. “There was no reason for you to return home after such a late night.”“There are plenty of reasons,” she said, her eyes wild as she clutched the sheet to her body. “First and foremost, that I need to shower and get ready and put some fresh clothes on for work today.”“Skip it.”She blinked at him, “Skip my internship at VI Tech? A company so important that workers don’t ever take off time to spend Thanksgiving with their families? Oh no, sir. This is a test. I will be there today at the office. Just maybe not exactly on time. And you’d better be there, too. We have like four meetings today.”Enzo smirked. “Well put. I always said that if you can’t get yourse
“Like what we’re about to do,” he said, moving over her body again and covering it with his, Enzo felt an oddly protective twinge throughout his muscles, like he would do anything to keep the world from fucking with Lilith Rumero. He didn’t want to take the time to analyze it, so he kissed her as softly as he could. “Like this. Gently. Softly.”Lilith was shaking. She’d already come once, but Enzo was betting he could get her to scream all night long. “I didn’t think ‘gentle’ was in your repertoire.” she said."You’d be surprised by a lot of things you don’t know about me, Lilith” Enzo told her before kissing her again.This would be her first time. The one she’d tell her friends about — not the frantic fuck in the back of the car. This time, every cool breath he blew on a hot trail of skin Enzo had kissed and sucked. The hot, rich, heady scent of her pussy, dripping wet for him again. The tiny whimpers she probably didn’t even realize she was making, a sound for each part of her he
Enzo kicked at his pants before walking away from them, downing part of a glass of champagne that had been included with the table of desserts. He offered her a drink from his own glass, but she shook her head. Lilith felt drunk already, heady with lust and need. Even his legs were well muscled, the lines and planes evident with every minute movement he made.“Like what you see?” Enzo asked almost lazily, standing in front of her, utterly relaxed. If he had made her undress in front of him rather than ripping her clothes off like he usually did, Lilith didn’t think she would be able to be so calm and confident about it.But he was as cool as those icy blue eyes, almost luminous in the low light of the room.“Yes,” she said, reaching out to him. “Mine.”He blinked at that — it surprised her just as much as it had him — but he captured her hand and kissed the palm.“Is this what you want?” he asked, easing himself slowly down, covering his body with hers, “Is it everything you expecte