Page 167 of Girth (Marked Skulls MC 1)
The closer I got to Serena, the faster my heart slammed against my chest.
She was beautiful. Radiant. Happier than I’d ever seen her with me. Maybe everyone was right. Maybe I wasn’t treating her the best way I could. Clearly I’d never seen that smile on her face before. Clearly she’d never willingly wanted to be that close to me.
Not without having sex.
Not just to interact with me.
I reached my hand out for the guy and ripped him backwards. He stumbled as I moved between him and Serena. I loomed over him, listening as Serena’s voice started yelling at me.
But I wasn’t paying attention to her.
I was paying attention to him.
The man who had his hands on my fiance.
“Enzo, what the fuck are you doing?”
I whipped around at the sound of my name and took in her presence. The flowing blouse that fell off her shoulders and the red straps of the bra she had on underneath. The tightness of her jeans and how they molded to every curve she had on her body. How her tanned skin accented the yellow speckles in her eyes that mesmerized me every time I looked at her.
She even had on a bit of makeup.
I felt my body go careening back as my jaw began to ache. I brought my hand up to my lips, checking to see if I was bleeding. Serena was yelling as she ran over to the man who had hopped off the floor and made the grave decision to punch me.
Little did he know it would be his last.
“Stop it, both of you,” Serena said.
But my fist was already cocked back and aimed for his nose.
I crashed it into his face, feeling his bones crack underneath my touch. Serena screamed, her drink flying backwards as she wrapped herself around my arm. She was clinging to me. Trying to get me to stop. But I reared my foot back and kicked the man on the ground as a growl flew from my mouth.
“Think again before putting your hands on another man’s woman,” I said.
“I am not your woman,” Serena said.
“She said she was… single…” the man said as he sputtered blood onto the floor.
I kicked him again, feeling his ribs collapsing as Serena shrieked.
“Enzo! Stop!”
“This woman is my fiance, and you will never touch her again. She deserve more than that. Better than that. More romance than that.”
I picked the man off the floor by his collar before I hoisted him into the air. Security guards were heading to the floor as his blood dripped from his chin. I felt Serena’s arms around my body, trying to pull me back.
I missed how she touched me.
This man didn’t deserve her innocent touch.
“I’m… sorry…” the man said.
“Mr. Gambani, put the man down.”
I looked over at the bodyguard who was poised with a taser gun. I glared at him as Serena’s hands continued to tug at me. I released the man from my grasp and watched him plummet to the floor, groaning in pain like the sack of shit he was.
I turned to Serena, expecting to see fear in her eyes. Scared about the monster she had just witnessed. I’d done it again. I had exposed her to part of my job. I had shown her the true animal within me and how my family business leveraged it for their own pleasure. If there was any hope of getting back this woman I apparently cared about, I had just done it in.
I was going to be disowned from my family and left alone in the cold.
But instead, I watched her eyes flare with frustration. Anger. Shock. Not fear or any sort of frightening stare, but annoyance.
Like I was an inconvenience.
“Enzo! What the hell are you doing!?”
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 d
ance 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.”
