Scorned Love: An Enemies to Lovers Romance (Scorned Fate)
Scorned Love: Chapter 20

“You’re a filthy lover, Nico De Lucci.”

“Get used to it.”

I lowered her to the bed and sat to kick off my shoes. She was already barefoot, probably giving her poor toes a rest. I made a note to massage her feet after we fucked. I stood and unbuckled my belt, unbuttoned my jeans, and lowered the zipper. All the while maintaining eye contact with her.

“You’re too much.” There was a hint of shyness in her tone I found appealing because I was showing her a sensual side she was not familiar with.

Unlike our first time, where it was all about self-gratification, this time I was going slower. I still couldn’t be gentle. Gentle was never my speed, but my intent was to relax her after a long day on her feet as well as pacify my obsessive need to possess her.

“You haven’t seen too much yet, baby.” I climbed on top of her and settled between her legs, propped up on an elbow while I unbuttoned her polo to reveal the orange tank top underneath. “But first, I want to atone for my neglect of these beauties.” I cupped her tits, and her fingers clamped over my wrists, stopping me.

“They’re sm—”

“Shut up.”

I released her breasts and shifted to hover over her. She tried to look away.

“Eyes on me, princess.”

They locked on mine and flared, like she didn’t want to obey me, but she was compelled to. Good.

“You have sexual hang-ups. I get that. I don’t know which past lover made you feel that you have to apologize for being you. I’m obsessed with the woman in my bed. End of.”

Her lips parted, and I smiled and planted a brief kiss on her lips because I wasn’t done talking. Having her unsure like this broke something inside me. I’d been an insecure scrawny kid once and I sure as hell hoped I’d overcome those hang-ups, but witnessing Ivy still living with hers made me want to bash the head in of every man who made her feel this way.

“I’m obsessed with worshipping this body and what I’ve tasted of you before has me craving more.” I scooted down and teased the outline of a nipple through the fabric. Her body arched. “You’re so responsive, princess.”

My mouth returned to hers because I needed to be drunk on her. I kept my weight off her, partly not to upset the recovery of her injuries, but mostly to keep her on the edge by lightly brushing against mine.

When I released her lips, I slipped the straps of her tank off her shoulders, then I threaded one arm through it to release a side.

She laughed lightly. “You can just remove the whole thing.”

I dipped my mouth suddenly to hers. “Shh…we’re doing slow burn this time.”

“Nico,” she whined. “Not now, please.” Her hips squirmed against my torso. I was glad I kept my hard-on away from her pussy because dry fucking her would only take a few strokes before I would come.

The freed strap exposed one tit, and I sucked in a breath at the perfect nipple. Light brown and taut, waiting for me to suck it some more. I lowered my mouth, and I noticed how she tensed.

“Breathe, princess,” I murmured before I squeezed and swallowed the tip. I palmed the other one while I swirled my tongue around the nipple, teased its peak, and grazed it with my teeth. Then I transferred my attention to the other.

She chanted my name while her fingers tangled in my hair, alternately pulling and pushing me lower. After five minutes of just loving on her tits, I trailed my tongue over the edge of the tank top to her exposed belly button and planted kisses around it.

“Nico, I swear…”

“Sh…”

I sat back on my heels and tugged her pants over her hips. “Play with your tits, baby. Stay worked up for me and tweak those pretty nipples.”

“I am worked up.” But she did as she was told, and it turned me on how she was enjoying it.

Freeing the pants from her legs, I tossed them on the floor and dove between her legs, cocking them up. I kissed the inside of her thighs. I could smell her arousal. It drove me nuts. But as I got closer to her pussy, her whole body locked up again.

I was about to check on her when my tongue traced uneven skin. Scars. I raised my head to take a better look, trying to figure out what they were. Vaccination scars on the inner thighs? No. When I realized what they were, the air left my lungs. The roaring in my ears started, but I calmed the fuck down and refused to jump to conclusions.

I swallowed the rage forming inside me. “What are these?”

“Please,” she pleaded. “Not now, Nico.”

“Princess…”

“Trust me, I’m over those,” she said. “I’m proud of those scars.”

When I seethed in silence, she added, “I’m so wet. Finish me, please.”

My fingers traced the outline of her panties. Seeing the wet spot right in the middle of it was triggering another primitive instinct—to protect. I traced my tongue at the juncture of her thighs, and I was lost in the smell of her. I could live with her scent in my nose. When I dipped my finger inside her, the wetness made me snap.

I stripped her underwear off and buried my head between her legs and feasted. I was just seconds into eating her when she shot off like a rocket, screaming my name, pushing my head away and yet shoving her hip at me and offering her pussy. My nose, mouth, and tongue loved every bit of her. I inserted one finger and then two and stroked her in and out while fluttering my tongue on her clit, welcoming the evidence of her arousal on my tongue.

And I couldn’t get enough of her.

“Inside me. Now,” she croaked in a hoarse voice. She’d been screaming for a while.

I wrung one more orgasm out of her and bolted up her body.

I reached for the nightstand to grab a condom. Her phone was ringing, but it appeared to be on silent. Edward Sinclair.

Jaw clenching. I quickly wrapped up and positioned myself at her entrance.

“You’re ready for me, princess.”

“Yes,” she breathed.

“Any pain?”

The impatient noise she made sounded like a growl. “The only one who’s going to feel pain is you if you don’t start fucking me.”

“As you wish.” I smirked.

I didn’t plunge inside her. I eased myself in and it was heaven and hell.

“Goddammit, you’re so tight.” I almost asked if she was okay again. This time I wanted to watch her come.

“Because you’re so big.” She said those words in a rush and inhaled sharply.

I choked on a laugh. “What every man loves to hear.”

I was about to pump when the phone flashed Edward again, and a jealous rage took over.

I grabbed the phone.

Ivy gasped. “What are you doing?”

“Hello, Edward.”

There was a silent pause before he sighed and said, “I want to talk to Ivy.”

I looked at the woman in question. Ivy’s mouth was wide open, appalled, aghast. She wasn’t pissed yet, and I was sure she was on the verge of coming.

I withdrew and thrust deep. Her “Ung” was loud.

“Hear that?” I taunted. “I’m buried deep inside her. I’m going to fuck her hard. So, no, she can’t come to the phone.”

I ended the call.

“You didn’t?” Her eyes were still wide with shock.

The need to rut into her was like a current running inside me. Powered and ramped up, my vision blurred. It took me a few seconds to calm the fuck down. To remind myself she was still injured. I couldn’t possess her the way I wanted. My body was tense as fuck with all kinds of emotions rampaging inside me.

“I fucking did, and I’m about to fuck that fucker out of you.”

Ivy came into focus, and I started to move.

Slowly at first, my intent was still to relax her and not overwhelm her.

She whispered, “I don’t know how to process this.”

I stilled, gritting my teeth, and asked, “You want me to stop?”

“No.” Her reply was instant, and as if to prove that point, her arms came around me. “Damage is done. Consequences later.”

“Good,” I growled and started thrusting again. “Just you and me this time, baby. I’m going to make sure of it.”

And I did. I took my time for her pleasure. I watched her face as I moved inside her, concentrating on every nuance of change that flitted across it. Loving it. I was obsessed with the need to banish every single lover from her mind.

With that thought, I sped up my thrusts. Her legs rounded my ass.

“God, Nico. Just give it to me,” the moan gusted past her lips.

So I let loose.

I watched her. Enthralled with the way her mouth opened, her eyes squeezing shut, how her cheeks flushed before she cried out.

I felt the exquisite squeeze of her inner muscles, but I held back, gritting my teeth. Continuing to give her a series of deep driving thrusts.

“Are you protected?” I asked.

“What?” Her eyes popped open.

“Are you on birth control?”

“Yes, but…”

I pulled out and yanked off the condom and tossed it aside.

“Hang on, princess.”

“Nico!” she choked when I surged back inside her, and I couldn’t help thinking back to the time she choked on my dick.

“Oh my God.” She went cross-eyed before her lids slammed shut. “I feel you everywhere. I’m going to come again…”

“I know.” Satisfaction seeped into my muscles as I did my best to drive her into a frenzy. She was going to be boneless by the time I was done with her, and I would have satisfied the jealousy inside me.

When she came, I let myself go. My cum shot out, and she grew slippery, but I possessed her with every staggered thrust. By the time I was done, I felt as boneless as her, but I rolled us on the bed so she would be on top of me.

We lay there, breathing hard, sweaty, sticky.

Mind blown. I just came inside her without a condom. I had never felt the desire to do that with any woman.

Except Ivy.

It was easier once I accepted this part of my obsession.

She crawled off me. I hated losing the closeness, the skin to skin, but I also knew it was far from comfortable given her soreness.

“How’s the wrist?” I turned my head to look at her. She was on the side that wasn’t bruised, staring at me in what I could only describe as bemusement.

“It’s okay,” she whispered. “That was wild. Why did you take off the condom?”

“Because I’m a jealous son of a bitch and I wanted to mark you as mine.”

“Sera mentioned the De Lucci curse—”

I propped up on an elbow and faced her, my chin resting on my hand. “It’s not a curse. We simply obsess over one woman.”

“I can’t believe I’m the recipient of this. I mean, Sera is my best friend. And you and Matteo are brothers.”

“I think it makes perfect sense. The obsession could be sparked over anything. It could be physical, it could be a trait.”

In a flash, Ivy got off the mattress, rounding the bed to pick up her things. She visibly stilled, her eyes transfixed on the floor. “Seriously?”

I rolled over to the edge of the mattress to see what she was looking at and barked a laugh.

The condom I discarded was on top of her phone, and since the last caller was Edward Sinclair, the irony was doubly satisfying.

“You look very pleased with yourself.” Ivy picked up the condom, threw it at me, and then picked up her phone.

“It’s extremely satisfying.”

“For whom?” she groused. “You take caveman to the next level.”

“Get used to it.”

She picked up her discarded clothes and wiped my cum between her legs. “We just went public today and there are things we’re not going to sweep under the rug.”

My shoulders dipped and I turned wary. “What things?”

“Joe Rossi, and who Layla is to you?”

My fingers gripped the edge of the mattress. “I don’t want to talk about them tonight.”

“Tough, De Lucci, you came inside me and you let my ex-lover hear us have sex. I’ve earned it.”

She slammed the door.

Wait, was she pissed after the fact? Sighing, I surveyed the wet spot on the bed, then got up and tore off the bedsheets to put on fresh ones. She was sleeping with me tonight. Pissed or not.

I’d surrendered to this obsession, but before Ivy and I could agree, she must know about the time I’d been the most vulnerable.

After showering, I left the bedroom to face what felt like a firing squad. Maybe she’d changed her mind, but I knew Ivy could be like a dog with a bone who wouldn’t let go of something she felt strongly about.

I found her in the kitchen with a pizza menu in hand. Her face was flushed with the shower. It could also be because of the sex. She came multiple times. I was thankful Xander crashed with Mom and Dad because my girl was loud.

My girl. My woman.

I loved the sound of that.

“Your color is better.” She glanced up at me and I gestured at my face.

“Yup, I was surprised when I took off the makeup.”

“See. Multiple orgasms become you.”

She rolled her eyes. “Pizza okay?”

“Whatever you want, although as your recovery dietician, gluten won’t help with inflammation.”

She lowered the menu. “So…what, then?”

“I was kidding. Go for it. You’ve worked hard today. You earned it.”

“All right, pizza it is. Any topping preferences?”

“I’m a plain-cheese kinda guy.”

Ivy placed the order on the phone app. I looked over her shoulder and kissed her temple before saying, “Extra cheese.”

I wasn’t expecting her to be a ham-and-pineapple girl. I wondered if that was a deal breaker. “I’ll call down to the Arrow on duty when the delivery person arrives.”

“Oh, I forgot. You just don’t let anyone come to the top floors.”

“No worries.” I went to the fridge and grabbed us water. What Ivy said earlier was rattling in my head. I wasn’t exactly prepared to dig up memories I wanted to forget. But a week ago she’d opened up about Edward. It was only fair I shared more about myself, especially after the incident with Joe and my past with him was colliding with our present.

I gestured to the living room so we could get comfortable for this conversation. I handed her a bottled water, but as she reached for it, I dragged her into my arms and gave her a quick searing kiss. When I broke away, I muttered, “No awkward shit after sex. This is not a fuck and run. Got me?”

“I wasn’t being awkward,” she said indignantly. “I just didn’t want to jump your bones.”

“You can jump my bones any time you want.” We sat on the couch and she playfully pushed away from me and I let her. She didn’t get very far. She blew imaginary hair from her face. “I know that, but you’ve got some ’splaining to do,” she said in her best Ricky Ricardo rendition.

“This shit was over ten years ago.”

She sat back in surprise. “When you were seventeen?”

“No. Earlier than that. Joe Lollipop—that’s his moniker because he liked sucker sticks. Be around him enough and you’ll see why.”

“Seems like he has an oral problem,” Ivy quipped.

“Most of the Rossi and De Lucci kids went to the same school. It was a private school full of entitled kids.” Sometimes I wondered if it would have been better if we’d gone to public school. “I was scrawny and small for a fourteen-year-old, unlike Matteo, who was already five ten and broad shouldered. Joe was a junior at that time and the star quarterback of the football team.”

“In short, he was a jock.”

“An asshole jock. He ruled the school, the lunch crowd. Matteo and I didn’t really belong. We weren’t pure Italians, but at least my brother had a don’t-fuck-with-me attitude already then.”

“And you?”

“I kept my head down, but it’s hard to have that attitude when I was only five five and skinny as shit.”

“You must have had a growth spurt. What are you now, six three?”

“Yeah. I was sixteen when the height gods finally graced me with a growth spurt.”

“I’m taking from this Joe bullied you in high school?”

“I was an easy target, and I was stubborn enough that I didn’t want to be in Matteo’s shadow.” I rapped my knuckles against the couch. “You could say I resented his popularity with the girls, too.” Looking back, I saw how much that time had shaped the way we were now. Matteo and I got our broodiness from keeping our heads down while at the same time being watchful. Our biggest ally, Dom, was much older than us and was already in college. Matteo had it easier, and it annoyed the hell out of me when girls were nice to me because they wanted an introduction to my brother. Sure, I was skinny, but I had the raging hormones of a fourteen-year-old and I wanted a girlfriend, and I wanted to have sex. Get a blow job from the girl I love.

“And Joe knew that too. For months, he poisoned me against Matteo, saying that my brother was getting all the pussy and his leftovers wouldn’t even touch me.”

At Ivy’s worried look, I grinned. “Don’t worry, Mom and Dad straightened us out. Matteo and I would get into fistfights. Renz and Bianca ratted on us. I admitted what Joe was doing, and I asked my parents not to interfere, but Matteo confronted Joe. They beat each other up in school and got suspended. It happened because of me.”

“Matteo is your big brother. Of course, he’d defend you.” Ivy’s voice was gentle. “How does Layla come into this?”