Scorned Love: An Enemies to Lovers Romance (Scorned Fate)
Scorned Love: Chapter 15

“Thank you, deartháir.” Bianca gave me a hug. “See, that’s not too hard.”

I’d given my friend at the Maserati dealership a call because that was the only way to distract my sister from hounding Ivy and me about what was going on between us. I guess I was too solicitous at breakfast, but I couldn’t help it. Taking care of Ivy came naturally.

“I’ll be the one taking it to the shoot,” I said. The family was gathered at the door to leave. Just as well. I thought Ivy was fading. She’d progressively grown more quiet at breakfast and started fidgeting in her seat. Those injuries were taking a toll on her. “You guys owe me.”

“Big-time,” Xander agreed. He was leaving with Bianca to go to the studio after being briefed by Ivy on what to tell the staff.

“And you, Ivy?”

A smile tugged at the corners of her mouth. “I guess I owe you too.”

I didn’t need to discern her expression. There was a double entendre in her response.

“Worse comes to worst, you end up with a new Maserati.” My sister winked. “Then I can have your old one.”

“I see where this is going. Get out of here, bug. You’ve got work to do.”

“I’ll drop off food later,” Mom said. “I don’t think Ivy needs more visitors today.”

“Got that right,” I muttered.

“Your dad and I just like to hang around and watch movies when one of us is feeling under the weather.”

“Got it.”

Matteo clapped my shoulder. “Guess I won’t be seeing you at the office?”

“I’m having Jonas cancel all my face-to-face meetings for the next three days. Go virtual if needed.”

“You don’t have to do that,” Ivy protested. “I can amuse myself.”

“And lose the opportunity to finally have you at my mercy?”

“Bring it.”

Sera nudged her husband aside and gave me a hug with an accompanying shake of her head. “Why have I not seen these sparks before?”

“I wouldn’t call them sparks.” Ivy yawned. Yep, she was fading. “I’d call them barb wires.”

“Aren’t they the same thing?” I deadpanned. “Don’t worry,” I told Sera. “Got her. But I think you should rescue me in a few days. Is she difficult when she’s sick?”

“Guess you’ll find out?” Sera mocked.

“Oh, I’m a terror,” Ivy teased.

After they left, I let the door swing shut and turned to see Ivy heading back into the kitchen. I gathered the rest of the dishes from the dining table and followed her to see her loading the dishwasher.

I stalked toward her. “What are you doing?”

“Helping clean up.”

Expletives threatened to explode from my mouth, especially when I saw her having a hard time bending at the waist.

I lowered the plates beside the sink, clasped her shoulders and moved her aside. I pointed to the barstool. “Sit. I got this.”

“But—”

I shot her a stern look. “I’m not kidding. You need to chill.”

“Maybe you’re the one who should chill out with the bossiness.”

“Princess, if you weren’t black and blue as hell right now, I’d kiss that sass out of you,” I turned away from her and muttered, “Or turn that ass red.”

“Uhm, okay, that was kind of hot.”

I stilled and turned around. “Are you trying to get a rise out of me?”

She sat on the barstool as if suddenly deflated. “I’m not equipped to spar with you. That was the painkillers talking, by the way.”

I huffed a short breath of laughter. “You’re retracting your praise of my hotness?”

“Don’t let it get to your head. I’m medicated. I shouldn’t be held liable for what I say.”

“You appear very clearheaded to me.”

I braced both hands on the counter and leaned forward. “Admit it. You kind of find me hot, otherwise you wouldn’t have let me fuck you.”

“Nico,” she growled. “Now is not the time to remind me of that night.” Then, she remembered something. “Shit. Can I borrow a laptop?”

“What—oh, the surveillance?”

“It didn’t even occur to me until the detectives asked.”

Surprisingly, it bothered me too. But a reel in my head unfolded, imagining the way she came with my head buried between her legs. I swallowed.

“Hey.” She snapped her fingers in front of my face. “Where did you go?”

My teeth raked over my lower lip while I shot her a devilish look. “Do you really want to know?”

“Oh, you’re trying to remember how many times you made me come?” She said it in a bored, nonchalant voice. But she wasn’t unaffected. She squirmed in her seat.

So were we talking about this?

“I wasn’t counting. I was trying to imagine, if the camera was just at the top of where I had you against the foyer table, how would you look when I made you scream?”

She lowered her eyes. “Can I have the computer now?”

I debated teasing her some more, but felt guilty it wasn’t a fair fight, and talking about it would only make me hard. The moment was inappropriate as fuck. I rounded the counter and she actually reared back when she realized I was right beside her.

“Relax,” I murmured, bending at the waist, and then tucking strands of hair behind her ear that had fallen over her face. “We have matters to settle between us, princess, but I want you in top form when we do.”

“Nico…”

“We’re not having this discussion while you’re not a hundred percent, and before you say what discussion, I know you’re not that dense either.”

“I’m not, but we agreed—”

“You pissed me off with what you said that night…fuck…I’m not getting into this with you right now.” I straightened. “Let me get that laptop.”

We had both settled against the couch in the living room and I was navigating through the cloud surveillance she had for the loft. It captured part of our encounter in the foyer. It captured me backing Ivy into the console. It captured part of her leg and the left side of my body. It was clear I was going down on her.

Fuck, even with partial footage, I was getting turned on.

“Oh my God, we made a sex tape,” Ivy groaned.

“Not quite.”

“It’s more than enough. Just delete that day.”

“Okay.” I trashed the video. “And gone.”

We skipped to the day of the attack. Seized with trepidation, I searched for the timestamp that coincided with the time when the men entered the loft. Ivy’s attackers entered stealthily. And though the video was high-def, their masks ensured anonymity, but I committed their physiques to memory. I copied the video to my cloud storage.

“You want me to share the link with the detective?”

“Sure,” Ivy said, producing the card the detective handed her. “But I don’t want you involved.”

“Too late, I already am. I was and still am in charge of your security.”

“I truly hope you don’t blame yourself or Trevor.”

“We miscalculated how much they wanted to get to you.” It didn’t make sense. Dom, Matteo, Daniel, and I had started a group chat to discuss this. The effort to get to Ivy took a lot of trouble to organize for simply payback against the Rossi mafia soldiers. That included hijacking the furniture company truck, which meant they had someone on the inside tip them off. The original workers who were supposed to deliver the furniture were found tied up and beaten. At least they didn’t end up in a landfill. That would have attracted more attention.

But then why go through so much trouble?

Was the target Ivy, or was it to send a message to someone? Daniel? The De Luccis? Was it connected to the Scavos at all? Ivy said they knew she was skilled at martial arts. The man Trevor shot belonged to the Harlem gang—associates of the Rossis. But the Rossis weren’t the only groups they worked with.

“I’m baffled too.” Ivy picked up the remote and flicked through what we had. “You guys have every streaming service known to man. When Sera said you were movie buffs, she wasn’t kidding.”

“Started with Nana,” Nico said. “She and Gramps moved to Hollywood to be with my aunt.”

“That’s the special effects artist, right?”

“Kelly, yup, Luca’s stepsister.”

“Sera’s stepaunt in a way.” Ivy rubbed her forehead. “Every time I think how everyone is related…”

“You really need a family tree.”

Her smile was crooked because of the swelling, but it elicited a tug in my chest. “Did you know when Matteo suggested fake-dating to Sera, she had to make sure they weren’t related by blood?”

“Matteo made that comment too.” My own amusement gusted past my lips. “At least between the two of us, there’s no need to check.”

Ivy averted her gaze, looking everywhere but at me. I could have kicked myself for coming on too strong, but I couldn’t say that I was apologetic about my words.

I said what I said.

“Have you watched this series?” She was simply making conversation now. I forced myself to look at the screen instead of following up on the trajectory of our conversation. I was laying down the foundation for a bigger discussion. I would need to exercise patience in the next few days, even weeks. Ivy and I might have jumped straight in with the hate sex, but it wasn’t too late to pull back, explore what was between us outside of the physical chemistry and the unusual circumstances that led us here.

“I think that’s the show Matteo was grumbling about. Did Sera mention it to you?”

“Yes, about this ad executive spending a year in Paris.” She glanced at me then. “Care if we watch this?” she asked shyly.

“Whatever you want.”

“I feel so bad that you’re staying here babysitting me when you could be out there making millions.”

“Matteo and Jonas have everything handled. The place runs itself most days.”

She cued up the show and started the first episode. She was facing front, but giving me the side-eye. “So you’re admitting you’re making millions.”

“That depends. Does that make me less or more attractive in your eyes?”

This time she gave me her attention. “That’s a strange question to ask me. Why would I balk at someone who works hard and makes money because of the effort? I wish Daniel worked less.”

When I started digging into Edward Sinclair, I also uncovered the type of men Ivy dated after him. It was such a one-eighty and raised red flags. Why was the change so drastic? Starving artists and musicians were her type. When she was at Stanford, she dated a musician who used to busk in Palo Alto and she got him his break in one of the exclusive clubs in Los Angeles. They broke up soon after that. It seemed to be a trend. She’d date a nobody who had talent, and then when they became somebody, they broke up.

It troubled me and made me want to find out everything that happened between her and Edward because he seemed to be the catalyst.

“I assure you, I’m not a workaholic like Daniel,” I said.

Far from it.

Matteo usually made the deals, and I cleaned up. But when it came to the Archer Syndicate, I oversaw Arrow activities more.

“You seem to be an action man, though. Did you go to Europe for three months to scout for real-estate expansion?”

“Yeah, I did.” I nodded at the screen. “Episode is starting.”

I wasn’t ready to discuss why I was banished to Europe, but it was funny how you couldn’t escape your past.

Ivy

I was sleeping against something warm and hard. The drone of the television was in the background. I blinked my eyes open to a faded T-shirt and muscular legs clothed in athletic shorts with a noticeable bulge under the T-shirt that overlapped the shorts. Not the erection type of bulge, fortunately. Just an etch of a relaxed cock.

A big, relaxed cock.

Nico’s big cock was right below my eyes, and near my right hand, which was encased in a wrist brace and resting on his lap. I gulped. That might have saved me from touching him inappropriately.

“You awake now?” he rumbled above me.

“How did we get into this position?” I asked his shirt. I loathed to move away. He was not the most comfortable pillow because everything about him was hard, but there was a secure feeling being close to him like this. It was mind-boggling given our history, but I’d seen how his family loved fiercely and passionately. And to be part of that circle was addictive.

“You were more tired than you thought.”

“How long was I sleeping?” I finally moved. His arm was resting at the back of the couch behind me.

“About the start of this episode. We’re…” He checked the progress of the current video. “Halfway through this, so I’d say twenty minutes.”

“You must be cramped.” I rubbed my eyes, then winced.

“Careful.” Nico’s soft voice ghosted over me. I was not used to his gentler side, and I didn’t know what to do with him. More so when he reached out and touched my cheek, feathering it lightly.

And then his face moved closer.

My heartbeat ratcheted up.

He pressed a light kiss on my lips before getting up. “Jonas is on his way with groceries and a new phone for you.”

“Wait. Jonas? Your admin, Jonas, who should be running De Lucci Transnational in your absence.”

He glanced at me briefly while typing on the phone. “Yeah.”

“Nico, you can’t tell your employees to drop their workload and cater to my needs.”

Nico held up a finger and answered a call, leaving me to stew in my dismay over being so much trouble. We could have ordered delivery.

When he ended that call, he said, “Sorry, that was Europe. Where were we?”

He knew exactly what we were talking about. I could tell by the merry glint in his eyes that he was messing with me.

“Jonas, who should be covering for you, is coming here. Jonas, who should be covering a meeting for you, is making a grocery run.”

“He didn’t do the grocery run, he coordinated one and now he’s bringing it in. That’s what admins do. If there was anyone who you should gripe at, it’s Daniel. He was the one who insisted you needed certain food for healing.”

“Daniel isn’t here and you shouldn’t be following his demands because he likes to micromanage stuff, even the care of his sister…So what did he want you to do for me now?”

He checked his phone. “He wants me to make a Chinese healing herbal soup for you.”

“What?” I walked over to where he was looking at his phone. “The one with goji berries, lotus seeds, and cordyceps?”

“Yep, that’s the one.”

“I’m going to strangle my brother. I hate it when he expects everyone to be as meticulous as he is.”

“I don’t see anything wrong with that. If Bianca was sick and there was something that would make her feel better, I’d cook it for her.” He paused. “If Mom couldn’t.”

“Do you know how to cook?” I asked, a tad doubtfully. I couldn’t imagine him banging away in the kitchen.

“Mom made sure we did. I did two summers at Eamonn’s as a prep cook.”

“Wow.”

“We’re not as spoiled as you think.”

I sat on the couch again. “I still can’t believe you gave that task to Jonas.” I’d witnessed his admin at work. He was efficiency personified dealing with CEOs of different corporations. The De Luccis must pay him a hefty salary. Organizing grocery deliveries seemed overkill when one computed his hourly rate.

“According to your brother, it’s beneficial for your current injuries, so I don’t see the problem here.”

“So he indoctrinated you to TCM?”

“I wouldn’t call it indoctrination,” he replied with a brief huff of amusement. “I’ve always been curious about traditional Chinese medicine.” The mirth had faded from his eyes, only to be replaced by a warmth that seeped into me and made me dizzy. Maybe it was the meds, because what I was feeling was close to giddiness. And Nico De Lucci making me feel giddy should’ve horrified me, but it didn’t.

“Daniel is more exposed to it than I am since he travels to Hong Kong a lot. Chinese medicine shops are everywhere. He makes certain I don’t forget our roots.”

“Eastern medicine has always fascinated me.” Then he gave a self-deprecating, almost sheepish smile. “The truth is, Daniel said the meat soup would be good for building muscles.”

“You don’t need more muscles,” I quipped. The lengths my brother would go through. “It increases blood circulation and facilitates healing. That’s all I know.”

A knock sounded on the door.

“That’s Jonas,” Nico muttered and let his admin in.

“I’m sorry Nico dragged you away from what could be a gazillion things to do,” I told Jonas.

He was staring at me in shock.

I touched my face. I’d forgotten how I must look.

“Oh my God,” he whispered. “You poor thing.”

Nico grabbed the bags from his admin’s hands and went straight to the kitchen. “She’s fine. Fill me in on what I missed in this morning’s board meeting.”

This morning’s board meeting, which he missed because he was watching Paris Adventures with me. Hysterical laughter threatened to bubble up my throat at the absurdity of the situation. We used to mesh as well as oil and water, but I tamped down my laughter and compressed my mouth into a no-lip-showing smile.

“Oh, I nearly forgot.” Jonas didn’t follow his boss into the kitchen, and, instead, he slipped out a box from the messenger bag he had strapped across his body. “Here’s your phone. I figure you have it backed up in the cloud.”

I told him I did and thanked him.

He was about to follow Nico when he stopped again and said, “By the way, an Edward Sinclair came into the office. He was looking for you.” Jonas looked at me slyly and winked. “Daddy vibes.”

“Edward did? What did he say?”

Nico stalked back to us. “What did that fucker say?”

Jonas looked at me and then at Nico and then back at me, then a comical expression dawned on his face. “I am so sorry.”

“How did he…” I started.

“All over the news, you made it to a story in The New York Times and page one of the Manhattan Tattler. Home invasion of Wu Heiress. He had stopped at the third floor to talk to Xander and Xander gave him the runaround and sent him to me.”

“Don’t give him any information,” Nico snapped at the same time I asked, “What did he say?”

Again, Jonas split a look between us, but he was obviously bursting with glee. I wasn’t sure why. Nico looked like he was about to go homicidal on someone and would need bail money later on. “He was worried, of course, but I told him I’d relay the message.”

Nico’s phone pinged and his face went from scary to scarier. “Looks like you were followed. Sinclair was intercepted before he even made it past the boxing gym.”

“Who intercepted him?” My heart stopped. Edward was nothing like the De Luccis who seemed to have a side of Batman—billionaire by day, vigilante by night.

“Renz and one of the De Lucci soldiers.” Nico looked at me. “No way is he coming up here. I’ll go see him.”

“No,” I said firmly. “We can meet him at Jabbin’ Java.” We were supposed to meet today for drinks, so I could thank him properly for his help with Marie Pierre.

A look of surprise came across Nico’s face.

“I don’t care if he sees me this way.” It wasn’t the first time. “But can we request a corner booth so I won’t scare customers away?”