Page 51 of Rise of Temptation

Enzo’s face turns white with shock and then quickly morphs to a shade of red I’ve never seen on human skin before.Oh, fuck. He’s going to kill her.

“She still might be telling the truth,” I offer. “Frankie has a good point, but he doesn’t have any proof. She could just as easily be on our side. Don’t shoot her just because Frankie has trust issues.”

“We could’ve vetted this issue weeks ago if you’d told us the truth about who she was,” Frankie says, rising from his seat. Before he leaves, he adds, “Shooting her would save us the headache of figuring out what to do with her once the trafficking issue is over with. It’s not like she’ll want to stick around anyway, and you know you won’t let her leave.”

When the door shuts behind Frankie, Enzo turns his chair around to look out over the club. He doesn’t say anything, but Ican’t leave without knowing I did my best to help him make the right choice.

“I think you’ll be surprised by what she wants when all is said and done,” I tell him from my seat. “I’ve seen the way she looks at you. At all of us, really.”

“I fucked it up when I called her a whore.”

I nod, even though he can’t see me. “Not your finest hour. But you can still make it up to her.”

He pauses, and I get up to leave when I decide he’s not going to answer. But then he does. “How?”

“Apologize. And give her the one thing she’s been wanting.”

“You mean permission to fuck whoever the hell she wants?”

“Are you afraid that she won’t want you if she has us? Because I guarantee she wants you too. It’s not a situation where she has to choose between you and us. Unless you make her choose.”

“Why would she want or need all of us? We’re overbearing and demanding and dominant and—”

“And we’ll all do everything we can to take care of her and keep her safe and make sure she never has a shortage of orgasms,” I finish.

Finally, he turns to look at me. The vulnerability in his eyes isn’t something I’m used to, and I’m honored that he’s choosing to open up to me.

“I can’t let anyone know that she might be more to me than a sexual object. Not right now. Not until we find the fucking rat. Once he’s dead, maybe it can be different.”

“How are you going to convince Frankie not to kill her?” I ask.

He shrugs. “She’ll have to prove herself to him.”

That answer doesn’t reassure me, but I know better than to push my luck. If I need to, I’ll stand between Frankie and Elise and just hope he doesn’t kill me with her.

Before I leave, I throw out one last piece of advice. “If you’re going to keep treating her like an emotionless sex doll in frontof the Family, you at least need to warn her. Otherwise, it really might be too late to fix things by the time this is all over.”

I pull open the office door and walk out, hoping with everything in me that he takes my advice. Life without Elise is looking more and more like a life without pleasure, and I’m too young to never get a fucking erection again.

Chapter 39

Elise

It’s been a few days since Enzo revealed my identity to the other three, and they’re all still acting weird about it. Joey seems to have accepted it the most, whereas Frankie can barely look at me. I’m still a little worried that he’s going to walk into my room and shoot me, actually. Sal falls somewhere in the middle.

The thing is, I can tell they all still want me. I’ve caught Joey and Sal ogling me multiple times, and Joey slapped my ass yesterday when he walked by me in the hall. Frankie’s signs are more subtle, but I saw the way his eyes darkened when I “accidentally” let my dress ride up and exposed the curve of my ass during breakfast this morning.

Granted, I have no idea why he was even there during breakfast. It seems like I haven’t had a moment to myself in the past few days. Even when I’m in my room, I get the feeling that someone is nearby. I’m hoping it’s because they’re all coming around to the idea that I’m not the enemy. Maybe they’re ready to finally take Enzo’s rules for a spin. Or maybe they’ve managed to talk him into lifting them altogether?

I’ve been in my room all morning, having returned afterbreakfast to check my phone—nothing, as usual—and then not wanting to wander aimlessly through the house and risk running into Enzo. He’s still being a dick and hasn’t apologized, so I’m back to avoiding him unless he calls me down for something work-related. But it’s the middle of the afternoon, I just finished my book, and I’m starving, so I stand up and stretch before quietly opening my door to sneak downstairs.

Or that’s the plan until I open the door and find Sal and Frankie standing in the hall. I’ve been hoping to catch either Sal or Joey—or both—but I can’t for the life of me remember why. I do know that I only wanted them for whatever the reason was—not Frankie or Enzo.

I have no chance of figuring out what I needed because I’m completely distracted by the way Frankie’s tongue is down Sal’s throat and Sal’s hand is stroking Frankie’s cock. I’ve known about their relationship for a long time, but I’ve never caught them in an intimate moment like this.

When they see me, they move away from each other, but Frankie doesn’t try to hide his erection.

“Don’t stop on my account,” I say, gesturing between the two of them to indicate they should keep going. I lean against my door frame, hoping I’m about to get front row seats to my new favorite show.

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