Page 23 of Tainted Princess
“Francesca,” Giuseppe said quietly, glancing at the others to be sure we were far enough away to go unheard. “My Enzo, he’s a good man. He will be a good match for you, I swear it.”
“Thank you, Giuseppe. I appreciate your sacrifice. Both of you.” I wanted to choke on my words.Theirfucking sacrifice? What about mine? But I knew my place, and today, I was the meek bride, grateful for her knight of a husband, dark though he may be.
“It is no sacrifice for a man to gain a beautiful wife,cara mia. He’s as lucky to have you as you are to have him.” Giuseppe winked at me. “And don’t you let him forget it,capisci?”
I smiled at that, surprised by his candor, and my animosity toward the elder Argenti went down a notch or two.
Hard and determined footsteps sounded from beside me and I could feel his presence before I could see him. Enzo Argenti was like a force of nature, bringing with him a change in the air and a drop in pressure, causing my heart to race and the small hairs on my arms to stand on end. I knew his storm was upon me, but I still jumped when he grasped my elbow, spinning me to look at him.
“Come,” he said in that whiskey voice. “There are things to sign and then we’re goin’ to the hotel.”
This close, I could see that his eyes were actually a dark gray, the color of a weathered gravestone. Enzo stared at me with an emotion I couldn’t read before he turned and drew me after him. We stepped up to a small table near the door, placed our signatures on the necessary paperwork, and then, just like that, my wedding was over. As we trudged across the nearly empty parking lot, the last of the sunlight now gone behind the buildings of the Manhattan skyline, the darkness of the night seemed to match the darkness in my heart.
This was not how I had pictured my life, and I hated every second of it.
After receiving a second kiss from my grandfather, and a smile from Giuseppe, Enzo and I were stuffed into the back of another black SUV, sitting in silence, with only the crinkling of my ridiculously poofy dress between us.
The drive to the hotel was an exercise in awkwardness, with both of us staring out the windows, likely wishing we were anywhere but here. I knew what came next, and I was all kinds of conflicted about it.
On one hand, this was the moment I had been waiting my entire life for, and how pathetic was that? The fact that all my years of feminine schooling had done nothing but pound into my head the idea that my only worth to my husband was in the status of my virginity. It was archaic, but, there it was. Good Catholic girls did not have sex before marriage. Not if they didn’t want to be shunned and ostracized by the entire community.
Well, how about that? I had done everything they asked, yet, here I was, hymen intact, and I was still as much ofHester Prynneto my family as I would have been if I had boned every boy in school.
It was fucked.
But.
On the other hand, I was having a hard time not staring at my new and exceedingly handsome husband. Enzo was not at all what I had expected. I didn’t know his age, but he was at least ten years older than my twenty-three, fully a man and not one bit repentant about it. He was so big and broad, his body taking up more than his fair share of the back seat with his thick thighs man-spreading all over the place like there was simply just not enough room for all ofhimin his designated space.
I wasn’t even mad about it.
And now, enclosed as we were in the back of the vehicle, I could smell his intoxicating scent; sandalwood and cloves, and salt and smoke. Scents that brought to mind hard work and sweat and the outdoors. I tried to discreetly inhale it, wanting to commit it to memory for the things it was doing to my body alone. Every breath I took seemed to increase my confusion, but in a way that was so very delicious.
So while my brain was screaming at me about the injustices of this tradition on the feminist movement, my libido was practically melting into a puddle here on the leather seat.
It was certainly a conundrum.
Somehow, while I was still contemplating which way I was going to fall on the ‘having sex with Enzo’ issue, we had reached the hotel and were marching through the lobby, Enzo’s long strides eating up the marble tiles at a pace I couldn’t have hoped to match even on a good day. In a ridiculous dress and sparkly low heels, it was out of the question. By the time I reached the far side of the lobby, the elevator had already arrived and Enzo was glaring at me from inside the car, holding the door open with one hand. We repeated the process when we reached our floor, him powering along the hall and holding the door to our room open for me while I waddled along like a drunk penguin.
Finally, we were inside, and the closing of the door was like the slamming of the prison bars.
My fate was sealed, and it was time.
The hotel room was actually a suite, with a sitting room and separate bedroom as well as a small bar area. I stood dumbly, watching as Enzo headed straight for it, snagging the squat bottle of tequila and tipping it back, taking a huge swallow, before closing his eyes and exhaling.
Well, nice to know this was going to be as difficult for him as it was for me.
“Alright,” he said, slamming the bottle back on the bar. “Let’s get this done, yeah?”
Right.
This.
I followed Enzo into the bedroom, watching as he shrugged out of his suit coat and tossed it onto a nearby chair. Our suitcases had been delivered sometime during the day, and he dug inside his, fishing around for something.
I hovered by the door, unsure what to do next. I had never been fully naked with a man before, but Enrico—or the man who I hadthoughtwas Enrico—he and I had taken the time to get to know each other. We had talked, and gone on dates, and I developed trust for him before we reached anything close to this point.
But, now that I thought about it, everything Agent Eric Morrison had said during those moments was a lie, so was this really any different? Either way, I was getting intimate with a complete stranger.
