Page 96 of Power & Punishment

“No,” she scoffs, her bottom lip quivering slightly. I can feel her reaching for a better comeback, but when she comes up empty, she reaches for her next go-to. “Don’t you have a job you need to get to?”

I flip our bodies and pin her underneath me.

“Why are you so desperate to get out of my bed? You didn’t seem to have any objections when your face was buried in the pillow and I⁠—”

“Please stop,” she snipes. I prepare for the cold front I’m about to endure when her lips transform from a displeased sneer into a mischievous smile. Excitement thrums underneath the surface as her playful side makes an appearance. “Maybe you’re more than just a pretty face after all, DeLuca.”

“But as much fun as this has been,” she says, tapping her fingers against my chest like a beautiful drumbeat. “We both have things to do.”

I lick my lips, trailing a single finger down her exposed body, watching goosebumps pop up. She tracks the movement closely, anticipation cresting on her face. And then with a dramatic exhale, I say, “You’re right.”

“I am?” she asks, eyebrows raised and reaching for the sheet.

“Yes,” I say, forcing myself to a sitting position and facing away from her before I get pulled back in. “But you’ll make up for it later.”

She snorts, the bed creaking under her weight as she turns toward me. “What makes you think I’ll be back in your bed tonight?”

“I don’t think,” I say, standing up and turning around. Her eyes instantly rake over my body. “I know.”

Mia’s forehead wrinkles as she wraps the sheet around her body and marches toward the bathroom.

“No comment?”

“I like it better when we don’t talk,” she replies, and in one fluid motion she drops the sheet.

I curse under my breath when I hear the shower turn on, and like a zombie, my feet start moving before I can talk myself out of it.

My phone keeps buzzing on the table, but I ignore it, stalking toward the shower.

For once, Enzo Caruso was right.

Mia is a distraction.

One I’d do anything for.

“Is everything set for tonight?” I ask, staring daggers at Michael’s feet propped up on the very expensive coffee table in my office.

“Yes,” Dante says on the other end of the phone. “I just need to borrow your man servant for a few hours, and we’ll be good to go.”

I stifle a laugh; thankful I didn’t put the call on speaker. I kick Michael’s feet off my table and ignore the dirty look I get in return.

“He’s ready to go whenever. I already tipped off the cops.”

I’m met with silence on the other end until Dante finally speaks again. “Are you sure this is going to work? This is a big risk for both of us. If Enzo finds out⁠—”

“He won’t,” I snap, cutting him off. “We used a burner and voice encryption. It’s untraceable.”

Dante is right. It is a risk.

A huge one we shouldn’t be taking this quickly. But after he threatened Mia, we had to speed things up.

I need to take Enzo out before anything happens to her.

Because if it does, I won’t hesitate to strike.

And once I cross that line, there’s no going back to the life Frank and Cecil worked so hard to help me build.

That should scare the hell out of me, but it doesn’t seem to trigger the same amount of emotion that erupts out of nowhere every time I picture her face.