Page 116 of Privilege

Black on black on black.

The enforcer on the sidewalk was still saying something to him, but Renzo wasn’t even paying the guy any attention. He clearly had something much better to stare at, now.

Her.

Lucia came closer. “Figured you’d be around.”

She hadn’t. She didn’t know what Renzo was doing at all this last week. She’d just been hoping …

Wasn’t that what love was at the end of the day?

Hope.

“Did you?” he asked.

One of his hands had already outstretched to reach for hers. As soon as she was close enough to him to grab it, she did just that. Renzo wasted no time in yanking her as close to him as he could possibly get her. The first kiss landed on her hairline, and the second, on her forehead.

She couldn’t get him close enough.

Couldn’t hug him tight enough.

God, she missed him.

“You’re crazy, you know,” she mumbled against his chest. “Showing up like this here.”

She had watched bigger men with more important last names be punished for a hell of a lot less than what he did here today. She honestly believed her father when he said the one and only reason he had yet to physically act against Renzo in a way that would permanently keep him away from Lucia was only because of her, and nothing else. Because her father loved her, and maybe … there was a part of him that knew she loved Renzo, too.

Maybe.

His chuckles rocked them both, but goddamn, she loved that sound. Loved the way it surrounded her like a melody she couldn’t forget. Loved the way it filled her senses with something sinful and wicked.

Was that what they were?

Sinful?

Wicked?

She could figure that out later.

Renzo pressed a quick kiss to her lips when Lucia tipped her head back to stare up at him. “We should get out of here, yeah?”

Lucia glanced back at the restaurant. “Like now.”

“Got it.”

• • •

They walked three blocks before Lucia realized something.

No one was following them.

She kept looking back, expecting to see an enforcer trailing them on the sidewalk, but no. There wasn’t anyone coming for them. She thought, maybe she might see a familiar black car circling the block once or twice, but again, there was nothing.

Her mother hadn’t lied.

“What are you doing?”

Lucia glanced up at Renzo, and felt his fingers tighten around hers. “I was just … nothing. It’s nothing.”