Page 54 of Privilege

Partly because of the nickname, and partly because she hadn’t seen him since that morning he took off without as much as a goodbye in her direction. Fuck. He hadn’t even looked at her as he left.

Lucia wasn’t going to be any man’s tissue to use and toss away when he was done with her, but especially not this man’s. It didn’t matter how much her stupid heart liked the way he was staring at her, or how those damn butterflies were back to make a mess out of her insides.

Did not matter one bit.

Maybe if she kept telling herself those things, she would start to believe them. God, she was a mess.

Lucia thought she might try for the subtle approach first, and go from there. “What, Ren, you didn’t get what you wanted from me the first time? You need more?”

His gaze darkened as he looked her over, and then narrowed briefly. “You’re pissed at me.”

“You think?”

“Why?”

“You just took off!”

She hadn’t meant for it to come out loud enough to scare off the birds resting along the powerlines, but there she was. Lucia watched the birds scatter into the sky while the man a few feet away just chuckled like she had said something funny.

“Stop laughing at me,” she snapped at him.

Renzo held up both hands, that cigarette of his dangling dangerously from his fingertips. “Sorry, princess.”

“And stop calling me that, too.”

“Kind of fits, doesn’t it?”

Lucia didn’t respond.

Renzo glanced down at his brother, and sighed.

“Listen, I had to be somewhere that morning, and if I hadn’t got up and gone when I did, I would have missed my pick-up time for something I needed to run across the city. I would have been out that cash, and I needed it to pay my sister’s expenses for the rest of the month, okay?”

It took Lucia a second, but she softened her stance. “I could have taken you, if you asked.”

Renzo cleared his throat. “No.”

That was it; that was all.

Just a quiet, simple no.

“But—”

“I handle my business, yeah?” Renzo shrugged a shoulder. “I didn’t think to explain. I just had to handle my shit, and go. I don’t really have to consider other people except myself, and my siblings. So, if you’re expecting something like that from me, then you should also expect to be disappointed occasionally.”

Huh.

The words slipped out of Lucia’s mouth before she could think to stop them. “So, next time maybe explain before you just take off like that?”

A sly, sexy grin spread across Renzo’s features, and his tongue peeked out to wet his lips as he nodded. “I will do that next time.”

“Will you come with us, Lucia?” Diego asked suddenly, reminding her all at once that he was there, too, even if he was such a quiet kid. “Renzo said you would.”

She looked to Renzo. “To where?”

“My sister has a thing,” he said like it wasn’t a big deal. “Figured maybe you’d like to do something—haven’t seen you in a hot minute, you know?”

Lucia smiled.