Page 101 of Contempt

“You got it,” Renzo replied. “Come on, Lucia.”

He held his hand out to her, and despite the fact that she still wanted to sit with her father to be with him while he finished his last bit of chemo, she stepped back. Taking Renzo’s hand in hers, he directed her out of the room as his fingers weaved with hers, and held tight. Like he was going to keep her right there with him, lest she try to dart back to her father.

“He’s going to be fine,” Renzo said, chuckling before he dropped a kiss to the top of her head. “Let him do this alone, Lucia. We all need those moments sometimes.”

Fine.

“He didn’t even want Ma here today,” she said.

“He’s got a lot going on, I think.”

“Yeah, about that.”

The two of them slipped down a stairwell, and Lucia turned fast with a sly grin on her face. She poked him right in the chest, and all Renzo did was arch a brow as if to challenge her. “What was all that about back in the room, anyway?”

“I don’t know what you’re—”

“Don’t even try it.” She put a hand to her hip, and squared him with a look that she hoped said she wasn’t fucking playing around, now. It was hard to say whether or not Renzo would take it as a challenge, but she welcomed it either way. “I saw that whole … silent conversation shit you and my dad had going on. Don’t even try to lie to me.”

Renzo tugged on her hand as they came to the first landing in the stairwell, and he took the door leading out to a floor that looked … empty. Wordlessly, he tugged her hand, peeking into door after door until he found one that he seemed to like. Renzo pulled her into the room behind him, and then kicked the door closed.

It took Lucia two seconds to realize they were inside a damn storage room. Rows of metal shelves had been filled with medical supplies. But hey, it gave them a bit of privacy for this talk, which she appreciated.

It was something.

“What are you doing?” she asked him when Renzo gave her a grin, and a wink.

“Come here,” he demanded roughly.

He pulled her closer to him, and his hands slipped up under her jaw. Tipping her head back, all she could see was him clouding her vision.

And God …

She loved it.

Loved him.

He dropped a quick kiss to her mouth, saying, “Don’t worry about it, Lucia. Me and your dad, I mean … it’s not about you.”

“But—”

Renzo kissed her harder.

He was trying to distract her, and it was working. Lucia wasn’t even sure if she minded, or not. She did like his hands on her. Loved the way he kissed her like he was hungry, and couldn’t get enough. It was enough to make her wet between her thighs even if here was the last place that she should be feeling that kind of way.

He probably knew it, too.

He knew exactly what he was doing to her. He had to, considering the way he drifted closer to her, shoving her body against the wall, and pressing his hard form against her softer lines. She was suddenly glad that she had decided on a flimsy dress for the day when it made easy work for one of his hands to slide up under her skirt and grip her inner thigh while his other one kept a firm hold on her jaw.

She couldn’t move.

She didn’t want to, either.

“God, you’re awful,” she breathed when he finally pulled away from their kiss.

Renzo chuckled. “Am I?”

“Just … it’s okay, right?” she asked, peering up at him. “You and my dad, I mean. You’re both okay, right?”