Page 97 of Privilege
“I love you.”
His hands on her waist tightened. “Do you?”
“Like crazy. Stupidly, apparently. That’s what people keep saying.”
“But you still do.”
“How can I not? I don’t care what they say, anyway. They know I don’t care—maybe that’s what scares them the most.”
She didn’t expect him to say it back even if she thought she knew what he might say. She didn’t say it just to make him tell her the same thing. She said it because it was true. That was all that mattered to her. That she said it; he heard it; it was true.
Renzo kissed her again, his tongue flicking out to strike against the seam of her lips before he murmured, “It doesn’t matter what they think. It only matters what you want, Lucia, and if you want to be here, then nobody is ever going to take you away from me. Do you know why?”
“Why, Ren?”
“Because, girl … I love you more than you know, Lucia. It’s never gonna be enough, but I do.”
He was wrong.
So very wrong.
It was always going to be enough.
It was okay that he believed he wasn’t enough for her, though. She didn’t mind taking the time to prove him differently. He’d taken the time to see who she really was, after all. She already saw him, too.
He just needed to see himself.
SIXTEEN
“You got a hotel room?” Lucia asked him, giving him one of those sweet smiles. “You know you didn’t have to—”
“But I wanted to.”
It wasn’t like him to drop six-hundred a night on a hotel room because usually, he didn’t have that kind of cash to drop anywhere. He was careful with money because he had to be, no excuses. If it was just him depending on the money he made, then that would be one thing. But it wasn’t just him. He needed to take care of his siblings, too.
Renzo handed the keycard over for the room, and let Lucia open it up for them. The room probably wasn’t up to her level of taste, but he knew it wouldn’t make a fucking difference to her, either. Just the fact that he’d done anything at all for her made Lucia happy. She was easy to please like that, and he loved that about her, really.
Inside the room, which was roomy enough with a king-size bed, a small sitting and eating area, plus a large attached bathroom—yeah, he’d checked it out earlier—Lucia dropped her things over the side of the couch, and spun a small circle. The room wasn’t fancy, but it was nice, and comfortable. Which was all he needed to make his night better, especially because Lucia was there with him.
“Way better than going home tonight, Ren.”
He chuckled, and fished his cell phone out of his pocket. “Check it out, if you want. I have to make a phone call.”
She bit her bottom lip, grinning. “I think I need to wash the sand off, actually.”
“Shower is in there,” he said, gesturing at the one room with the door closed.
Sweetly, she asked, “Are you going to join me, then?”
It took him a second.
He blinked.
Glancing up at her, Renzo said, “I will if you want me to.”
That smile of hers turned sexy in a blink. All too suggestive, really. He loved it. “Make your phone call. I’ll be in there when you’re ready.”
“You got it, Lucia.”
