Believe Read Online Free

together. No idea how to tell her he loved her, with every shard of his soul. Loved her…He edged his fingers through his hair, finding the scar on his scalp from the fight he’d gotten into several years before. What he wanted most would ruin the person he loved most. Lita.
    “I should get you back to Uncle Enzo’s.” Lorenzo gripped his hands on his thighs, trying to force himself to get up.
    “I know I put you in an awkward position. I promise I won’t bring it up.”
    He ground his teeth together. She really was clueless about men. That she didn’t feel what he had in their kiss…He stared at her. Her gaze was tender, longing. His skin tingled with knowing: this was how to tell her, this was how to believe. Be with her. He grabbed her arms. He kissed her.
    She yielded to him, placed her hands on his chest. His kiss spoke the words he couldn’t say, the fantasies he’d had, the love that had crept in and imprisoned him. She sighed. He released her arms. She wrapped them around his neck.
    Their lips explored and discovered. Her kisses made every pore and hair on his body tingle. With each kiss, his love took hold of him, told him he had to find a way to be with her.
    Lorenzo followed with a long, slow kiss, an unspoken question. Her warm, silken lips, her eager response to him, filled him with unfamiliar heat and surety. He shuddered in the chill of the unknown. She slipped her arms down and around him. She closed the last inches between them, stretched her arms up his back, and returned his embrace. Lita pressed herself impossibly close to his chest. Her softness revitalized him. He teased open her lips with his. Yes, her answer was yes. What was the question?
    He pulled away slightly. Lita studied him, a serious, but still tender expression on her face. He returned her gaze, caressed her cheek and arm, so like a newly picked peach. She held a miraculous beauty and promise he couldn’t yet understand. She smiled and started to lean in for another kiss.
    “Wait.” He placed his hands on her shoulders. He needed to slow this down. Her cheeks were pricked with red, like new bruises.
    He hopped up, rubbed the back of his neck.
    Red like blood. Bashed skulls. Like the bashed head of the creep who’d tried to rape Lita when she was fifteen. Lorenzo’s ears thrummed with her muffled cries to Lee that night seven years ago. Apparently, Jane’s pervert boyfriend had tried several times before they’d caught him.
    Lita placed a hand on Lorenzo’s back. His breath released. When he’d agreed seven years ago to have his father hire someone to rough up that pervert boyfriend of Jane’s, Lorenzo didn’t realize he’d walked into hell. He inhaled. Lita’s clean, vanilla scent quelled the acid in his throat.
    His father had made him view the body—there wasn’t supposed to be one—before they’d disposed of it. Lorenzo had vomited in the darkness of the alley. His father’d never let him hear the end of that show of weakness. Just like he never did things the way Lorenzo asked him to—his father always took everything too far, beyond what Lorenzo could stomach.
    “Want breakfast?” Lorenzo stood still. He breathed her scent in again. He’d protected her before. He could do it again, and be with her.
    “I can make something.” She dropped her hand.
    A chill tightened his spine. He wouldn’t think of his father now. “I don’t keep food here.”
    “The consummate bachelor.” Lita’s tone was either derisive or resigned.
    “I have been.” He shrugged.
    “Isn’t that what you want? Aren’t you happy?” Lita’s voice, quiet and lyrical, sang through him.
    “No, it’s not.” He turned to her. “I want you, Lita. Being near you makes me happy. But I have to change.” He had to be a man who’d defy his father’s blackmail. A man who’d give up meaningless pleasures. A man who’d live by love and loyalty.
    A tear danced down her cheek. He caressed it away. Lita kissed his hand and leaned her