Scorned Love: An Enemies to Lovers Romance (Scorned Fate)

“Here you go, princess.”

Thankful, I grabbed the sixteen-ounce iced paradise tea from Nico. It was a refreshing concoction of passion fruit and strawberry juice. It had been a scorching summer so far, and even if we picked the coolest day in August for the catalog shoot, nothing could have saved us from the glare of the afternoon sun.

“Thank you, I’m parched as hell,” I mumbled.

The closed set ensured we kept the collection as secret as possible. It had been a week since my attack at the loft. The swelling was gone thanks to extra TLC from Nico. Honestly, that man had exceptional bedside manners, and he could cook. My bruises weren’t as dark as they normally would have been without all that liniment and my special diet.

Besides the soup I’d consumed during the first three days, Nico fed me anti-inflammatory food like salmon, not to mention his mom or Sera stopped by almost every evening bearing home-cooked meals. I was well-fed and pampered.

The Maserati shoot featured Bianca, Tracy, the CENs, and our new plus-size model, Serena. I was the fairy warrior princess, and my part was shot in the midst of flowers and trees and thankfully mostly in the shade with a stippling of sunshine.

Xander constructed an Irina bustier of crimson and gold and white plum blossom appliqués studded with Swarovski. It was paired with a short skirt that was lined with layers of tulle. My hair was in a braid.

My cousin instructed the makeup artist to give me an all-over bronze body makeup. It even covered the cut on my forehead. Dark-winged liner and shadow covered the area around my eyes like a painted mask.

“How’s my fairy warrior princess?”

“I’m melting.” I’d taken off my ballerina shoes. I disliked them because they had no arch, but Xander assured me that was not what I was wearing on the runway. We were still in negotiations with other fashion houses for accessories and shoes.

Nico sat beside me. “I’ll take you home. You’re done for the day.”

“You’ll have to return the Maserati unless you want Bianca to.”

“I got a De Lucci soldier to do it. He could drop us off at The Grindhouse and return the vehicle.”

We watched Bianca and the other models drape themselves over the Italian sports SUV. Nico and I had grown closer in the past week. There were times he asked me sneaky questions about Edward, but I managed to deflect them. I wasn’t at liberty to share, anyway. It was obviously eating at him and I would be stupid not to know why. I would be stupid not to read more into the past few days. Nico spent time with me because he liked me.

He really, really liked me.

And I liked him too, more than I cared to admit to myself. That first night and day he took care of me was only the beginning. He was my beck-and-call boy. He did it in an alpha grumbly way, but it was meltingly endearing. And I had a front-row seat to how he interacted with his family, like how he doted on his sister, or how he adored and respected his mom. These were traits I didn’t get to witness before my attack.

He’d let his guard down.

I wasn’t sure what was going on between us. We shared the same bed. He insisted. On the second night, I didn’t think it felt right, so I put a body pillow between us. Sometimes, it ended up tossed on the floor and I found myself waking up from a nightmare wrapped around Nico. Come morning, he was the first to wake up, and I’d hear him in the shower. Except today. Today, I think I figured out why he’d been waking up ahead of me. Today, I noticed his morning wood. Today, all that burning chemistry between us right before my attack found me again.

Today, he didn’t put the liniment on me. I swore that was the only reason why we hadn’t had sex. The chemistry was there, but it was tempered by my vanity. But now that I didn’t reek, I needed distance to evaluate what was happening between us.

“Um, about that. I’m feeling well enough. Maybe it’s time to think about returning to my loft? I’ve imposed on your family a lot.”

Nico narrowed his eyes and was about to say something when I held up a hand.

“Daniel gave me the go-ahead to hire security—”

“Stop,” he gritted. “You don’t have to do that.”

“Nico.”

“We’ll talk. But not here—”

“I know—”

He nodded to a group of people entering the sealed-off area and my brain went to mush.

Marie Pierre.

The editor of Glamourique was visiting our shoot!

I stood up unsteadily while Xander and Katie, who was supervising the shoot, walked over to greet the career maker of fashion designers. Her eyes were on me, though.

“Miss Wu,” she said, and there was a note of warmth in her voice that was often absent in her usual cool facade. “I hope you’re doing okay after your ordeal.”

“I am. Thank you for the beautiful flowers.” Katie delivered several gifts sent from our business associates and friends. The attack on the loft was highly publicized. Some called it a hate crime more than a home invasion, saying the attack was targeted at Xander because he was Asian and bisexual. There were certainly rumors about my friendship with Sera and I was unfortunate to be caught up in the mob drama.

“Looks like the catalog is coming along,” she continued. Her gaze swept our little area. “Xander, that bustier on Serena is amazing. I will want a good shot of that for our edits.” Serena had an impressive social media following, three times the size of mine. The bustiers Xander created for curvy sizes were darker. Serena would be wearing the one that had black sides, and dark silver center panels with ruching.

“Simply gorgeous,” one of her fashion editors stated. “She should do a boudoir shoot with that one.”

“I think she is,” Xander responded.

“Other labels are also having their shoots today and I’m doing the rounds just so I have a vision of what to expect for the upcoming fashion week. With your recent publicity, all eyes will be on you.”

Was she telling me there was a good side effect of getting my ass kicked?

“We want to manage the message, of course.” She looked me up and down. “Is that what you’re wearing for the final bow?”

“Yes. Xander calls it his fairy warrior princess.”

She gave Nico an interested look and was about to say something, but thought better. “Perfect. Well, I just want to let you know that the spotlight will be on you. I will be in the front row with two of my editors. Hong Kong and Paris.”

My jaw dropped.

My cousin was speechless.

And with that statement, Marie Pierre swept out of the area as breezily as she swept in.

Xander looked at me. There were tears in his eyes. “Oh my God.”

“Oh my God is right.”

“If I hug you, am I going to hurt you?” he asked.

“Of course not. Squeeze me all you want.” Tears formed in my eyes and I opened my arms.

My cousin stepped into my space and wrapped his arms around me, burying his face in the crook of my neck. He gave a shuddering sigh. I felt all his hopes soar with that sigh. If the Hong Kong edition of Glamourique would feature Xander on the cover, that would be a big fuck-you to his dad. I was more invigorated than ever.

When we broke apart and had our moment, our models surrounded us.

“What happened?” Tracy asked. “We were afraid to approach. Marie Pierre stepped onto the set and we all froze.”

“Or pretended to be posing,” the photographer piped in dryly.

“Marie and the Hong Kong and Paris editors will be in our front row.”

Excited chatter and squeals erupted around us.

“Are you guys done with the shoot?” I asked.

“We’re wrapping up,” he told me.

Xander was talking to Serena, and by the wide smile on her face, he was telling her about the feature of the Glamourique edits on their website.

“This is so exciting.” Bianca was currently attached to Nico’s side like a barnacle. “You should buy everyone ice cream.”

The CENs groaned. Claudia sniffed, “Bianca is so mean.” There was no venom in her tone.

“You all earned it,” Tracy said in what could be her most encouraging motivation to the size-zero models yet. There’d been a shift in the way they worked when I returned to the studio yesterday. There was more camaraderie and less cattiness. Xander said it was Bianca’s doing. It seemed she could handle different personalities and made them all work together.

“What about that, Mr. De Lucci? Care to treat a bevy of beautiful women to ice cream?”

“And men!” Xander said. “Don’t forget us.”

We all ended up at Chelsea Market. Nico had one of the De Lucci soldiers drop us off in the Maserati SUV. The others took the subway or a cab. Apparently, the girls wanted to walk the High Line as a compromise to eating ice cream. As if three hours posing for pictures weren’t enough to burn calories.

I had also changed into linen pants and long-sleeved light polo and redid my makeup so I didn’t look like I was coming off a Broadway production. Our makeup artists helped me with the foundation to mask the black and blue still apparent on my face.

Because Nico was paying, we were the last to put in our order. Our crew was already outside being a nuisance to pedestrian traffic. We hit rush hour on a Thursday. The High Line was less crowded, according to Bianca.

“So what kind of ice cream are you having?” Nico asked by my ear, and I didn’t know why that made me shiver. Maybe because the air conditioner was at full blast.

“Vanilla and hot fudge and all the fixings,” I announced. “Can you put a waffle cone on top?” I asked the guy behind the counter. “I just don’t want ice cream dripping all over my hand.”

“I can lick it off for you,” Nico rumbled.

I glared at him. “Behave.”

He just flashed that secret smile. Gah! This man had no business being this hot and swoony and he just bought my entire studio gang ice cream.

As Nico placed his order—a scoop each of butter pecan, chocolate, and espresso on a waffle cone, I couldn’t help but wonder what we were doing. He was acting like my boyfriend. He was always at my side. He didn’t really have to act as my security, and he wasn’t merely a chaperone either if those forehead kisses, whispers in my ear, and occasional hand holding were anything to go by. It was the first time we’d been out in public, so it was a new feeling for me.

I waited for him at the end of the ice cream bar, digging into my favorite texture combination of warm melty chocolate over melty ice cream. After Nico settled our bill, we headed outside and wondered where everyone was.

“Ivy!” I looked over to the stairs leading to the High Line.

“Come on,” Nico said, putting a hand at the small of my back and ushering me through the crowd. “They probably didn’t want to clog up the sidewalk.”

Made sense.

We trudged through the melee. Nico seemed at ease licking his ice cream. I’d probably be a mess chasing the drip, especially in this heat. I was jostled a couple of times and worried about dropping my hot fudge.

“Ice cream is not a walk-and-eat kind of food,” I muttered.

“No?” he teased. “Want a lick of my cone?”

“Sure.” Why did that sound dirty in my head?

He put his arm around me and drew me close. People seemed to steer clear of him, anyway.

“Hmm…” I gave it a tentative lick.

“You can do better than that.”

I glanced up at him. “You know, this whole conversation is playing differently in my mind.”

His grin was devilish. “In mine too.”

A flash of him shoving his cock down my throat made me tingle all over and right down to my nether regions.

He moved us to the side. With one hand, I grabbed his cone and gave it a sultry swirl with my tongue and then I licked my upper lip before I looked up at him.

His eyes were all smolder and want.

“Fuck, if we weren’t in the middle of—”

Someone bumped into us and I dropped my bowl of hot fudge on my shoes but it missed Nico’s. My mouth dropped open, and I swore I could hear that splat reverberating in my head.

“Watch it, asshole!” Nico growled.

“This is not lover’s lane, dickhead.”

He made a move to confront the guy, but I pushed against his chest. “Cool it, Romeo.”

“He’s a jerk.”

“But don’t be a bigger jerk. I appreciate you defending my honor.” I stared forlornly at my shoe and my ice cream mess on the pavement.

“Let’s get you another one,” he said. “Hold mine. Eat what you want.”

After handing me the cone, he crouched and cleaned up the mess. Luckily, there was a trash bin nearby and he dumped it there.

“I don’t need another one.”

“We’ll need to get the stickiness off your shoe, princess. It’s better to use water.”

“I’ll text Bianca not to wait for us.”

After Nico cleaned my shoe, I was once again eating hot fudge, and we made it to the High Line with no incident.

“This is my first time up here.”

“Really?” Nico said.

“I just never got around to it. When I moved to New York for Donateka’s opening, it was too much like Hong Kong with the hustle and bustle. I didn’t get much chance to explore the sights. I was more concerned with food and fashion.”

My phone buzzed. Nico had it because I had both my hands holding the bowl of my dessert to prevent further mishaps.

He showed me a text from my cousin.

He attached several pictures, particularly of the gardens and structures of the old railway.

“This is gorgeous. No wonder Bianca insisted we come here.”

We took a moment to walk in silence, Nico allowing me to not only observe Manhattan from this vantage point, but probably to allow me to finish my hot fudge sundae too. When I was scraping the last of the sticky chocolate, I realized I hadn’t posted to my social media since this morning when I teased about the photoshoot, which was also the first time I’d posted since my attack.

We came to a point with a spectacular view of the Empire State Building. I tossed the ice cream bowl and took my phone from Nico and did a Live.

“Hi, sorry for the lack of updates. It’s been a busy day, but good things are coming, people! I can’t wait to share. Meanwhile, the gang and I just rewarded ourselves with ice cream and walked the High Line courtesy of…” I panned the video to Nico. He immediately blocked the camera. “No.” But his negative reply wasn’t as outraged as the first time I attempted to film a video of him. This time, his face was etched in fond amusement. We’d attained a different level of trust. At least, I think it was trust because I was confident he was going to give in with a little nudge. I stopped the Live. “Come on. We can give my followers something to talk about.”

“Do I get to give you a kiss?” He gazed at me intently. We’d been flirting around what was going on between us, and admittedly, I was giddy with our will they or won’t they vibe. Okay, we’d had sex, but that was supposed to be a one-off. We were actually starting to like each other, although I think we’d gone past like.

“Well…”

Our phones started buzzing. Mine went…

“Your followers are waiting.” Nico’s face came closer. “So what’s it gonna be? Go big or go home, princess.”

“Dammit. I’ll think of consequences later.”

His silent laugh shook his chest as he drew me against him. So with the backdrop of the Empire State Building, I resumed the Live.

“Sorry, the Live cut off abruptly. I needed to convince this guy to show his face, but he had a price of his own.”

When Nico gave me a subtle kiss on my lips, I swore it was the most nervous I’d ever been, and I did it in front of my followers. Hearts and shocked emojis exploded all over my screen.

“Guys, Nico is so sweet. He bought the entire crew ice cream. And I can’t thank this guy enough for taking care of me when I was…um…indisposed.” I grinned enigmatically. “Stay tuned.”

I ended the Live and would have sunk to the ground if Nico didn’t prop me up.

“Oh my God, what have I done!”

Nico’s phone rang. He rolled his eyes and mouthed, Matteo. “Yeah.”

I did a group text.

Nico called for my attention. “Dinner at Oakley’s. Seven. It’s a restaurant at the next exit point.”

I just finished a hot fudge sundae, but okay. There was no stopping Sera. “Okay.” I guess I had to walk some more.

He responded to Matteo and ended the call. He typed into his phone before tucking it away, then he commandeered mine and switched it off. I was on board with that.

Intertwining our fingers, we resumed walking.

“Let’s finish the High Line. We have time.”

“Are you managing me, Nico De Lucci?”

He smiled briefly at me. “Someone has to.”

Xander, Tracy, and Bianca headed toward us. Nico gestured for them to turn around and walk away.

“You’re bossy,” I observed.

“We don’t need them scaring you away.”

“I don’t easily spook.” We came under a railroad pass, and like a kid, I hopped on the rail and balanced with my arms spread out, straddling the railroad track much like how I was teetering in my relationship with Nico.

Are we, or aren’t we?

Nico kept stride with me. When I hopped off, he was about to draw me back into his arms, but I rested my hand on his chest.

He raised a brow.

“I didn’t even think about Tracy.”

This time, his brows drew together, a frown creasing in between. “What about her?”

“You and her…”

“Oh.” A chuckle gusted past his lips. “Tracy and I never slept together.”

“What?”

“Okay, we had one date, but we hit it off differently. Nothing sexual.”

“Nothing at all? But she’s so sexy.”

“We kissed, but it felt like I was kissing a sibling, so we decided to be friends.”

He backed me against the railroad building where it was dark. My breath hitched.

“But with you…” He pressed his body against mine. “I grow hard just thinking about the many ways I want to have you.”

“Whoa there, buddy.” I laughed, but it was a breathless laughter that was tinged with excitement of the lustful kind.

“It appears fairy warrior princesses with an attitude get me hard.”

His mouth was close to mine. Chocolate and espresso. Leather and cigarettes. Sweet kisses and nurturing hands. I wanted to bite his lips.

“Oh, yeah?”

“Yeah.” And then his mouth came down on mine and the way he devoured my lips was not sweet. His hands were not nurturing but demanding and rough. It was our first passionate kiss since the night seven days ago when I kissed him after he made the soup, unable to contain all the emotions he unleashed inside me.

I wanted to melt into him. His hands gripped my ass, and he squeezed. The bruise on my hip protested and I must have made a sound.

He broke off and eased his grip, but didn’t let go. He dropped his forehead on mine. “Dammit.” He shifted his lower body, so it pressed against me and the outline of his erection was unmistakable. “It’s been torture keeping myself from kissing you.”

“Why didn’t you? I initiated the last time.”

“Because…I don’t think I can stop at a kiss.” He blew out a ragged breath. “If I kiss you while we’re lying side by side, while I’m supposed to be taking care of you, I might not give a damn if you’re injured. I’d either be balls deep inside of you, or want to have you come all over my face.”

“Ah…hmm.” My panties were damp, and it was not from the sweat. “That would have been difficult with the liniment all over my body.

He barked a short laugh and drew me away from the wall, sliding his hand in mine and we resumed walking. “That’s one effective barrier, but we’ve stopped using it today.”

“Sounds like a threat.”

His inky-blue eyes gleamed with determination. “We’re past threats, princess.”