Protecting The Princiepessa (Complete)

~ Chapter 19 ~

Ignazia walked into the club a week later, glancing around. She had been working here for a while now, but she hadn’t been in as a guest and figured it was high time to change that. She didn’t have any friends to hang with, and Adriano was working, so she said she’d save him a headache and come to the club alone. It wasn’t something she did often, but this time, it didn’t bother her. The bouncer had let her in without a problem, regardless of the line that was past the street, waiting to get in.

She swallowed her nerves and made her way to the bar, smiling at Mindy who had to do a double take. Izzy waved at her and waited for her to wrap up the other orders before being pushy. After all, it wasn’t like she had much of anything else to do. She glanced behind her again at the crowd, wondering if maybe she might be lucky enough to find someone to dance with her.

“If you’re here, you should be working.” Izzy rolled her eyes before she turned around to look at Chuck.

“No, it’s a day off and I’m free to do whatever I want, and that includes coming to dance and drink.” With that, she turned her attention away from the ass and to Mindy.

“You look amazing, Izzy,” the other female said, and Izzy smiled. Her jeans were tight, her heels were sky high, and her top helped push the girls up and out even more.

“Thank you, Mindy! Can I have a glass of Amaretto on the rocks please?”

“Sure thing.” Izzy grabbed the cash from her pocket and was about to hand it to Mindy when a hand quickly caught hers.

“No female should ever buy their drinks,” a deep voice spoke from behind her. She glanced over her shoulder and smiled at the blonde hair man that was there.

“Thank you, that’s very nice of you,” she told him, and the man smiled.

“Mindy put it on my tab.” That caused Izzy to frown slightly. She hadn’t seen the man before, but it was obvious he knew Mindy and not her.

“Sure thing, suga.” With that, Mindy handed Izzy her glass and gave her a wink before moving on to another customer.

“You must be new here,” the man said, leaning against the bar, even though there was no room.

“No, I actually work here,” she told him, taking a sip of her drink.

“It’s my night off and figured I needed a drink and a dance.” The man looked behind her shoulder and smiled.

“I see no man with you,” he commented.

“There isn’t,” she told him.

“I’m Ace.” He held out his hand and she glanced at it before taking it.

“Izzy.”

“Well, Izzy, since you seem to be flying solo, let me take you to the floor.” She nodded as he held onto her hand and led her to the dancing throb of bodies. The song was fast and full of bass and if they even wanted to talk, they were going to have to be right on top of each other. Not that she minded. The man was sexy as f**k, with his blonde hair and piercing blue eyes, and a build that would make any girl feel safe. And though she hated to think about it in such a manner, she could easily go home with him tonight, but he wasn’t the man she wanted. And she refused to even think about where the hell those ideas started coming from!

His hands roamed over her sides before they settled on her hips and drew her back against his chest. She sipped her drink while she looked around, catching quite a few eyes glancing their way. She smirked behind her glass and leaned even more against him, using her free hand to wrap around his neck. He chuckled as he placed a light kiss below her jaw.

“Why are you chuckling?” she asked.

“You’re making quite a few ladies jealous.”

“I suppose I am.” She pressed even more against him, and he groaned. “Oh, did I do that?” She tried to act coy, but she could feel what was going on with him.

“You’re already a beauty that I had to have the moment I saw you, please don’t make it worse.” She tilted her head slightly to look at him, wondering if his kisses would be as nice as the arms he had wrapped around her.

“Is that so? What drew your attention first?” She knew she stood out, confident in what she wore, but her curves were on display as well, so she had no doubt that men’s eyes were drawn first to that, then anything else.

“Well, your ass, then your lips.” She drew her bottom lip between her teeth, and he followed the movement, squeezing her hips.

-----

Adriano rolled his eyes to himself as he listened to the men rave on about their problems, much of which were pissing him off for the moment. For the first time in a long ass time, he didn’t want to be here listening to them. He wouldn’t dare utter s**t about that, but he wanted to be home, which was f*****g insane because the only thing at home was Izzy, and well, he f*****g couldn’t go there. He didn’t know what he was thinking when he told her that she should go to the club. He knew she would have been fine at his house, but f**k, he wanted her close.

However, he saw her the moment she walked through the doors, and he knew many pairs of eyes glanced her way. Not that he could blame them because God damn, did she look amazing. And the image of her like that, and the dress he bought a week before, was all swimming in his head and he was having a hell of a God damn time trying to control everything. Hell, the last thing he needed was some problem by the name of Ignazia. But as his eyes turned to look around the room at his men, he knew he would be leaving. He had to go to his office to keep an eye on her.

And he did. He sat his drink down at the bar, nodded to a few men, and made his way to his office. Let the guys say what they wanted; their bitching wasn’t anything of importance. The real stuff was already discussed and now that the drinks were flowing a little freer, so were their mouths. He walked over to the window and looked down at the crowd, spotting her at the bar still. He had to shift on his feet to ease the tension that was building up in his pants. He couldn’t recall ever seeing a pair of jeans look that amazing on any ass before and f**k if he didn’t want to feel it grinding against him.

“f**k, Adriano, smettila con quella merda (stop with that s**t),” he muttered to himself. His eyes followed her, followed as some guy walked up to her. No, not some guy, it was Ace Lucas, a well-established businessman who rarely graced the downstairs floor area. Adriano would hate to lose his patronage, but Adriano was not about to let this man use Izzy, not like that. And as he yanked his jacket off and tossed it on his desk chair and then rolled up his sleeves and made his way downstairs, he kept telling himself that the only reason he was stepping in was because of that. Because Izzy didn’t need to fall prey to a man like Ace, who was probably one of the biggest womanizers ever.

At least, that’s what he wanted to believe. But the moment his foot got on the last step and his eyes caught them in the crowd and saw them on the verge of a kiss, he saw red. And he did not want Ignazia anywhere near that man, and certainly not in that position. Okay, so, he f*****g had to come to grips with what that s**t meant. Maybe, very quietly, he needed to f**k her and get her out of his system because something was f*****g up and he couldn’t figure out what.

He stepped up behind Ace and tapped him on his shoulder. Ace knew Adriano, they had been friends for quite a few years, and Ace was probably one of the few people in the club who knew what Adriano was. So, it wasn’t a surprise when Adriano merely tossed his head over his shoulder to indicate that Ace should leave the woman alone. Ace glanced between him and Izzy, who seemed oblivious to the current happenings, and Adriano had to be thankful for that. Because he knew her well enough now that she would probably rip him a new one if he was kicking more men to the curb. Ace chuckled, held up his hands, and backed away, but Adriano didn’t leave Izzy alone. He quickly took the spot that Ace was and wrapped his arms around her, taking in a deep breath of her scent and her perfume. She tried to turn around, but he held her tighter.

“Don’t,” he growled lowly, and he saw her shiver. Good, maybe he was affecting her the way she was affecting him.

“What the f**k are you doing, Adriano?” she hissed, and he just closed his eyes.

“Just f*****g dance, Izzy, it’s what you wanted.” He felt her stiffen in his arms and he knew why; he hadn’t ever called her Izzy.

“You can’t just keep scaring all the men away who want to talk to me, or something.”

“I f*****g can. Ace is not your type.” She turned her head slightly to glare at him, but he wasn’t having it. Without thinking, his head descended, and his lips captured hers. She let out a gasp against his mouth, but she soon recovered from the shock, and her free hand wrapped around his neck, making the kiss even deeper. And in his mind, he was shocked to feel her curves pressed against his; but he was even more shocked and surprised to feel just how hard he was.