Ria

Ria
Like a besotted fool, she had rushed to the Club one evening, when she had just turned sixteen. She wanted to tell him that she loved him and wanted him to be her first lover.
*
Two years ago.
Ria glided across the carpeted floor of the Club. She dived into the doorway as she saw Danielle Eton crossing the foyer and heading to the lifts. The last thing she needed was to have Dani see her, she thought, biting her lower lip nervously.
She looked at her reflection in the mirror as she dashed across to the corridor that led to the residences of those who worked under her father, Lucien Delano. There were small cottages that had been built over the years and those who were in residence at the Club, related to work, had been allotted these houses. And Ria Delano was definitely heading to meet one particular person who lived there.
If her mother got wind of what she was doing, she would be furious, thought Ria, biting her lip again, thinking of Proserpina Delano. No, distraught and disappointed and THEN, hurt.
And if her father knew what she was doing, he would fly into a towering rage.
But she was impetuous, had always been that way and now, she wanted to do nothing better than to find out what was wrong with Philippe Diaz.
She felt her breathing come faster as she hurried along.
Philippe.
The boy who had been her best friend when they were young; the one who was always around when she and her twin needed any kind of assistance. He had been drafted into her father’s group soon after he had saved Lucien Delano’s life when they were in Slovakia.
And after that, Ria had only seen him sporadically. She had joined school, been through the ups and downs of learning to conform and had finally made it to University where she was studying Accounting and Economics. Yes, Ria had a fine head on her shoulders, the old school principal would lament every time her mother came for a meeting. But she is too wild and impetuous.
And Proserpina Delano would turn her lovely head to look at Ria, her brown eyes full of an unreadable expression.
Ria sighed. She adored her mother, gentle, beautiful Proserpina who had managed to bring the iconic Mafia Don, her father Lucien Delano, to his knees, with her love.
But Ria knew that she could never be a model young person, unlike her twin brother, Piers.
Now there was a darling student, thought Ria, scowling as she thought of how the teachers and later, the professors at the University had fawned over him. He was the top dog in academics and in sports, the darling of his teachers and the heartthrob of the younger students with his dashing good looks and his wit and intelligence. But she and Piers shared a strong, unbreakable bond. In fact, he was the only one to know what she was up to, tonight.
*
‘Ria!’, he had groaned, shaking his mop of blonde hair in shock and then, plain exasperation when she told him about what she intended to do.
“Ria, you can’t! I mean, if Pappa sees you? And if Mumma gets to know?’
Ria had scowled at him. At the ripe old age of sixteen, she had decided that she was not going to be a virgin any longer. She wanted to know about sex, wanted to know if what the girls went OOOh and AAh about, was all that it was said to be.
Apart from kissing boys at her fancy schools and being pawed a little in dark corners, when she allowed them to be so daring, she had not had much experience with boys. And no, she had never gone beyond a kiss.
*
One of her best friends, Nutan Nair, had stared at her in amazement.
“You saving it up for someone special, girl?’ she had said in her funny accented English when they had been sitting on the tiny balcony in their university hostel room, drinking and staring into space, one evening. While Brent Lee, her gay friend from the University, had cackled drunkenly till she had hit him on the head with the bag of chips.
Ria had not said anything. But the memory of a pair of hot black eyes, a stubbled face, a mop of back hair and a heavily muscled, swarthy, tattooed body came to mind. Followed by a rush of wetness between her thighs that made her blush.
Philippe Diaz, her childhood friend and crush; was the young man who was now being groomed to take over as the Enforcer of her father’s mob.
But something had changed. It was not the old Philippe who she saw these days; this was a man, a hard-faced man who looked through her.
Cool, distant and unattainable. He kept his distance when he did come home to meet her mother, who he plainly adored. But when he spoke to Ria, it was obvious that he did not want to waste any time on her.
Cool. Distant.
Bored
That was how he behaved with her now.
It was infuriating. She had smiled at him, dimpled at him, fluttered her lashes, done everything in the damn book, but he simply strode out after giving her a disinterested nod.
*
Her mother had observed her with repressed amusement while her younger sister, Tara, had piped up, solemnly,
“Mumma, why is Ria making those funny faces?’ as her younger brothers, Dom and Lou, had fallen off their seats in the kitchen, chortling. Beatrice had given an audible snort and murmured something derisive while Camille, who was now wedded to Tony Beston, smiled coyly.
Swallowing the urge to scream, Ria stormed out of the kitchen while the room dissolved into peals of knowing laughter behind her.
“Community living sucks!’ she yelled as she rushed to her room, slamming the door and collapsing on the bed in a storm of tears.
It was true, there were so many people under the roof of the St Claire mansion, that it was impossible to have a private moment with her mother. Her siblings ribbed her, Claude and Piers while Paddy ducked his head and gave a goofy smile, looking at the floor. As for the youngest brothers, Dom and Lou, those monsters laughed at her openly, the wretches! Only little Tara, with her soft expression so like their mothers, would come and hold her hand and give it a squeeze, as though to say,, don’t worry.
And when her father was home! Then the whole house was on alert, the guards would be swarming around on the grounds, while her father, with his cold eyes and harsh expression, would be conducting business with shady-looking men, forbidding them from going anywhere near his study.
But during dinner, her mother would serve lavish spreads that would have him eating with relish, relaxed and happy to be with them, his expression softening as he ached them, resting with a different sort of love on their pretty mother who would blush when he gripped her waist and kissed her.
She sighed.
She loved her family and such times were to be treasured. The laughter, the cheerfulness, yes, it was unique.
But she was also aware of the dark side of her father.
And if Lucien Delano got wind of the fact that his daughter had the hots for his future Enforcer, Ria sighed.
*
She knew how violent her father could be; some incident that had happened recently had left her mother white-faced.
Something about a man her father had killed brutally. It had left her mother traumatised, walking about with a strained expression.
She sighed again.
Life was a bi*ch, especially if you were a Delano.
*
Later that day, after Philippe had left, Proserpina had come to her and taken her in a hug, saying softly,
“It’s alright. Give him time, darling.’
‘But Pappa?’ Ria asked anxiously.
It had been Proserpina’s turn to sigh.
*
Now she sank her nails into her palm.
Ria wanted him.
She wanted her first lover to be Phillipe Diaz.
*
So yes, she was a girl on a mission. She was going to put her proposal forth to him. And did not expect to be refused, she thought grimly, eyes dancing. She was about to corner the lion in his den or something to that effect. So she had dressed in her slinkiest little black dress, covered by a long coat she had borrowed from her mother.
No one knew of her plan, except of course, for Piers.
And Claude. And Paddy.