Arianna
It feels like everywhere I go; I see Carmine. Every time I turn a corner, he’s there, and most of the time, he’s alone.
And so am I.
Since the night of the race, his dark eyes have been seeking mine out far more regularly. I remember the feel of his bulging cock against my ass as he ground against me, holding onto me, and the feeling of his strong fingers digging into me, claiming me as his own.
I’ve always liked him. I’ve always thought he was more than good-looking, but lately, I don’t know. Recently, I want to risk everything and just kiss those lips, and run my fingers through his hair. There’s an animalistic undertone that has entered into whatever you call this relationship we have. A raw, bare instinct that draws us together.
As I sip on some fruit juice in the kitchen, I think about our latest encounter. It was this morning just outside the bedrooms. Carmine was walking down the hallway when I opened my room, and he stopped right in front of me to look down at me. He’s only four inches taller than me, but he has such a presence that I feel like he towers over me, casting me in a shadow of protection.
He had smiled that wry smile that I love so much and had given a little bow. “Good morning, Ari,” he said slowly. “If there was such a thing as beauty sleep, then you’ve slept too much.”
It was corny, and I grin now into my juice as I think about it. He left when Alessandro called from downstairs, and I noticed Katya coming out of her room at the end of the hallway. I hustled downstairs without a word to her, and I hoped what transpired stayed between us.
Whatever I’m feeling now, I have to keep it in check. My father and brothers would never allow me to see just anyone. It would have to be someone they approve of, and although Carmine is family to us for all intents and purposes, they would never agree to us being together. They’re so overprotective of me, and I know Carmine was a player in his twenties, but I don’t remember him being with anyone recently.
I wonder, if I brought it up casually, maybe with Dominic first, perhaps I could get away with seeing him. Would he want to see me, though? Maybe I’m reading too much into it, and he’s just being friendly.
Then I remember how we danced together, and a heat settles between my legs, a heat I’d love Carmine to attend to personally.
I look up as my mother walks in. “Ready to go?” she asks.
“Yes,” I say, setting my now empty glass down.
We leave, getting into an armored vehicle. We make it to the salon with no incident. As I sit down and they start taking off my old nails, I watch, mesmerized at what she’s doing.
“So, what’s been happening with you?” Sonya, the nail technician, asks me.
“Nothing much, racing around and being bored,” I sigh. “My brother won’t let me do anything I want.” “Like?” she asks.
I stare at her, and she asks again, “What do you want to do?”
Join the family business, but I can’t say that. “It’s just that anything I propose he shoots down and doesn’t think it’s my place to interfere with business.”
“My mother was the same,” Sonya says, chewing on her gum. “You just have to figure out something they will be agreeable with that will benefit you and them.”
“Nothing will benefit my brother,” I mutter.
She looks at me seriously. “You keeping out of mischief would. Find a good hobby or something you are passionate about. Preferably something that costs money so that you can stick it to him at the same time.”
My mother sits at the desk next to mine, and we fall silent.
I think about what Sonya said. There’s nothing I’m inherently good at-except for racing. I’m good with cars, but you have to be a trained mechanic to work on cars, or you can get into a lot of trouble.
Not just working on cars, though; I love to race. I turn to my mom and find her looking at me thoughtfully. “What?” I ask.
“You looked so seriously now. What’s worrying you?” Perfect opportunity.
“The fact that I have no ambition or drive in life, Ma. I mean, I have no purpose, no reason to live.” I pout slightly. “And everything I think of Alessandro denies me.”
“I’m sorry, Cup Cake, we’ll find something for you to do,” she promises me for the hundredth time.
“I know what I can do, or I’ve thought of something I can do that I’ll really enjoy and that I can work hard for every day,” I say, waiting for her response.
Her eyes are curious, and she prompts me, “What is
it?”
“Racing,” I say, grinning. “I could become a professional racer. I’ll practice at Yonkers or Aqueduct raceway. I can represent the family in car racing.”
My mother looks away, and I know she’s against the idea, so I give a heavy sigh. “But no one cares what I want.”
“That’s not true.” She turns back to me. “Just racing is not ladylike, and honestly, Arianna, it’s so dangerous.”
“Have I caused or been in one accident when I was driving yet?” I shoot back. “Have I ever totaled my car or written off anything?”
She sighs, looking at her nails. “Not too long,” she tells Janet, her nail technician. “No, you haven’t, but I don’t see how I could convince Alessandro to let you do this.”
“If he lets me do this, I’ll practice until I win all the races. I’ll be the best female racer that New York has ever seen. Please, Ma, please help me. At this rate, I will wither away into a ball of nothing.” Okay, maybe I went a bit far.
She rolls her eyes. “I’ll speak to your father about speaking to Alessandro, but I can’t make any promises.”
I can’t move to hug her, but I give her an awardwinning smile. “Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!”
“No promises,” she says, and we return our attention to our appointment.
Sitting at dinner that night, Alessandro looks dead straight at me and says, “Dad says you want to be a racer.
Is that true?”
“She already is a racer,” Dominic says through a mouth full of food.
“I want to be a professional racer, legit and above board.” I look at Alessandro. “I mean, I’d need help getting started. Getting the right car and gear and teams and stuff.” “You’re going to set this up all yourself?” he asks.
I nod, my fingers crossed under the table.
He sighs and spears some lettuce onto his fork.
“What’s with all the healthy food, Ma? I hate salad.”
“Don’t be ungrateful. You need to take care of your heart,” my mother says.
My shoulders drop. It looks like he’s going to move on to another topic now. There was that dream.
“Fine,” he says after a moment, “If it will get you to stop nagging me, fine. First, you get the team together and find decent people, too. I don’t want my sister dying on a racetrack.”
I squeal and jump up, almost knocking over mine and Sofia’s wine. I run around the table and hug him. “Thank you, Alessandro! I will make you so proud.”
He nods, glancing at Katya, who is smiling brightly. I don’t think my mother spoke to my father at all. She talked to someone with far more influence over my brother.
Carmine
She’s everywhere I go.
Everywhere.
She’s like a drug I’m addicted to that I can’t shake. A high that I’m chasing, and like with drugs, it’s a dangerous game I’m playing. I’m playing with my life because the Sorvinos will murder me if they discover what I want to do to Arianna, their precious Cup Cake. Only I know she isn’t an angel. I’ve felt her dance against me. She’s seducing me, and she knows it, and I don’t know how to stop myself.
It’s driving me mad.
I’m distracted, and I need to get out of the house. I see Dominic heading for the front door, and I follow. “Dom!
Dom, wait up. Where are you off to?”
“Check out some of the warehouses Alessandro wants to buy,” he says. “You want to come with me?”
“Yeah, I got nothing better to do,” I tell him, acting as though I’m being offhand. I’m grateful for the distraction.
We take my car, a gift from Alessandro for my hard work. It may not be a Ferrari, but the truck is a beautiful piece of machinery.
I drive, pulling out of the estate. “Which ones are we headed to?”
He gives me the address, and I punch it into my GPS when we stop at the traffic light.
“You need directions?” he asks.
I grin. “I like using the car to its fullest.” I turn the radio up. It’s on a country station, and I know Dom is partial to country music. He says it has soul.
We drive, singing softly to the tunes that flow from my car radio. When I find parking, Dom hops out and immediately draws a gun as a man approaches him from the side. “What the fuck you want, buddy?”
“Woah! Woah!” the stranger says. “You Dominic
Sorvino?”
“Who’s asking?” I have my gun drawn and move up behind the guy. “Spread your legs. I want to check for weapons.”
He keeps his hands up and faces the car, spreading his legs. I search him quickly while Dominic keeps his piece aimed at him.
“He’s clean,” I say, backing up. Dominic holsters his gun. I do not.
“What do you want?” Dominic asks. “I could have blown your head off, buddy, just coming up to me like that.”
“Paranoid, aren’t you?” the man all but sneers, and Dominic grits his teeth.
“Tell me what you want, or I’ll reconsider doing it,” he growls.
I shift my weight, and the man notes that my gun is still aimed at his head. He nods. “I’m just here for some money.”
Dominic snorts. “I’m not Santa Clause, buddy, and I am not a charity. Get the fuck out of here.”
“Of course,” the guy continues, “I’ll gladly accept the money in exchange for information.”
Dominic is half-turning when he stops. “What information?”
“On the attack on one of your vehicles this week,” he says. “I believe there were three women, thankfully unharmed.”
Dominic steps toward him. “Depending on what information you give, yeah, I’d be willing to pay. First, you spill the beans, and then I’ll decide what it’s worth to my family. I’ll compensate you, either with money or your life or maybe if I’m feeling generous with both.”
The guy swallows visibly and nods. “Okay, okay.
Apparently, a Russian mobster has taken exception to Don Sorvino. Something about killing his cousin. He is hell-bent on revenge, not only trying to get your territories but to get to your family members too.”
“Did he say he’s targeting all family members?” Dominic asks, stepping closer.
“I don’t know that. I just figured that you’d want to know about this.”
Dominic looks at me. “You got more information, you call me,” he takes out a business card and hands it to him, “and I’ll take care of you.” Dominic then takes out his wallet, pulls out five hundred dollars, and gives it to the guy.
“What’s your name?” I ask.
The guy looks at me curiously, and Dominic asks,
“What’s your name?”
The man shakes his head. “Call me Buddy. That’s fine.”
“Get out of here, Buddy. We have business to attend to,” I say, holstering my gun at last.
The guy doesn’t need telling twice and quickly leaves, going to an empty car on the opposite side of the lot. He gets in and drives away. Dominic climbs back into the car, saying, “We have to speak to Alessandro.”
We rush back to the estate, and Dominic knocks on Alessandro’s door.
“Come in,” he calls.
We both walk in. Alessandro’s sitting playing chess with Romero. I guess it must be nice being the boss, though I know how ruthless he is and what he’s done to protect the family, so maybe not always so nice.
“Dad, give us the room,” Alessandro says.
Romero gets up and takes one of Alessandro’s cigars.
“I’ll be in the garden if you need me.”
“Dad should stay,” Dominic says. “Some Russian family has beef with you, something about you killing their cousin. They want to move in on our territories, and they were the ones who orchestrated the attack on the girls.”
Alessandro sits back while Romero sits down. Alessandro scratches the stubble on his face. “This information good?”
“Don’t know, a guy approached me, but he seemed pretty legit.” Dominic sighs. “I’ll obviously check it out, but if they’re targeting our family as this guy says, the girls should be placed under immediate protection.”
“That’s easy for your Ma, Katya, and Sofia, but you try and get Arianna protected.”
“Carmine will do it,” Alessandro says slowly, looking at me. My face must have shown him I think he’s crazy because he continues, “She trusts you. She likes you. She’s known you since she was eight. Tell her I’ve assigned you to assist with assembling her team. Let’s keep this as quiet as possible.”
Dominic nods and looks at me. I try to shrug nonchalantly. “She’ll see right through me but okay, when do I start?”
“Right away. You’ll stay at the house for now.” Alessandro stands. “Dominic, arrange the best guys we have for the others.”
“Where is she?” I ask Romero.
He smiles. “She’s in her room, studying up on the car she wants to race.”
I nod. “I’ll take my leave then.”
I give another curt nod and leave the room. Dammit, twenty-four hours a day with Arianna will drive me to drink -day drink! I go upstairs and knock on her door softly.
“Ari?”
She opens the door and looks up at me curiously. “What’s up?”
“I’ve come to help,” I don’t like lying to her. “Alessandro said I could take some time off and help you assemble your team.”
“Why you?” She places her hands on her hips, so I know she doesn’t believe me. “What do you know about assembling a pit team?”
I shrug. “I know how to vet guys that aren’t going to hurt you.”
“Like the guys who caused our crash?” She raises an eyebrow. “You have two seconds to tell me what’s going on, or I’m going to be seriously pissed.”
I look around. “You’re going to get me into shit for doing this, but if you really must know, I’ve been assigned to protect you because some Russian family has a grudge against Alessandro.”
She looks at me, shuts her door behind her, and before I can stop her, she’s marching downstairs. “Alessandro,” she calls, marching into his room.
“You didn’t even last ten minutes,” Dominic says quietly to me. “You can’t let her scare you.”
“Alessandro, I’m not going to be babysat every night and day. I have things to do.”
“You wanna do those things, you stick with Carmine; otherwise, you can forget about your little racing car,” Alessandro says seriously. “For fucks sake, Arianna, it’s a genuine threat. You can get fucking killed.”
“Then give me my own gun,” she growls.
“Stick with Carmine, or it’s a no-go with anything,” Alessandro counters.
I touch her shoulder. “Come on, Arianna, you know I’ll go anywhere with you.”
Dominic gives me a strange look as Arianna shakes her head and turns to leave. I follow, glancing back at Dominic.