LUCA The days passed quickly after our return to New York, and soon November arrived and with it Matteo and Gianna’s fucking engagement party. The girl did not even try to hide that she did not want to marry Matteo.
If it had been up to me, I would have let Scuderi marry her off to whichever creepy old man he chose for her before Matteo played fucking hero and asked for her hand in marriage.
It would have brought trouble to New York, and I was glad the wedding was still more than six months away because more trouble was the last thing I needed at that moment.
Dante entered my villa with Scuderi and nine-year-old Fabiano, who followed them like a lost puppy. Gianna and Liliana had arrived earlier with their mother and immediately went upstairs to prepare for the festivities.
Neither woman felt comfortable with me.
Dante and Scuderi would not spend the night under my roof. They preferred a hotel nearby, and I was fucking relieved. Maybe our fathers had agreed to a truce, but Dante and I didn’t trust each other. I didn’t want him under the same roof as Aria. Not that he was interested in her.
He had not yet officially taken over the Boss position from his father Fiore Cavallaro, but everyone knew he was running the show in Chicago.
“I still can’t stand their fucking faces,” Matteo muttered.
“Especially Scuderi makes me want to optimize their faces with my knife.”
Someday maybe, but not today.
I approached them and extended my hand to Dante as was the tradition. “Dante,” I said in a neutral tone, the friendliest tone I could find. “I heard you recently got engaged. Congratulations.”
Dante bowed his head. “The wedding won’t be as big a deal as yours with Aria.”
“We are honored to attend anyway.” Of course, we had received an invitation and were obligated to go, although I couldn’t have cared less whether Dante got married or not.
Dante bowed his head, his eyes cold and wary.
After that I shook Scuderi’s hand and squeezed it a little harder than I should have, remembering what Aria had told me in Sicily , that he had beaten her even after our engagement, even after I had told him she was mine.
He frowned. “Luca.”
I let go of his hand. “Rocco.”
“Where is Aria?”
“She’s talking to the caterer about some last-minute changes, but she’ll be here any minute.”
“Is Romero still her bodyguard? I never understood how an attractive man close to her age could be allowed to protect her. I would not allow my wife such an opportunity.”
The moment this truce was over, I would hunt him down and show him what it feels like to drown in his own blood. I smiled coldly, in a steely voice. “My men know she is mine. No one would dare look at her the wrong way. Men like your nephew Raffaele would be skinned in New York, their skin left to dry so it could become a beautiful carpet for my office.”
Scuderi’s face turned red.
Dante only met my gaze with the same cold assessment as always. “We came to celebrate an engagement, not to skin someone, I suppose.” His eyes said he would prefer the second option.
I tilted my head. “Sure. We want to strengthen our ties, right?”
“Right,” Dante cut Dante short, and silence followed.
Beside me, Matteo seemed to be just waiting for a sign from me to draw their knives and etch a smile on their throats.
My gaze went to the small figure behind Scuderi who was watching us with huge blue eyes, Aria’s eyes.
“Fabiano,” I said, trying to soften my voice but succeeding only marginally. He looked up at his father, who nodded abruptly before Fabiano stepped forward and held out his hand. I took it and shook it, then the boy squinted his eyes. “Where are Gianna and Lily?”
His young voice had a protective tone, and I had to stifle a smile.
“He buried them in the back yard,” Matteo said with a grin.
Fabiano gasped, and I gave Matteo a grim look. “They’re upstairs,” I told Fabiano and tightened my grip slightly, giving him a warning look. He was still a little boy, but I would not tolerate his insolence on my territory.
He lowered his eyes and I let him go.
“I’m not telling you anything you don’t know, but you’re going to have to get Gianna back on her feet. She needs a hard hand,” Scuderi said, and Matteo’s answering smile sent me on high alert .
Dante straightened up. Three years of respite. How much longer?
The door opened and Romero entered, checking that the air was clean before allowing Aria to enter . His eyebrows came together when he noticed the tension between us, and he extended his arm to bar Aria’s way. Of course, she would not allow it; her eyes had turned to her brother.
She bent under Romero’s arm. “Fabi!” she called, her face breaking into a smile as she ran toward us. He launched himself toward his brother and hugged him tightly. The unbridled happiness on his face chased away every violent thought I had been brooding. He pulled back, his eyes scanning his brother. “You’ve grown up again. When will you ever stop ?”
“When I’m as tall as Luca,” Fabiano said firmly.
And Aria let out that bell-like laugh I fucking loved more than anything else. “Then we’ll have to feed you a lot.” She lifted her gaze to me, so full of happiness and love that I had difficulty keeping my face impassive and hard. Her expression grew slightly more somber before awareness took over as she turned toward Dante and his father. Courtesy and grace took over her face as she approached her father and kissed him on the cheeks.
“Father.”
Then she turned toward Dante. I could see from the tension in her shoulders that it scared her, and that sight would have been enough to make me want to throw myself, but Matthew’s hand on my forearm, a silent warning, stopped me.
I shot him a look. Now he had to stop me from breaking the truce, really?
Dante must have read some of my thoughts, because his eyes narrowed just a little before he took Aria’s hand and kissed it. He let her go quickly and she took a step back.
She came to my side and I touched her waist. Mine.
“Has the cake arrived yet?” she asked. “The caterer said they couldn’t reach the bakery and no one answers when I try to call.”
I stared at her. I didn’t even know we had ordered the cake.
She sighed. “I think I’d better have Romero accompany me there.” She turned to look at her brother. “Why don’t you join me?”
I stifled a smirk. Aria had picked up on the ‘tense atmosphere and wanted her brother to leave.
Fabiano looked at his father, who nodded to him.
“You’re just in the way anyway.”
Aria wrapped a protective arm around her brother, her eyes hardening. “Come on.” She lifted her eyes to mine. “If Gianna and Lily ask for me, please tell them I’ll be back soon.” He gave me a brief smile but did not kiss me. There would be time for that when we were alone.
“I must admit that Aria seems surprisingly relaxed with you. Given your reputation, I would have thought she would have cowered in front of you,” Scuderi said. “But I suppose some reputations are misleading.”
“A wedding is no place for fear,” Dante said, and I felt something akin to respect for him.
Several hours later, my suspicions were confirmed when Gianna made a scene, making her reluctance to marry obvious to anyone unfortunate enough to be around.
Matthew took it philosophically. He was the master of the games and she was going to be his ultimate victory, or so he thought. I had a feeling that the redhead would not only make his life hell for him, but also for me. I could only hope he would not drag Aria into trouble with her because when it came to her brothers, Aria lost all sense of self-preservation.
“What are you going to do about Sylvester?”
Matthew asked.
I grimaced. I had been putting off a decision until that moment. Every time Aria had asked me what we were going to do with Sylvester, I had pretended that I hadn’t decided yet, but it was a fucking lie.
Like every fucking year, I had been invited to the social event in New York: Senator Parker’s Sylvester party. The Family had worked with him for many years, and I was expected to make an appearance as the current Chief.
“I’ll be there, and so will you.”
“What about Aria?”
That was going to be a big problem. She was my wife, and of course everyone expected her to be there, and I wanted her by my side if Grace wasn’t there. I hadn’t seen her since Aria had caught me with her, and I had forced the senator to send his daughter to England, but she would be back for the party as expected. “She’s coming with us.”
“This has the potential for a scandal,” Matteo muttered.
As if I didn’t know. Not that I cared about a scandal, but I did care about Aria’s feelings.
“Are you sure Grace won’t make a scene? You’ve never left her in person.”
“I never left her because I wasn’t dating her. I fucked her, and other women.” Of course, the other reason I hadn’t seen her again was that I wanted to kill her for paying Rick to put rooftops in Aria’s drink. If she had not been a woman and, more importantly, a senator’s daughter, I would have shot her in the head.
“Grace might disagree.”
“I don’t give a shit. She’d better keep her mouth shut and treat Aria with the respect she needs, or I’ll make her regret it.”
That night, as Aria and I lay in bed, I finally got over the ‘topic I had been avoiding. “We are invited to a party for Sylvester.”
Aria lifted her head from my chest, frowning . “Okay. And you only found out five days before?”
I shook my head. “I’ve known for a while.”
She sat up and looked down at me confused. “And you didn’t tell me, why?”
“It’s Senator Parker’s party.”
Aria stiffened and moved to get out of bed, but I grabbed her by the waist.
“Please,” she whispered. “Let me go.”
I let her go. That broken whisper was a fucking bullet to the heart. She slipped out of bed and headed for the full-length window overlooking Manhattan, leaving me staring at her bare back. I got out of bed, moved toward her, and stopped immediately behind. Her face was reflected in the window, but her gaze was distant as if she could not see what was right in front of her. I could imagine all too well what memories she was reliving.
I rested my hands on her hips and my chin on the top of her head. “Aria-” “Grace will be there,” she said softly, and finally raised her eyes to mine in the window.
“Yes.”
She nodded abruptly, then tried to break free from my grip, but this time I did not allow her to escape me again. “No,” I growled , tightening my grip on her waist. “Don’t make this a bigger deal than it is.”
Anger crossed her face and she surprised me by slamming her elbow into my side. I let her go, shocked.
She turned sharply, her eyes furious. “A bigger problem than that?” She placed her palms on my chest and pushed hard. I had to hold back a smile. It would have sent the wrong message. When I noticed a hint of tears in his eyes, my amusement died.
“Aria, I don’t give a shit about Grace, believe me. It doesn’t matter if she’s at the party or not.”
“If it doesn’t matter, then why did you keep the party from me for so long?”
“Because I knew how you would react, and I was right,” I said.
She frowned.
“Come on,” I said, then took her hand and dragged her toward the bed. She followed me and climbed back under the covers. I reached her and pulled her on top of me, but her body did not soften as usual.
“She will try to hold it against you that you cheated.”
I stroked her soft back. “I already told you. She’s a fucking spy trying to humiliate a queen. Ignore her.”
Aria sighed. “I’m not sure I can do that.”
“You are a mafia princess, Aria. You were raised with brave men like me. You can hold your own against a miserable whore like Grace.”
Aria tilted her head. “If you think so little of her, why did you spend time with her?”
“It’s not like I was dating her. She was a booty call.”
“I can’t imagine sleeping with someone I don’t have feelings for. I just made love.” Her voice was a soft sigh.
I ran my knuckles down her back. “All I did before you was fuck, Aria. I didn’t care about any of those women.”
“But if you couldn’t stand their presence, wasn’t it hard to spend time with them after sex?”
My eyebrows came together. “I didn’t stay afterwards.”
Aria’s eyes filled with disbelief. “You slept with them and left right after you finished?”
“I fucked them and left, yes. Why would I have stayed?”
He looked at me as if he could not understand my reasoning. “But… what about cuddling? Haven’t you ever longed for closeness?”
I giggled. “Oh, princess, you have the wrong impression of me. This version of me is one that only you have ever seen.”
She leaned against my chest and peered at me. “But do you like it with me?”
This he had yet to ask. “No,” I murmured. “I like it.”
Her lips lifted into a wonderful smile, then she gave me a gentle kiss. As if anyone could ever compete with Aria.
Matteo looked like the cat who got the cream. With his morbid fascination with trouble, he probably would have ended up enjoying himself by marrying Gianna after all. Fortunately, he wouldn’t marry her until summer, so I didn’t have to put up with their annoying bickering just yet.
“I hope there will be a nice piece of ass for me at the party. I need a good fuck,” Matteo said.
“You can have Grace for all I care. She gives professional blowjobs,” I muttered.
Matteo seemed to think about it. “I’m not sure I want your leftovers. You wouldn’t mind?”
I huffed. “I don’t give a shit, trust me.”
“He’ll try, Luca.”
I really hoped not, but I feared Matteo was right. I had hurt Grace’s pride. She was a spoiled brat used to getting what she wanted, and I was the first man who hadn’t flattered her. I still wanted to kill her after what she had done to Aria in the Sphere, but my father had forbidden it, and our ties to Senator Parker were too important.
I was about to say something when Aria walked out of the bedroom and out onto the landing, and every sane thought escaped my mind. She was wearing a long gold dress that fell in soft waves around her legs. It was sleeveless with a high collar studded with jewels. Her golden-blond hair fell in wavy curls around her face. Now she looked like a queen.
Matthew let out a low whistle. “Grace will throw a tantrum.”
Aria slid down the stairs and I approached her, holding out my hand. She took it with a small smile. Nerves filled her eyes. “You are gorgeous, princess.”
“You are,” Matteo confirmed.
Aria blushed and I squeezed her hand lightly to reassure her.
When we arrived at Senator Parker’s house, Aria’s hand was outstretched in mine, but her face did not reflect her turmoil. She looked regal and elegant as I led her inside her brownstone townhouse.
And then I saw Grace and, even worse, she saw me.
Senator Parker gave me an apologetic look, and Grace’s brother even tried to lead her away, but she approached us at a slow pace. She had gone too far. A tight mini-dress with gold sequins that came high on her thighs and left little to the imagination . Her cleavage dropped low, showing off her impressive chest.
Aria stiffened and I turned to face her. Aria in her much less skimpy dress was far sexier than Grace could ever have been. Aria was a queen, and Grace was not worthy of breathing the same air as her.
“Luke,” Grace said softly and leaned forward as if she was thinking of hugging me, but the frown I gave her made her flinch. “Aria,” she said with tight lips.
“I need to talk to you,” her brother said as he grabbed her arm and dragged her away. Perhaps he had seen how much I wanted to end it with his sister, woman or not.
Aria relaxed beside me, but the first guests soon crowded around us, so I didn’t have a chance to ask her if she was all right. Grace tried to catch my attention several times during the evening, but I did not give her a glance, and her brother paid more attention to where she was, making sure she did not approach again.
Grace became visibly frustrated at my lack of interest and in a last-ditch attempt to get a reaction from me, she approached Matthew, who was flirting with another politician’s daughter. She cast her best bedroom eyes at him, leaning toward him. Matteo smiled, but his eyes found me over Grace’s head.
I raised my eyebrows toward him. Try.
He whispered something in her ear, encircled her waist with one arm and grabbed her bottom. Before he took it away, he gave me a sharp look. Did he really think I cared? If she thought she could win me over by sucking my brother’s cock, then she was even stupider than I realized.
“Please tell me this is not what it looks like,” Aria whispered, her stomach churning.
I squeezed her waist. “Matthew will get the blowjob of his life.” A moment too late I realized how it sounded.
Aria’s cheeks blushed and she stiffened in my grip, but I didn’t have a chance to soften my words because the owner of a restaurant chain we were protecting approached and engaged me in conversation. Aria’s face seemed carved in stone for the rest of the evening, and I could have kicked myself for my thoughtlessness. Aria stayed by my side, saving appearances, but she did not dignify me with a glance.
Almost an hour later, Matteo returned to the party, his hair tousled and a smirk on his face. He approached us when my last interlocutor was gone, and I gave him a warning look but of course Matteo, being an asshole, ignored it.
“Now I understand why you kept her around for so long. Damn, that woman has no gag reflex.” That and he took it up the ass, but Aria didn’t need to know that.
She stiffened, paling. Matthew looked at her, then back at me, dark eyebrows rising on his forehead. I gave him a deadly look .
“Excuse me. I need to freshen up,” Aria said in a formal tone, stepping back.
I would have stopped her if Grace’s father had not arrived at that moment and I could not risk a public scene.
Aria turned on her heels and walked away with her head held high. I could have killed Matthew.