Chapter 28
Sophia
A long run on the treadmill in the gym and a hot shower, and I’m bursting with energy.
In just short of a month, it will be exactly one year since I arrived at Massimo’s estate.
Soon, the Jersey shore will be back to fall.
It’s hard to believe it’s been almost a year.
A solid year with Massimo, and over that year we’ve gone from enemies to lovers, in the most literal sense.
I squeeze my waist as I look in the mirror.
I believe every single word he said to me and have no doubt he’s going to do everything in his power to make things right for us so that we can have a future and perhaps one day a family.
But the families who have been at war for so many years, it’s going to be a huge concession on all sides. There’s still a part of me that finds it hard to believe, but I do trust that his love is real, and he is not stringing me along no matter what his father or my father will say.
I settle in on the balcony and open my laptop, clicking on the first link that Massimo sent.
A drawing of the lower level of his home, currently stark white, but in this drawing it’s so much more.
It’s captivating, the renderings he’s had drawn up since our night in Carnal Sins should have taken so much longer than they did, but with his pull and team of designers having already done his club, the different options are coming along far more quickly than one would think.
In one drawing the white walls have been transformed with images of implements hanging from hooks, similar to the way the walls of his private suite at Carnal Sins looks.
In another, the implements are a smaller part of the space, with a larger bed taking center stage, a large ornate bed, with D rings and cuffs hanging from the headboard, cuffs attached to the foot of the bed, and pully devices ornately designed into the four-poster design.
In all drawings, the same St. Andrew’s cross with the Roselli name on it stands tall and erect near an adjoining wall that I have no doubt will in the future be able to conceal the cross as it glides in and out of the secret space summoned only by a button in Massimo’s pocket.
My blood runs hot. How in the world he thinks I’ll be able to decide is beyond me.
I have so much to learn. Elsie comes out to find out if I’d care for an iced coffee, a glass of tea, or water.
“Tequila. I’d like Tequila, a very big, large fishbowl glass of tequila while I do some very in-depth and important research,” I tell the woman who is fast becoming a very good friend.