Chapter 6
Santino
Sitting in the hot seat in one of the Carfano conference rooms once again, I wait for Mia to arrive. I’ve waited for this moment for a long fucking time, and I can’t wait to see her face when she sees exactly who she’s marrying.
My little butterfly dared to spread her wings the other night, thinking she was rebelling, but she’s in for a surprise. She probably even believed dying her hair was going to piss me off, but I already know that no matter what color her wings are, my little butterfly will be mesmerizing.
Mia is mine.
Every part of her.
She can’t give away to strangers what belongs to me, and I fully intend to make that clear to her real fucking soon.
Leo, Nico, and Vinny sit at the opposite end of the table, and while I love this little game they think they’re playing with me, I have far too much excitement running through my veins to just sit here and wait for my woman.
I assume my little farfalla is going to show up exactly when she wants to in order to keep ahold of what little control she feels she still possesses over her life. She shouldn’t have to worry about that. I want to set her free. I want her to give herself over to me so I can set her free. She’ll have all the control she wants then.
Pushing back from the table, I stand, and the three pairs of eyes follow my movements as I walk over to the windows and look down at the unsuspecting people of New York going about their business. I’ve wondered many times throughout my life what it would have been like to be ‘normal’ and live a ‘normal’ life. One where the only things I had to concern myself with while growing up were school, friends, girls, and sports.
As the first-born son to Frank Antonucci, and grandson to Giuseppe Antonucci, I had an obligation to my family that my two younger brothers didn’t have to worry about until they turned eighteen. I, on the other hand, took on everything my father and grandfather asked of me from the moment I turned fourteen. I did and saw things a young teenager shouldn’t see or have to do at that age when other kids were playing football and trying to bang the head cheerleader.
For me, it was more like watching my dad and his men beat the shit out of those who couldn’t pay him, and then letting me have a turn with them when they were less likely to fight back so I could learn. I did bang the head cheerleader before I graduated, but my father’s idea of becoming a man was having a hooker sent to my room on my fifteenth birthday because as he put it, it was time I became a man.
Jesus fucking Christ.
I close my eyes and pinch the bridge of my nose. I don’t need to be taking a walk down memory lane right now.
I shove my hands in my pockets to keep the others in the room from seeing them tremble with anger. They’ll mistake it for nerves, and I’m anything but nervous right now. Pure adrenaline is coursing through my veins knowing Mia’s about to walk through the door any second now. I can feel her presence before I hear the glass door of the conference room open.
My back is still to her as I face the windows, and while no one in the room says anything, Leo clears his throat after a weighted few seconds.
With a smirk at knowing my girl is probably holding her brothers and Leo silent with a withering stare from her gorgeous eyes, I turn around. Her beautiful face goes from angry, to shocked, to passive, trying to hide the turmoil I know is brewing inside her.
Her eyes don’t hide anything, though.
In them, I see the fire she gave me the other night when she thought she was doing something to rebel against me, when all along her fate was to always let me have her firsts. I wouldn’t let anyone else have them, which is exactly why I followed her to the club when one of the guys I’ve had watching her since she met with her brothers and Leo last weekend told me where she was. I had a feeling she’d try something between then and this moment, and I was right. I’m just glad I was able to get to her before she gave what I took to some other asshole in there who wouldn’t treasure her gift like I do.
Oh, my little farfalla, you have no idea who you tried to screw over. But you will.
“Hello, Mia,”
I greet, and her eyes flutter like delicate wings as she tries to keep her composure. She’s good at it, too. I’d assume her brothers and Leo have no idea that right now, she wants to strangle me before she kisses me. Or vice versa. Or just strangle me.
“Mia?”
Nico questions, but her and I don’t break eye contact. “Mia,” he says more forcefully when she still doesn’t reply, and her eyes snap to his.
“Yes?”
“You okay?”
“Yes. Fine,”
she says. “Do you all need to be here?”
The three of them look at each other, but Leo clears his throat first. “Yes. We need to discuss how this is going to go, and then you can talk to Santino alone.”
“Fine.”
She places her purse on the wooden table with more force than necessary and sits down, immediately crossing her legs. The motion hikes the hem of her dress up, and my eyes feast on her long legs before she pulls her chair closer to the table and cuts off my view.
My smirk grows when her eyes narrow after catching my gaze, knowing full-well that I already know how soft her thighs are under those tights.
“Mia, you and Santino will be married in two weeks. I’ve already hired a planner that will take care of everything,”
Leo states, and Mia’s eyes widen.
“Two weeks?”
she asks, her voice going up a few octaves. “Why so fast?”
“Because we need to merge the families as soon as possible.”
She scoffs. “Right. You’re losing business by the day and apparently”–her eyes cut to me–“I’m what’s standing in the way of solving that issue?”
I can’t hold back the grin that spreads across my face, and Mia blinks, dazed at the onslaught of my arrogance. “That’s correct.”
“Don’t smile at me like that, you arrogant asshole,”
she seethes. “I’m doing this for my family, not because I want you in any way, shape, or form.” Oh, really? “So don’t think this is going to be a real marriage. And another thing…” She turns her attention back to Leo. “You never thought to ask me how I want my wedding? You just hired someone to take care of everything?”
“You want to be involved in the planning?”
Vinny asks, surprised.
Mia rolls her beautiful burnt honey-colored eyes. “If I’m being forced to do this, then I’d at least like to make sure it’s done in my style and taste.”
Leo opens the folder in front of him and pulls out a business card. “Here’s her card,”
he tells her. “You have free rein over everything.”
She slides the card into her purse. “You might regret that.”
I have no doubt my little butterfly is going to put a small dent in their bank accounts getting whatever the hell she wants for this wedding.
Mia might see this as a fake, arranged marriage, but me? I can’t wait to slide my ring on her finger and call her my wife.
“The invites need to go out in a few days, though, so make sure you talk with the planner on those first.”
“Mmhmm,”
she hums, and my dick reacts, thinking about how she hummed and moaned in my ear as I fucked her with my fingers in the club. “I’m guessing you boys don’t want me to know the finer points of your deal, so I’ll just excuse myself. See you at the wedding,” she throws at me nonchalantly, desperately trying to hold onto her composure.
“Wait,”
I say as she begins to stand. “We have much more to discuss.”
“Such as?”
I address Leo, Nico, and Vinny. “I’d like some time alone with Mia to talk. We can discuss the contract afterwards.”
“Fine. We’ll be in the office next door.”
The three of them leave, each placing their hand on Mia’s shoulder before walking out the door.
I flash her a triumphant grin. “We’re finally alone.”
“You’re a lying asshole,”
she says harshly without filter, and I’m loving this fiery side of her. “You obviously knew who I was at the club, and you still…” She pauses. “I told you…” She shakes her head and looks over my shoulder and out the windows before meeting my gaze again. “You’re not going to touch me again. This isn’t going to be a real marriage, no matter what you think. You want me as a pawn or prize in whatever game you’re playing, and while you’ll get me, it’ll strictly be on paper only. I don’t want my family to go down because I couldn’t do this for them, but I will find a way out of the marriage at the earliest possible moment.”
“I had you begging me for more. I had you begging me to touch you and to take something you didn’t want your soon-to-be husband to have. You came all over my hand, wanting my cock to fill you next, and you’re telling me you don’t want me to touch you again?”
“Yes,”
she says, but the breathless note of that single word betrays her and what I know she really wants.
“Could’ve fooled me, farfalla.”
“Don’t call me that.”
“You don’t like that? Hmm.”
I rub my jaw. “How about we make a little deal?”
“What kind of deal?”
“I won’t touch you.”
I smirk at her mixed reaction of relief and disappointment. “Not until you beg me to. Then we’ll see how real our marriage is.” I wink, and her face flushes a beautiful red that I bet would feel warm against my palm if I cupped her cheek right now. Which also has me picturing her ass blooming the same beautiful color after I’ve spanked her for thinking she could deny what I know she feels for me.
“I’d even bet you’re wet for me right now as you remember how it felt to have my hands all over you and in you,”
I continue. “I know I’ve been replaying it on a loop since that night, and if it’s not your hand, mouth, pussy, or ass taking care of my constant hard-on, then know I’ll be jerking off thinking of you and having my cock in all four of those places.”
Mia’s eyes go from hard and angry, to molten and turned-the-fuck-on.
Fucking gorgeous.
I want to see how they look when I’m buried deep inside her for the first time and she realizes just how much she’s been missing out on by denying me. Because I know she’ll fight it, which will make her surrender so much sweeter.
Just as quickly as her eyes melted for me, they harden right back up. “I hope you have a good imagination, because that’s all you’ll be using to get off for as long as we’re married.”
“I have a great imagination.”
I nod. “But you’ll be begging me to kiss you, touch you, and fuck you within the first week of being my wife. I would say the first day, but I’m not that cocky and you have a stronger will than I first anticipated. I’m not disappointed by that, though. Quite the opposite, if I’m being honest.”
Mia scoffs haughtily. “I’ve gone my entire life without being touched prior to a few days ago. I think I can last a while longer until I divorce you and find a real man to fall in love with and have him touch me as much as he’d like.”
“So now I’m not a real man?”
“Not a real man I’ll ever consider as a serious husband.”
Anger slashes through me, and all teasing is gone when I tell her, “This is a real marriage whether you like it or not, and you will be my wife for however long I say you are. You’re not getting out of this and you’re not divorcing me unless I say you can.”
She raises her eyebrows. “Wow, what a man you are. I can’t imagine why you needed a contract to get a woman to marry you.”
“I don’t need a contract to get a wife, farfalla. I needed a contract to get you as my wife.”
That shuts her up, and her mouth opens and closes twice while she tries to think of another snarky comeback. “You… What?”
Chuckling, I stand and button my suit jacket. Her eyes follow my movements, and when I round the table to leave, I lean down so my lips are at her ear. She stiffens and inhales a sharp breath as she shifts in her seat, confirming what I already knew. “I’ll see you at the altar, farfalla,”
I whisper, and she expels her breath in a short puff. “I’ll give you the kiss when we’re pronounced husband and wife for free. After that, you’ll have to beg me for more, and I can’t wait for that moment, Mia. I can’t fucking wait.”
Straightening, I hear her release the rest of the air in her lungs and take another shaky breath in, keeping her eyes straight ahead and not giving me a sassy retort or looking at me again.
Yeah, she’ll beg me all right.
I walk out of there smiling like a fucking king and right into the conference room next door, taking a seat in the chair beside Nico rather than across the table and separate from them like I’m being interrogated.
“So, we’ll sign the contract the night of the wedding?”
I get right down to business.
“Yes.”
Leo opens the folder in front of him. “I have the agreement drafted here for you to look over.”
I take the papers from him and read them over. “It looks like you’ve got almost everything here.”
“What else is there?”
he asks, his voice calm and level, ever the emotionless Boss.
“You forgot the part where we’re partners. I told you I want in on your business, and I want it in writing. The wording in this agreement only states that I give you the trucks you need once you help me get out of my contract with the Gulf Cartel. I’m not handing over any of my trucks if I’m not cut into the business.”
Leo stares at me blankly, studying me in a way only a man like him can – cold and calculated, without giving anything away.
“I don’t let outsiders in on business.”
“We’re about to become family, aren’t we not?”
“That doesn’t mean I trust you.”
“After my father, I understand that, but I’m not like him. I want a partnership, Leo. If you trust me enough to ask for my help and marry Mia, then I’d think you can trust me enough to be official business partners.”
He stares at me for another long moment. “I suppose. For the explicit part of the business where your trucks will be used, though. You don’t get a hand in every aspect of our businesses.”
I nod my agreement, satisfied with the compromise for now. “But just so you’re aware,” he says, pausing to lean forward with his palms pressed to the table, “if you do anything to harm Mia, physically or mentally, then I, or either of them”–he wags his finger between the two men flanking him–“will kill you without a second thought and take over every aspect of your family and businesses therein. Including your brothers. Don’t think because you’re marrying Mia, it means we won’t be watching your every move and won’t hesitate to take her back along with everything you have. Understand? Or do you need me to spell it out for you in there, too.” He jabs his finger towards the papers in front of me.
“I think I’ll remember that without seeing it in writing.”
“Good. Then I’ll have my lawyers amend the contract and have it sent to you to review so it’s ready for the wedding.”
“Excellent.”
I clap my hands together with a grin, then hold my right one out to shake on it with the three men.
Nico squeezes mine harder than the others. “Mia will always be a Carfano. She may be taking your last name, but she’ll always be a Carfano and carry our protection.”
“She’ll be protected by me,”
I inform him, offended that he thinks otherwise. “I won’t let anything happen to her.”
“You better not.”
He lets go of my hand and I stand. “Well, if there’s nothing else for today, then I should go. I have a fitting at my tailor for a new tux.”
“I gave the wedding planner your information, but here’s her card so you can reach out with any questions.”
“Thanks.”
Pocketing the card he hands me, I walk out of there and can’t help but look to see if Mia is still sitting in the room next door.
She’s going to be a handful, and I can’t fucking wait until she’s my wife.
It's going to be a long two weeks until I see my lovely, angry bride-to-be again. I’ll give her these two weeks to come to terms with it all, but once my ring is on her finger, all bets are off.