Chapter Twenty-Four
ORAZIO
––––––––
“Dream World Aquarium?” Monique asked as Orazio pulled into the parking space.
“Yes,” he told her, noticing the shocked expression on her face. “What do you have against the aquarium?” He chuckled after removing his keys from the ignition. She truly looked surprised. Had he chosen the wrong place for their outing?
“Nothing. It’s just...” She went silent and stared at the building like she’d never seen an aquarium before. “I didn’t peg you as the aquarium type of guy.”
Raz leaned against the seat to stare at his Rose. “Where did you expect me to take you on our outing? To the gun range?”
Monique faced him. “Um, kind of. That does fit your personality more than the aquarium.”
He reached over and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. “It seems you need to get to know me better, Monique Rose.”
“It seems I do, Orazio Cattaneo.”
He rested his hand against her cheek. She leaned into his touch as a beautiful smile spread across her face. No woman had ever made his heart race with just a smile. No woman had ever made his heart race, period, except for this woman.
One touch from her calmed him while driving him wild at the same time. She was his strength and his weakness. The reason he smiled, but also the reason he frowned. He smiled because she was his.
He frowned because he feared losing her. He was at constant war with himself. But when she stared at him like this, the warring stopped, and he was able to focus only on her smile.
“I love you,” he whispered.
She lifted her head and pressed a kiss to his palm. A first for him.
“I’m falling for you,” she told him.
“Just say you love me.”
“It’s too soon.”
“Do you think it took the ocean years to figure out it loved the moon?”
Monique smiled. “Don’t get all poetic on me.”
“I’ve gone my whole life not believing in love, real love. And then I saw you and instantly knew I had to meet you. I heard your voice and instantly knew I wanted to have a conversation with you. I felt your touch and knew I wanted to feel this forever. I saw your smile and knew I needed you in my life. I see the way you look at me, the way you touch me. This is real, Monique. And I don’t need a few more months to verify it. I know it right now. And you do, too. Don’t you?”
She swallowed. “I’ve made this mistake before and...”
“I’m not him. You’re not her. You’re more confident and stronger than you were back then. Aren’t you?”
She nodded.
“I love you, Monique,” Raz told her. “I’m not asking you to marry me.” Yet . “I just want to hear how you truly feel.”
Her gaze searched his. He could see the indecision in her eyes. Shit . He was doing it again. Forcing her to do what he wanted. When would he learn? Just as he was about to tell her he could wait for her to say those words, she spoke.
“I love you too, Orazio Cattaneo.”
For a moment, he sat there in the driver’s seat, staring at her. She’d admitted it. Finally. He wanted to smile like a kid on Christmas morning, but he had to play it cool. Monique Rose loved him. Him!
She loved Orazio Cattaneo. The emotions coursing through him were so foreign he didn’t even have a name for them. If he had to sum them up, he’d say he was happy.
She broke the silence by asking, “Are you ready to go inside?”
He was. But he was also content just staring at her.
“I’m ready,” he told her. But when she went to open her door, he stopped her. “What are you doing?” he asked.
“Getting out of the car.”
“It’s my job to open your door for you.”
She rolled her eyes. “Really? Every time?”
“Every time. So, get used to it. Now, be a good girl and get your hand off the door.”
Shaking her head, she lowered her hand. “You’re lucky I love you.”
Yes, I am. Smiling, Orazio climbed out of the car and closed his door behind him. He adjusted his shirt on his frame as he walked to her side of the car. After opening Monique’s door, he stepped aside, giving her room to get out. She rose from the car, and his gaze automatically dropped to her ass. In that dress, her ass looked extra fucking sexy. Too fucking sexy.
“You didn’t order a jacket?” he asked.
She looked over her shoulder at him. “I’m not cold.”
“Your ass looks cold.”
She stared down at her ass. His cock hardened. That was how she stared back at it when he fucked her from behind. This woman’s very existence pushed him to the brink of insanity. All she was doing was standing there, and he was close to snapping.
She raised her gaze back to his. “I just asked her if she was cold. She said she’s not. Let’s go inside.” She winked, then turned to walk away.
“I’ll ask her myself,” Raz said.
Monique spun around, eyes wide. “Don’t do anything crazy,” she uttered as he approached her. She took a few steps backward. “Raz, what are you doing?”
“I want to ask her myself,” he repeated as he pressed the button on his key fob to lock his car doors, then slid his keys into his pocket.
“Raz, don’t embarrass me.”
“I just want to hear it for myself.”
“I don’t need a jacket,” she insisted, stopping and folding her arms over her chest.
Raz stopped once he was toe to toe with her. A couple walked past. From the corner of his eye, he noticed the couple watching them. The tall blond man’s eyes lingered a bit too long on Monique. Orazio directed his glare at the man.
“If you want your eyes, you’ll stare at your own woman,” Raz growled. “Not mine.”
The guy’s face turned beet red as the woman he was with stared up at him. Noticing his embarrassed blush, she hit him with her purse, then turned and returned to her car.
“Raz! You probably just ruined their relationship,” Monique complained.
“He’s lucky I didn’t ruin his face.”
“Raz!”
Oh, right! Today, he was supposed to be Prince Charming, not the villain. He opened his mouth to say it wouldn’t happen again but paused. He couldn’t make that promise. And he didn’t want to lie to her. He closed his mouth, grabbed her hand, and headed toward the entrance.
“You need to keep your attitude in check,” she whispered.
“I will if people around us keep their eyes in check.”
“How would you feel if I called out women who looked at you?”
“You don’t have to. I will.”
Monique sighed. “You’re impossible.”
Raz smiled. “And you’re mine.”
“I know. If you keep this up, the entire world will know.”
“Good.”
Monique squeezed his hand hard, causing him to chuckle.
“Okay, love,” he told her. “I’ll try to behave.”
“Thank you.”
Raz led her into the auditorium. There weren’t many people there, just a few parents with their children. He smiled as a dad lifted his daughter onto his shoulders. The child giggled as she stared at the fish.
“She’s so cute,” Monique said.
“Do you want one?” Raz asked.
“What? A fish?”
“No.”
“An aquarium?” she asked.
“You know what I’m talking about. Do you want a kid?”
Laughing, she shook her head. “I’m pretty sure I’ve answered this question already. But, no. Not really. Especially not this late in life. My patience is almost non-existent now. But I love kids. My nieces and nephews are my world. Do you think it’s strange that I don’t want any?”
“No. Nothing strange about that.”
His statement earned him a smile from Monique. Her smile always made him feel like he was doing something right. Fingers intertwined with hers, Raz led her down the corridors of the aquarium. The sea creatures held her enthralled.
Her excitement was written all over her face. Seeing her happy made him happy. The power she had over his emotions was amazing. Damn near magical. She stopped at one of the podiums to read the information about jellyfish. Raz leaned down to whisper in her ear.
“These creatures may seem delicate,” he told her. “But they possess a unique defense mechanism. See those trailing tentacles behind them?”
When she nodded, he continued.
“They’re called nematocysts. They contain specialized cells filled with venom. When threatened, the jellyfish can release these stinging cells, delivering a potent sting to deter predators.”
Monique stared up at him. “Are you reading the cards?”
“Nope. And you don’t have to read them either. You can just ask me.”
“Let me guess. You own this aquarium, don’t you?”
“Good guess. I do.”
She chuckled. “I should’ve known. Did you memorize everything about each animal here?”
“No. But, I know a little something about each animal here.”
“Prove it.”
“Which animal do you want to know about?”
“Hmm... let’s see.”
He allowed her to pull him along from one spot to the next. At each stop, he surprised her by revealing a fact about the sea creature she pointed out. If she couldn’t find the information on the card, she Googled it, then stared at him in shock.
She then pulled him to another animal to ask questions about it. They stopped by a tank filled with seahorses.
“Did you know,” Orazio began. “Seahorses are one of the few species where the males carry and give birth to their young. The female seahorse transfers her eggs to the male’s pouch, where they are fertilized and developed until they are ready to be born. The male then undergoes a series of contractions, similar to labor, to release the fully formed seahorse offspring into the water.”
Monique’s eyes widened in awe as she observed the graceful creatures gliding through the water.
“That’s incredible,” she mused, releasing his hand to move closer to the tank. “Nature truly has its own way of challenging our expectations.”
“So, do you,” Raz whispered, staring down at her.
Her cheeks heated in a blush. “How do you know so much about aquatic life?”
Raz shoved his hands into his pockets and stared at the creatures in the tank.
“When I was younger,” he told her, preparing to reveal a secret not even his brothers knew. “I dreamt of becoming a marine biologist.”
“Really?”
He nodded. “Ocean life always fascinated me.”
Monique’s eyes sparkled with surprise. “You, a marine biologist? I never would have guessed. But you truly appear to be in your element here. What happened? What stopped you from becoming Orazio Cattaneo, the marine biologist?”
“My dad. He found out what I’d signed up for before school started. He made me change my major to business because no son of his was going to study water bugs.” Raz chuckled as he thought of how furious his father had been.
“Really?” Monique asked.
Raz nodded. “Business is what the men in my family study. It’s all we know. It’s all we do. There’s no time for hobbies. So, I had to wait until I was grown, until I had my own money, and then I had this place built. It doesn’t have the Cattaneo name on it like most of our other businesses. I didn’t want it to be associated with my family. I wanted something that was all mine.”
Like you, Raz thought as he stared down at Monique. His woman stared up at him, tears brimming her eyes.
“So, that’s why you named it Dream World,” she whispered. “Because this was your dream.”
Dream? Men like him weren’t allowed to dream. At least, that was what he thought until the first night he saw her.
Leaning in, Orazio asked, “What about you? What were your dreams?”
A soft sigh escaped Monique’s lips. “Um, at first, I wanted to be a lawyer,” she confessed, voice tinged with a hint of sadness that made him want to fuck someone up. “But my family had other plans for me. They believed I should be a stay-at-home wife, catering to my husband’s needs so that he could achieve his goals without any concerns or worries. So, he became the lawyer, and I was just the wife.”
Fucking Trevor!
“It’s never too late,” Raz told her. “You still have time to chase your dreams. What do you want to do now?”
Monique paused, her gaze locked with Orazio’s. “Honestly... Right now, I just want to be happy. I want to experience life. I want to live. For so long, I just existed. I don’t want to do that anymore. I want to live, love, and be loved.”
Orazio found himself wishing they’d met years ago when they’d both been dreamers. Maybe they could’ve achieved their dreams together. Or at least cheered each other on. He nearly chuckled at such a foreign thought.
What the hell was happening to him? This woman was changing him. Or was she reminding him of the man he was behind the murder and mayhem? The man he’d forgotten about. The man who never got a chance to live, love, and be loved.
“My new dream sounds like wishful thinking, huh?” she asked.
“Not at all. I can help you with that new dream,” he told her. “I can help you live, love, and be loved. I plan to make it my life’s mission to ensure you always feel well-loved and protected, Monique Rose. Your happiness is my new dream.”
“Why are you so serious all of a sudden?” she asked, blinking back tears.
“Because your happiness is serious business to me.” Raz started to say more, but his phone rang.
Sighing, he pulled his phone out and answered. It was the manager at the next stop on their agenda, letting him know she’d closed the shop for him and Monique. Whenever he was ready, they’d have the boutique to themselves. He thanked her before ending the call.
“We’re going somewhere else?” Monique asked.
“Yes. I told you I have the entire day planned for us. Are you ready to leave, or do you want to look around some more? We don’t have to rush out. We can stay here longer.”
“I’m ready. I’m eager to see what else you have planned. So far, I’m impressed, Mr. Cattaneo.”
“Thank you, Ms. Rose.”
Grasping her hand, Raz led her out of the aquarium. He’d made her breakfast to show her that he could take care of her. He’d taken her to his aquarium to give her a glimpse of a different side of him, a side that had nothing to do with his family.
He wanted her to see that the casino and the darker elements of his life weren’t all there was to him. The plan was to show her that if, one day, he had to turn his back on his family businesses to protect her, he’d still have his own businesses and money to provide for them.
And now, it was time to prepare for their date night. He had more surprises in store for his Rosa. What he didn’t know at the time was that his Rosa had a surprise in store for him also. A surprise he’d never forget.