Chapter Four
Diego was proving to be a challenge to Liana.
So far, it didn’t seem to matter what she did, he was not even close to approaching divorce.
She had attempted to reason with her father, but he had told her these matters were out of his hands, and his only advice was that she should try to make it work.
Make it work! Her husband had called her a doormat.
So, escaping her guards was all part of the fun. They didn’t seem to know what to do with themselves when they found her gone. They always called Diego. Sometimes he would find her, other times, she would just go home without a word spoken. She would find any excuse to be gone.
This was not just about the divorce. The truth was, she was gutted when she was alone with her thoughts, and what she heard in front of her friends.
She felt like a damn fool, when moments before, telling her friends her marriage was going great, and that she truly felt like she might even be able to fall in love with him.
Then, she heard what he had to say. His three friends. Her three friends.
The horrible truth was that she thought their marriage was going strong, but it was actually fake.
“You know, I’m not sure about this,” Mia said.
“What’s not to be sure about?” Tatiana asked. “We’re not at an unknown club. We’re at one of Diego’s clubs. We’re all here together, so we have our group number, and we’re not doing anything wrong. We’re not going to find a male mistress to screw. No, it’s all good.”
Liana felt for Tatiana.
Emilio hadn’t come out and said that he was regularly fucking his mistress, he had only implied it. Even still, she knew Tatiana was hurt.
Liana would be hurt if Diego decided to go for someone else. It was insane, really. In their mafia world, they were all aware that faithfulness only fell to the woman. Her parents had been faithful. She knew there were other couples in the mafia who were also faithful, so it was there.
As for Tatiana, her friend hadn’t returned home and was currently back with her parents. From what she knew, Tatiana hadn’t even talked to Emilio.
“Wouldn’t that be something, though?” Tatiana asked.
“What?” She was almost afraid to ask.
“If we decided to act like the men and start flirting with random guys, maybe even taking them to a special location to screw?” Tatiana asked. Her brows were raised as if it was an innocent question.
Liana knew her friend was hurting.
“How about we just dance? o flirting, and doing something we might regret?” Liana asked.
She was all for causing trouble, but damaging her reputation by sleeping with a random guy was not part of the equation. She had a feeling Diego would divorce her, if not kill her, for the humiliation.
Grabbing Tatiana’s hands, she walked her onto the dance floor, pulled her into a bear hug, and simply refused to let go.
“It’s going to be all right,” she said.
She didn’t know if anyone had taken even a second to tell Tatiana that.
“Don’t,” Tatiana said. “I know you’re hurting because your husband said some bad stuff. At least he didn’t go around screwing other women. My man did. My husband smiled at me, brought me gifts, and made me think our marriage could be a success, but all the time it was just a lie.”
Liana held her friend tightly. She hadn’t even asked Diego if he had a mistress. The very thought of him being with another woman tightened her stomach and made her feel incredibly sick.
There was no way she was going to allow those feelings to overtake the night.
This was supposed to be a night out for the four of them.
They had no guards, nothing to keep them contained.
They were not being forced into the VIP area, nor were they being kept from the dance floor, which is why she had evaded her guards.
They had a little too much control, and she didn’t like it.
Letting the music flow over her, she danced with her friends and ignored a few of the men that tried to come and dance with them.
She couldn’t help but point at her wedding finger, which held the engagement ring and wedding band she had gotten during her brief courtship with Diego and then marriage.
She was not interested in sleeping with other men.
She wanted to be completely clear of Diego, and then she would find a way to get over him. Maybe she was wrong, and she didn’t have feelings for him at all. That had to be true. There was no way someone could fall in love in six months. That was just crazy.
Liana didn’t know what happened, but the air suddenly felt thick.
The other women felt it too, but then she didn’t have a chance to question it as a hand banded around her waist and pulled her back.
She was going to fight that grip, but there was no point.
Her husband had wrapped his arm around her and pulled her against him.
“Do you think it’s funny to go running off to party?” he asked.
Liana saw each of her friends’ husbands had arrived. Tatiana slapped Emilio around the face, then stormed off to the counter with him close behind.
She turned to look at her husband, putting her arms around his neck.
“Yes.”
“I don’t think this is fun, Liana. You are aware that all four of you are prizes to our enemies.”
“I’m not in the enemies’ bar, and besides, don’t they have to, like, watch for the same routine, which makes it easier for enemies to get people? In case you haven’t noticed, I haven’t exactly followed protocol, and there are no guards.”
“Damn it, Liana, this is not funny.” He glared at her.
“Did I say it was?” And with that, she turned on her heel, determined to walk away and not talk to him.
She should have known he would have other ideas. This was Diego. He grabbed her arm, and there was no way for her friends to stop him as he marched her right off the dance floor. Before she knew what was happening, they were in his office.
“What the hell?” she asked.
“Are you trying to get yourself killed?”
“No, I’m not. I’m trying to get myself free of you.
In case you didn’t notice, I was here with friends, and don’t even try to tell me I wasn’t safe.
I saw my damn brother in the VIP section.
” She pulled back and then laughed. “That little snitch. That’s why you knew where we were, didn’t you? He told you.”
“You shouldn’t be without your guards.”
“My brother was right there, and I was in one of your nightclubs.”
“Do you have any idea what could have happened to you? You could have been poisoned right here in this club. Roofied. Raped. Beaten. This may be my club, but our enemies are willing to do whatever it takes. Even to women and civilians. Anything to weaken us.”
He looked so ... angry.
“Do you have a mistress?” Liana asked.
“What?”
“Do you have a mistress? You know, a woman you sleep with that is not your wife?”
He took a step toward her, then another. Liana tried to keep her distance, but his desk stopped her from running away and leaving.
“Do I look like a fucking idiot? No, I don’t have a mistress, and no, the only woman I have been fucking since we met is you.”
And then he grabbed the back of her neck, pulled her forward, and kissed her.
This was not a gentle kiss. Diego usually gave her gentle, sweet, kisses.
Something that made her toes curl but rarely left a mark.
This was filled with passion, possibly a bit of anger, and a lot of heat.
She moaned and pressed her body against him, not wanting to stop.
He ran his hands all over her body, going from the back of her neck, down toward her ass, gripping her flesh. She moaned his name, and then it was like a flash of cold water, as she pulled away from him.
“I want to go home.”
She didn’t like how easy it was to succumb to him, with just a single kiss. She wanted a divorce, and she was not going to stop until she got it.
****
Liana wouldn’t stop running away from her guards.
Diego was growing tired of his men’s incompetence.
Her father had informed him that his wife was very much a wild one.
Of course, he was not made aware of this before his wedding day.
She had always been so agreeable. This was new.
So, he had no choice but to take her to work with him.
At first, she was constantly trying to get away and evade him.
In the end, to prove he was the one and only man in charge, he grabbed some cuffs, placed one around her wrist, and the other around his.
“What the hell?” she asked, trying to pull on the cuffs that now bound her to him.
“Now, you will sit your ass right here,” he said, pointing to his knee.
She growled and still attempted to pull free, but he wouldn’t let her go. She had to understand that he was the one in charge, not her. What he said, went. He raised a brow as she let out the cutest little growl.
Still, she kept trying to find an escape, and then she did sit her ass on his knee. Of course, Liana attempted to make it hurt just a little by pretty much falling onto his knee with a thud, but that didn’t work.
With their cuffed hands, he placed his on her thigh, then got to work making the necessary calls he needed to make and going over the figures.
At first, Liana was tense and kept looking in the opposite direction.
She was so adorable. The truth was, he was loving her attitude.
He relished the fight and fire she had going on.
Waking up in the morning to find her already making breakfast, not sure of what the day was going to bring, actually excited him.
His wife, by being naughty and acting out, was intriguing him even more.
He was not going to allow her a divorce.
Now, if she started to act differently, giving up, not doing anything and not showing this kind of fire, he might have considered it.
Liana was proving to be a firecracker, and he loved to see just how far she was willing to push.
He knew she was not going to cheat on him.