Chapter Eighteen
For the last couple of days, I leave Everette alone. And that should've made me happy, not talking with him, but the anger he had when he found out Keres was pregnant left me with tons of questions.
It's impossible to get used with the idea that Keres was pregnant with another man's child. She loved Everette...didn't she?
And even if she didn't, my sister would never cheat on him or anyone else. She respected Everette and they made sense as people said when they got engaged. She used to tell me he's a gentleman and that she wishes I find a man like him.
I guess she never thought I would marry her fiancé.
I never slept with Keres.
This left me shocked. They've been together for three years. What happened?
I know I said that Keres would never cheat, but I know for sure that Everette wouldn't either. He's been a celibate for three years?
A rush of pleasure takes ahold of me when I think about the time he made me come by playing with my nipples. I gave him my first ever orgasm, but he doesn't
need to know that. And since then, it's harder for me to stop having dirty thoughts about my husband. It's been three days since I started to sleep next to him, in the same bed, and it's impossible to keep these imagines out of my head.
I fall asleep alone, and I wake up alone. I know he's staying up late to find out about Keres's lover and possible killer.
He can't catch a break.
I startle at my thoughts. Since when am I taking his side?
He's playing with my head worse than I thought. And if he continues like this, I'm afraid of my body's reaction, because while I still hate him, my body certainly doesn't.
I look in the mirror again. If I thought that I don't recognize the girl from the night of the dinner, I clearly am seeing an alien now.
My lavender long purple dress is hugging my body like a second skin. The diamond corset is making my waist too slim and my breast too full. The length of the dress has lines of little diamonds and leaves my left foot naked. The Versace butterfly high heels are making my feet and calves looks splendid and my wavy hair is styled perfectly.
I look...flawless.
The anxiety in me is showing more and more as I keep staring at myself. This party is unnecessary, but I need to impress some mafias. Specially my father-in-law.
I take my phone from the table and I click on the picture that shows my mother and me. It was my eighteenth birthday party and the last time I saw her.
Her smile is contagious but her tired eyes are more
prominent. Her dark brown hair has straps of whiteness and her chocolate skin matches mine.
Is.
I did it again. It's impossible for me to talk about her at past tense. Almost six years later and I still feel her presence. Still need her presence.
If she saw me dressed like this, she would've prayed to gods that they took her daughter away. Always the most dramatic person in the room.
"How much damage did my credit card suffered?" My husband's voice makes me turn over to him.
"The right amount so that it can spoil your wife." His smirk doesn't reach the cockiness he always shows.
My heart does a thing that makes my chest hurts. Something close to pity takes over me when I look at him.
How much did he love her?
He comes in front of me and takes my hands in his. He leans a little and kisses them. To say I'm shocked it's little.
"You're so fucking beautiful, Althea." Be still my fucking heart.
"You cleaned up nice too." And he did. His three piece black suit gives him a superior aura. I try to not smile at lavender napkin from his suit pocket.
"Come on, someone is waiting for you downstairs." I frown. For me?
In front of the house is a red Ferrari that takes all the attention, but the person next to me makes me stop.
In a black suit that shows every curve of her body and a white shoulder less shirt, letting her tattoos seen, Venus looks criminal. But before I can greet her, I almost yell.
"Is Vincent okay?" I walk quickly next to her. I
haven't talk with him for almost two weeks.
"He's okay. You know I'll never let anything happen to him. Now, where's my damn hug?" I let out a small smile and I hug her tight. I missed her way too much. My palms are on her back and my fingers are on her hard scars that are covered in tattoos.
"Thank you." I whisper in her ear.
"You can thank me with another tattoo." I feel her smile. My smile gets bigger just thinking about the tattoo gun in my hand.
Drawing on skin will always be different. The softness of the skin, the blood that combines with the ink are addicting.
"You're doing tattoos?" I hear the genuine confusion in Everette's voice.
Me and Venus separate and we both look at him. I nod my head and he opens the car door.
"Interesting." He says with a smile and leads us to get in the car. "Let's go, ladies. We have a party to ruin."
Everette has his arm wrapped around my middle and I try to make myself comfortable. We watch Venus struggle to exit the car and when she does, she inhales a big amount of air.
"I've never been more uncomfortable in a car in my life." I raise my brow in amusement and she enters the museum. It's true that the Ferrari doesn't have much space, but her dramatic characters intensify the situation.
Everette gives the car keys to one of the guards and
we make our way into the museum. Of course, the Senator will have his charity ball in such luxurious place.
"Don't leave my side." My husband whispers as we enter. My eyes are stuck to the crowd of people that are being photograph and interviewed, some of them talking to their own phones. Through an outsider eye everything seems normal. A fancy event where people are manipulated.
But through my eyes I can easily identity the mafia people, hitmen and the real manipulators.
"I can take care of myself." I examinate the room.
How can my father miss this? Something feels wrong and I need to figure it out what exactly.
I hear Everette sigh as he takes two glasses of champagne.
"Can you obey for once?" I puff.
"If you want an obedient woman, you can have one of these pets." I show him all the women that are looking at him with hungry eyes. His arm around my face makes me turn to face him.
"And why would I do that when my wife is right in front of me, dressed like the Goddess she is." I raise my eyebrows at him. Everything will be easier if he would just hate me.
And he will sooner or later.
My heart sinks a little at the thought that he would eventually hate me. It's a manner of time. He will despise me like the other because my father is right.
I have no right to be loved. I don't own loveable parts.
Everette needs to see that too.
"Oh, dear husband, what a charmer you are." I
sarcastically say and I pinch his left cheek. He rolls his eyes and his amusement is gone when the Senator welcomes us. Tom Smith is a small man around 5'4 with a bold spot on the top of his head and white hair on the sides. His suit is a bit tight around the big belly and I can see some powder sugar on the corners of his mouth.
"Mr. and Mrs. Moretti, I'm so happy that you made it." He claps his head with Everette and takes my right hand to kiss it. I maintain the disgusts I feel when his lips touch my skin and I retreat my hand. I look around and I see a tall, black haired man that is approaching us with a smirk.
I recognize his face immediately and my blood starts running in a high alert.
"Senator how about a dance?" I quickly say and both him and Everette are looking at me with wide eyes.
"Oh, well, I'll never refuse such beauty." He smiles and he hands me his arm. I take it without a second thought, distancing myself from the man that brought chaos into my home back in Italy.
Everette
Before I have the chance to grab my wife out of this place I see a man coming in front of me, blocking my intension.
He's tall with black hair, dressed impeccable, wearing a sick smile that make me want to kill him.
Like a snake.
Tonight I've seen a part of Althea that I've never seen before. The mischief in her eyes replaced by fear makes my body burn with a desire to annihilate the demons that are bothering her.
"Moretti, right? Hanibal's son-in-law." His thick Italian accent finally makes me realize who he is.
"And who wants to know?" I ask through my teeth. He gives me a bad vibe and I'm never wrong at reading people.
"Enrique Ivanov." He rises his hand toward me but I just stare at him. So he is Hanibal's second in command. He doesn't look older than forty-five and he has the same expression as his Capo.
The one that begs me to kill him.
"Excuse me from missing the wedding, but I needed to take care of some things. How was the honeymoon?" He raises his eyebrow and his question is clear.
My palms turn into fists and I get closer to him, my heigh making him look a little up to me. I try to not cause a scene but I might lose it. I wrap my hand around his open shirt and bring him even closer.
"I don't care who you are and I don't give a fuck about what you can do because it won't be as close as what I'll do to you if you talk or even think about my wife again." Enrique's eyes darken and he frees himself from my hold. He straightens his shirt and looks around.
I quicky look over to find Althea and it's impossible to not find her. This woman takes my breath every damn time.
I study her face and I can see the anxiety in her eyes. Her body is stiff and she looks for a way out. I'm slowly starting to know Althea better, but there are things that are too deep buried and I don't think I'll like them.
Everybody looks at her. The way her dress molds her body and her chocolate skin glows under the lights.
Althea has been hidden when she was in Italy. But now that she's my wife she can finally be herself and show the world what she's capable of. I'll make sure of that.
"You're gonna regre-" Enrique starts to say but I interrupt him, not giving a fuck about his threat.
"Hold this, my wife needs me." I give him the two champagne glasses and I hurry to save my wife from the misery she's in.
I walk through the couples that are slowly dancing and when I'm next to Althea and Tom, I don't even ask.
"I think you've had enough, Senator." My voice is rough and I grab Althea's hand and waist and glue her to my tight body. I dismiss the Senator without another glance and I start dancing with my wife.
Althea looks up to me and bites her lip. The heat is exploding in my body and I don't hold back my desires. I lower my head until I feel the softness of her lips against mine. I kiss her lips twice and then once in the corner of her mouth, where most of her little smiles are forming.
"What are you doing?" She asks me with a tremble in her voice.
"Kissing my wife," I hum and then take her lips into a hungry kiss. Our lips don’t stay together for long because I feel her hand on my chest. I back down a little and see her cheeks in a weird red color.
Her blush makes my blood run straight to my already swallow cock. I know that people are staring at us with wide eyes.
As they fucking should.
I keep her closer to me and we continue moving our bodies at a slow tempo.
"What do you think about going in a honeymoon?" I
ask her serious and her neck almost breaks at the sudden move to look up to me. Althea looks at me trying to see if I'm serious.
"The only reason why I might accept it is because no one who think that I put a dagger in your fucking heart." I smirk at her pretty words.
She just needs to accept the fact that she's obsessed with me as I am with her.
"If it's by you, I would even let you put my heart on a pedestal." I twirl her and I hear a little gasp. Althea looks at me again and this time I can't see the emotion behind.
"What are you looking at?"
"A disappointment." She fucking says and I let out a laugh that made people startle. Oh, how much I'll love to spank that attitude out of her.
The music stops and applause are echoing in the room. I bring Althea's hand to my mouth and I kiss it gently, letting my tongue discover her delicate skin.
A deafening sound is heard from the speaker next to the stage that makes my ears bleed. Althea lets out a puff of air and looks at the Senator who is trying to figure it out how the microphone works.
"Thank you everybody for being here with me," Althea whispers to me.
"Thank you everybody for being here with me." The Senator soon says in the microphone.
"I'm so honored to participate in changing the life of the one's in need." Althea whispers again and my curiosity takes ahold of my body.
And when the Senator says the exact same thing, I shake my head lightly and I smirk at my wife.
"He told the whole speech as if I cared." Althea comments displeased.
I look at her and I realize how much I like this. She talking to me at a normal tone, making conversation about simple things. And I listen to her like a starved man. Because these things are rare when it comes to Althea Moretti.
As I look between Althea and the Senator, I feel my phone vibrate from my jacket inside pocket. I take my phone and unlock it, seeing a message from Arius.
I finally track the fucker.
And just like that, my beast is awake.