9. Elio
Chapter nine
Elio
Two raps sound at the door, then it swings open.
Cortez walks in with great strides, and a huge grin on his face. I lean back into my chair, allowing the swivel to swing me from side to side as his eyes lock with mine.
“ Capo , you need to see this.” He drops the documents in front of me, standing beside me to peer into them as my fingers flip them open.
“What’s this?” I ask.
“The report from the ultra-modern hotel chain.”
My eyes skim over the large numbers and charts on the pages. The projections were good last year, but seeing this in reality is even better.
My hotels are running at an efficiency that no one in the industry can match.
We introduced AI-powered rooms that adjust lighting, temperature, scents and music based on a guest’s mood, a virtual concierge that learns a guest’s preferences across all hotel locations, and facial recognition check-in; no room keys or reception needed.
It’s all streamlined to perfection.
Cortez leans over and starts flipping the pages. He stops when he arrives at one with a list of names and corporate logos.
“This is a list of investors who’ve bought stocks from our public listing.” He pauses, allowing me to look through the pages myself before turning them over, “This has moved our capital to triple the normal amount.”
A winning smile spreads across my face as I look up at Cortez for confirmation. He closes his eyes and nods in reaffirmation.
“ Sì, Capo . Every major financial player wants a piece of your empire. At this rate, we’ve outpaced every forecast.”
This is the moment I’ve been waiting for. My hands lace together, pressing my fingertips on each other, relishing the feeling of this achievement.
“Competitors like Marcus Winston and Julia Price don’t stand a chance with this momentum, Capo .”
A small smirk tugs my lips as I swirl my chair. This isn’t just a win for me, it’s domination. My name is already at the top of every success chart in the tourism and entertainment industry, but with this latest achievement, it’s never coming down.
***
I would have called Aria to celebrate, but that night, she dealt a serious blow to my ego, and I can’t help but resent her for that. It isn’t the kind of bruise to my pride that I can simply shrug off. No, this feels more like an infected wound ? growing more painful by the day, quietly filling with anger until the anguish becomes impossible to ignore.
If it were any other woman, I would have put her in her place - six feet below the ground. Heck, no other woman would have arched her taut nipples against my chest or massaged my swollen cock with her thighs while I plunged my tongue into her mouth and then run away.
But Aria isn’t just any woman, and that is where the problem lies.
Damn!
Hot air rushes from my nostrils as I release a deep breath, leaning into my chair to stare at the jagged silhouette of the skyline.
Men marching past the floor-to-ceiling windows of my office work tirelessly out there, trying to earn my approval. Women fawn when I so much as glance at them. That’s how my life as the mafia don has always worked.
My name opens doors, and my reputation brings men to their knees before me. No one challenged me. No one refused me. No one until her. Aria-fucking-Abruzzi.
The first time she’d run off when I was about to slide into her, I thought it was a game, like Cinderella leaving her glass slipper behind to help the prince find her or however that story goes. But when she refused me the second time, that game was over, and my amusement turned sour immediately.
That sharp breath escapes my nostrils again.
Just thinking about her sight in front of me that night makes my cock so hard right now, throbbing painfully in between my thighs. For fuck’s sake!
This woman doesn’t care what her fingers running their way around my scalp does to me. She doesn’t care that when I inhale the scent of her cherry scented shampoo or taste the strawberry flavored lip gloss she always wears, my sanity drops to a dangerously low level, and all I want to do is part those thighs and ease myself into her wet pussy.
There are so many positions I think of taking her. Even now, I want to bend her over my table, have her arch that slender back so her butt cheeks can be high up in the air, then pound inside her from behind.
The fact that I cannot have her except in my thoughts only makes me want her more. It’s maddening, like a slow virus spreading beneath my skin, infecting every part of my being. I must put an end to this growing distraction.
My desk vibrates, snapping me out of my reverie. When I glance at the caller ID, I let out a huff of breath scornfully.
Aria.
She has to call even now that my mind is preoccupied with thoughts of her.
I let it buzz twice, then pick up on the third ring.
“Well, hello, Princess.”
“Don’t even begin to ‘princess’ me. I don’t have time for that. I found something.” The words roll off her tongue hurriedly, as if she’s in a rush to leave the call.
“Go on,” I lean forward on my desk, interest piqued.
“About the whistleblower, that is,” she’s dishing the words briskly so that I have to pay keen attention to catch every word she’s saying.
“What about him?”
“His name’s Mendez. He said he was paid by a gang…I’m guessing one of your rivals.”
“Which one?” My back straightens, a small frown creasing the lines of my face.
She makes a low, humming sound while flipping through the pages of whatever documents she has in her hands.
“Actually, there’s no mention of that here.”
“Damn!” My fist slams the table and for a moment, there’s silence at the other end. “What pussy would have the audacity to meddle with my affairs?” The words tumble out in a growl, my nails digging into my fists until I can almost feel the skin on my palm give way.
A light scoff from the other end reminds me that Aria is on this call.
“Well, it gets better,” she continues. I can hear the noisy flapping of papers in the background as she talks. “This Mendez guy is a walking rap sheet. Drug trafficking, extortion, you name it…”
“What else do you have on him?”
“Well, that’s all I have from my dad, okay? Show some gratitude.”
I pinch the bridge of my nose, irritation flaring in my chest. This is Aria serving me a dead end, wrapped up in sarcasm.
“Where the fuck is this Mendez?” My voice is reduced to a growl now, as it’s taking everything within me not to yell at her.
“I don’t know his location. You should be thankful I got you anything at all.” I can feel her eye roll from here.
I need to find Mendez.
This can only mean one thing. Cortez and I were right. There’s a fucking mole amongst us. Some godforsaken motherfucker must have tipped off whoever this Mendez is. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have known the contents of the warehouse. What the fuck was he doing in such a deserted place at dawn if he wasn’t in on the plan himself?
I swear by my late mother I will catch those fuckers and rip their very hearts from their chests, then discard them into the streets like the dogs that they are.
I gather my thoughts, and think of Aria’s investigative work. I can feel the familiar burn of frustration rising up within me. Aria is smart, annoyingly so, but reckless to a fault. I cannot have her do any more of this investigation from miles away. She has to come to me.
“You’ve been very quiet. Did I, by any chance, make you speechless?” I can almost see her lips curl up with satisfaction as she taunts me, but I don’t give her a response.
“Spend the night with me,” I deadpan instead.
The line goes silent. I take the phone away from my ear to check if she’s still on the call. She is. I can no longer hear the raspy sounds of her breathing at the other end of the line.
It’s almost as if she’s disappeared from the call.
“What?” It comes out in a soft gasp.
“You heard me. I said come to my place… my room. Tonight.”
She barks out a sharp, humorless laugh. “Elio Donatelli, you’ve officially lost your mind.”
“I’m done playing this game of hide and seek with you, Princess.”
That hit a nerve because her voice suddenly drops to a low and dangerous tone.
“Oh, so now you want to play babysitter. That’s so kind and thoughtful of you!” she snaps, banging whatever table she’s sitting in front of.
“I’m not playing anything, Princess. This is your reality now. You’re my betrothed.”
“You keep bringing this up,” she groans, “For God’s sake, Elio. I’m only pretending to be your fiancée. You don’t own me.”
Brash laughter seizes my throat and, for a moment, she stills at the other end of the call.
“Baby, I don’t just own you . I own your entire family. Your lives are practically in my hands.”
“It’s always about control with you. Do you expect me to quiver before you just because you’re the ruthless leader of a bunch of criminals in New York?”
At this point, she is clearly not making an attempt to hide the disgust in her voice, inflating the anger in my chest. ‘The ruthless leader of a bunch of criminals’ ... so this is how she sees me.
“I don’t expect you to be scared of me. But I expect you to obey me. Wives obey their husbands…it’s in the Bible.”
“Well, go fuck yourself, Saint Elio. I don’t give a shit!” And the line clicks off.
I stare at my phone, trying to understand what just happened. My hands are trembling with rage, and my chest is pounding with fury.
Aria Abruzzi just hung up on me.
This girl doesn’t realize that she’s fucking with the wrong guy. I need her to understand that when I want something, I take it, and when someone disrespects me, I remind them in the most unforgettable way why they should never attempt it again.
My fists clench as the rage seizes the entirety of my being. I rise from my chair and begin to pace, something else is stirring deep beneath the anger—desire.
It is unbelievable the way my cock gets rigid for her, every time she defies me… even when I feel like strangling her. Her defiance doesn’t push me away. It only pulls me closer.
I want to break her stubbornness so badly and clip those wide-spread wings she is growing until she has no choice but to understand… to admit that she now belongs to me.
She could fight me all she wants and pretend to be untouchable, but we both know she isn’t, not to me. She belongs under my roof, and that is where I will have her.
I will get her for myself, by all means, and not allow her to slip through my fingers again. I will bend her over my knee and rub at her clit until it becomes red and swollen, making her scream my name from excessive pleasure.
Then I will fuck her senselessly until she begins to cum with just a touch of my lips on hers. I will do all the things I’ve been meaning to do to her from the first time I touched her.