Chapter Three
Gabriel
Sleep has never been a close friend of mine.
It was hard to sleep growing up. During my youth, some of the families were at war, fighting over their borough lines and who deserved what. My father was often gone with his soldiers, so I felt obligated to take care of my mother and two sisters. From an early age, I took care of the women in my life, and nothing about that has changed.
Both of my sisters, Dita and Sabin, had a constant bodyguard with them from the time they were in junior high. They may not have liked it, but they allowed it. We’ve always been close. While they don’t love the life, they understand it and have found their place in our world.
Now another woman will find her place in my world. Because after just one night, just a few moments of one night, there is no way in hell I am letting Gianna out of my sight. It was hard to let her go back to Santino that night, but it was too soon to blow things up.
“Boss, she has a guard,” Dario argues with me over plates of my mama’s meatballs and ziti.
Glaring at him as I sip some vino, I shake my head. “Not good enough. Her guard works for her father—that means he is inept. I want one of my men with her. Is this going to be an issue, Dario?”
Shaking his head at my question, he puts his hands up. “No, boss. I have zero issue with you pissing on a princess that ain’t yours.”
Dario grins as he shoves a huge saucy meatball in his big mouth. I laugh despite his challenging words. He does not mean them. He knows me better than anyone else. Even better than my sisters. I would not be asking this, demanding it, if it was not important to me.
I never do things just for the sake of it. This is not about riling up the other families. Not about stepping on Santino Marconi’s toes. I could not care less about how this affects any of them. This is about me. It is about me and Gianna, and what comes next for us.
Since the engagement party, she is all I can think about. I am going mad. I have spent all my waking moments finding out all I can about her. Dario thinks I am being reckless, but he hasn’t dared try to stop me. Even when I began following her the day after the party.
At first I told myself I just had to be sure she was safe. That Santino was not hurting her. I sat outside her father’s house for hours that first day. I was about to storm the place and drag her out of there. Then she came out. It was a Sunday and something about her seemed…free. At ease.
They attended church at the same place my family has gone for years. How has this goddess been just a few pews down from me all this time? If I were not so focused on taking care of business for my father, I would have found her before Santino ever had a chance.
After mass, she broke off from her mother and father to my surprise. Cutting through the church courtyard, she hailed a cab. We followed, confused when it stopped at a park on the edge of town. Gianna sat on a battered park bench with a book for hours, reading in complete peace.
All she wanted was some peace, something she was not allowed.
“It will be done, Gabriel. Whatever your reason, I do not need to know. I will just do as I am told to. We’ll have someone on her within the hour.”
“I cannot let anything happen to her,” I stress, putting down my fork as my hand starts to tremble.
I’ve been a wreck in the days since we met. That day at the park, we left her alone because I knew it was what she wanted. Dario let me know she walked home at dusk, happy as a lark, no bodyguard in sight. He also learned that she has run off half a dozen times, just for her father to drag her back. Just thinking about her out there on her own, with no one to protect her, no one to save her from herself, it drives me mad.
That night at the party, I was meant to go in, drop some good wishes and some cash, and be done. I had even thought how I would never have to host that sort of night. No wife or kids for me, I had thought. Just like that, everything in my mind has been rearranged.
“We won’t, Gabriel. Calm down. How far we taking this?”
“I am not sure yet, Dario. I need to…I need to see her again.”
“Boss, we’ve been following your little princess all over town. You have been seeing her,” he reminds me as he takes a sip of wine.
“Who have you followed?” Dita chimes in as she takes a seat beside me, pressing a kiss on my cheek.
Dario makes a plate for her, shaking his head at her as they exchange a look. They have always had secrets, those two. They know me best, but I don’t know if I can explain to my sister what I am going through. How I have had a complete reversal of behavior after meeting Gianna.
“A woman I intend to court.”
“Court. As in date? You don’t date,” Dita states the obvious.
“I am taking it up,” I respond, shooting her a look to shut her up. I have defended my newfound need for this woman enough times with Dario. I am not about to do it all over again with my little sister. “I am allowed to change my mind about things.”
“Sure. Sure, you can change your mind. About your tailor or where you get your coffee. About making time for a woman.... I don’t know, boss ,” my sister teases me by calling me capo, grinning at me with the perfect teeth I paid for by being capo.
Shaking my head, I wipe my mouth and push back from the table. I do not need to explain myself to either of these idiots. I love them both, so their input is important to me. I often turn to one of them for counsel. Waving Dario off as he begins to follow me, I storm out of the kitchen.
In my office, I sit behind the big, dark oak desk my father used to sit behind. His favorite whisky is still on the desk beside his photo of all of us. We were out on his boat drinking good wine, laughing, enjoying a day together as a family. I wish more people got to see that side of him.
Instead, the world knew his brutality. His iron fisted rule of his borough. He was known for giving two chances but nothing more. It might have been engraved somewhere for how strictly he followed that expectation. Even with us, his own flesh and blood, he did not cater to incompetence or laziness.
Sitting at my desk, I hit a button that causes a bay of monitors to lift. This is how I watch over my kingdom. Only today, it is not the city streets or the warehouses I own that I am watching. What I am watching now is the same thing I’ve been watching all day for the past few days.
Gianna circles the yard of her father’s modest mini mansion, plucking at the petals of a flower she clutches in her fingers. Each petal is tossed to the ground at her feet. There is no sound from the half dozen cameras I had posted around their place, but I see her mouth moving.
“Little princess never stops dreaming,” I whisper, reaching out to touch the image of her on the screen.
Tracing her figure, I let out a breathy sigh. Jesus, she is a vision. All that dark hair tumbles down her back as she walks in the sunshine. In a demure white linen dress, she still looks like a fairytale princess. Just as she wants to be. I imagine her walking through the walk-in closet of my bedroom, the entire thing filled with as many bubblegum pink dresses and sparkles as she wants.
Just thinking of her being here, in my space, it makes me so hard it hurts. I’ve been aching with need for her since I first laid eyes on her. I have rubbed my dick raw as I watch her on these cameras. Seeing her living, breathing, existing, it makes something fresh and bright burn inside of me.
“Such a pretty little princess,” I hum as I light a cigar, my other hand undoing my belt.
It might be sick or twisted of me to rub one out while spying on her. I do not care. I would jerk my dick in front of her and come on her pretty tits if I could. And I will. Very, very, soon, this will be more than my daily obsession. I will have her on her knees in front of me, that pretty pink mouth open to take my cum down her silky throat.
“You will be such a good girl for me. My sweet little slut,” I groan as I fist my stiff cock, letting the sticky cum drip down my hands.
As if she knows I am watching, she turns towards one of the cameras, tilting her head back in the sun. With her arms crossed behind her, piling her thick hair atop her head, her full, round tits look divine. I imagine burying my face in those pretty pillows as I fuck her hard, my mouth suckling at one of the tight pink nipples.
I cannot think of anything else but having her. Claiming her. Fucking her sweet, tight little body for days. Once I have her, I might tie her to my bed so I can live out the hundreds of fantasies I have had about her. I think she would let me. I would be so fucking good to her. I would eat her pussy for hours, until I was drowning in her pleasure. I would suck down every sweet drop of her cum, I would live off her moans and her cries of pleasure.
“Ah fuck,” I hiss as I pump my cock faster, harder, the cloud of smoke from the cigar sweet in the air. “I am going to be so good to you, princess.”
I grunt the words as I start to come, shooting all over my desk. I can’t wait to spread her out on this very desk to devour her pretty little pussy. I am a man possessed. It will take more than a few days to work this out, it will take weeks, months. Hell, it might take the rest of our fucking lives.
“Yeah, the rest of our fucking lives,” I pant after my orgasm as I suck on my cigar. “Time to get a start on our life, princess,” I declare.
It is a promise—I will have my princess before they give her to a man unworthy of her.