Chapter 5
CHAPTER 5
Aurora
T he cafe Giovanni owns in Sicily is a small, cozy place tucked in between a bookshop and a pawnshop. From the outside, it is rather unassuming, but only a select few know what goes on on the inside.
The cafe, like most other mafia businesses, is simply a front. Money is cleared through legal businesses, and the locations are also secretly used to run much darker operations. Kind of like hiding in plain sight.
I walk into the cafe, the bell at the door tinkling to announce my arrival.
A lone employee at the counter looks up at me, and then her eye shifts to the closed sign at the door.
“I’m here for Gio,” I explain.
She just shrugs and goes back to wiping down the counter. I walk deeper into the cafe toward Gio’s office at the back.
I open the door without knocking, and four pairs of eyes immediately land on me, their expressions ranging from surprise to suspicion to knowing. The other three eventually look away, but Gio’s eyes never leave mine.
The air in the room is tense. When I first walked in, Gio had a look of deadly fury, but that look has now been replaced by a detached calm as he looks at me.
“Hey,” I say shyly.
He’s in a navy, pinstriped, three-piece suit with the outer jacket missing, and the sleeves of his shirt are rolled up his arms, revealing the tattoos lining his skin.
“Sit,” he instructs before going back to his conversation with them.
I roll my eyes and take a seat on the dark brown sofa pushed against the wall. I forgot how much of an asshole he was, and for the umpteenth time, I ask myself what I’m doing here.
On the one hand, in a world of red flags, Gio is a carnival banner. He’s controlling, manipulative, a liar, an asshole, and also condescending as hell.
But on the other hand, he’s the only man I feel safe around, and if I’m being honest, knowing one of his men is watching me at all hours of the day is the only thing keeping me from having a full-blown panic attack.
At first, I think Gio’s whole attention is on the discussion he’s having with his men until I notice his eyes keep shifting to me. I smirk smugly when I catch his eyes. From across the room, I see his jaw clench before he looks away.
I cross my legs, causing my dress to ride indecently up my thighs. When Gio looks over again, I lean back on the settee, thrusting my chest out.
His eyes darken as they land on my mass of exposed flesh.
I take it one step further by slowly uncrossing my legs and running my fingers achingly slowly from my knees up and into the inside of my thighs. His eyes follow the movement, and it feels like a physical touch with the way it leaves tendrils of heat in its wake.
I shiver in delight, my nipples hardening.
“Meeting adjourned,” he suddenly snaps. “Just find me someone who’s willing to supply us the amount we’ve lost before the weekend.”
Then he grabs his jacket and marches toward me as the men begin to file out.
“What are you doing here?”
I shrug. “Couldn’t I have missed you?”
“Did you drive?” he asks.
“Yes, it’s outside.”
“Fiore,” Gio calls out, holding out his hands for my car keys. I hand them to him obediently, and he passes them to the curly-haired man. “Drive her car back to the Vitale compound.”
“Yes, boss,” the man, Fiore, replies.
“You,” he says, turning to look at me. “You’re coming with me.”
My belly swoops at the thought of being in close quarters with him.
“Okay.”
“No argument?” He quirks his brow.
I chuckle. “I can be obedient when I want to be.”
He just gives me an unimpressed look before walking out, the smell of his cologne lingering in his wake. I rise and follow after him, struggling to match his long strides with the ridiculously high heels I have on.
I will never admit it to anyone, but I chose these shoes with him in mind. They make my legs look endless and so good, and when I catch his eyes sweeping down my legs as I climb into his SUV, I give myself a mental high five for my foresight.
“You’re playing adult games, princess,” he murmurs as he turns the car engine on. “Trust me, you don’t want to play games with me.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I reply, feigning innocence.
“You can quit with the innocent act. We both know it’s bullshit. Sell it to someone who’s stupid enough to buy it.”
I stare at his tattooed hand around the wheel of the car and admire the way he navigates it so effortlessly. It reminds me of the way those long fingers had tugged at his hard cock as he brought himself to an orgasm.
I wonder what else those hands are good at.
The thought makes me squirm as liquid heat soaks my panties. I bite my lip, staring at him from under my eyelashes.
“I’m an adult. I’m more than qualified to play adult games,” I tell him, then add, “with you and anybody else I want to.”
He scoffs. “I dare anybody to even think of touching you.”
“Laying claims on me now, are we? Thought I was just a kid to you?” I bite back.
“You are. Same as to every male out there with a dick. That doesn’t mean they will be as reasonable as I am. But I beg them to indulge me. Been a while since I had any fun.”
“You have your head so high up in the clouds that it’s alarming. You act like you’re untouchable. But not everybody’s afraid of you,” I inform him, crossing my arms across my chest.
“You should stay far away from anybody who’s not. Because that person is an obvious idiot.”
“When are you going to get it into your thick skull that I’m an adult?” I ask, exasperated. I’m sick and tired of him seeing me as Leo’s little sister.
I want him to see me as a woman that he can’t keep his hands off of. I want him to treat me the way he treated me that first night when he didn’t know who was behind the mask.
“Adult? Hardly,” he replies with another scoff. “You’re a naive little thing, and you should be locked up in your bedroom with twenty-four-seven security.”
“And you’re a big, mean bully who’s trying a little hard to be a hero,” I snap.
The car screeches to a halt, and I look at him in surprise. He’s eyeing me with a look I can’t place. “I’m no hero. I’ve never claimed to be one.” His eyes hold a dark glint as he continues, “In fact, I think being a hero is overrated. It’s wasting your time trying to please everyone and not getting rewarded for it.”
“Is that what you think you are? The terrifying villain?” I scoff. “Well, I’m not scared of you.”
“You should be. I’m not one of the men you can wrap around your pinky finger and run circles around.”
I’m not foolish enough to think Gio’s hands were clean. In our world, hardly any man’s hands were clean. Many men had taken their first life when they were barely ten, sealing their fate as part of this dangerous existence.
“I may not have you wrapped around my finger, but I do have one thing on you.”
“Please, indulge me, princess,” he murmurs with a smirk.
“You want me,” I say confidently.
Now it’s his turn to scoff again. “Don’t be ridiculous. If you go around thinking every man who’s protective of you wants you, you’re going to get your heart broken.”
“Do you think I’m running around the country giving my heart out right, left, and center? My heart’s taken already. The only thing I have left to give is my body,” I say brazenly, hoping he won’t ask by whom. I won’t admit my embarrassing crush on him, but I don’t want to have to lie, either.
Giovanni was crazy and unpredictable enough that I could lie about who has my heart by giving him a random name only to wake up tomorrow to news of every man in the city with that name winding up dead.
I see his jaw clench and his eyes flash angrily, and at that moment, I’ll give everything I own just to know which part of my statement is making him angry.
Is it the part about my heart or the part about my body?
At the same time, I’m afraid of the implications of what the answer might be.
“I know you want me,” I continue. “I see the way you look at me.”
He leans back in his seat, his lips ticking up in amusement. “Oh, really?”
“Yes.” I shrug boldly. “There’s no shame in it.”
He throws his head back and lets out a bellow of laughter. “Of course, I want you, princess. You have the face of a doll and the body of a vixen. I wouldn’t be a red-blooded male if I didn’t want you writhing under me. The difference between me and all those other losers you fall into bed with is that I’m a grown man with infinite amounts of discipline and self-control. I’m not running around with a hard-on, begging for someone to let me stick it in them.”
I lick my lips and watch him trace the movement with his eyes. He can deny it all he wants, make excuses for it, and try to reduce it to nothing, but his hunger for me was very apparent.
“I can make your self-control go right out of the window.” My heart is beating at a frantic rhythm, and warning signs are going off in my head, telling me to put a brake on where this is leading, but the image of a naked Giovanni with his dark eyes on mine and his teeth bared as his orgasm racks through his body is at the forefront of my mind, egging me on.
He doesn’t deign me with a reply. Instead, he reaches for the dashboard to turn the car back on before continuing on our way.
“You think I can’t? Fine then. How about a little dare?” I’m desperate at this point.
“I’m not playing your stupid games with you.”
“Scared?” I tease, wearing a smug, taunting look.
It’s the oldest trick in the book, and for a second, I don’t think he’ll fall for it. I’m trying to taunt him into playing my game, and I’m hoping curiosity will prompt him to agree to it.
“What game?” he finally asks.
Gotcha.
I try to hide the feeling of victory from my eyes with a mask of nonchalance, but I’m not sure I do a very good job of it. “I can make you rock hard in just a minute.”
He raises a brow at me. “Explain.”
“I’m going to make you hard in just a minute without even touching you,” I say with false confidence.
“I’m going to pity you and make it three minutes.”
“I don’t need three, but sure,” I reply. “When I win, you have to spend a whole day with me. Doing whatever I want. Twenty-four whole hours, no cheating.”
Surprise flashes in his eyes for a second, followed by suspicion.
“And when you lose, you have to go home and be a good little girl. No more parties and clubs and no more barging into my home and office. If I hear a single report that you’ve been spotted somewhere you shouldn’t be, I’ll tan your ass.”
My face becomes hot, and I’m sure my cheeks are the colors of tomatoes. “Deal. It’s a good thing that I’m certain I’m going to win. I’d really hate not running into you at the strip club.”
He growls at me in annoyance, but I only giggle. “Do I have your word? I trust you’re a man of your word, and we don’t need to call our lawyers.”
“You have my word.”
I have him right where I want him. I can’t believe I’ve just managed to reel the great Giovanni Lombardi in. Hook, line, and sinker.
I turn away to hide my smile of delight.