Salvatore
CHAPTER TWENTY
Icalled Valentina to join the team meeting. I half expected her to skip it, and fully intended to punish her for it later. Or whenever I’m off my own punishment.
How did I not think to fire Mia?
The question loops in my head as I wait in the main hall, watching my staff file in one by one. Fifteen people. All of them looking nervous, because they know something’s wrong.
I remember the day I told her we were done. Or thought I did.
It was right before Valentina arrived. I’d gone downstairs to my office, and Mia had been there, straightening papers on my desk.
“Good morning,” she’d said with that smile. The one that used to work on me.
She moved to lock the door so we could mess around like we normally did, but things were different. My fiancée was coming home, and I couldn’t be involved with anyone else.
“Mia, things are different now.”
“Different how?” She stepped closer, her hand reaching for me.
I caught her wrist. “A woman is coming. My fiancée. What we had is over.”
“Sally, you don’t mean that.”
“Don’t call me that. And yes, I do. You should be happy, I’m sure your boyfriend will be pleased when you come home without having another man to answer to.”
She started calling me Sally for some fucking reason. Every once in a while, she says it like it’s some term of endearment. I hate it.
She pouted. “But what about—”
“Nothing. There’s nothing to talk about. It’s done.”
Looking back now, I can see how weak that was. I should have fired her on the spot. Should have made sure she understood there was no coming back from this.
But I didn’t.
I have to admit, though, it was bold of her to leave a lipstick kiss in my fucking bathroom like that. Women.
I know I should have been firmer, but some part of me wanted to keep my options open. Just in case Valentina didn’t work out. Just in case what I was feeling wasn’t real.
And now I’m paying for that mistake.
The door opens, and Valentina walks in. She’s changed out of those sweatpants into jeans and a simple black sweater. Her hair is pulled back, her face carefully blank. She won’t look at me.
She takes a position near the back of the room, arms crossed, and I force myself to focus on the task at hand.
“Most of you do excellent work,” I begin, my voice carrying through the space. “You’re discreet, efficient, and professional. That’s why you’re here. That’s why you’re well compensated.”
I let my gaze sweep across each face, landing briefly on Valentina before continuing.
“But some of you have forgotten your place in this household.”
Mia shifts her weight near the front. That smug expression from earlier is gone, replaced with something more cautious.
“Let me be very clear about something. Valentina is going to be my wife. Not some temporary arrangement, my wife. Which means she is the lady of this house.”
I pause, making sure every single person is listening.
“When she gives you an instruction, you follow it. When she asks you to leave, you leave. When she tells you something is unacceptable, you fix it… immediately. Is that understood?”
A chorus of “Yes, sir” ripples through the group.
“Good. Because if I hear about anyone disrespecting her, dismissing her, or treating her like she doesn’t have authority here, you’ll be gone before you can pack your things. No severance. No references. Just gone.”
I let that sink in, watching comprehension dawn on several faces.
Rosa steps forward. “Mia, Claire, Amiya—you ladies, please come with me. Everyone else, back to work.”
The other staff members scatter quickly. I catch Valentina’s eye as she turns to leave. She gives me one long look, then walks out.
I head to my office alone. Once inside, I pull out my phone and text Matteo.
Three severance packages. Rosa will reach out.
He responds with a thumbs-up. Then I call Rosa.
“You’re going soft.”
“Valentina asked me to make sure they were well taken care of.”
“She’s a breath of fresh air, Salvatore. She’s good for you. Good for this house. She reminds me of your mother.”
She’s quiet after that.
And then… “Me too.”
“I… told her she could leave after six months. And now, I think she might be considering it.”
Rosa laughs. “Salvatore, that girl isn’t going anywhere. She may not want to admit it yet, but she has the hots for you. She’s not a normal girl you can just push around—and that’s exactly the kind you need. She has my vote.”
“Thanks, Rosa. Tell Arturo not to drink too much.”
“Io nipotino.”
* * *
"Come to my bed."
It's a command, and she knows it. But Valentina's defiant, always has been. Even more so now that she loves me.
She hasn't said it yet. Not in so many words.
But I can feel it in the way she moves around me, the way her eyes track me across a room when she thinks I'm not looking, the way her voice softens when she says my name.
I've caught Rosa smiling when Valentina mentions me, seen the way the older woman's eyes crinkle at the corners like she knows a secret.
She sees what Valentina can't admit yet.
That she's mine.
She's been sleeping in my bed since the first time we made love.
Since I claimed every inch of her body, marked her soul with mine.
Since she surrendered that beautiful, stubborn will of hers and let me in, past all the walls she'd built to keep men like me out.
And now? Now the thought of sleeping without her beside me makes my chest tight.
The bed feels too big, too empty, too wrong.
I don’t want to sleep without her in my bed. Not now. Not ever again.
She’s punishing me.
"Such a bad girl, Valentina," I murmur to the empty room, already imagining the ways I'll make her pay. My cock hardens at the thought of having her beneath me, crying my name, begging for mercy I won't give her.
That's the beautiful thing about Valentina, she fights me tooth and nail, but when she breaks, she shatters so completely it's fucking poetry.
I pull out my phone and type out a message.
If you don't come to my bed tonight, I will punish you worse than before.
I watch the screen. Three dots appear. Then disappear. Then appear again.
Nothing.
She's reading it. Thinking about it. Probably biting that full bottom lip of hers, trying to decide if she's brave enough to defy me.
I give her sixty seconds, long enough for her imagination to run wild, before I send another.
There will be no safe word. Nothing will protect you from the things I'll do to you.
My dick strains against my pants. I can already see her, wrists bound to my headboard, that gorgeous body on display for me, completely at my mercy. I'll take my time. Make her wait. Make her beg. Make her understand that she belongs to me, in my bed, every single night.
Still no response.
Fuck.
I cross the hall to her room, each step measured, controlled. I knock on her door, not gentle, not patient. A command, not a request.
"Valentina."
"Go away, Salvatore." Her voice is muffled through the door, but I can hear the steel in it. The defiance that makes me want to break down this door and remind her exactly who the fuck she's talking to.
Every instinct I have screams at me to use my key or break the fucking door down. To walk in there, throw her over my shoulder, and carry her back to my bed, where she belongs. To strip her down and fuck the attitude right out of her until she remembers that she's mine.
But my father once told me, Never fuck with a woman when she's pissed off. You'll lose every time.
So I leave.
Matteo confirms everything with the severance packages is done.
Good. One less thing standing between me and Valentina's trust.
Then I call my assistant.
"Mr. Vitale. How can I help you?"
"I need you to arrange something for me."
"Of course. What do you need?"
"A car. Black Mercedes, fully loaded. Top of the line. Heated seats, the works. I want it delivered with a red bow on it."
"For you, sir?"
"For Valentina."
There's a pause. "I'll have it arranged immediately."
"And one more thing." I lean back in my chair, "Look into purchasing the downtown library. The one on Morrison Street."
"Sir, I don't think we can. That's a public library. It's funded by taxpayer dollars and owned by the city. You can't exactly buy it."
"Everything has a price." My voice goes hard. "Everything."
"Yes, sir." He clears his throat nervously. "But it's a public library. There are laws, and regulations.”
"I'm aware. Look into it anyway. If there's any angle, any loophole, any board member who needs convincing, or replacing, I want to know about it. Send whatever you find to Elio. He'll know what to do."
"Of course, sir."
"In the meantime, I want to know what it would take to get Valentina back on their staff. Full-time. Whatever position she wants. I don't care what it costs. Make it happen."
"Right away, sir."
I hang up and stare out the window at the city that spreads out below me like a kingdom, and all I can think about is one stubborn woman who won't come to my bed.
She said she wanted freedom. Wanted a car. Wanted to go back to work. Wanted control over her own life.
And I kept saying "after the wedding"
That ends now.
Because she doesn't think I love her. Not really. She thinks I'm playing a game. That I kept those women around as insurance, as backup plans in case she didn't work out. She thinks she's temporary, replaceable, just another warm body in my bed.
She couldn't be more wrong.
I want to prove to her how much she means to me. Show her that she's the only woman I see, the only one I want, the only one who's ever made me feel like my chest might crack open from the weight of it.
Even as I plan the deep, thorough punishment she'll receive if she's not in my bed tonight.
The contradiction doesn't escape me, punishing her while trying to prove I love her.
But that's what we are. That's what we've always been.
Fire and gasoline. Need and defiance. Love wrapped in control and surrender, in dominance and submission, in the beautiful violence of two people who were never supposed to fit but somehow do.