Mob Princess

Chapter Sixteen

Luca

I traced my finger up her spine and was rewarded by a lazy smile.

“Are you hungry?” I seemed to remember that being the plan before I got her back into my suite. Then her clothes had started to come off and my only thought was getting my tongue between her legs again.

And again.

“Bloody starving”

I couldn’t bite back the laugh, it was the most English sounding thing I had heard her say.  “Then I best feed you, you are going to need your strength” I gave her a wink and slapped my palm across her bare ass. “What are you in the mood for?”

I watched her lick her lips and shook my head.

How could the whole world be so wrong about her? how could even her best friend be so wrong. Alice was lively and vivacious and was beyond beautiful sprawled naked on my bed. 

“Again?” I flipped her, crawling over her until our faces were merely inches apart. “Are you not sick of that yet?” I palmed her breast. Smaller than I usually went for, but then Alice was everything I didn’t usually go for.  Yet her breast felt perfect in my hand.

“I don’t want that” She was giggling, “Well I think I’ll always want that but maybe something else” She wiggled her eyebrows and I kissed her forehead. “Though I’m not sure I will ever get sick of the other thing you do, I’m not sure how I’m going to survive when I go home”

My smile vanished. “Stop talking about going home Alice” I knew my tone was rough, hard even and instantly regretted it. “I’m sorry, I just don’t want to think about you leaving me. Not when we have just met. I can’t imagine my life without you in it now”

“Luca, don’t you have a home to go to? A life to get back to you? Or is Vegas your home”

“New York” I admitted finally. She was right. I did have a life to get back to. A life full of violence and danger. This was just a brief interlude. “It could be your home as well you know; you say you want to be a nurse?”

I loved the surprised look on her face, she hadn’t thought I had been listening.

“New York needs nurses too as well, especially pretty ones with adorable accents” I lowered myself over her, keeping my weight on my elbows.

“I have school” But she was laughing.

“Haven’t you already qualified?”

“Technically yes, but I wanted to go into something…” She broke off, suddenly looking unsure of herself.

“Tell me baby”

“I would like to specialize in neonatal care, you know the teeny tiny babies”

I blinked back my surprise.

“You could do that with me” was I coming across as needy, too pushy? Did I even care.

“Luca be sensible for just a second, you can’t just rock home with a random girl you met on holiday” She laughed again, as if the very idea was absurd. If only she knew.

“My father would love you” That at least wasn’t a lie.  “Honestly, he would adore you although he might expect me to put a ring on your finger sooner rather than later”

She snorted, and I felt myself smile.

“We could always surprise them all and get married right here?” I settled my gaze upon her face waiting for a reaction. For several beats her face was slack, as if she couldn’t believe what I had just said and then laughter burst from her, tears streamed down her face.

“Oh Luca”

“I was being serious” I didn’t even crack a smile as I hoisted myself off her. I wasn’t hurt, not really. I didn’t really have feeling to be hurt but I watched her face fall as I left her.

“Luca” her hand was gentle on my shoulder.  “You can’t be serious; we have only known each other a few days”

“I know what it is I’m feeling” I touched her chest right above her heart. “Here”

“Luca” Her eyes were panicked.  “Can we not just keep things the way they are? We are having so much fun. I will remember this for the rest of my life”

“That’s exactly it, I don’t want you to remember. I want this forever. Maybe I’m crazy” I hung my head.

And the winner for best actor is….

“please don’t be mad at me Luca”

I turned to face her. “Then marry me”

Yeah that award goes to me.

“I…” she was stuttering now, her cheeks pink. A tiny line appeared between her eyebrows. She was thinking about it.

“Do something crazy Alice, give us a chance” I tapped my finger on the tip of her nose. “Give me a chance”

“Luca, I don’t know you”

“Then spend your life getting to know me, I can’t be the only one who feels this between us?”

I watched my words register. I hadn’t said the dreaded L word yet. I wasn’t there but I could get there with her. I knew I could.

“No, you’re not the only one, but what will people think?”

“That we are two crazy kids, who just went for it” I winked at her. “There’s always divorce”

I didn’t mention there would be no divorce for her. Once she was mine. She would be mine for life.

That was the deal.

And even if it wasn’t, I would never let her go.

I could never live know someone else was touching what was rightfully mine.

“Luca”

I silenced her with my lips, with my body pressing against hers and felt her reach for me. “None of that until you say yes” I caught her hand easily.

“None of what?”

“Me, think about it Alice. What a story to tell your friends. The day you lost all reasoning and married a made man in Vegas on holiday” My voice was joking but I was deadly serious. I wanted to see what her reaction to my revelation of being made was.

Would she run.

“It would be one hell of a story” she c****d her head and then chuckled. “The time I went to Vegas and married a made man” she used finger quotations and grinned.

So, she didn’t believe me.

It made it easier.

And so much harder.

“f**k it, Casey will go nuts” she giggled. It wasn’t exactly what I wanted her to say but it was the right answer.

I would take Alice, even the crazy spontaneous Alice to be my wife.

The Alice who thought this was one big joke.

And I would never let her go.

It was what was owed to me.