I had never been to Italy before, and even with my years around the Italian mafia, I didn’t actually speak any Italian.

The language confused me. it wasn’t just the foreign words, they were moving too fast, so even the few that I knew from exposure, I couldn’t even hear to recognize. From the time when we landed, I had to rely on Elda for pretty much everything. Some signs at the airport were in English and Italian, and that was something, but it was nowhere near enough.

I had to hang back and let her do most of the talking as we made our way past security. My papers were airtight, though, and they passed. Since I would be sticking around permanently, I'd have to consider getting some local paperwork, and I'd probably need her help then, too. The idea left me a little irked. I'd never had to rely on anyone, not since I was eighteen, and that I had to nine years later felt a little odd at first.

Elda rented a car and drove us out to her house. I was a little surprised that she even had one since I'd been expecting us to hole up in some hotel while we looked for a permanent residence.

"You have a house?" I asked on the way, feeling a little jealous. I'd pretty much just moved from place to place, and back when I was still in the army, I'd just go home during my breaks.

"I own a villa, yes. It’s a beautiful place. I can't really say I've lived in it, though. I purchased it maybe a year after I quit law school. It's close enough to all my family to suit me. But, now that I don’t really have anything else, since what I've been focusing my life on for the last four years is taken care of, I guess it's safe to go back there."

We drove for maybe two hours before we got arrived.

It wasn’t quite what I was expecting. It was a big, two-story house painted in white, with some dark brown wood here and there. It was a lone house on a large plot of land with no close neighbors.

I followed Elda, eyeing the grounds, as she let us into the house. I got a quick tour of the place, and it was relatively big. There was a large living room and an attached dining room, a big kitchen to the back. There were five rooms upstairs that could be turned into bedrooms, easily. Furniture and appliances were already set up. The more I walked through the rooms, tastefully decorated in dark and light contrasts, the more it was cemented for me.

I loved Elda's villa.

The second thing we did, after the tour, was head to the master bedroom to store away our bags. I was surprised at how well kept the place was.

"Who do you have look after this place for you?"

"Hmm?" she looked back from where she was stuffing things into her closet. "My grandmothers, actually. I wouldn’t trust some stranger in here while I was away. Neither of them works and they're always looking for things to keep them busy. They did all the decorating, the furniture. I'm ashamed to say I've only been here a total of seven times since I purchased the place, and I never spent a whole week any one time."

Well, she had the time to stick around, now.

I wandered to the window and glanced outside at the grounds, surprised when all I saw was a stretch of free land, and I wondered just how far the grounds extended. I'd have to ask her later, or I could take a walk around, or I could do both.

But I was still feeling off from the flight, even though I'd slept through most of it. I wasn’t thinking of sleep when I sat back on the bed, though, leaning back on my hands and keeping my eyes on Elda. As she finished whatever arrangement she was doing.

"I still have some stuff holed up in a few places, I'll have to get them back at some point."

"I'll come with you."

"You don’t have to." She turned around.

I wasn’t asking, I was pretty much telling her I was going along. Considering the info, I now had about the groups she was associating herself with, even though she'd survived that world just fine, I was going to worry every time she stepped out the door.

Greco somehow got a message to her in Italy, through one of her local clients. I wouldn’t put it past the man to have local connections, and when news of his passing hit international news, there might me some problems. Hell, they probably already knew by now, ahead of the public.

I didn’t say any of that as Elda turned around and caught sight of me on the bed, watching her. She paused for a beat, and then her mouth curved into a smile.

"Was there something you wanted, Luke?"

I grinned, pushing myself off the bed and stalking over to her. I loved how she said my name, her accent curling around the syllables. The accent was thicker, too, more than I'd ever heard it, and I wondered if Elda could hide it and let it out at whim.

She laughed as I advanced on her. "Fine. We both need a shower anyway."

I stopped in my tracks as she pulled off her top then proceeded to strip. All I could do was watch until, when she had nothing on but a teasing smile, she turned and walked through a different door than the one we came in. I snapped out of my daydream, threw off my clothes and followed her. I barely remembered to bring a condom. I didn’t get to look at the inside of the master bathroom, my eyes were all for her.

She was already in the shower, hands up, pushing her hair back, lifting her breasts and bringing my attentions to her peaked nipples. It had only been a few hours since we were intimate, but I practically attacked her like a drowning man, attacking her lips as I wrapped my arms around her to hug her body against mine. Our naked chests touched, and she moaned and moved her body against mine when her hard nipples rubbed against my chest.

I stepped carefully forward, and she stepped back, as I pushed her toward the wall, braced her body against the tiles as I raised one leg to wrap around my waist. I cursed as my wet fingers fumbled with the condom, then her hands in my hair were tugging my mouth to hers, and she slid her tongue into my mouth as I thrust in to the hilt.

We moved under the warm spray, our moves languid and unhurried, the water making our bodies slide against each other. When we orgasmed, there was no screaming, or scratching or biting, but I thought it was the best sex we'd had so far. After a quick wash, we had another quick round on the bed, where I laid back and she rode me to our mutual completion. Until we ended up, again, lying exhausted in each other's arms.

"So, what are we going to do now?"

I squeezed my arm around her. "About what?"

"Our future together."

I was lying on my back, one arm around her and the other under my head, and she had her head on my shoulder. We were getting too used to each other so quickly, it sometimes escaped my mind. It made me forget just how short a time we'd known each other, around two months but we'd barely spent more than a day together in all that time.

Her question made me realize. This was all new to both of us. We had both been in jobs where we weren’t allowed to have relationships. For the sake of our own safety, so we wouldn’t be preoccupied while people were running around going after us. Even if I'd thought of it at any point, I'd have to keep what I did a secret, bear the consequences of it coming out. I never wanted that kind of stress, and I imagined she wouldn’t either.

And yet, being together seemed so natural for us, I couldn’t imagine another way to be. It felt like we had been like this for a long while and were just settling into it.

We had a future where we could be us, and it thrilled me.