Thirteen

 

 

Giovanni

I should have known bringing Aria here would be a colossal mistake. On one side of the living room is my mom, Cecilia, Stefan, and my dad. On the other side is Aria, Nico, and me. I know when Aria feels the tension because her body stiffens, not for the first time tonight, and she tries to push my hand off her leg. I let her do it because I don’t want to argue with her here.

This just reminds me how different Aria is from my family, from my life. She doesn’t belong here. She is full of life and energy. These past couple weeks, watching Aria revert back to what I assume is her old self has been nothing short of amazing to watch, and I’m thinking this is only the beginning. She’s carefree and fun and doesn’t take much seriously.

She eats junk food at midnight and watches crap television. She steals my phone daily to snap pictures of everything that captures her attention. She wears what she wants and speaks her mind. Her being here in my parents’ home for only a short time has already begun to diminish the beauty and aura which surrounds her. I need to find Weston and figure out what he has up his sleeve so I can take care of him and then set Aria free. It was selfish to ever think I could in some way keep this girl for myself.

“Mom, is dinner ready?” I break the silence, ignoring the comments about the movie and junk food.

“Yes, let’s all go sit down at the table.” Aria excuses herself to use the bathroom and when she gets to the table, Cecilia is sitting on one side of me and my mother is on the other side. When my mother told everyone where to sit, I didn’t want to draw attention to Aria by suggesting she should sit next to me, but the look in her eyes—Jealousy? Hurt? I don’t know— has me wishing I would have taken a stand.

My mom has her sit down next to Nico and across from Cecilia on the other side of the table. The meal goes smoothly for the most part. Aria eats quietly, and Nico engages her in some conversation. My dad asks her a few questions, but she sticks to polite responses knowing my family is simply fishing for answers. After dessert, I announce we need to get going.

“Would you mind giving me a ride home?” Cecilia asks too sweetly. “When the guys returned, I had Rome give me a ride over since he said he was coming back to pick you up anyway. My car is acting up.” Somehow, I doubt her new Mercedes is acting up but I’m not up for arguing.

“Sure.” I stand and give my parents a hug, Stefan a hand shake, and slap Nico on the back before we head out. Aria quietly says goodbye and Cecilia goes around the room giving hugs and kisses to everyone.

The ride home is filled with Cecilia talking to me about La Stella business. Aria remains quiet, looking out the window, and my fingers twitch wanting to pull her into my side and tell her not to take any of this personal, but knowing this is probably for the best. My life, my family, my business, none of it could ever fit in with the person Aria is.

When we arrive back at home, Aria quickly excuses herself. I let her go and go to my office to get some work done. While I’m checking on the books for the loans I have out, Johnny knocks and comes in.

“Boss, I have some info on Antonio Torino.” I close out what I’m working on to give him my full attention.

“What did you find out?”

“Unless it’s a coincidence, Antonio Torino is the son of Anthony Torino.”

Fuck! That’s where I recognized the last name from. The Torino organization. “He has an organization in New York. And if I’m thinking of the same guy, he owns a real estate company over there, which is worth millions.”

“Yep, that’s the guy,” Johnny says. “He doesn’t seem to have any ties to the Lorenzo organization but I’m going to keep digging.” What the fuck was Aria doing dating the son of a mob boss?

“All right, we need to confirm this is the same guy. Why the hell would he give Aria his real last name?”

“It might have been an oversight on his part or maybe he didn’t have anything hide.” I glare at Johnny because he knows better than that bullshit. “Yeah, I know. That sounded stupid as fuck. If he’s the son of a mob boss, he’s in deep.”

“I’m going to talk to Aria. See if I can find out anything else. We need to get into that house and get anything inside those safes.”

“You got it.” I walk Johnny out of my office and head upstairs to find Aria. When she isn’t in our room—Jesus, I just referred to my room as ours—I start searching for her. I text Rome and Caesar and they both tell me they didn’t know they were supposed to be watching her. When we got home, I didn’t give them any instructions. I text back to fucking find her—Fuck! It goes without saying they should always be watching her!

I search the first floor, kitchen, dining room, and living room, but don’t find her. I move up to the second floor and knocking on each door, I ask if anyone has seen Aria. Nobody has seen her. Just as I am about to lose my shit, Caesar texts me a photo of Aria out back sitting on a bench in the gardens. Even in the photo, I can see her face is red and blotchy from crying. Instead of going to check on her, I tell him to keep an eye on her. Comforting her will only make shit more complicated.

I send a group text to my employees that I’m leaving and head out to the bar. I need to get laid. A warm body underneath me will surely knock the visions of Aria out of my head and since fucking Cecilia any more is out of the question, picking up a woman in the bar will have to do.

I’m sitting at the bar, two scotches in, with a woman—with blonde hair as fake as her tits and tan—practically in my lap, and all I can think about is how real Aria looks in comparison. Her tits aren’t half the size of this woman’s but Aria’s are perky and real. I imagine how my hands would fit around Aria’s tits. I bet they would be a perfect handful. I look at this woman, who has her face covered in all types of makeup with her hair sleeked pin straight. Aria’s brown hair is always up in a messy bun, and her face is always clean, makeup free. Aria blows this woman away in the looks department without even trying.

Her hand glides up my thigh, landing on my dick, and I will myself to block Aria out and focus on getting balls deep in this woman. Instead, Aria’s face, blotchy and tearful, pops up and I push the fake and willing woman away. “I gotta go.” I throw a couple bills down and leave the bar on a mission. I can’t stand the fucking sight of Aria crying. I’m heading back to the mansion when a thought occurs to me. I turn around and head into town. I stop at a store and have the associate guide me to everything I need. I remember Aria mentioning she was majoring in photography. Hopefully, a camera will put a smile on her face, so she doesn’t have to use my cellphone camera anymore. Several thousand dollars later, and I am on my way home.

It’s late and the main floor is quiet. By this time of night, members and escorts are either in private rooms, out for the night, or have gone home. I jog up the stairs hoping Aria is in our room. I see Rome standing outside the room, and nod at him. When I open the door, I find Aria curled up in bed asleep. Her iPad is still on and open to whatever book she was reading. I take it from her hands and turn it off. She stirs and her eyes open.

“Hey, I must have fallen asleep reading.” She sits up and stretches, her perky tits jutting out, reminding me of my earlier thoughts.

“I bought you something.”

Aria looks at me curiously. “For what?”

“I guess… kind of an apology gift. My family… they…”

“Kind of suck,” she finishes my sentence with a frown but quickly gives me a small smile. “Except Nico. He’s super intense but also really sweet.” The thought of Aria warming up to my brother causes something inside me to burn but I push it aside.

“Anyway, here you go.” I hand her the bags.

She takes them from me. “You didn’t have to do this. I was upset earlier, but it was stupid…” Her words are cut off when she sees what’s inside the bags. “Oh. My. God!! Gio!” Her eyes dart from the camera box and accessories to me and back again before she jumps up off the bed, wrapping her arms around me. “Thank you so much! I am going to use the hell out of this camera!”

“There’s more.” I nod toward the other bags as I sit down on the bed, setting Aria back down next to me.

“A laptop? And printer! This must have cost you a fortune.”

“The only thing that matters, is that you like it. If any of it isn’t what you would use, we can exchange it.”

She looks at me like I’m crazy. “This is all perfect. Seriously, thank you.” She opens the camera box and starts setting it up and plugging it in.

“We think we found Antonio today.” Her eyes go wide.

“Really? Is he ok?” Only Aria would be concerned about a guy that could easily put her six feet under without blinking an eye.

“Aria, if it’s the guy we think it is. He’s not a good guy. We are looking into it and will know more soon, but for now, don’t try to find him anymore. We need you to stay under the radar until we get this all sorted.”

“Ok. Oh! I was wondering if I can use your phone. I wanted to call Amber and I don’t have a cellphone. I was hoping I could go over to the college and we could hang out.”

Shit! I completely forgot I need to get her a cellphone. “How about she comes here? You guys can go to the pool and hang out. I have an indoor pool and another outdoor one that’s heated.”

“And how would I explain to her that this is a sex house?” I chuckle at that her description of the bordello.

“Nobody is going to be fucking out in the open. Just hang out in the back or on the third floor, or in the kitchen where you usually are, eating your weight in food.” I wink at her. Aria practically lives in the kitchen. She loves her food, especially the sweets. The last few weeks, I have had the pleasure of watching her body change from skin and bones to having some meat on her, and that meat on her looks damn good.

“Shut up!” She slaps my chest but before she can pull her hand back, I grab her arm and pull her into me. “I’m not complaining. These new curves you have going on are damn sexy.”

Aria swallows thickly, her eyes meeting mine. Her tongue darts out wetting her bottom lip, her top teeth tugging on it, and without thinking, my lips crash into hers, needing to taste her. Without invitation, my tongue delves into her sweet mouth, her lips parting as she lets out a soft gasp of surprise as I suck her tongue into my mouth, craving more. In a blink of an eye, I’m grabbing her hips and pulling her up into my lap, her legs straddling me. My hands grab her ass, pulling her even closer until our bodies are flush, her perky tits brushing up against my chest. Her hands come up to my hair, pulling on the ends and her ass grinds down on my cock, a loud groan releasing into my mouth telling me she feels what she’s doing to me.

There’s a knock on the door and we both jump like we are teenagers who almost got caught. Aria almost falls to the floor, but I catch her and set her down on the floor.

“Fuck,” I mumble. “That shouldn’t have happened.”

She gives me a hurt look. “Wow, why don’t you tell me how you really feel?”

“I didn’t mean it like that.” There’s another knock. “Fuck! I’ll be right there!” I bark out. “It’s just that you are only twenty years old. I’m twelve years older than you. You should be in college, hanging out with frat boys or some shit. I’m in the fucking mob. You saw my family today. I’m not good for you. You just went through a traumatizing event. You are wife material and I’m not looking for anything more than a good fuck.”

Aria’s hands go to her hips and if looks could kill, I might be a dead man. “I’m so freaking sick of people telling me what is good for me. I know what’s good for me. I am perfectly capable of making my own decisions. You are just like my mom.”

“Your mom?”

“Yeah, my mom. When I was little I used to ask her about my real father but she told me it was for the best that he wasn’t in my life. She said he chose a dangerous life over us and he didn’t want me to get hurt. I heard her and Weston arguing once about him being in the mob. It should have been my choice as to whether I saw him.”

Her dad was in the mob? This is new and important information. “Do you know your dad’s name?”

“No, she wouldn’t tell me anything. I’m just so sick of everyone around me deciding what’s best for me, and you are no different.” Her chin tilts up in defiance, and fuck if it isn’t adorable.

“Ever think maybe they are making those decisions because they love you and want to protect you? This life is a hard life, Aria. I was born into it and it’s all I know. I will never get married. I will never bring a woman into this shit.”

“Whatever you say, Giovanni. Can I borrow your phone so I can call Amber?” And don’t think it escapes my attention that she didn’t call me Gio like she usually does. She holds her hand out, ending the conversation. What I want to do is grab her hand, pull her into me, and continue where we left off, but instead I let out a sigh, knowing it’s for the best we were interrupted.

“Yeah.” I hand her my phone, unlocking it so she can use it. “I’ll get you an untraceable phone this week.” She nods then turns her back on me to call her friend. I step outside to find Cecilia and Rome arguing. “What’s going on?”

“She wanted to go inside and I told her you would come out.”

“What were you in there doing with that girl?” Cecilia glowers at me.

“What I was doing isn’t your concern. What do you need?”

“Mariah is moving to California so we are going to need to hire a new girl.”

“Is everything ok?” Women coming and going in this business is normal. Some have been around for a while but most work here to save up money and once they meet their goal, move on. Many end up meeting a man and quit to start a life.

“Yes, just the usual. She wants to pursue an acting career.” She rolls her eyes.

“Ok, well go ahead and start looking for someone to replace her. Like always, I have final say.” Cecilia gives me a mock salute before walking back down the stairs.

“Everything ok?” Rome tips his head toward the door.

“Why wouldn’t it be?”

He simply shrugs then smirks. “You look a little…” His eyes peruse my body “…messy.” I look down and see what he means. My shirt is half in-half out. Several buttons are undone that I didn’t realize Aria unbuttoned. I look like a man who was about to fuck.

“Fuck Rome. I don’t even know what I’m doing anymore.” I run my hands over my face in frustration.

“You’ve smiled and laughed more around that woman then I’ve seen since I started working for you almost ten years ago.”

“What are you saying? That I’m going soft?” I half joke.

“No, I’m saying happy looks good on you, Boss.”

After grabbing a pint of Rocky Road ice cream from the freezer, popping a bag of popcorn and pouring half a bag of chocolate candies into it, and grabbing two sodas, I make my way back upstairs to the room. When I walk through the door Aria looks over at me. Her face morphs from the scowl she was planning to give me into a tiny smile she’s trying to hide.

“Truce?” I ask showing her all the goods I’ve brought.

“You just want to see what happens next on The Vampire Diaries.” She pulls the blanket down, welcoming into the bed. She takes the ice cream, popcorn, and one of the sodas from my hands, and turns the television on.

“You’re lucky I love Rocky Road.” She takes a bite of the ice cream, her tongue darting out to lick a tiny bit that dripped down her lip.

I snatch the remote from her and click on the episode we left on, willing both of my heads to ignore the gorgeous temptation sitting next to me.