Page 41 of Doll's Eye
“I heard you’ve always liked to be a soldier more than a capo.”
Exhaling through his nose, he shifts a little. “The business side of it has always been hard to keep my attention, but it’s the duty of the eldest. It’ll all be inherited by me.”
“Do you want it?”
“Yes,” he says with no hesitation.
“Just a different part in it,” I say as more of a statement, not a question. “I know what you mean.” I look away. “I’ll never be taken seriously.”
“With me, you will.”
“Still not the king of the castle,” I mutter, and we both chuckle.
“Is that truly what you want, Alessia? To be the king?”
I take a moment to answer him. “I long for recognition.”
“I promise you will have it,cara.”
Chapter twenty-two
Alessia
“I’m telling you. He’s definitely skimming some off the top, Massimo. These numbers do not add up,” I repeat myself for the third time. It's the same result after we’ve gone round and round with the reports from one of his illegitimate businesses.
“He’s been working for us for a decade. He’s never skimmed from us.”
“That you know of,” I mutter, and he gives me a look. “I know it’s hard to believe he would cross you, but like every man out there, he’s capable of it.”
Sighing, he pinches the bridge of his nose. “Get him to the warehouse, Vinny.” Vinny is his second most trusted next to Monte who is currently on sabbatical. He shakes his head at me when I fight back a smirk. “Don’t get excited, my little psycho. You will not be kneecapping him.” He chuckles when I curl my bottom lip out in a pouty face. “Maybe just one if I do find him guilty.”
“Oh, darling,” I say sweetly as I make my way over to him. “You’re too good to me.” He turns in his chair as I place my hands on either side of his face and lean down to peck him on the lips. “Oh!” I squeal when he yanks me down to his lap and deepens the kiss.
Since the whole debacle with the bedroom situation, he has not been shy with his affection. If I’m anywhere near, he has to touch me profusely. It’s getting more difficult to avoid my feelings from burgeoning. I feel like I’m going to fall headfirst one day, and that scares the shit out of me.
“I think we should take a trip,” he murmurs as he makes a trail of kisses down my face and to my neck.
“A trip? Where to?”
His hand starts at my knee, sliding up my thigh, dipping under my dress. “Anywhere. Just get away for a few days.”
“Could you really get away for a few days? The wedding is in less than twelve weeks.” Massimo abruptly picked a different date last week, saying he wanted to be married by September.
“I’m sure everyone can handle things while we’re gone.” He nuzzles my neck with his facial hair while his fingers play with the hem of my panty line. “I want a few days with you uninterrupted.”
“You could just cuff me to your bed and demand that I stay like that for days. I’m sure something you’ve done before,” I muse and berate myself inside when he pauses.
I hate the fact that the things we do together, and thetoyshe uses on me, he’s shared with other women. It’s bratty of me to hold his past against him in any way. I know it is. But I cannot seem to help myself. I wish I could eliminate every female he has ever been even remotely intimate with.
“I’ve never wanted a woman like I want you, Alessia.” He squeezes my ass cheek. “I nevernotwant you.” He kisses my collarbone.
“I’m going to go make some coffee. Do you want anything?” He lifts his head with a stare. I know he sees right through me. Whenever he says things like that, I flee. “I’ll be back.” I peck him on the lips and go to get up, but his grip around me tightens. “Mass—”
The door to his office opens aggressively without warning.Angelo. The distaste for me is immediate as he glowers at the two of us cozied up. Massimo isn’t ignorant of the tension as he rubs a soothing hand up and down my thigh.
“Something urgent?” No warm greeting between the two.
“I need to speak with you.”
