“Your father is ambitious.”
“Yeah.”
“Can I take you to lunch, then?”
“I would love to, but I have so much stuff to do here.”
He didn’t show his disappointment. “Then I’ll see you when you get home.”
“Sorry. It’s just a crazy first week. It’ll go back to normal soon.”
“It’s fine,” he said. “Tell your father you aren’t working weekends anymore.”
“I—I can’t do that?—”
“Yes, you can. Don’t forget your worth, baby.” He hung up.
After I finished up at the production site, I returned to the house. My father pulled up in the car with his men, like they’d just finished their rounds of collecting payments from the people who had slipped through the cracks.
I noticed Leo wasn’t with him.
Andre walked up to me with a big briefcase. “Here’s the cash.”
“Uh, thanks.” I took it from him and immediately felt the weight. I would deposit this into one of the safes on-site, where it could be washed into the wine business at a later time.
My dad took the heavy briefcase from me without saying a word, and the two of us walked upstairs to the second floor. We had safes hidden all around the villa, so if anyone came to rob us, they would only be able to find so many.
He carried it to my desk and entered the code to open the case and reveal the cash. Then he shifted one of the dressers to the side to expose the hidden safe in the floor. He turned the dial to unlock the door before he opened it. “There you go.”
“Thanks, Dad.”
He started to head out.
“Dad?”
He turned back to look at me.
“I’m not working weekends anymore.” I didn’t ask because it wasn’t up for debate. I had a family now, a man waiting for me at home who wanted to be with me. Leaving the house at seven in the morning and coming home at six every night wasn’t the kindof life I wanted to have with him. So I wanted weekends off—and maybe even a half day on Friday.
My father held my stare for a moment before he gave a nod. “Alright.” Then he walked out.
When I came home, I could smell a home-cooked meal in the kitchen. The mansion wasn’t as homey as his Palermo house or my villa at the winery, but it was starting to grow on me. I definitely liked how secure it was. Anyone could walk up to my house at the winery, but Wolfe’s home was inaccessible to the public. The stone wall was five feet thick and twelve feet high, and the front gate was made out of iron. With mature landscaping around the grounds, it felt like a whole world of its own.
“I’m home,” I called out, unsure if he was within earshot or on one of the higher floors.
“In the kitchen, baby.”
I set my things by the door and slipped off my shoes before I headed into the kitchen. Instead of seeing the food being kept warm, Wolfe was actively cooking…in just his sweatpants. He was bare-chested and barefoot, like he was warm from standing over the hot stove. He quickly flipped the chicken in the pan before he set the spatula aside and turned to me.
“You made dinner?” I asked with a smile.
“I’m a man of many talents.” He walked over to me and bent his neck to kiss me, hooking his arm around the small of my back. His big hand moved to my ass in my jeans and squeezed it.
I loved it when he grabbed my ass. No man had ever done it like he did, with a raw possessiveness.
He turned back to the stove. “Set the table. I’m almost done.”
I grabbed the plates and utensils and a bottle of wine for us to share. I set the table with everything and then watched him dish up the meal over white rice and sauteed vegetables. The plate was steaming hot when he served it.
