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She said yes.I’m still on cloud nine as I watch her eat a bagel across the table from me.
“Can you stop! I’m starting to get a complex.”
“Stop what?” I smile.
“Staring at me like that.”
“Like what?”
“Like you’re trying to see into my soul.”
“I don’t need to see into your soul. I know your soul, Holly, because it’s the other half of mine.” She won’t admit it, but she loves it when I say my—what she calls—Hallmark lines.I’m just speaking what’s on my mind. Every single thing is the truth.
“So, what’s on the agenda today?” she asks.
I shrug. “Boring business shit you wouldn’t want to know.” Even if she did want to know, I can’t fucking tell her a thing. I won’t have her implicated in any less-than-legitimate business dealings. If I go down, I go down alone. She’ll have plausible deniability every time. I know the Feds are already waiting for me to fuck up. Word’s gotten out that Pops died, and I’ve taken over. Two out of the five families have new bosses this week—that’s a big fucking deal.
Everyone’s on edge: either waiting for a war, or seeing who’s going to crumble under the pressure. I know they’re all looking for me to fuck up. I’m young. The youngest Don in the history of the Valentino family.
I don’t care what I have to do, how many hours I have to work. I will prove that I deserve this position. That it’s not mine just because I was born into it. I fucking earned it with blood, sweat, and my fucking sanity.
“Mmm, well, I have some prep work to do for school next week. I’m so excited. I’ve never taught third-graders, but I’m looking forward to the change. I mean, how different can they be from the fifth-graders I’m used to teaching, right?”
“You know you don’t have to work. I’ll take care of you.” It doesn’t matter to me if she works or not. But the disgust on Holly’s face tells me itdefinitelymatters to her.
ChapterTwenty-Two
“Imay not be as financially secure as you are, T. But trust me, I’m fine. I do not now—nor will I ever—need you totake care of me,as you so eloquently offered,” I repeat the sentiment I told him when he paid my bill that first time. “If you’re looking for someone to be a stay-at-home wife and tend to your every desire, then look elsewhere. Because that’s not me. I love my job. I didn’t complete a master’s degree to waste it. So, you can take your suggestion and shove it where the sun doesn’t shine.” I smile, even though my blood is boiling at the thought of him just wanting to chain me down.
“Okay, dolcezza, relax. I was merely being informative. I know you don’t need me to take care of you. I’ve seen your trust fund, Holly. It’s just,typically, the women in our family don’t work. They raise children—that’s a full-time job in itself.”
“Oh, so now you want me to be your breeding cow?” I fold my arms over my chest. The smirk on Theo’s face is pissing me off nearly as much as his misguided expectations.
“Holly, you’re taking everything I’m saying the wrong way. If and when we have children, I would expect you to raise them yourself. I can hire nannies, but nothing beats being raised by loving parents. I assumed you would want to stay home with our kids.”
“Youassumed. When you assume, you make an ass out of U and Me,” I echo the words my mum used to tell us. “Stop looking at my chest and stop smirking like that.”
“Okay. But even I’m only capable of so much. When you cross your arms and push your tits out, it’s like a fucking offering I can’t turn down. I’m thinking about how I want to slide my cock between your tits and spill my cum all over them.”
Well, great, now I’m thinking about that too.“Damn it, T. Now you’ve gone and made my panties wet.” I laugh at the instant change in his demeanor.
“I can help you out with that. Scoot a little closer.” He pats the seat next to him.
“Not a chance in hell. There’s a lot I’d let you talk me into. But doing anything like what’s going through your mind, here, in this café—yeah, not happening. Besides, I have to get home and get started on work.”
“Come with me today. Bring your laptop. You can work from my office.”
“I doubt I’d get much done, and besides, I’d just be in your way.”
“Holly, you are never in my way. Come with me, please.”
“What will your staff think? Bring your girlfriend to work day isn’t a thing, T.”
“Fiancée. You’re not my girlfriend, Holly. You’re my fiancée, and the staff won’t say a damn thing about it. The best part about being the boss is: I make the fucking rules. Bring your fiancée to work day is nowa thing. Come on, we’ll walk back to your apartment and grab your belongings.”
Fiancée… When he says that word, my heart skips a beat all its own. Shit, I haven’t even called Reilly yet. Should I tell her about this… development? She’s going to try to talk sense into me. I know it. And this isn’t something I want to be talked out of doing. I want Theo. I want to be his. I want him to be mine. I don’t care what he does for his job, or his family. When he’s with me, he’s not T, the mafia boss. He’s just T, the doting boyfriend—now fiancée—who will do anything to make me happy.
I stand and let him guide me out of the café. I really need to learn how he always ends up getting his way. Here I was, refusing to go and work from his office with him, but now I’m walking back to my apartment to collect my laptop to do just that.
