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“I don’t need visuals to see the depth of things.”
I let my chuckle free and shrugged.
“It paints a clear picture.”
“The picture wascrystal,right from the beginning.”
“Are we still talking about my proposal?” I asked cheekily, my attitude shining through.
I struck a nerve. Annoyed, Lucca breathed deeply.
“What is it that you want, Katia?”
I wanted too much. But for now, I settled for a way to escape from the mental-fuck-train I was trapped in.
“It’s a business proposal.”
His brows pinched. “Go on.”
I finished drying my body and tossed the towel onto the chair to face him in nothing more than a thin bathing suit. Lucca’s lips twitched upward. He was onto me.
“Should we sit under the shade?” I asked the same moment a cloud rolled over the beaming sun.
Great.I tried to buy time to think about my first words, and it backfired.
“Here is fine.”
Fine!
“I…” My confidence faltered, and I held on to the curiosity his eyes portrayed to carry out my words. “I’m aware most high-profile wives in the Mafia stay home, but I studied too hard and made a successful career for myself to waste it. I poured everything I had in me to get where I left off, and Ineedit back.”
Lucca’s body turned rigid. He hadn’t expected my honesty.
“You want to work?” he asked in disbelief.
I nodded.
“Doingwhatexactly?”
“I’m an architect.”
Lucca’s lips twitched, impressed.
“Let me get this straight, you graduated, made a successful career,andworked in Italy with your family’s blessing.”
I chuckled. “I wouldn’t go as far as calling it a blessing.”
His head shook with skepticism. I understood how he felt. Women in our world married younger than my twenty-six years. Therefore, I had the time and guts to maneuver my way and win over my grandfather’s conservative and mafioso beliefs. It had been a fight, but I won. When my father found out, he was furious, but it was too late. I’d already started school, and my nonno didn’t allow him to pull me out.“A Vitelli never leaves anything unfinished, Mario,”my grandfather had said. Funny as his grandson did, and I’d seen her living and breathing strong to tell the lie.
Even to this day, Father has never acknowledged what I’ve done or accomplished. The only one who waited for me after I’d received my diploma was my grandfather, even if it was only to make sure I did as I’d promised.
“You didn’t know,” I murmured.
He didn’t answer, and I was unconvinced that someone like the control-driven man that he was didn’t have a detailed script of my life from my birth to the minute I stepped foot in Miami. I was conflicted and wary as it contradicted who Lucca was, leaving me with,why didn’t he?
“Your family never mentioned it. And no, I did not look into your past.”
“My father made sure no one said a word about it. Like it was a bad dirty secret for his daughter to be educated in a male prominent career,” I scoffed. “Wouldn’t want a made-man to feel intimidated by a woman whose job should be to warm the sheets and please her man. Not carry a briefcase,” I sassed.
