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The silence that envelopes the room is total. Greco looks like he wants to murder me, but he doesn’t dare make a move. Sera lets out a little gasp that only I can hear.
The union guys look abashed. They back down instantly, not daring to say any more. Mere minutes later, we reach a tentative agreement. In the meantime, Sera has managed to regain her composure. Regaining control, she ends the meeting by telling the men that there will be a follow-up meeting scheduled between them and Carmine when he is back.
“Which I assume will be soon,” Greco bites out angrily.
“Of course,” Sera nods. “Our people will be in touch.” She rises from her chair. “Thank you for your time. And please. Stay, eat. The wait staff are here to serve you, on the house. Try the manicotti. It’s excellent.”
I follow Sera out through the front of the restaurant. I can’t help but notice the tight motion of her hips as she strides through the space. She says nothing as we push out the front door into the sunlight. My driver opens the back door for us, and I wait for Sera to slide in before I climb in myself. It’s not until we’re pulling out of the parking lot that, Sera rounds on me.
“What in the hell was that fiancée business about?” she hisses, fists clenched in fury, eyes flashing. “What the hell are youdoing, Antony?”
The fire in her eyes stirs something inside me. Her lips, parted and plump, are mesmerizing this close up. In a sudden flash, all I can think about is having them wrapped around my cock.
Not the time, D’Agostino. Not the damn time.
Adopting a reasonable tone, I push my unwelcome thoughts away and give her a disarming grin.
“Serafina. Everyone knows why your father held that dinner last night. It was to make him look stronger. To form an alliance to strengthen the Mucci family.” I gesture toward the back window at the restaurant receding into the distance. “It makes you appear stronger to them if they think you have the D’Agostino family backing.”
“By pretending I’m engaged to you?” she cries.
“It worked, didn’t it?”
“You have no idea whether it was necessary. The problem isn’t the strength of the Mucci family, Antony. My uncle was Luca Pagano’s underboss.”
“Yes.Was,” I emphasize. It’s true, her uncle Pauly Mucci was the Cleveland boss’s underboss, before his death. “But times change. Carmine Mucci enjoys a close personal relationship with Luca Pagano, and people know that. And yes, Carmine has strong relationships with the politicians, and the unions, and the cops. But Sera, that’s not enough to render him untouchable.Why else would your father be so intent on forming an alliance with another family, through your marriage?”
“But you had no right to do this!”
“You were losing control of the meeting, Sera. I saw an opportunity to help you.” I shrug. “So, I helped you.”
“Oh yeah? You expect me to believe you did this out of the goodness of your own heart?” she shoots back. “Being linked to the Mucci family name, our status helps you, too! You wouldn’t have even been at that dinner last night if you didn’t think so.”
I nod. “Acknowledged.”
It seems to startle her that I’ve agreed with her so readily. She blinks, then shakes her head in frustration.
“I don’t want to get married, Antony,” she says. “No offense. But the last thing I want is to be married off like some brood mare, to combine the damn Mucci and D’Agostino lines!”
I hold up my hands. “Look. I don’t want to get married any more than you do. But you needed me back there. I saw an opportunity and I took it. But listen, hear me out. This could work out for the both of us, okay? An engagement makes us both look stronger.” I give her my most engaging grin. “Consider it a mutually beneficial arrangement. We let everyone around us think we’re engaged, until the situation with your father is resolved.”
She looks at me dubiously. “But once people think we’re engaged, then we may as well be for real, Antony. You know how our world works.”
“Hey, nobody has to actually get married, okay?” I give her a couple of seconds to take in my words. “Look, right now, consider this a business partnership. You get some added weight behind you. I get my family off my back for a little while. You and I can work together until we figure out who wants Carmine dead. After we take care of the situation, we can make up a story about why we broke up. Tongues will wag, sure. The gossip mill isridiculous. But it’ll die down. Meantime, you might even manage to convince your father to let you step up more officially in the organization, once he sees you were successful at running it in his absence.”
That last bit is pretty damn doubtful, to be honest. But I know it’s what Sera wants to hear, and I’m not above finessing the truth a little to get her on board. And sure enough, it works like a charm. Her eyes turn hopeful. She turns to the window, gazing out at the traffic as we make our way back to the Mucci mansion.
“Maybe you’re right,” she eventually concedes.
“Of course I’m right,” I say cockily. “I got where I am today by being right. Trust. Sera, this is the right thing to do.”
We don’t say much more on the ride back to her place. Both of us are lost in our own thoughts by the time the car pulls up to her family’s mansion to drop her off. I watch her from the backseat as she mounts the steps, the perfect heart-shaped ass that I’m starting to know so well swaying temptingly under that tight little skirt. For a second, I imagine myself climbing out of the car after her, carrying her into the house, and leaning her over her father’s desk in his office. I’d slide my hand up that form-fitting skirt of hers, slipping my fingers between her legs to pull aside her panties and sink myself deep inside the heat of her waiting pussy.
Jesus Christ.My cock is already so hard it hurts. I stifle a groan.
Later that day, after my own work is done, I let my thoughts return to Serafina Mucci as I ride the elevator up to my downtown penthouse. It’s a funny thing how this has worked out. Within twenty-four hours, everyone in Cleveland will know Serafina Mucci is engaged to Antony D’Agostino. The news will stifle rumors that Carmine Mucci is dead. After all, who would announce an engagement at such a terrible time? And Sera and Iwill both be free of our families’ obsessions with marrying us off for a while. Win-win-win.
To be honest, there’s a small part of me that can’t help but think that if I have to get married, I could do a hell of a lot worse than Serafina. Sure, her family line and status make her a perfect choice. But I’m talking about Sera herself. She’s mouthy, and opinionated, and too headstrong for her own good. But at least she’s not boring. I can’t say that about any other of the women I’ve ever spent much time with. I’ve seen the arranged marriages of other men high up in the organization. Most of them dote on their children, but are either indifferent to or can’t stand their wives. And in many cases, the feeling is clearly mutual. The made men who actually love their women, I can count on one hand. Hell, Lefty Severino could do it, too, and he’s only got three fingers.
