AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Ladies,” I greeted as I pulled out my chair and Elle controlled her laughter to fade to small chuckles as she wiped her eyes. Her gaze dropped to my bandaged leg and her smile faded, a look of genuine guilt and concern replacing it. I smirked as I sat down.
“What happened to your leg?” Zia suddenly asked in alarm.
“Someone shot me,” I teased, picking up an apple and biting into it, flicking my eyes over to Elle who looked away quickly. An ashamed blush appeared on her cheeks as Zia looked between us both.
“You shot him?” Zia whispered, leaning forward on the table.
“It was an accident! Not that he didn’t deserve it,” she mumbled, picking at her pastries. Zia turned to give me a glare and I frowned. How was this my fault?
“How is it? Your leg?” Elle asked, turning to look at me properly for the first time. She was still wearing one of my shirts, though it seemed to be a different one from yesterday. After her little escapade out the bathroom window, I had organised for all the outfits to be put upstairs in her room this morning, so at least she wouldn’t have to keep walking around half-naked. Not that I minded. There was something about seeing her in my clothes that did strange things to me. But I didn’t want my men seeing it too.
“I’ll live. It’s not the first time I’ve been shot, Princess,” I smiled, before taking another bite from the apple. She looked away from me and focused on her food again. “What was so funny earlier?”
Elle’s eyes flickered up to Zia and they shared a secret look. “Nothing, darling,” Zia patted my hand. “Just how busy you might be today.”
I narrowed my eyes between the pair of them, now starting to doubt my initial happiness at their blossoming friendship. Elle pulled out some paper from the pocket on the front of the shirt she was wearing and slid it across the table to me with a mischievous grin.
“Your list,” she said sweetly.
I placed my hand over hers, our fingers brushing as I slid it out and her gaze darkened with a flash of desire. The corner of my lip curved up with cockiness. She may have shot me but that kiss was fucking worth it. I could see it in her eyes that I had stirred her desire for me. She was going to have a much harder time resisting me now that she had a taste. I licked my lips as my gaze dropped down to hers seductively, showing her exactly what was on my mind. She removed her hand quickly and cleared her throat.
With a smug smile, I opened the three or four pages of paper to find a very extensive and obscene list. I scanned the first few items with confusion.
The latest collection of every shoe and bag from Barbieri's biggest competitors (Size 5 - no leopard print anything!)
Spring and Summer 2020, every season of 2022 (not 2021-yuck) and, of course, the most recent collection of the luxury range Victoria Secret underwear
Silk jacquard hand-made bedding with 22-carat gold woven directly into Merino wool fabric. 1000-thread-count sheets made from Egyptian cotton with the initials EB on the right-hand corner.
Moulded Alessio-faced stress balls.
A life-sized Ryan Gosling pillow to keep me company at night.
An endless supply of bobby pins.
“Ryan Gosling? Really? And what the fuck are bobby pins? And why do you need an endless supply of them?” I asked, my eyes still scanning down the most ridiculous list I had ever seen in my life.
“Leave Ryan alone and only a woman knows the true frustration of bobby pins. They just disappear into thin air! It's madness.”
“True,” Zia nodded and I looked between them in confusion.
“Alessio-faced stress balls?” I raised my eyebrows at her, trying not to laugh.
“Well, I can't keep shooting you, so...”
I could feel her gaze on me, waiting for my reaction to the very specific and absurd number of items she suddenly so desperately needed, but I refused to give her the reaction she desired. She was trying to rattle me, but instead I folded it and placed it in my pocket.
“That wasn’t so hard, was it? I’ll get everything to you by tomorrow,” I responded.
Her mouth dropped open and I fought a chuckle. Suddenly, Fabi marched out onto the decking with a face that made my stomach drop. He was pissed and that meant I would be too. The fact he was here in my house this early, uninvited, meant something fucked up had happened.
He leaned down, his hand on my shoulder and whispered in Italian, “You’re not going to like this.”
I stood up, all the smiles and playfulness immediately replaced with my cold, stern glare as I excused myself from the table and followed him up to my office. As soon as the door was shut, he exhaled loudly and pointed at the phone.
“Dante’s on line three,” he groaned.
Fuck’s sake. I sat down at my desk, on high alert as I connected the call and put my deranged cousin on loudspeaker.
