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I was madly in love with her.
I loved her with every fibre of my being.
I always had.
I had never loved anything in my life like I loved her.
And that was fucking scary.
When we finally reached the harbour, I threw the ropes out to the men on the dock and climbed up onto the wooden platform. Turning around, I leaned down to grab Elle’s hand to help her out, but she ignored me and stepped out herself. I groaned. Great. She was annoyed at me because I am a fucking idiot and can’t act like a normal person when I realise she is the love of my fucking life. Sounds about right.
“Barbieri!” A deep voice boomed out from behind me.
I spun around to see Anthony Galiz striding towards me in an expensive pin-striped suit with a skinny, six-foot supermodel hanging off his arm. There were at least six intimidating men surrounding him as if he was the fucking king of the world. Merda.
I turned to Elle and muttered, “I know you aren’t going to like this, but don’t say a word. I mean it.”
She narrowed her eyes at me and folded her arms across her chest, but seemed to listen as I turned my attention back to Anthony.
“Galiz,” I smiled, striding towards him with my hand outstretched in respect. He gripped it fiercely, shaking it as his grin widened. He looked me up and down in my shirtless state, wearing only a pair of swimming shorts and sliders.
“I see you have been out enjoying all that Greece has to offer,” he said in his American drawl as he released my hand.
“How can you not? Always best to mix a bit of work with pleasure. Clearly, you had the same idea,” I smirked, raising my eyebrows up at the girl next to him who was half his age and giving me ‘come fuck me’ eyes. He chuckled and nodded, his eyes casting over to Elle behind me. I tried to keep my face relaxed when his dark eyes roamed her body appreciatively and settled on her face.
“I did indeed. I brought one just for you as well, but I see you already have someone to keep you entertained,” he smiled, showing his gold-plated teeth. “Will you bring her or do you want one of mine?”
I opened my mouth to speak but Elle stepped forward, brushing her arm against mine. I clenched my jaw, knowing she would fucking cut my balls off if I said I would be with another girl tonight.
“This is Flora. My mistress for the trip,” I explained, introducing them in the only way he would understand and avoid suspicion. I felt Elle’s glare on the side of my face, but thankfully she kept her mouth shut.
“This is Veronica. Well, I look forward to seeing you both at dinner. Then we will discuss business after,” Galiz stated, before he turned away and started walking down the harbour.
“Mistress?” Elle hissed. I closed my eyes and inhaled a deep breath as I clenched my fists at my sides.
“He can’t know who you are or what we are, Elle. He has to believe you are just some random hook-up I have for the trip. Like Veronica is to him. It’s the only language he speaks. Of course, he was never meant to fucking know you were even here,” I snarled back as I passed our bags to Stefano and started to walk towards the cars waiting for us.
“Of course. You’d have rather gone without me, right? Now I know why,” she scoffed from behind me. My jaw ticked as I bit my tongue. There was no point in arguing with her out in public for the world to see. We climbed into the car in silence and travelled towards our new hotel we would be staying in for the night. I rubbed my jaw as the tension in my body increased to a painful ache. I didn’t want her anywhere near the likes of Galiz. He was the worst of the worst, especially when it came to women.
“Would you rather I didn’t come tonight? Is that why you are in this mood?” she roared as soon as we were alone in our suite.
“Of course I would rather you didn’t come, Elle. What kind of question is that?”
“Is this what it will be like? You going off to business meetings where you smoke cigars, drink whiskey and fuck supermodels while I sit at home waiting for you?” she shouted, storming up to me.
“I’m not going to fuck anyone, Elle. Cristo. You have been too fucking sheltered from the politics of the world we live! I don’t want you there because Galiz is a fucking asshole and I would rather you were nowhere near him. But now, you have to come. So, just for one night, I need you to do as I fucking say.”
She stormed off into the bathroom, slamming the door shut as I walked over to the mini-bar and poured myself a strong drink. I threw it back in one go, relishing in the burn at the back of my throat before I ran my hands down my face.
If we had any chance of making this work between us when we got back to Italy, we couldn’t be like this. We had to stop fighting whenever we hit a fucking bump in the road. Because Galiz was nothing in the grand scheme of things. When we got home, that would be the real fucking test. I marched through the suite to the bathroom and threw the door open. She was in the walk-in shower, her eyes burning with irritation at my intrusion. I stalked towards her, forcing her up against the stone wall as the shower poured over my back.
“Alessio, what are you doing?” she shouted.
I placed my hands either side of her head on the wall and held her gaze. “Elle, if this is going to work between us, we have to start trusting each other. We have to be on the same team. Because when we get back to Italy, shit is going to hit the fan and we need to be in this together not against each other. Do you understand?”
She stared into my eyes and I saw her anger evaporate. “I know. I’m sorry.”
I brushed my nose against hers, “I’m sorry too. Of course, I want you with me tonight. I want you with me always. But Galiz is not a man to mess with and I can’t afford to have any distractions in his company. So, I need you to be quiet and well-behaved during dinner so he doesn’t know you mean anything to me.”
