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“That is crazy! You deserve to be happy, mamma! And so does Marco! There is clearly something between you both and he is a good man. Give it a chance.”
She smiled sadly and dropped her hand from my face, “He is a good man. Which is why he deserves more than me. I can never give him my heart. Not the way I should. One day, you may understand that, if you love one of them.”
“You mean if I fell in love with someone? People can fall in love more than once, mamma. It happens all the time. It is not a crime.”
“No, I mean when you love a mafia man. Your heart will never belong to another.”
I folded my arms across my chest as I began to get irritated with this conversation. “Well, it’s a good thing that I have no intention of ever ending up with one then, isn’t it?”
She smirked, a devilish glint in her eyes before she leaned down and kissed the top of my head the way she did when I was a child. “Buonanotte tesoro. Ti amo.”
She strutted out of my room and closed the door behind her. I leaned back against my headboard and gazed out the window at the stars that were starting to appear in the night sky. That conversation really got to me. Not only because I wished more than anything for my mamma to be happy again and give in to her feelings for Marco, but because of what she said about mafia men. Why were they a different breed of man? I mean, I knew they were. I had seen it with my own eyes. I had known men from university and the stark difference between the way they talk, behave and carry themselves was worlds apart from men in my family. From what I had seen, mafia men fell in love with intensity. Papi, Giovanni, Maximus… even my zio, Sal. But to see how much she truly believed that her heart would only belong to papi forever was just… heartbreaking. I get he was her one true love. Her soul mate or whatever people like to call it but surely, you can fall in love again when you are ready? Or at least open yourself up to the possibility?
I don’t know how long I stayed in my bed thinking things over and trying to come up with a plan to help mamma and Marco before Flora’s phone started ringing again. My heart flipped when I saw the name Panther on the screen.
“Hey,” I smiled. I still couldn’t believe that he actually wanted to speak again tonight after what happened earlier. It showed he was serious about wanting to know me and not just wanting to have sex. He just kept surprising me. “Fed and clean?”
“I guess,” he replied in a cheeky tone. “Though I think you prefer me hungry and dirty.”
“Is that so?” I smirked, enjoying how easily we slipped into flirtatious banter.
“Si, I think you like to pretend you are an innocent princess, but deep down we both know you are anything but. I was hard again in the shower just thinking about how fucking naughty you are.”
My body temperature rose again to scorching heights and my core clenched.
“This sounds like dangerous territory you are getting us into again, Panther.”
He chuckled, so husky and deep that the wetness between my legs grew and I bit into my lip.
“You are right. I promise to be on my best behaviour. Let’s talk.”
I snuggled down into the pillows and rolled on my side so I could gaze out of the window again, ignoring the actual disappointment that settled in my stomach. He would be turning me into an insatiable slut at this rate.
“What do you want to talk about?” I asked.
“What were you doing when I rang?”
“Thinking,” I replied honestly.
“Thinking about what? Me?”
I rolled my eyes but smiled anyway. “No. Actually, I was thinking about the complexity of… love.”
“Love?” He repeated, sounding a little taken aback. Oh my god, did he think I was about to tell him I was in love with him? I burst out laughing at the thought.
“I said I wasn’t thinking about you! I am not about to tell you ‘I love you’ or anything. Cristo!” I shouted and heard him chuckle a little into the phone. “I had just had a weird conversation with my mamma and she said some things about love that I didn’t agree with.”
“Like what?”
I sighed deeply. “Do you believe you can love more than one person in your lifetime? Like truly falling in love?”
He paused, considering my question. “Honestly, you are asking the wrong person. I know very little about love.”
I frowned at that comment. “So, you have never been in love?”
“No. Have you?”
“No. But I still think I know a bit about it. I mean I know it is a different kind of love, but I love my family to death. And I do want to fall in love one day. But I think you can definitely fall in love more than once.”
