The Under Boss's Ballerina [18+]

41

(No, thank you.)

"You don't like vanilla, do you?" She asks scrunching up her nose, playfully.

"I don't." I grimace.

She mirrors my expression putting the desert bowl on the table. "Chocolate?"

"Sí." I replied. "Chocolate."

"And what else?" She asks. "Mango? Strawberry-"

"Buttered peacan and German chocolate." I reply before her options put me in a coffin for good.

"Oh." Ariel smiles, maliciously yet playful. "So you like the rich ones?"

Slightly better in accordance to flavour. I wouldn't say rich.

I shake my head, running my palms up and down her hips.

Moments of silence follows as we both sit, surrounded by the quietness of the office room as I focus on the woman offering certain data that myself requires but can't seem to achieve.

"About Donnat-" Ariel mumbles with a sigh.

"Sí." I reply. "What about him?"

Ariel opens her mouth once closing it again only to sigh for the the nth time.

"Sweetheart." I hush her taking her hands in mine. "If it pains you, then you needn't utter the words, I can always find out what I am looking for, you needn't cause yourself suffering-"

"It's fine, Angel." She whispers. "It doesn't pain me. It barley has anything to do with me."

But this has everything to do with you my darling.

I nod, telling her to go on, if she desires.

Whatever she wants to say, I hope it doesn't make her feel pressured or anxious in some way. Anyway she might feel troubled is not worth the information I am looking for.

I am positive it is nothing Eli cannot find, if not but given more time.

"My mother, she liked everything posh and clean." She sighed, licking her bottom lip to wet the dry surface. "We had a gardener. He went by Mario Donnati. Alessio Donnati was his son. Two years older than I, we played often but he was sent away."

"Sent away?" I ask, not quite understanding what she means.

And what possibly be the connection of a gardener-

The gardener and his son?

The fact baffles me but I urge the woman to go in with her tale.

Not wanting to disturb her flow, I keep quiet.

"Mario Donnati was close to my father and having more money than he could spend, my father took Alessio's responsibility. To educate him, rather. Alessio was sent to a boarding school funded by my father. In America."

I frown.

"Marco died when I was thirteen. He never had a wife that we knew about." She adds. "Alessio was send to the school when he was thirteen and I have no idea after that-"

I offer her a nod, rubbing her back gently.

"Sweetheart." I smile. "That's more than I need. Say this Donnati person came to work for your father after his said education?" I ask.

"I wouldn't know." Ariel replies after moments of silence.

"I don't know anything about anybody anymore." She adds with a chuckle, biting the corner of her mouth.