Mafia Wife (Mafia Series Book #2)

Part 2

Happy Friday!

***

Holy fucking shit.

Gabriella slapped a hand on her face, the thump of the action inflicting her more pain than she already felt - if that was possible. The sound of her heart beating was headache-inducing. Was her head supposed to pound like this?

Heavy. Her body was so freaking heavy. She tried to flip to her side, hoping the new position might relieve some of the tension building in the back of her head. But she couldn't. A rock was on her, preventing her from moving.

She cracked her eyes open, the light assaulting the sensitive irises the instant she lifted her eyelids. Fucking hell. She kept fluttering her eyelids, trying to create a shield, and then she glanced down.

An arm.

There was an arm around her waist.

"Morning sunshine."

Son of a...

"Niccolo?"

He slid his arm off her, allowing her to flop to her side like a floppy fish - so much for being gracious. An hmpf was knocked out of her lungs, and she groaned. Though she could see Niccolo's bare chest and the sheet around his waist prevented her from seeing if he was wearing anything down there, she could tell she was dressed.

So how did she end up in the bed with him?

She remembered running back to the girls but everything after was quite hazy.

"Were you expecting someone else?" he asked, propping himself up on his elbow.

"I-I don't..."

"You were already in here passed out when I got here."

That explained it. She was used to sleeping in his bed. It made sense that while running on automatic, she came here to sleep.

"So, are we gonna talk about your little stunt last night?"

Right.

She left him hanging - quite literally.

"I don't know what you're talking about," she replied, sitting herself up properly in the bed. He had teased her before, he had his fun in the past. It was only fair that she was allowed to do the same.

"Is that how we're gonna play it?"

"Seems like it." Gabriella swung her legs over the edge of the bed, her bare feet touching the cold ground. Holy that felt good. Why did it feel like she was a million degrees? "This isn't just your game anymore?"

"My game?"

She nodded. "You decide everything. You leave when you want. You have me taken away. It's enough. You can't decide the rules anymore - not by yourself."

He did not say anything, but he removed himself from the bed and then walked around until he was standing in front of her. All she could see were his bare legs and black briefs. She did not lift her head to look at him.

"What does that mean, Gabriella?"

She offered him a shrug. "I thought about it. Sure, this helps me. Sure, I don't know the Mancini. This helps me. But, we both know you don't do anything out of the kindness of your heart." She stood up, her eyes gazing up from his chest to his face. "The way I see it, there's one of two things going on here. Either you're scared of them, meaning I could take my chances with them if I wanted to and you'd lose. Or you've got something to gain here, which again means this needs to be a partnership or you will lose."