Casanova (Minnelli Family Series Book 1)

Slightly Unnerved

South of France
Minnelli Estate

Zippy hummed to herself as she stitched a dress when she heard a knock on her door. She stood up and opened it. A shirtless Amiri caught her attention immediately. How long have I had some dick? She thought to herself.

"Your stuff is in my bedroom." He speaks first. Zippy blinked confused for a moment and then her brain caught up.

"Alright, one moment." She closes the door, clearly unnerved. Get it together bitch, she thinks to herself.

Then she finds herself in the bedroom gathering her things while the gorgeous green eyed man was in the shower. Visions were fucking with her. The sweatpants he had on left little to her imagination. Not that she was complaining but still.

An hour later, Zippy was done fabric designing for the day and went outside to catch a breeze or two. Delving in her thoughts. She drew some designs in her pad. Her mind went to the man in the house again. She hadn't even noticed that she was drawing him from memory.

"That's a good drawing of me." Amiri slipped on the bench with her. Zipporah clasped the book to her chest quickly. "What?"

"Where did you come from?" she retorts breathlessly. Amiri points back to the house not too far away from them by the lake in back of the house. "Well, go back!"

"You're really embarrassed?" he started laughing. He hadn't had a genuine laugh in years. He liked it.

"I don't like this. This is not funny." Zippy tries to defend herself.

"I don't like that you took over my house without permission." He squints his eyes at her playfully. Zippy turns red almost immediately. "How did you get started in designing?" Amiri changes the subject.

"Since I was a little girl. I don't have a straight answer..." Zippy lets herself slip in the past. "Yes I do. I distinctly remember coming to Nana's house after church. I was playing with some neighborhood kids and one of the ruffles on my dress got ripped. And I was crying to my Nana about getting it fixed. And that day, in her kitchen, I learned how to sew. And then my mother taught me about colors and the seasons. I always thought fashion was my mom's passion. She's a doctor now though." She brings herself back to the present. The wealthy man found himself enraptured with the pint-sized beauty. Zippy turns red when she makes eye contact with him. "What about you?"

"Depends on what you wanna know." Amiri relaxes on the bench. Zippy is intrigued.

"What do you want me to know?" she throws him off his game. "In my twenty-five years, I've learned three things. People will show you what they want you to see and when they get comfortable enough, you'll see what they don't want you to see. And then you have to decide if you still wanna deal with it. So I ask again, what do you want me to know?"

Suddenly, Amiri's phone rang. "I have to take this call."

"Sure you do." Zippy smirks to herself and watch him disappear in the house. Back to her drawing of the enigmatic man.

"What's wrong wit you?" Antonio looked at his brother over in curiosity. Amiri was clearly out of it.

"What?" he blinks himself back to his twin.

"I said what's wrong with you? You don't look like yourself." Antonio watches him further. He raises an eyebrow.

"I'm fine bruh..." his voice sounds far away... "I mean I feel fine." He sighs.

Antonio is over it immediately. "Okay then, so what was I talking about just now?"

"Stocks? Profits. Shit I don't know."

"Wrong. I was talking about Missy's graduation ceremony." Antonio grabs Amiri's hand roughly. "Fuck is going on with you bruh?"

"My house sitter. I met her. And she fucked me up."

"How?"

"I remember asking about how she got into fashion. Zipporah or Zippy, she told me to call her Zippy." He stops and smiles for a moment. "She got all these different fabrics all over one of the rooms in the house. Anyway, I ask her how she got into fashion like that. She told me a cute lil story or whatever. Then she asks me about myself...I said depends on what she wanted to know."

"Cryptic." Antonio sips from his glass.

"I know...she said what do you want me to see. Then she says, people show you what they want you to see and basically over time they show you what they don't want you to see. And it's up to the other person to decide if they wanna deal with us. That fucked with me."

"So what do you want her to know?" Antonio asks the original question.

"I don't even know..." Amiri is unnerved...and he may like it. Antonio decides to keep his thoughts to himself, but his brother was changing the tide, whether he noticed it or not.

Over the course of a few weeks, Amiri was gone on his business trip. Zippy had made herself more and more comfortable in his home. Almost like she belonged there. But she didn't think of it that way.

"Slowly, gently..." she whispered to the cake as it came out of the oven. Zipporah was so engrossed in decorating the cake that she didn't see Amiri sitting at the island, staring intently at the woman. He couldn't wipe the smile off his face even if he wanted to.

"Why are you baking a cake?" he finally brought her attention to him. She drops a spoon on the floor.

"You could announce your presence. There's no crime in that." She fussed with a smile.

"Watching you is better." He flirts. Zippy rolls her eyes, picks up her phone to take a picture of the cake before slicing it for herself. "Hey I wanna piece." He whines like a child.

"Cut it yourself...you grown." She hands him the knife.

"I want you to cut it for me."

"I'm a house sitter, not a maid playa. Have you decided what I should know about you?" she switches up on him unexpectedly. Amiri's smile is wiped clean. "What?" she takes a bite, watching him with intensity. "You're wealthy, handsome, and used to getting your way. That's obvious. But what else is lurking under the surface?"

"Wow...you drive a hard bargain." He's unnerved again.

"You're making this harder than it is. Should I just google you? Surely you have a file on me too." she smirks. Amiri licks his lips almost seductively. Zippy isn't so bold now.

"I mean, you should. Minnelli. And I'd love to hear what you come up with." And with that he leaves with his piece of cake. Noted, Zippy nods.

The next morning, she notices that her cake had been cut...like a child had cut it. Zippy is confused because she'd watched Amiri cut his own slice. Shrugging her shoulders, she cuts herself another slice as she watches the sun come up.

Stranger things have happened.