CIAO!!
HAPPY THANKSGIVING TO THOSE WHO CELEBRATE!!! WHAT'S YOUR FAV FOOD TODAY?!?!?!!
YO I HAD SOME HOMEMADE TIRAMISU TODAY AND JFJIWOEIJFOIWEOFIOWE SO GOOD.
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The shame I felt for kissing Lucius again made me almost too sick to enjoy the most perfect Thanksgiving dinner I'd ever seen.
Turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, sweet potato casserole, mac and cheese, green beans, Brussel sprouts, corn, and fresh rolls and corn muffins with butter to spread over them in the shape of a cute little turkey. Homemade blueberry and cranberry sauce, which was my personal favorite. Gemma had brought the recipe into our household when she started working for my father four years ago, and now Papà asked for it every holiday.
Mia sat beside me at the end of the table and Papà sat on the oppsite end. Gemma was to Papà's left with Nonna on her other side, leaving Lucius and I with our own side to ourselves. I liked to think if I never looked in the Devil's direction, it was like he wasn't even there. But even when I wasn't looking at him, I could still smell his intoxicating cologne, feel the heat of his body just a mere foot or two away from me.
And whenever I thought about those things, my mind rewound how it all felt up close and personal, his pulse at his neck leaping beneath my lips, passion my body as we kissed. Lucius had always felt a little warmer to the touch. I imagined all the taut muscle beneath his clothes trapped in all that heat.
I couldn't believe I'd let that happen. How could I have let that happen? I had to remember Lucius' intentions were most likely crooked. I'd heard him talk to that person on the phone outside of the club, and I had to get to the bottom of what the hell this guy was trying to do to my family.
Nonna kept asking him questions about his family, about his hobbies. I tried to tune him out the best I could by focusing on my meal. Damn that stronzo. I hated how charismatic he was. How the way he told a story about himself and a childhood friend from Italy completely enraptured everyone at the table. He was a real natural at making people like him, and he was even better at making me forget what he really was. How those scabbed over knuckles and the black eye were just the tiniest hint at what he'd groomed himself to become.
"Korinna, can you please pass Lucius the wine?" Papà asked.
I looked up from the mashed potatoes I'd been pushing around, realizing everyone was looking at me. Which meant I must have been asked more than once and not heard themn
"Sorry, I was just thinking about something." Now I felt like a jerk for not participating in the table discussion. Sliding the bottle across the table, I made a point not to touch or move past the middle point of our table spots.
I could feel Lucius trying to make eye contact with me, but I couldn't do it. "Thanks," he muttered.
"Korinna, always pour for your husband," Nonna scolded.
Lucius' head turned toward Nonna at the 'husband' part. It was the first time she had said that in front of him. I noticed how his eyebrows caved in a little bit, and his arm, outstretched toward the wine glass on the table, stiffened. Well, well. Looked like Mr. Afraid of Commitment But Forcing a Woman to Marry Him was sensitive around the word husband.
"You're right, Nonna," I said, taking Lucius' glass and slowly pouring it for him. "Here you go, husband."
Lucius' stare leveled with mine for a moment, before dropping to the little smirk on my mouth.
Instead of gripping his glass from me, Lucius gripped his glass and turned toward my family. "If it's alright with you guys, I'd like to say a few important words. To Korinna..."
My expression fell as Lucius took my hand in his.
I give him a small shake of my head.
He nodded.
Another small shake of my head.
"Korinna, I know I haven't known you very long," Lucius began.
No, no, no, no, NONONONO!!!
"And I know this hasn't been an in ideal situation for you..." I could see behind the façade on his evil eyes that he was savoring every moment of this. "But over the past few weeks, I've really gotten to know you, and I think I might have been arranged with the most perfect woman."
Nonna gasped and reached for Gemma's arm. Gemma balled up her napkin in her hand, looking like she might burst into tears.
"You are a charming, intelligent, and so beautiful in that sweater," Lucius continued, and only Mia seemed to catch on to the subtly sarcastic sweater comment, as she covered her hands with her mouth to cover a laugh.
I imagined sucker punching Lucius in the eye that didn't already have a black eye. Just to even things out.
"Korinna, over these past few weeks, I've forgotten this was an arrangement. I'm really starting to feel like part of the family, and I'm so thankful for that." He gave the back of my hand a kiss. "Anyway, I just wanted to get that off my chest. What I'm thankful for. Since it's Thanksgiving."
I was just stunned.
"I'm thankful for butter," Mia said, cutting off the turkey butter head to spread on a fresh roll.
Gemma still had her hand to her chest, a single tear streaming down her cheek. She frowned, looking across the table at my father, who was polishing off a turkey leg.
"No ring?" Nonna asked loudly raising her hand. "What the heck, boy?"
"Mamma," Papà scolded.
"Don't you worry, Nonna," Lucius said with a wink. "I have it all planned."
"Italian men play too many games," Gemma sighed.
"He's silly, I like that. My husband was very silly." Nonna waggled her finger at Lucius as she stood to plate him more meat. "Here. More turkey, you growing boy..."
The rest of the dinner I ate in silence. Mia wanted to make Christmas decorations with Nonna and my father wanted to show Gemma an old TV episode he recorded on the TV. I went into the kitchen to make some coffee for everybody, mostly to get away from Lucius. But as soon as started working the espresso machine, I could feel him enter the kitchen behind me.
"Make me one?" Lucius asked, and I knew he was talking about the espresso. Without looking at him, I reached up to get an espresso cup out of the cabinet.
"You know, you can't just pretend it didn't happen."
"His finger trailing up my spine as he moved to lean his butt on the counter beside me and cross his arms. "Are you ignoring me now, principessa?"
"I'm setting boundaries."
His laugh was humorless. "Setting boundaries? You were just dry humping me in your bedroom."
I eyed the steak knives by the sink, before turning toward him and brushing past his tall frame to get to the fridge. "That was a mistake," I said softly.
When I went to move away from him, Lucius stepped into my path.
"Move it or lose it, stronzo."
But he didn't budge an inch. He licked his upper lip and ran a hand over his stubbled jaw as he gazed down at me. "I don't understand you. One moment, you want to have fun and mess around, and the next, you're back to ice principessa."
"Maybe you've forgotten your own discussion with me," I said in a hushed voice, daring to step up to him even though my heart was pounding out of my chest, "but this is a business exchange. You're using me to get what you want, and I'm playing along because I don't have any other choice. That's it."
"Don't act like this is just me," Lucius said, not even bothering to whisper. "I could have fucked you right there on your desk if I wanted to."
"Keep your voice down, you animal. My Nonna is here."
"I don't give a fuck."
"You don't have to tell me that. I know past this whole façade of yours that you have no respect. I know you set up that whole 'put makeup on me' shit just to mess with me."
"You're a little paranoid then, bella."
"Oh, Korinna, help me put makeup on this." I mocked his Italian accent and his mannerisms. "I know what setting spray is but I'm incapable of doing this myself, I'm Lucius. Oops, I guess my fingers have a mind of their own."
"Why are you licking your lip like that?" Lucius demanded.
"Because you do that," I hissed. "You lick your lips like all the time, and it's so fucking annoying. Are your lips dry? Are you trying to look sexy? I should have just slathered chapstick on your crusty lips instead of coverup on your damn eye!"
Lucius just shook his head at me as I ranted at him about his non-existent lip licking problem. "The only crusty lips in this room are the ones between your legs."
I gasped, and I could feel my face getting red with rage. "I could kill you."
"Could you?" Lucius slid his hand down the counter as he leaned into me, his dark hair falling over his one hazel eye, the one with the shiner. My breath caught as his mouth hovered in front of mine, the tip of his tongue almost brushing my bottom lip, just before he pulled back with a vicious grin. "Mm. Yeah, definitely not..."
I shoved him back by the chest. "Go back to hell, stronzo."
"My hell looks a lot like you."
"Hey guys," Gemma's tired voice entered the kitchen, making me spin away from Lucius and almost knock cookies off the counter.
"Hey," Lucius said to Gemma from over my shoulder. I wanted to snap the towel draping over the oven handle into his face to get him away from me.
"What's up?" I asked, hoping she hadn't overhead any of our conversation.
Gemma stifled a yawn. "I can tell your father wanted another helping of cake."
I could feel Lucius' fingers playing with the hem of my sweater. I tried to swat him away from behind me, when he imprisoned my hands to the edge of the counter and pinned me to it with his hips. Raging, I silently tried to jerk my arm free to elbow him in the gut, but his hands gripped mine harder on the counter. My mouth fell open as Lucius sucked on the sensitive part of my neck beneath my ear, and suddenly I lost a lot of the fight in me.
"So, Lucius, is your family having turkey tomorrow?" Gemma asked.
Lucius removed his mouth from my neck, and it was like a spell was broken. When I tried to stomp on his foot, he simply sidestepped it. I writhed against him, the movement grinding my ass against him, and a scorching warmth spread through me at the hardness of his arousal.
"Yes," Lucius answered Gemma, not even slightly out of breath. I couldn't even remember what she'd asked him. "Something like that. Just like that, actually."
I looked down at his fingers as he intertwined them with mine on the counter. This was wrong. This was so wrong.
Gemma wiped some icing off her finger with a napkin, turning toward us. Lucius had already released me and straightened like nothing had happened, whereas I felt like I might pass out. Gemma was too tired to notice and walked over to the counter between us and placed some cookies on my father's place plate.
"Korinna, can you make your father an espresso?"
"He can have mine, I didn't drink from it," Lucius said, passing her his cup. "I have to help Mamma cook early tomorrow morning."
"You're going already?" Nonna asked, just so happening to walk into the kitchen. She had glitter on her apron from crafts with Mia and pulled Lucius in for a hug he didn't expect. "You come visit before I leave after New Years?"
"Of course, Nonna," Lucius said, and I hated that he was calling her that. "Korinna can hardly go one day without me."
I headed into the foyer while everyone else said goodbye to Lucius, just waiting to grill him once I walked him to his car. Nonna gave him dessert to take home and Mia made him a little Christmas ornament with a bird on it. Seemed like everyone including myself kept forgetting the fact that this man was a skull crushing monster in disguise.
Lucius walked outside with me to head to his car, and I felt like steam was coming off my skin.
"You pull a stunt like what you did in the kitchen again," I told him, "and you're losing a family jewel. And not the one on your finger."
Lucius unexpectedly tossed me his key fob, which I clumsily caught in the dark with the little light lamps shining from the pathway.
"I brought you something," he said. "It's in the trunk in the white shopping bag."
I looked down at the key fob in annoyance and pressed the trunk button twice. What would it have taken for him to click that button himself?
Peering into Lucius' trunk, I saw a large shopping bag from Dior.
"I meant to give it to you last weekend," Lucius said, putting his Tupperware into his passenger seat, before heading over the back of his car.
I parted tissue paper, in the bag, revealing a stunning dress from Dior and a jacket to go over it. There was a bralette in cream and a two-piece set of silky red lingerie. But all I could focus on was the red lingerie and how it matched the color of the underwear Lucius ripped from me at the club. When I'd overheard him on that phone call...
"Thanks," I said through grated teeth, not even bothering to hide my distaste him buying me lingerie. "But I can't accept this. Any of it."
Lucius crossed his arms over his chest as he leaned a hip on the back of his car beside me. "Why's that, princepessa?"
"Because it's all too expensive for one. Not to mention, the lingerie part of the gift is smug, controlling, and presumptuous."
"Being controlled is not necessarily a bad thing." The way his voice had dropped to a lower husk made my brain falter a little bit. "You might like to be controlled by me, Korinna."
I held the bags out for him to take, ignoring his clear sexual intention. "I'm not your doll, and I won't dress up for you."
Lucius reluctantly took the bags from me. "Who said I wanted you to wear it for me?" he questioned. "Wear it for you to feel confident. Or you can wear it for little Nicholas." The right corner of his mouth quirked up. "If he hasn't already been overwhelmed with all the other lingerie you got for him the other day..."
I recognized his baiting and ignored answering it. "My confidence is fine, thank you. And what I do with my body is none of your damn business."
He laughed. "You know, most women would just be thankful I got them gifts. You turn it into a big empowerment moment. It's not that deep."
The audacity of him. "Then you can find one of those women and invite them to your Thanksgiving as your fake fiancé, stronzo."
I turned to head back inside, when he caught my hand and spun me back around.
"Do we have a problem?" Lucius asked, all amusement vanishing from his face. "Because if we do, this needs to be sorted out before you come to my family's home tomorrow."
Did we have a problem? Of course, we had a problem! He kept screwing with my head and trying to get in my pants!
"I'm picking you up around eleven tomorrow morning," Lucius continued as I seethed together all of my thoughts. "I expect you to behave in front of my family. Do we need to go over what that means?"
"Don't talk down to me, Lucius. This arrangement is easy."
"I need you to dress the part of my future fiancé tomorrow. If you show up in something like the garbage bag sweater you wore today, you'll embarrass me."
I had to laugh at how blunt he was being. "Wouldn't want that now would we?"
Lucius stepped into me, and I stumbled back a little bit into his car. "Korinna, I sure hope you won't have an attitude like this front my father..." He didn't even finish the threat. He just lifted his left hand, his deadly, devilish hand with the red ruby ring, and brushed his knuckles over the curve of my cheek.
I flinched from him. "Don't touch me."
"You didn't seem to have a problem when it was Marcos Cafaro touching you."
His words stole my breath in the cruelest way possible. I'd almost forgotten about Lucius hanging that over my head. "You have no idea what happened with Marcos," I whispered.
"I know enough. Your father, on the other hand, he knows nothing."
Suddenly I couldn't breathe again, like my whole world could collapse under Lucius' command.
"How do you know about Marcos?" I asked at last, my voice empty of any emotion.
"I don't think the question is how I know, Korinna. It's why I know."
Of course, I knew why Lucius had this information. If that ever get out, that I'd slept with Marcos Cafaro, the son of my father's enemy, I could pretty much kiss my dreams of becoming a psychologist goodbye. My father would be livid.
The threat of Lucius' words made my pulse spiral out of control, and I gazed up at him with a newfound hatred.
Lucius slid his hands into his pocket, his expression cold and his eyes a little scary. "Your dirty little secret will of course stay between you and me," Lucius' drawled out, slipping into Italian as he started toward his driver side door. "Unless, of course, you give me reason to share."
Lucius got into his car with a deep, almost menacing laugh that made my ears tingle. I watched him speed down my driveway, a loathing so powerful building inside of me that it seeped into my bones.
I realized in horror how distorted my view of Lucius had become. His seductive and friendly façade had slipped away again, but this time it had been right in front of my eyes. He didn't give a damn about anyone else. All he cared about was himself and his own objectives. He'd ruin my life without a second thought.
Lucius La Notte really was the devil.
***
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I'm SO excited about this book because it's gonna be a SPICY A MEATBALLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL. Can't wait to go back and gather all those responses of what you guys want to see from an an enemies to lovers book and piece together some awesome chapters. ;)
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