*LEVITATES FROM HER WRITING CAVE WITH A BIG BOWL OF FETTUCCINE ALFREDO FOR ALL HER READERS IN HER HANDS*
Hehe CIAO. If you speak another language, how do you say hi in it?!?!??!
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<3
REMINDER: this story is New Adult like Omertà and Borgata
I'd never seen a man so angry as Lucius when he found out one of his brothers had accidently fired the gun.
"Are you two out of your fucking minds?" Lucius voice thundered from inside his brother's bedroom. He'd shut the door, but apparently the brothers didn't have a lock on either of their bedrooms, so Carmine just kept the door open enough for me and her to see in like two teenage snoops. "We have a guest. You could have killed someone, or yourselves!"
"Mimmo, watch your language," Gabriella scolded him, before turning to her two other songs. "You two have shamed this family today. I expect so much more from both of you, and I dread how your father will respond to this." She looked up at the ceiling in despair. "And look what you have done to our new roof!"
"It's just a little hole, Mamma," Matteo said. "We don't have to tell Papà..."
"Little? A little hole can make big damage during a storm!" Gabriella pinched her thumb and her pointer finger together. "You wait until it snows tonight, and the snow melts and the rain goes drip-drip through that little hole. What if you get sick? I tell you what–– I didn't push you two bozos out for this stress!"
"You're lucky Papà is not home," Lucius snarled, his hands braced behind him on either side of a woodden dresser. "He would make you two get on the fucking roof right now and fix that damn hole yourselves."
"And he'd slap you two idiotas into tomorrow," Carmine added, making Lucius glare at her through the door and wave us off.
"It was an accident," said Meo. "I just took the gun out for a second to show Matteo and the safety was off..."
"Oh, I see now," Lucius said, feigning understanding. "No big deal. Then you won't mind this accident as I shoot your console to shit?" He stood and reached for his gun at the back of his pants, which I hadn't even known was there, and aimed it right at Matteo's PlayStation.
"NOOOO!" Matteo screamed, his hands on top of his head. "NOT THE PLAYSTATION!"
"Wait, wait!" Meo shouted, reaching toward the console. "Matteo was just showing off to some hot chick on Snap Chat and the safety was off!"
Lucius looked like he was about to explode on Matteo. "You fired a gun in our home to impress a girl?"
Gabriella placed a hand on Lucius' shoulder, implying he should calm down. "We'll let your father handle it when he gets home. Dinner will be ready shortly. I expect you all to be on your best behavior and make up for this disaster you have caused." She left the room, giving me an apologetic, embarrassed look, before heading down the grand staircase downstairs.
Matteo and Meo started to get up from the bed, when Lucius shoved them back down. He towered over them with a callous expression.
"Papà's not here," Lucius said, "which means I'm the man of the house. I am so disappointed in you both that I am sick to my stomach. We have rules, and you have broken my trust. God help you, if I ever see either of my little brothers holding a weapon like this again ever. Do you understand me?" Lucius lifted his left hand, the one with the ruby ring, and the threat was clear as day. "Questa è l'ultima volta che te lo dico." This is the last time I will tell you.
Matteo and Meo went stark pale. Matteo rose from the bed first, his head bowed in shame.
"I'm so sorry, Lucius," he said, and I could tell he was tearing up by the crack in his voice. "It won't ever happen again."
"Don't apologize to me," Lucius said. "Go apologize to my girlfriend, and then wash up for dinner."
"Scusami," the boys said to me. Both boys looked shameful and sad. I didn't know what to say, so I just nodded at them.
Lucius meandered out of the room and shut the door behind him. He ran an aggravated hand through his hair.
"I'm heading home. I'll tell your family I threw up or something."
Lucius just looked at me. "You're serious right now?"
"Of course, I'm serious. I'm going home."
He pulled me to the side of the hallway. "You're still fucking mad at me?"
"I'm not mad at you. I'm just letting you know I'm going home."
Lucius leaned his head against the wall in a way that drew attention to his throat and his Adam's Apple. "You misinterpreted what I said, but it makes sense because women literally don't care about logic."
I barked out a laugh. "You don't know a thing about women."
"Yeah, I don't know a thing about women," he said, smirking down at me like the Devil himself. "That's why I had to block three of them this morning because they wouldn't stop begging me to stuff them like a Thanksgiving turkey."
I felt a twist of something in my chest, but I buried it fast. "You are so disgusting it's insane," I hissed. "Speaking of insane, I can't wait to get out of this asylum––"
"Limoncello liquor?"
I froze. Carmine was standing behind us by the grand staircase with a bottle in her hand. I had no idea how much she'd heard, but Lucius didn't seem to care.
"No, thank you." I tried to walk around her.
She stepped in my path again. "What's the matter, Rina? Trouble in paradise?"
"She has a stomachache," Lucius answered from behind me, the warmth of his hand unwelcomed on my waist. I wanted to chop his whole arm off and feed it through a mini food processor.
A smirk lifted Carmine's mouth like she'd just received the hottest gossip news. "A stomachache? Don't tell me you got the slut knocked up, Lucius?"
My heart pounded in my vision. I was about to go off on her, but he beat me to it.
"Projecting is an ugly look on you, Carmine," Lucius snarled at his sister. "You know Korinna has more heart in her than you'll ever have."
Oh boy, did that wipe the smirk right off Carmine's face.
"Make yourself useful and go check on Matteo and Meo," Lucius added, and then he took my hand and ushered me forward. My stomach did that weird fluttering sensation. Oh, shit.
"You two are sketchy as hell," Carmine called out after us.
"You're welcome," Lucius muttered once we reached the grand staircase. He let go of my hand but steered me by the back to an area of the house I didn't know yet.
"I didn't need you to defend me," I said.
"She's not acting like that because of you." I could tell Lucius was getting aggravated again because of his family. He opened a door and I reluctantly followed him down carpeted stairs into his family's finished basement. "She's trying to rile me up. It's what Carmine does best."
"Why is she like that?"
"That's none of your business. I don't want you getting in any battles with her, alright?"
"Alright, fine."
Why the hell was I even following him? Or having this conversation?
"Where are you taking me, anyway?" I demanded. "To a deeper level of Hell?"
"I'm getting you another drink." He stopped on the stairs and turned over his shoulder. "Unless you don't want one––?"
I shoved at his shoulder. "Keep walking, stronzo."
Lucius led me downstairs and then to their finished basement and unlocked a walk-in liquor cabinet. Just like the rest of the house, the basement was spacious and spotless with light colored furniture. They had another room down here too, a massive cellar with liquor cabinets. It was stocked well.
"It's like a candy store for alcoholics down here," I commented, sliding out a bottle of wine to read the label.
Lucius smirked a little. "Are you trying to figure out if I have a problem?"
I pushed the wine bottle back into its place. "That would mean I'd care if you did."
He snickered. "Well, luckily I don't, or this basement would be like a candy store. Alcohol is the only way I get through the holidays."
"I can see why you need it," I muttered.
Lucius stopped at a certain row of wine bottles and hiked up the fabric of his slacks at his thighs before squatting down. I couldn't help but notice how the fabric of his pants stretched a little snug over his ass. Jesus. Someone didn't skip leg day...
"It's real plump," Lucius said.
My eyes snapped up from his ass. Lucius had one wine bottle tucked under his arm and was reaching for another. "What's real plump?" I asked.
"The turkey. I was telling you how we got a nice plump one this year." He looked over his shoulder at me like I was the weird one. Who the hell used plump in a sentence anymore?
"I should probably call my driver to pick me up." Pretty sure I'd only ever used the word 'compiling' in an essay, too.
Lucius he rose to his full height. "Don't bother, he's off for Thanksgiving."
I folded my arms. "So now you know the whole work schedule for my driver? Wow, you're so useful, Lucius."
Lucius turned toward me. "I was pissed off about my father. I don't you're useless, I just don't see the point of you being here if my father isn't. He's the one we really have to convince."
I turned my head away, the petty part of me wanting an apology. I could tell Lucius didn't divvy those out easily.
"I'll drive you home if you really want me to," Lucius said. "But I have to tell you, you'll be missing out on a lot of good food. And if you go home now, I guarantee you nobody's going to fish me out of the mashed potatoes at dinner."
It took me a moment to catch on. Then I remembered how I'd made that joke about him getting too drunk by dinner and drowning in the mashed potatoes.
Damn him, he made me laugh. "Who says I'd fish you out?"
Lucius took out two wine glasses out of a cabinet before popping the cork of one of the bottles. He started to pour two glasses. "I should have warned you about my family. We're a lot more fucked up than yours, but I thought they might save face today." He handed me my glass.
"You don't need to apologize for your family. The only person I've been tortured by today is you."
Lucius laughed in a mirthless way. "I can't believe my brother's fired a gun in the house. Matteo is always acting out and Meo just goes along with it."
"Why do you think they're acting out?"
"You got a few hours?" Lucius wiped his hand over his beard, overwhelmed. "I don't know, Korinna. We have family problems, just like everyone else. I don't feel guilty for screaming at them like that. I reacted exactly how I should have."
"I never said you didn't."
"You didn't have to." He leaned back against a liquor cabinet and pointed a finger at me with his wine glass in hand. "You have your future psychologist judgement face on."
A smile edged my mouth, and I took a few steps closer to him. "Well, you got scary in there." I held up my hand like he had to his brothers. "The whole ring thing might have been a little too much, don't you think?"
Lucius looked down at that ruby ring on his left hand.
"What are you going to do, Lucius?" I continued. "Beat them up the next time they do something bad? What's that going to do?"
"Well, that's how my father used to be with me and my older brother, and we turned out just fine."
I scoffed. "Lucius, you're hiding in a basement cellar with your fake girlfriend because you can't emotionally handle your family."
Lucius' gaze snapped to mine, and I regretted my words. "My father kept us in line to make us strong for the famiglia," he grated between tight teeth. "The only way my brothers will get their heads screwed on right is if someone reminds them life isn't a safe little videogame. If I must lead with a heavy hand to get that across to them, I will. I don't expect you to understand our ways."
He set his wine glass down and started toward me. "You've been pampered, spoiled, and completely shielded from any danger your whole life, even when the danger was right beside you all along. It's why you're so afraid of everything. Including me."
His words resonated with a part of me I didn't want him to know about. It made me feel like I needed to push back. "I'm not afraid of you, I'm distrustful of you."
"Better get over that," he said, not even bothering to hide that sly grin. "You and I will be spending loads of time together."
Only Lucius could manage to make a sentence sound like a threat and a delicious promise all packaged into one.
I smiled sweetly at him. "The only load you'll be giving me is a load of cash, dearest."
Lucius' lips flattened. "Not if you don't convince my father. And right now you're doing a pretty shitty job with my family, yeah?"
I'll shove that yeah so far up his butt...
"This whole arrangement stink like a heaping pile of shit from the beginning, stronzo. That's not on me. It was your brilliant last-minute planning."
Lucius's cocked his head a little at my answer. He said nothing as I slowly walked over to him, but his eyes were a little hungry as they swept over my figure.
"You can't even fix your own messy collar," I said, purring it out a little. "Here, let me."
When my fingers lifted and brushed the color of his black dress shirt, he stiffened a little. And that's when I realized just how much control I could have over him.
Lucius just stared down at me as I unnecessarily stretched my hands up his flat stomach to his chest like a cat, my thumbs brushing the small triangle of his tanned skin, until I finally reached his collar again. I felt like my hands had been blistered by him, the carved, sinewy muscle existing just a few layers beneath his clothes, but I hid my appreciation well. I made the tiniest adjustment to his collar and ran my fingers over the sides of warm, strong neck.
"If I were you," I said, "I'd spend less time worrying about how I act, and focus more on you and finding ways to mask your sloppy fuckboy ways. You really think I'm going to be the difficult part? Open your eyes, sweetheart. You're still the black sheep in your family. La Mano del Diavalo."
Lucius lost all emotion in his face at once.
I speared my wine glass between my fingers and started to strut away, when Lucius suddenly stepped on the back of my heel and tripped me. I would have faceplanted on the floor, had I not grabbed a pillar to catch me. My wineglass shattered on the ground in an explosion of glass and crimson wine.
"You dick!"
Lucius inclined his head toward the spilt wine, a muscle in his jaw twitching. "Clean it up."
I laughed. Hard. "When pigs fly."
Lucius tilted his head up and frowned. I followed his gaze, but there was nothing there but the cellar ceiling. He made an impressive whistling noise with his mouth that sounded a lot like something was falling from the sky and about to hit the ground.
And then I heard a click and dropped my eyes to his gun, which was now in his hand at his side. "Oink, oink," Lucius said.
"You have got to be joking."
He actually aimed the weapon at me.
Then he reached behind him and chucked me a roll of paper towels.
Seething, I slowly dropped to one knee, and then the other. I lowered onto all fours and started to clean up the mess on the floor. When I looked back at him, Lucius had clearly been staring at my ass. I climbed to my feet.
"I'm done, stronzo. You can stop pointing that gun at me."
"You're not in control right now, principessa." His deep voice dripped with mockery. "Come here."
I stood stubbornly in place, flaring at him for a long, furious moment. Deciding the best route here was to act nonchalant, I walked over to him, putting a little sway to my hips. His eyes lingered on my high-knee boots as I did so, and I hid my small satisfaction.
Until, of course, Lucius said one word. "Baciami," he commanded. Kiss me.
Damn him. He was turning this into a whole humiliating thing now. I wanted to call his stupid bluff. There was no way he'd shoot me in his own home. But it was just a kiss. He stood so close, and I suddenly I remembered he had a few tiny scars on his face, and how his nose was a little bit crooked from getting into too many fights, and that bruise on his eye. All the warning signs were right there in his face that he was so wrong for me––he couldn't be any more wrong, so it shouldn't have mattered if I kissed him.
So, I leaned forward on the toes of my boots and kissed the damn bastard. His lips hardly moved against mine, but still heat licked down my spine. His mouth was slightly parted like a dark invitation, and just before I pulled back, I could feel his tongue sneak out and lick my bottom lip. We paused with our mouths hovering in front of each other's like two magnets daring the other to cave in.
His hand lifted, gripping the back of my neck as he walked me back. My ass bumped into a counter behind me, nearly knocking down his wine glass. He speared the fingers of his left hand into hair and gave it a little bit of a tug, so that I looked him in his feral eyes. I felt like putty in his hand, fixated on his next move, anticipating he'd either kiss me again or eat me alive.
"Tell me you're wearing all of my gifts," Lucius said, his voice coming out a little bit rough. "Tell me that as much as you hate me, you still slid one of those thongs I bought you over your thighs this morning, and it's touching your p*ssy right now."
My words felt stuck in my throat.
Lucius turned his head away from me, taking in a slow breath through his nose. He'd gotten his answer.
"If you ever call me La Mano del Diavalo in my family's home again," he whispered, those sultry eyes connecting with mine one last time. "I'm dragging you somewhere private, and I'm fucking you so hard that you'll have bruises on your thighs afterward. Do you understand me?"
My breath felt heavy, the sharp sting of arousal between my legs like a drum to the beat of his madness. He'd managed to make me feel terrified and painfully turned on at the same time and it surfaced that dark feeling of curiosity that I kept trying to suppress.
Lucius pulled back from me just a little and tucked the gun into the back of his pants, which I'd shamefully forgotten he'd even had it in his hand. He grabbed the bottle of wine beside me and stared at my face, like he was waiting for a reaction out of me, but I wouldn't look at him.
"Someone got real quiet. Maybe you shouldn't dish out what you can't receive." He made a point to mess up the collar of his shirt that I'd fixed, a small grin curving his mouth, before he strode out of the cellar. "Turn the lights off on your way up, principessa."
<3
BARK BARK. Or should I say, OINK OINK? LMFAO.
THAT CHEMISTRY THOOOOO
Please make sure to leave lots of comments, vote, and share this story with your friends to support my writing career! Love you!
There will be more action in this story don't worry, I'm just trying to focus on the character dynamics in this draft right now!!! Hope you're enjoying so far!!!!!!!!!
SCREAM "ZADDI LA NOTTE" IF YOU WANT TO BE STORED AWAY LIKE ALL THAT WINE AS LONG AS LUCIUS GIVES YOU ATTENTION LMFAOOOO