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That night, Lucius got up and left to head to his guest room. It didn't bother me, I had to get up early to review my notes one last time and he would have taken up my whole bed with his big burly man body.
The night came back in full the next morning and regret creeped in at the image of me letting Lucius practically spreading me out and devouring my soul. I finished packing my suitcase and reviewed my notes. I'd have to take my online psych exam in the car ride over, which I wasn't happy about, but since the devil that was dragging me to the lake house was just one room over to mine, I couldn't exactly avoid the situation.
I dressed in my favorite white cashmere turtleneck with a scarf and high waisted pants with high-knee boots. I opted for a light makeup of mascara, lip-gloss, blush and some highlight and pinned back my curls so they were halfway away from my face. When I went downstairs, Lucius was already at the kitchen table.
Lucius looked up from the steaming coffee in his hands and seemed to pause when he saw me. I waited for his reaction that my outfit was good as his hazel eyes lingered on my boots, but all he did was dunk one of Nonna's cookies into his coffee and turn the page of the newspaper in his hand. Someone wasn't a morning person.
The drive to the La Notte's lake house was long, nerve wracking, and blissfully quiet. Lucius had driven an SUV instead of his normal sports car, so I took my online test in the backseat to avoid any unnecessary distractions. The test took me almost the full hour to complete, and I nearly had motion sickness in the car by the end of it.
I submitted the test, pissed at myself. What had started off as an easy semester had quickly become a struggle to get a B. I'd studied so hard for this exam, and I didn't feel confident about getting an A at all. Maybe a B at the most. The thought of getting anything lower made my stomach churn.
"Tougher than you thought it'd be?" he asked.
I met Lucius' eyes in the rear-view mirror and it all vented out.
"That was such bullshit," I said.
Lucius chuckled. "What happened, bambina?"
"What happened is this professor sucks. He was good at the beginning of the semester, but now it's like he's purposely trying to trick us, so we don't get perfect scores. It was all these random obscure questions. I hate getting anything lower than an A and this one feels like it's going to be a tanker." I hadn't meant to dump all of that on him like he was one of my friends, but here we were.
"When do you get the grade?"
I shrugged, crossing my arms over my chest. "He said we might get them back by tonight, but it's Friday, so I'll have to sweat this out until Monday." I shook my head in disappointment, feeling like I might actually cry. What the hell was wrong with my emotions lately? It was like everything made me cry.
Lucius wrung his hand out on the steering wheel, the material creaking beneath his powerful hands . "I'm sure it won't be difficult for me to find his address and social security number."
It took me a second to get it. The urge to cry transferred instantly into a burst of sudden laughter. I covered my mouth with my hand and smothered it just in case he was serious.
Lucius patted the passenger seat. "Come up here. You're making me feel like an Uber Driver."
We were stopped at a red light. Sighing dramatically, I put my laptop into its protection sleeve and stood up in a crouch in the car. I grabbed the side of his driver seat and the passenger seat and maneuvered in-between the seats, but it was more difficult in heels than I thought it would be and I managed to get my heel stuck in the left crevice of the passenger seat. Lucius quickly wrapped his fingers around my ankle and pushed my right heel out from between the seat and held me up by my arm before I plopped down into the seat. I tried not to notice how my arm felt hotter where he'd touched me underneath my cashmere sweater, or how being closer to him caused an unfortunate reaction of little butterflies in my belly.
Glancing over at him was like a godforsaken trap. I'd tried to ignore how good Lucius looked this morning and now I was up close and personal and failing miserably. Lucius was dressed casually for once in a dark grey sweater that had a hint of green somehow, jeans, and a black leather jacket that he'd folded on top of my winter coat in the back. No way was his jacket was warm enough to be using at a lake house around winter, but the man's skin temperature ran as hot as hell, so I imagined he'd be sweating in anything less. His thick dark brown hair was styled in a way that feathered all the layers of his hair, and I could tell there wasn't as much product in it as usual which meant it would be soft. And he smelled so good. Like fresh laundry and that unnamed cologne he tended to wear. The one I could still smell lingering on his skin as he loomed over me last night in that black ribbed tank top.
Lucius glanced to his right before he made a turn and caught me staring. A smirk lifted his mouth, and I couldn't look away. "Cosa stai gaurdando, bella ragazza?" What are you looking at, pretty girl?
I felt a small wave of butterflies and looked down at my lap. I thought about telling him how I thought he looked handsome today, but the idea of complimenting him seemed different than when he did it. Lucius was a natural flirt and I had no doubt he complimented every person he met.
The screen on his dashboard lit up with the sound of an incoming phone call through his car speakers. The screen flashed with caller ID, but Lucius connected the call before I could read the caller ID. He pressed something at his left ear and took the call took to an earbud I didn't notice he was wearing.
"Pronto," he answered, his voice deepening a little. I couldn't hear who was speaking on the other end, but I could tell Lucius had tensed in the shoulders. "Mmhm. No,
"Who was that?"
"An employee," he replied.
I opened my mouth to press further, but he cut in.
"We're meeting my family for brunch at the house, and then later on you and I are going to drive to the venue nearby for dinner. My family will also be there and some of my father's personnel."
I didn't say anything right away, as I'd noticed how quickly he'd tried to change the subject away from that call. "I won't have to meet any of them, right? His...personnel."
"The plan is to propose at the venue," Lucius said, like he was on his own train of thought. "I'm thinking later in the night I'll make a toast."
"And you're sure you want to do this in front of your dad's associates? Not in a, I don't know, more private setting?"
Lucius rung his hand on the wheel, again. "I know what I'm doing, Korinna. Don't start."
Hmph. Someone was on edge after that call. "Alright, fine. So you have a speech prepared?"
I noticed how he'd shifted in his seat a little. "A speech?"
I slowly turned my head toward him and gave him a long look. "You're kidding, right? You're proposing to me in front of a bunch of people, and you have nothing prepared to say?"
He scratched at the dark facial hair along his jaw. "Won't it sound more genuine off the cuff?"
I shook my head in disbelief out the window, concerned about the direction in which this was all heading. "You're saying that phrase way too much."
"Don't worry about me," Lucius said, his tone edged with annoyance. "You worry about you and how you're going to react. You're the woman everyone will look at. They'll expect tears of joy when I get down on one knee."
"Wait a minute, I'm supposed to cry now?"
"Of course, you're supposed to cry."
Suddenly I felt a ball of pressure in my chest. "But we're arranged to be married. Won't this not be as...I don't know. Not shocked?"
"You have to cry, Korinna," Lucius said, and I couldn't believe he was even explaining this to me. It was like the tables at momentarily turned. "Marriage is supposed to be the happiest moments a woman's life."
"Yeah, because everything about this is happy-dappy," I muttered. I was about to open my mouth to sassily ask why he couldn't take one for the team and cry, but then I remembered how his father viewed emotion from him.
Now it was his turn to shoot me a long, severe look. "You've got a hundred-thousand reasons to pull your weight tonight, Korinna. Don't disappoint me."
Oh, my God, he did not just say that.
"You start ugly crying, and we'll win the whole room. Got any dead family animals you can think about?" He pinched his bottom lip with his thumb and forefinger. "Or maybe you can just think about that incoming psych grade..."
I couldn't take it anymore and turned completely toward him in my seat, thwacking his arm. "You. Arrogant, Bastard!"
"You call that a punch? Gesù Cristo." He swatted me away with a small grin, but when I didn't move, he landed a loud smack to my thigh that made me yelp. "Get your ass back in your seat, mio tesoro. You're going to go through the windshield if I crash."
My face was aflame as I plopped down, crossing my arms tight over my chest.
"I want to throw you into a pit of poisonous snakes to be bitten nine-hundred times on your dick," I muttered to the window, "but you'd survive and make a miraculous recovery like nothing even happened."
Lucius snickered under his breath, spinning the wheel with one hand as he made another turn. "So, you want me to suffer, but you need my fat cock alive and well by the end of it."
This was going to be a long car ride.
+ + +
Lucius' spirited mood seemed to deflate as we pulled into the driveway of another modernized La Notte home. I was surprised to find this house had a comfier vibe than his family's minimalistic glass castle. The amount of work their cleaner's had to do to get those massive windows sparkling was outrageously laborious to think about. But the La Notte lake house was different, it was pretty much what I expected in grand size, but with a cabin style two floor setup with a gorgeous wrap around porch. Giant pine trees weighed down with snow surrounded the home. The décor inside didn't disappoint and reminded me of something right out of a Christmas movie, and they even had a fake tree and lights up.
I decided this weekend wouldn't be all that bad staying here.
"It's quiet." Lucius said, sliding his bag off his shoulder. "They must be in the other living room."
I noticed him slip off his dress shoes, so I took mine off too. Lucius reached to put my shoes next to his and I bonked into his head. "Merda," Lucius whispered, rubbing at his forehead. "Was that your head or a wrecking ball?"
"At least I don't have clown shoes for feet," I muttered back, as Lucius stood behind me to help me shrug out of my coat.
"You just want me to suck your toes, freak," he said huskily into my ear, and I was too flustered to respond.
"Don't you look comfy, fratello," announced a cheerful voice. Carmine stood on a glass staircase, looking like she'd stepped out a winterwear at the lake house catalogue with an all-white pants, sweater, and white fur lined vest. She was even wearing snow boots with heels. Not sure what the point of those were, but she pulled it off with her slim, model frame.
Lucius didn't even look unphased by her jab as he returned from the coat closet. "I have to let you shine as always, sorella." He seemed restless, his fist tightening and opening a few times as he leaned from one foot to the other. "Where's the rest of the family?"
"You were late. They went to brunch without you." I noticed she hadn't even looked in my direction yet, let alone acknowledged my existence. Rude.
Lucius slid up the sleeve of his jacket to check his watch. "We're only fifteen minutes late."
Carmine shrugged a dainty shoulder. "I tried to get Dad to come around, but you know how is with punctuality. Caused a fight with Mom and everything." She waved a polished hand in the air like it was old news. "The whole thing gave me an awful headache, so I'm lying-in bed resting while they're out." The way she raised her wine glass with a smile implied said headache had been a blatant lie.
Lucius did not seem pleased by this at all. "You let the twins to go out to brunch with them while they were fighting?"
"The boys could have found a way to get out of it. Survival of the fittest, am I right?"
Geez. They were teenagers and I couldn't tell if she was kidding or not.
"You should have gone with them, Carmine," Lucius growled.
"Don't be mad at me. I'm not the one who put a timer on you getting here when he knew your little lover girl hoe was tagging along."
Waiting for Lucius to defend me had been a lost cause. He just shrugged of his jacket to hang up. What the fuck?
I stepped forward. "I'm not his lover girl hoe. I'm his girlfriend, bitch."
Admittedly, the last word slipped out before I could stop it, but she deserved it.
"Whatever, puttana." Carmine was already heading back up the stairs with her wine glass. "Better start scripting what you'll say to Dad, you two are off to a rough start so far." Over her shoulder, she added, "Oh, and we need more wood for the fireplace, so maybe get on that, Lucy."
I'd never felt so much rage toward someone in such a short amount of time. I hated how she looked down at me and I hated her snobby tone.
"Korinna, come," Lucius said, his back to me as he started down a hallway.
Crossing my arms over my chest, I reluctantly followed Lucius. What was I a freaking dog? I pinned my lips together, now wanting to cause an argument where it didn't need to be.
The moment I closed the bedroom door behind me, Lucius threw our bags like they were feathers across the room, the loud thumps startling me.
"Eravamo in ritardo di quindici minuti!" We were fifteen minutes late! "The rest of this evening needs to go perfectly. I can't progress things with us if things are tense in my family."
It sounds like things are always tense in your family. The insensitive words almost slipped out before I could stop them.
Lucius was back and forth now. "What did I tell you about my sister?" he demanded. "You're not supposed to instigate her like that. Are you out of your mind, or just trying to sabotage this?"
"The person trying to sabotage this is you by letting your sister talk to your girlfriend like that," I hissed back.
But my words fell on deaf ears. Lucius seemed to already tap out of the conversation and had taken out a pair of dark brown Timberlands from his bag.
"You're afraid to stand up to her," I said. "She called me a whore and you didn't even flinch."
"She's not attacking you, she's attacking me," Lucius explained.
Was I in bizzarro land off the sudden? "What the hell does that even mean?"
"If you fight fire with fire with Carmine the blaze only gets larger."
Well, she can bring it on, because that's how I can operate as well.
"You don't understand my sister," Lucius continued, his voice annoyingly calm as he laced up his boots. "I would have only made things worse if I defended you."
He stood up and brushed past me.
"Where are you going?"
"Backyard to chop wood."
He was already out the door before I could say anything else or demand we finish this conversation. What the hell? I'd never seen him shut down like that and just...flee. And I was still pissed at him for not defending me. By letting her talk to me like that, he' showed his sister that I wasn't of value to him. Didn't he see that?
What was I supposed to do now, just sit in here until his parents came home? No way in hell was I going back out there with Carmine on the hunt. I didn't have it in me right now to control my reaction if she attacked me like that again.
I sat down on the bed and took out my phone, scrolling through social media. The stubborn part of me wanted to stay in that room and let him stew in his own brooding soup, but the curious part of me wanted to know what the hell was going his brain. His father sounded like a real hardass and their dynamic seemed unbelievably estranged.
When I got downstairs, I went to the coat closet I'd seen Lucius go to and saw his black leather jacket was still inside. Thinking he probably just left a winter jacket here, I unhooked my coat and pushed my arms through the sleeves. I dreaded walking into Carmine again, but she appeared to still be upstairs as I navigated through the lakehouse to get to a backdoor that lead to another porch. It overlooked an acre or two of open space that was blanketed in snow. Down the way I could see the lake and a dock and large shed. Descending the stairs, I looked down and saw Lucius' footprints in the snow. It felt like I was hunting down Big Foot as I followed the tracks toward the shed, until I heard the rhythmic thwacks to my left and veered in that direction.
Lucius lined up a piece of wood on the stump of a fallen tree and hauled an axe over his shoulder, coming down on the wood perfectly and splitting it into the perfect firewood size. He tossed it into a growing pile beside him.
"All you need is a plaid shirt and some overalls," I said.
Lucius bent down to grab a giant slab from a tree, the muscles in his arms straining against his sweater as he and placed it on the tree trunk. "What do you want?"
What do I want? I want you to get your head on straight and start acting like an actual boyfriend so your sister buys this shit! "For some reason, I came out here to check on you, stronzo."
He hauled a giant slice of wood dropped it onto the stump, kicking it with his boot to get it straight on the center. "Don't need check ins. I'm good."
"Seeing as you've already cut down half the forest in fifteen minutes, I'm going to have to disagree with that."
Lucius' axe game down on the stump once, twice, three times. He made a noise of frustration and came down on the stump with vengeance, until wood finally split. Jesus Christ.
"I don't agree with what you said about Carmine."
He didn't respond, just kept working.
"You let her think that she can talk to me like that, and she won't think you care about me."
"Again, you don't know how my sister is, so just stay out of our relationship. I'll handle it."
I grated my teeth. "You are the most frustrating, stubborn man I have ever met. I'm trying to be efficient with this and you don't even have my back in the simplest moment."
Lucius wiped at his sweaty forehead with his sleeve and tossed another cut piece of firewood to the side. So much for looking preppy and proper for his parents to come home. He looked like a wild outdoor man trapped in a sweater. "You called Carmine bitch, so if you really cared about efficiency you wouldn't have done that. I told you she has issues. A lot of issues. I don't want to make her feel worse than she already does all the time."
And what about me? What if I felt bad? What if I was hurt? She'd called me a whore right in front of him, but what had hurt was that he hadn't said a thing. Maybe the problem was just that. Why did it matter what his sister said to me? A year from now I would be free and clear of this family.
Lucius' exerted breath fogged the air as he continued to work meticulously.
"Where's your jacket?" I wondered. "It's freezing."
"Don't need one." He threw another perfect piece into the pile. He wiped his forehead with his sleeve again, but his nose and cheeks were getting pink from the cold. It almost felt like he was punishing himself through the grueling task and it was hard to watch. I'd been so hung up on him not defending me that I didn't see the larger picture of how screwed up his family was and, despite normally hiding well, how it affected Lucius.
"I'll put the blame on me," I said at last. "When your parents get back, I'll apologize to your father and say I took a little extra doing my makeup."
"No, no I don't want you groveling to my father." He put his hands on his hips, his breath ragged. "Every open opportunity is a lesson to be learned with him. I'm sure I'll get a fucking earful when he gets here, or he'll try to say passive aggressive things toward me the rest of the day. He was just looking for a reason and us being late was it."
God, this was insane to hear. "We were fifteen minutes late."
"I know, but it's not about being late to the house." His axe fell on another stump of wood, his breath ragged. "It's about me going to college instead of learning the business." The axe came down again. "It's about me leaving everything to Leone to deal with, it's always about Leone. Because deep down, he wishes it was me that we had to bury, and not him." Another downward swing. "So do I sometimes."
Lucius' axe went limp at his side, his shoulders sagged with exhaustion. He looked up at me like he hadn't meant to tell me that. With a menacing growl, he lifted the axe up and slammed it down again, and when the stump didn't split, Lucius shoved it off with his bare hands and slammed his fist into the bark of a tree beside him.
"Lucius!"
He cursed, his chest still heaving as he shook out his hand. He put his hands on his hips, his breath ragged, and I could tell he was in pain but was trying not to show it. Reaching into my coat pocket, I pulled out a folded tissue and moved pressed it into his bloody knuckles.
"Let me help you," I urged him, reaching again, but this time his other hand shot out and clamped down around my around the wrist. Suddenly my back was against the tree, my breathe escaping me in a gasp as he pinned me there with his powerful body.
"Since when do you want to help me?" Lucius demanded, his eyes like two vicious golden flames under the bright reflection off the snow. "You just want to dig into me and write what you expose in your little psych notebook." He leaned into me, his voice roughening. "Let me tell you, principessa, I have stories for you that would keep you up at night. Is that what you want from me?" He shook my shoulder. "Is it?"
Seeing him so close to losing his grip was heart wrenching. I felt like he'd revealed a part of his broken soul that he'd sealed off from me, and now nothing would be the same again.
I swallowed down a gulp of emotion. "I'm not the one you're upset with, Lucius," I said calmly. "Please don't yell at me like that."
Lucius' stayed where he was, his firm grip on my shoulder bringing on a weighted memory of Marcos manhandling me so many times. But with Lucius it was different. I knew he wouldn't actually hurt me. I knew even in the heat of the moment he would never hurt me. And then he backed off, raking a hand through his wind tousled hair. He just stood with his back to me, that axe hanging on his side as he stared at the pile of firewood.
"I'm sorry," he said in a hollow voice. "I just want to be alone."
But I just stood there coming down from an adrenaline rush, my hands tightening into fists to stop them from shaking. He started to walk back toward the pile of firewood, so I stormed past him, moved in front of him, and I stepped up onto the trunk, putting us at eye level.
"I forbid it," I said, stomping my foot for emphasis.
Lucius just stared at me, his dark brows tipping inward. I reached out and tore the axe from his hand, letting it drop to the ground.
"Enough with the axe. No more brooding in the forest. No more menacing serial killer chopping of wood. No more 'Worrying Staccato Sentences Lucius.' It's freaking me out. And that's saying something, considering what your occupation is. You're done, and we're going inside, and you're going to make me something to eat because I'm hungry and it'll look romantic. And whatever happens with your family tonight, we'll deal with it. Together."
Now I had his full attention, a little fire breathing back into those golden hazel eyes as they analyzed my face.
My heart race as I didn't know where the hell I was taking this. I cleared my throat, wishing he would look at me so intensely. "To summarize: you don't get the luxury of being 'alone' anymore. You have a girlfriend now."
His mouth twitched briefly. "Bene." Ok.
"And don't even––oh. Ok, good." I gave his broad shoulder a friendly pat. "Good mafiosi. I honestly expected you to put up a little bit more of a fight, but this feels like progress––"
Suddenly his lips were on mine, my gasp swallowed by the crushing desire behind Lucius La Notte's kiss.
<3 <3 <3
BARK BARK BARK BARK BARK BARK WE WANT MORE BARK BARK BARK
Author's Note:
SO, It's been a minute.
First, I had Covid and that really set me back with updates. Second, I got super inspired for Death is My BFF so I went into my little writing cave. It's also Summer and I'm just trying to vibe with the relaxing energy before college starts up again for me.
I'M A ONE MAN BAND HERE AND I'VE GOT THREE PROJECTS AND COLLEGE WORK COMING UP BUT YOUR LOVE INSPIRES ME SO THANK YOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT AM DOING MY BEST LMAOOOOOO
Want more???? Scream "SMUT ME UP ZADDI" IF YOU WANT MORE!!!!! LOLLLL
xoxo
KITTY KAT
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