Giovanni- Then
Wow is it bright in here.
I open one eye slowly before following with the other eye.
I move my arm to rub my eyes.
"About time!" A girl's voice says.
I sit up slowly and take in the bedroom when my eyes land on her and the memories of last night pour into me.
Amara sits at her vanity whilst brushing her hair. She doesn't have any makeup on yet, she's in a robe and her hair is wet.
I don't know what's happening to me. We slept together once and now I'm a mess. I'm- for the first time ever- hung up on a girl. Not just any girl, Amara.
"Morning." I say and she glances at her phone.
"Just about." She laughs to herself.
"Is Matteo here?" I ask. He is going to beat my ass if he finds out I slept with his sister.
"Nope. Jax or Matteo haven't found their way back yet." She says before turning on her hair dryer to dry her hair.
I climb out of her bed and pull my trousers on for now.
I make my way over to her and take the hair dryer from her hands.
I immediately start drying it for her. I have no clue why I started drying her her hair I just did it.
I literally just took the hair dryer from her hands and started drying her hair and for what?
"What the hell are you doing?" She asks trying to taking the hair dryer back from me.
"It's fine. Just allow it." I prompt as I continue to dry her hair.
She turns back around and just allows me to dry her hair.
Once her hair was dry I bush it before handing her back the dryer and brush. She puts them on her vanity before standing and heading to her closet.
She ruffles through it before pulling out some clothes and throwing them on the bed.
"Don't you wanna leave?" Amara asks watching me as I watch her. I make eye contact with her and she just raises an eyebrow.
"I think we should talk." I say and she rolls her eyes.
"I hate talking." She sighs before sitting at the edge of her bed. She crosses one knee over the other and waits for me.
"Well... last night." I start and she just rolls her eyes.
"Last night we had sex, again. We should probably stop before my brother murders both of us." She cuts me off.
Matteo as much as he isn't about to take over a mafia like Jax and myself he is very scary when he wants to be. He can seriously hurt you. He knows how to get into your house without a single alarm going off. He's not stupid. He's a funny guy but very smart. He's head of security for a reason.
Jax wants to take Matteo back to New York with us. He offered him yesterday, Matteo just says that he'll think about it.
"True." I nod and so does she. She stands awkwardly and just waits for something. I don't know what.
"What?" I ask and she walks over to her bedroom door and opens it.
"Goodbye Gio. Make it look like you slept somewhere in this house." She stands next to the door.
I grab the rest of my clothes and head over to the door.
I feel like an idiot here. Amara had broken my dick. I cannot get hard for anyone except for her, it's physically impossible I've tried just about everything. I'm at a loss.
This holiday has been the worst.
My first night back in Italy I sleep with my best mates cousin then to top that off she ruins me. So now I can't sleep with any one else except for Amara because she's the only person who not only gets me hard but that it stays for.
I've just got a lot of built up frustration that I can't release into anyone except for Amara.
"Thank you." I lean down and kiss her cheek.
I need to thank her because I feel like such an idiot. She can sleep with whoever she wants and last night I begged her to sleep with me because of mentioned frustration.
"Um..." she laughs and taps my arm. "You're welcome..." she seems confused.
The second I step out of her bedroom the door shuts and I'm left holding all my clothes. I go down the hall to a guest bedroom and put all my stuff down and ruffle the bed up a bit.
I head downstairs to make coffee and just sit at the table whilst sipping my coffee.
She's so pretty.
I've come across many girls and not a single one of them have effected me the way she does. She's the most beautiful girl I've ever met. Fuck she's brain washed me.
I should tell Jax, he's my best friend.
That is his cousin I'll be talking about though.
But I had to listen to him talk about Lara all the time and still now I have to listen to him mope about Lara.
****
"Can I talk to you?" I say to Jax as he walks into his bedroom.
"Can I talk to you?" He asks and I just nod.
He opens his bedroom door and I follow him into his room. He sits on the desk chair and I just sit on his bed and try and listen to be supportive to all the bullshit he has to say.
"What the fuck am I doing?" He asks and I just shrug.
Truthfully I have no idea what he's doing. He'll do all but cry about Lara all day then that night he'll find someone to sleep with.
"I don't know what you're doing." I tell him and he groans.
"I miss her. I should've just listened. I should've just asked." He could've but didn't.
"Well yeah but it was a tough situation." I tell him for the millionth time.
"I can't go on like this. I need to get back to New York and distract myself with work." He tells me and I just nod and listen.
"Have you heard from her?" He asks, she's blocked him.
"No." I lie. I have heard from her. I text her yesterday to wish her a happy new years and she text me back wishing the same. I won't tell him though, he'll obsess.
"Oh." He nods and starts playing with his hands.
"What did you wanna talk about? Distract me." He says and I take a deep breath hopefully he's as good at helping me as I am to him.
Just lay it all out there.
"I slept with Amara. Twice." I admit and watch for his reaction.
"Amara as in my cousin? Amara Ricci?" He asks and I nod.
"Well." He laughs. "Shit." He adds.
Not funny, but okay.
"Matteo is going to beat your ass." He tells me and I groan. I'm going to die. I run a hand through my hair and glance back at him.
"She broke me." I tell him and he raises an eyebrow.
"I can't get hard for anyone but her." I tell him and he just shakes his head.
"Fuck sake." He runs a hand over his face before sitting up straight.
"Tell me everything." He says putting his feet on a unit.
"When I went to help Matteo find her a few nights ago I didn't actually go looking for her. I ran into this hottie, she gave me head in the elevator then we had sex in her hotel room. Only for me to then find out twenty minutes later that it was Amara." I say and he nods.
"Then I realised I couldn't get hard so I went to her and told her to fix me." I say and he cringes.
"Anyway. After she did in fact get me hard she left and so did it. Then last night I decided that I had to sort something out. It was new years and I hadn't slept with anyone in four days. I was going to die." He rolls his eyes.
"We danced. I got hard asked her to stay. We came back here and you know." I scratch the back of my neck.
"That's fun." He tells me and stands.
"What did she say about it? Is this gonna be like an fwb thing?" He asks and I shake my head.
"Well I don't know how to help you there." Jax says and I groan.
"I think I like her." I whisper. This makes Jax laugh, so loud.
"Yeah okay and I'm Jesus." He laughs whilst straightening his shirt.
"Where are you going?" I ask.
"To meet with my ma." Jax rolls his eyes.
"But I think I do. How did you know you liked Lara?" I ask and his smile turns into a scowl. Wrong route.
"Help me." I plead.
"Her smile, it was the best thing I'd ever seen and the way she was so fiercely protective of Alannah, it was everything I liked and more. I was immediately intrigued and the initial lust was obviously there. I don't even know what happened. One minute she was a stranger, the next she was all I could think about." He tells me and I just nod.
"Right well none of that applies to me." I groan and throw myself backwards.
I'm well aware we're acting like 14 year old girls at a slumber party but we're having major girl issues. But by the way, we're 24, not 14.
"Talk about Amara to me." He cringes as the words leave it.
"It's not going to sound as good. You love Lara, I just like Amara." I tell him and he rolls his eyes.
"Yeah well I didn't love Lara the first time I laid eyes on her either so shut up." He glances at his watch.
"Well um..." this is awkward.
"She's really beautiful. She's the best sex I've ever head and she-"
"Leave the sex out of it. Thats the big step. If you like her and wouldn't mind not having sex with her or anyone you like her." He shrugs.
"I don't know. She seems pretty cool but we've hardly spoken but she is nice enough to help me with my problem." I shrug.
"Fuck sake." Jax rolls his eyes.
"Go and talk to her. Have an actual conversation that isn't about your dick and then come back to me. Actually don't, I've gotta go have dinner with my mom." He stands and leaves me alone in his room.
I can talk to a girl. I do that plenty.
I stand off of his bed and slowly head to Amara's room.
I knock on her door and suddenly my hands start to sweat.
"Hi." She opens the door to me.
"Hi." I give an awkward wave and she just raises an eyebrow.
"You okay?" She asks and I just nod.
Fuck that was dumb.
"I'm okay." I tell her and she just pushes her door open so I can head in.
I close the door behind me and just lean against the wall as she sits back on her bed watching some tv.
She's just a normal girl, you can talk with many girls about things that aren't your dick. It's just a tester conversation.
"Do you want to sit?" She asks tapping the space beside her.
"Uh... sure." I push off of the wall.
"We can't do anything, Matteo is downstairs." She says.
"That wasn't my intention." I tell her but she doesn't seem to believe me.
I sit beside Amara and just watch some awful italian tv show. I've never seen it.
"Do you actually like this?" I ask and she lets out a laugh.
"No it's all that's on." She pulls the blanket over herself as she pays attention to the tv.
"What do you do in your free time?" I ask and she shrugs.
"I like going to the park and to museums. I like dancing so I go out clubbing a lot. Believe it or not I've seen you out a few times." She jokes and I laugh.
"Huh? That is strange." I say and she just smiles.
Museums. Boring. Amara, pretty enough to pretend I'm interested in museums.
"You like museums? What's your favourite art?" I ask and she turns on her side to face me instead of watching the tv.
"I love paintings. They're so pretty. Well not all of them are but they're so subjective, they mean different things to different people. I just love seeing a painting and knowing no one has seen the same thing I have." She rambles.
It's cute. How much she's rambling about art. A lot of people find art boring, especially museums but not her.
"Sorry." She apologises and I raise an eyebrow.
"What for?" I ask and she shakes her head.
"I talk a lot." My eyebrows thread together. Talk a lot? Um... does she? I don't think she talks enough.
"I don't mind." I say and she just flashes a small vulnerable smile.
"What's your favourite piece?" I ask and she smiles.
"I can show you before you leave if you like. Maybe I can get your interpretation." I nod.
"Sounds fun." I say and she bites back a smile.
"What about you?" She asks. "What do you do in your very rare free time?"
"I used to hang out with Jax a lot but these past few months change that. I just go out a lot and work even more." I admit and she yawns.
"Boring." She rolls her eyes. I let out a low laugh, not a lot of people would call me boring.
She nuzzles into her pillow and just watches me.
"Do you like Italy?" She asks.
"Yeah I guess. It's a nice place and it's pretty cool. I don't get to enjoy it much." I shrug. It's true, but I do love New York City more than Italy for sure. "Do you?" I ask and she shrugs.
"Ask a different question." She tells me and I raise an eyebrow.
"Do you not?" I ask. Technically it's a different question.
"What's New York like?" She changes the subject.
"Amazing." I say. I'm so confused. What's going on?
"I like your top." I say pointing at the her top. It's a simple black crop top but it's got lace as well, it's pretty.
"Thanks, Matteo got it for me." She smiles.
"Oh... is that really the kind of clothes your brother should be buying you?" I ask.
"Matteo has brought me everything I own." She says confused.
What? That makes no sense.
Us mafia men are very protective of the very little amount of women we have in our families. It tends to be a boy after boy. Not many girls get brought into it.
Wife's, daughter's, nieces, sisters, they don't work. We provide for them.
My dad does it for his sisters and my ma.
Jax's dad does it for Jax's mom.
Matteo's father should be doing it for his wife and his daughter.
Matteo is doing it for his sister, not so much his mom.
It's just how this lifestyle works.
"Your earrings are nice." I point out just to see what she says. I bet it'll be Matteo.
"I'll tell Matteo you think so." She reaches up to touch them.
Okay so I have a question.
What is going on in the Ricci household?
"Do you like diamonds?" I ask and she nods.
"I love them. They're very pretty." She starts to play with her earrings.
"How many do you have?" I ask, every Ricci girl is covered in diamonds so this shouldn't be too bad but it will be the give away.
"I have these earrings and Matteo got me a necklace for Christmas, you've probably seen me wear it." She shrugs.
"I have."
Just as I'm about to ask her another question her door opens and Matteo comes in.
"Hey." Amara sits up slightly.
"You've got to go home." He says and she shakes her head.
"I don't want to." She argues and he sighs.
"I'll come and stay over just I've got work." He says and she bites down on her lip.
"Okay." She climbs out of bed and puts the heels on from last night before following Matteo to the door.
"Bye Gio." She gives me a small wave along with a smaller smile before leaving.
I'm going to figure this out.
"Wait." I call after them.
They both stop and look at me in sync, it's actually kind of weird.
"I can hang out with Amara for a while. Jax is out to dinner with his mom and I don't really have any plans." I suggest and Matteo looks down at Amara. Amara is just looking at me with a raised eyebrow.
"Okay." Matteo says. Thank god.
I follow them out to his car.
They both climb into the front whilst I get in the back.
Once we get to their parents house Matteo and I get out of the car. Amara doesn't.
"Hold on a sec." Matteo tells me whilst going around to Amara's side.
He opens the door and whispers to her before she finally climbs out.
Matteo sandwiches Amara between us as we head into the house.
"Amara?" Her mother calls and she immediately steps back to the door.
Amara's mother becomes clear and smiles at the three of us. "And Matteo and Gio." She kisses all of our cheeks .
Amara twists to Matteo and whispers to him and he just nods.
"Come in come in, we've got guests." She says grabbing Amara's arm and pulling her into the kitchen.
"Mom." Matteo says in a warning tone.
"It's okay, Matteo." She says as we step into the living room.
Her father is sat with a glass in his hand opposite two men who look to be in their late 30's.
"No." Amara says and tries to pull her arm out of her mom's grip.
"No mamma per favore. Non voglio." She cries.
What the hell is going on?
"Tu devi essere Amara, io sono Santino." The guy says and Amara scoffs and glares up at him.
"Vai all'inferno." She spits.
"Non è questo il modo di parlare con il tuo fidanzato." Her mom says.
What. The. Fuck.