**Important authors note**
Friendly reminder that this is the LAST chapter I will upload before voting ends for which chapter I will rewrite in Alessio's POV. I'll announce which chapter won the vote on Monday's update and will start writing it ASAP. Comment with your votes or send me a private message.
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I opened my eyes, he was so close to me I practically went cross eyed. I blinked in confusion, my lips were still puckered, I was still on my toes. I dropped down onto the flats of my feet brimming with confusion and hurt. "No?"
"No." He repeated.
This was it. The final straw. I tried to move backwards but his arm around my waist prevented me from doing so.
"Let me go." I pleaded and tried to push off of him. I had showed Alessio my hand, I had opened up everything I had to him and I was shut down in the most humiliating of ways. That shower was calling my name again.
"Katherine." He said softly and tried to tilt my head up again.
"No!" I said fighting hard at tears. I couldn't keep waiting around forever just to get shot down in more creative and humiliating ways. I needed to leave.
"Look at me." He instructed with a silky smooth tone.
"No." I put my head down.
"I'm not going to kiss you right now." He said. "I don't want our first kiss," this time when he tried to tilt my head up he did so with more force and I allowed it. "And we will have a first kiss." He said in a sexy growl just before pressing his lips lightly to my cheek. Had he been just millimeters to the side and he would have caught the corner of my lips. I whimpered. "When we kiss for the first time it's not going to be because you told me to, to prove a point, out of anger or spite." He said and turned my head to the side to kiss my other cheek. "It will be the precise right time." I tilted my head further and he rested his cheek on mine to speak directly into my ear. "And it will knock you from your feet." He whispered directly into my ear and a wave of shivers passed through my body.
He pulled back far enough to be able to look at me again. "Okay?"
"Okay." I breathed. He brought his thumb across the skin just below my eyes wiping away a stray tear. I closed my eyes and turned my head into his touch. "So am I still supposed to leave then?"
"I wouldn't let you if you tried." He replied and let go completely. "Now please. I am spent. Can we just go to sleep?"
I chewed my lip and nodded.
"Good." He said and kissed my forehead. He took my hand and led me back to his bed.
***
"Alessio?" I called out to the empty room. I hated when he did this. The damn disappearing act. And boy was he good at it.
I chewed on my cheek and after a few moments climbed out of the bed. I didn't want to leave without talking to him first but I really couldn't stay. I had no clothes here and I had work to go to. I hadn't seen Stacey in days and she was probably ready to ring my neck.
I hesitated at the idea of getting out of Alessio's bed and back into the real world. But I had a contract, and I had waited my entire life to get to where I was in my career. Alessio hadn't yet given me a reason to leave all of that behind.
I crawled out of bed and shivered. Big houses like this were beautiful but there was so much space to them, it was almost impossible to get the whole house to a perfect temperature.
I really didn't want to go out into the hallway in his boxers and tank top, but maybe he was right. They were practically just like shorts. I pursed my lips into a pout as I opened the door. It creaked loudly, making his escape make even less sense to me.
I stuck my head out the door and looked down both sides of the long hallway. It appeared to be perfectly empty.
I took a single step into the hallway.
"Good morning Kate."
I jumped and forced myself against the wall. "Ah hell, you scared the shit out of me!" I cursed to Pietro and blushed.
"That sounds disgusting. I'll call someone to help you clean that up."
"No I didn't-" I started. "Nevermind." I sighed. "Where is Alessio?"
"Work."
"Without you?" I raised a brow. I thought I knew them better than that by now.
He chuckled. "You caught me. He's working out. Would you like me to show you?"
I nodded. He waved for me to follow him into the room he'd apparently come out of just two doors down and on the other side of the hall. I was a little uneasy about following Pietro. Mostly because I had a feeling that Alessio was the type of person who hated being interrupted and I didn't want to make him angry so early in the morning.
The idea of seeing him shirtless and glistening with sweat and watching those strong muscles of his work. Well, that surely couldn't be too good for me this early either.
When I followed Pietro into the room Alessio wasn't in there. There were just monitors lining the walls. Against one wall was a long desk, a desk taking the entire length of the wall. In the middle of the desk was a simple computer.
"See." Pietro said and pointed to one of the screens.
"What the-"
"Security cameras." He said calmly. "There's at least two in every room."
"Every room?"
"Of course." He sat down at the computer and typed a few things and suddenly all of the monitors changed in unison. I could see my shirtless Alessio punching a punching bag in every screen now.
"Even the uh...the bathrooms?" I muttered while watching Alessio as if I were in some sort of trance.
"Oh yes."
"Huh. Well, uh, how about that." I said feeling the heat rushing to my cheeks. That meant he'd seen Alessio and I last night. Not that anything happened, but a few things could probably be assumed from the footage.
"Audio too. Watch this." He picked up a pair of headphone with a mic attached to it. "Hey Don." He said into the microphone.
Alessio stopped punching and looked up towards the direction of the camera.
"Smile and wave pretty for the camera." Pietro urged. Alessio flicked him the bird and turned his attention back to his punching bag. He was such an ass.
I smiled to myself. "Pietro I need to leave. My car isn't here, how can I get in contact with Benji to ask him to drive me?"
"Buon anima." Pietro said practically on auto command.
"Wait, what?"
"It means-"
I shook my head quickly. "I know what it means." All too well. "I just, I didn't know Benji..." I let my sentence trail off. "I guess you guys are used to this sort of thing." Pietro didn't reply and I realized that sounded horribly insensitive. "I'm sorry. It's just...I mean I know in your...business. There are a lot of casualties I'm just not used to them taking people I actually knew." That was a lie. It had taken half of my family, but that wasn't important. That wasn't what I meant.
"Alessio." Pietro said again. "Kate is ready to leave."
Alessio looked up to the camera again. He watched the camera for a few moments before putting his hands out to stop the punching bags swaying.
"He's coming up." Pietro said and pushed the headset from his ears.
"Great." I said halfheartedly.
When Alessio reached me he still had the fingerless gloves on his hands and his body was glistening in erotic perfection. I really wish he would have put a shirt on on his way up. "You're leaving?"
"Yeah. Work." I shrugged meekly.
He was quiet for a few moments as he watched me and then motioned for me to follow. "I'll drive you."
"Will you put a shirt on at least?"
He chuckled and shook his head and started down the hallways. I wasn't sure I could handle the entire drive with him shirtless. I mean it was one thing when we slept, it was an entirely different thing when we were awake and moving about. In the light of the day, to be able to stand next to him and see every inch of that perfect chiseled body of his.
It shouldn't even be legal to walk around looking like that. Though come to think of it, Alessio wasn't exactly one to follow laws anyway.
I followed him down the hallway and down the stairs. We went into the kitchen and he started preparing a smoothing, something he often did after a particularly late night. I sat on the counter next to the machine as he made a smoothie. "I haven't got all day you know. I do have a job to get to."
"Get off the counter." He said without glancing up at me as he poured the red smoothie into two glasses. A glob ran down the side of one of the glasses and finally landed on the counter. Alessio stuck a straw into each glass and handed me one.
He sucked on his straw and closed his eyes as the frozen treat hit his taste buds. In this moment I wanted nothing more than to be the strawberry smoothie dancing across his tongue.
Oh God.
It had been way too long since I had had any action. My cheeks flushed at such a strange, yet delicious, thought.
"Is good?" He asked and motioned towards my drink.
I stared at him with my lip between my teeth. He was watching me with curiosity for a few seconds before shrugging and turning back to the blender. He was about to take the blender apart to rinse it out before leaving it for someone else to clean but stopped when he noticed the intruder on the counter. He swiped the melting glob up onto his finger. Before he could pop it into his mouth I grabbed his wrist and pulled his hand to me, I popped his finger in my mouth and we locked eyes.
I sucked the smoothie from his finger and then released it. "Delicious." I answered his earlier question.
Work. Work. Focus on going to work. Don't focus on dumping your smooth on his bare chest and licking that up too.
Oh God, I was practically sweating now.
An extra loud knock on the door grabbed both of our attention. After a long second of silence Alessio finally spoke. "Don't move." He warned me.
Yeah, like that was going to happen. I slid off the counter and looked into the foyer to see him taking the stairs two at a time.
There was another string of loud knocks and Alessio came back down with a semi-automatic.
"Alessio!" I gasped.
"It's the fúcking pigs." He growled. "Who did you tell? Who the hell have you been talking to?" He demanded.
"Oh not this again." I groaned. "Alessio, put the gun down. You can't answer the door with a gun in hand."
"The hell I can't." He sneered. "Get the hell out of my sight. Let me handle these pigs."
"Alessio." I said in a sharp tone.
The door rumbled with heavy pounding. It was no longer a polite knock but a demand. "Open up. Police." They called from the other side.
I ran to him and put my hands on his shoulders to stop him before he could walk any further. "Listen to me." I urged and he rolled his eyes. I put my hands on his cheeks and forced him to look down at me in a rather bold move. "I didn't talk. No one has talked. They have nothing on you."
He glared at the door. They knocked again.
"Just a minute!" I yelled over my shoulder and then turned my attention back to Alessio. "If you answer that door with a damn semi-automatic to their head then they're going to have something on you. You've got nothing to worry about, you have all sorts of connections. Just give me the gun, I'll go hide it, and answer the door. Okay?"
He glared at the door for a few long moments before sighing heavily. I took the defeated sigh and took the gun carefully in my hands. I'd never held one this big before, the cold metal felt unusual in my hands as I walked. I scurried quickly out of the foyer and back into the kitchen. I looked around the room for a place to hide the gun.
"Afternoon sir." I heard one of the cops say.
"What do you want?" He replied instantly in a sour voice. "Have a warrant?" He practically sneered.
As a last ditch effort I shoved the gun into a small gap that was between the wall and refrigerator.
"No sir."
"Then get the hell off my property."
"If we could just ask you a few questions sir." I heard ruffling of papers. It must have caught Alessio's attention as well because he didn't slam the door in their face. "We were just wondering if you've seen this girl."
I wiped my hands off on my pants and came around the corner.
"Her name is Katherine Santoro, you might recognize her from channel 8 and our sources say she was last seen with you."
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True story, this was actually originally written as two separate chapters but the first one was legitimately 500 words so I went ahead and combined them for your reading pleasure. Because I mean...who wants a 500 word update? Not me that's for sure!
So has Alessio redeemed himself any with you guys with the whole no kiss thing now that he's explained it? I think Kate is a little sexually frustrated, but who could blame her! Remember a few chapters ago when I things are not always as they seem? Keep that in mind as we go into the next few chapters.
Last reminder that if you HAVENT voted by comment or private message as to which chapter is rewritten in Alessio's POV you will have no say in it! So if you haven't been paying attention, I am rewriting ONE chapter in Alessio's POV to reward my readers for helping me to reach 1k votes. It's readers choice what is rewritten, so cast your vote by leaving a comment and whichever chapter gets the most votes I will be rewriting.
Currently in the lead is chapter 17, in which they are in the hotel when Kate is drunk. Chapter 24 I think it is, in which they meet at the bar again. And the chapter where he is tied to the chair which I believe is around 33. If you want to throw in another vote go for it as these are our finalists.
I'll announce what chapter won on Mondays update and will start writing asap!
Please do remember to VOTE and COMMENT. Thanks!