My car ride home was filled with confusion. Nash had told me to be safe. But I didn't feel as though Alessio would hurt me.
Of course, I didn't really feel like he would shoot my father either and look how far that had got me. Come to think of it, there were a ton of things that happened that I didn't see coming. I never would have predicted spending a night on top of a bridge, if you told me I was going to be kidnapped and the GPS my boyfriend put in my earrings would be the only thing to-
I slammed on my breaks and received an angry horn blare behind me. Flushed, I began driving again.
I'd called him my boyfriend. Is that what he was? I mean, I lived with him, we had officially had sex brief as we had been interrupted, but sex nonetheless, exchanged our first I love yous. What else could he be?
Oh yeah, that's right, the asshole who had my father shot. I scowled.
Alessio was only one thing. The mafia. That is who he is. What he did. His entire life. He would kill anyone, anyone, he had to. That is what he had told me. For the first time I fully allowed myself to think of what Alessio did. How many had he killed? How many others had died with his drugs in their veins? He sat back and gained as others lost. I'd never seen a flicker of sympathy on that strong sculpted face of his, not towards anyone other than myself.
As I pulled up to Alessio's house, though house was hardly a worthy description, my chest tightened. I was unusually nervous. Scared to be around Alessio, something I had thought we'd long since passed.
When I came into the house I did so as quietly as possible. It was late. There was a light in the TV room that flashed. I followed the light of the television and found Alessio. He was lying across the couch. Suit and dress shirt thrown to the floor, suspenders hanging around his waist. He was sleeping.
Had he been waiting up for me? My heart fluttered at the thought and suddenly his phone rang and he sat up immediately pulling it to his ear.
"Go." He said not sounding at all as though he'd just woken up. He stood up and walked to his right. "What the fụck do you mean you lost her?" He turned, to pace to his left and saw me. He stared at me in disbelief for a moment before growling into the phone. "She's here you shit." He hung up before waiting for a reply.
"You were following me?" I shouted not giving him the chance to speak first.
"Of course I was." His tone was flat and cold.
I gasped. He hadn't even tried to deny it. "You bloody bastard." I turned on my heel to storm out.
"Katherine." He said in a sharp tone and I stopped.
I turned back around to face him, he was walking towards me. "You're an asshole. A dirty crook. My father was shot you-"
He kissed me.
And fụck if nothing else in the world could have possibly pissed me off more. I shoved him away and then smacked his chest with the palms of both of my hands. He grabbed my wrists before I could hit him again. "Where were you? What the fụck are you wearing?" He said glancing to the NYPD jacket I had completely forgotten Nash had given me.
"What's the matter? Tracking device on my phone not working?" I hissed and tried to pull away.
"I was worried." I stopped struggling and simply glared at him. "You weren't in the best state of mind when you left. I let you go, I knew exactly where you'd be going."
"You knew?" I said full of doubt.
"Of course, you'd go to see how your father was. I didn't have the answers so you would find them yourself. I thought I'd better let you calm down. I didn't think you'd answer if I called and after so long I knew you'd be with your dad and I should give you your space. But it got later, and later, when I called you-"
"I broke my phone." I said flatly.
"I see. You do that quite often. But I had no way of knowing that. What I did know is you'd been drinking tonight, you were upset, probably even crying. You've plenty of enemies and you left alone. I didn't know if you wrecked, were run off the road, taken..." He let his words trail off and I actually felt a little sorry for him.
"You were..." He was worried.
"Terrified." He said and then chuckled. "Me, of all people. Terrified. I've had my people out all night looking for you."
I found sudden fascination with the floor. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to scare you." I muttered and when he released my wrists and cupped my face I didn't fight him.
"You are the only one who can terrify me Katherine." I didn't mean to terrify him. In fact, it seemed crazy to me. He was the one with all the power, money, and resources. But yet I was the one who scared him? He ran his thumbs across my cheek bones and exhaled loudly through his nose with a clenched jaw. "The idea of you hurt..."
I thought back to the night we'd been taken by the Bonanno. How he'd been tied to that chair in complete calmness knowing his death was probably coming. The moment his eyes found me the demeanor had changed. The way he had said per favore in regards to that bastard touching me.
What was I doing tonight? With Nash? Going behind Alessio's back like that? Betraying him.
"I love you Katherine Soranto" He said it slowly, putting emphasis on each and every single word and my heart beat doubled in speed.
I pulled back just as he leaned forward. "Okay, but you can't going around shooting people's dads. It makes for bad feels."
He smirked. "Oh? Bad feels eh?"
I nodded and allowed him to kiss me this time. It was a gentle but long kiss. His tongue never searched for entrance, his fingers didn't grip my hair, there was only a small touch of desperation between the two of us.
We pulled apart and Alessio looked into my eyes. He looked like he was searching for all of the answers, and I was quite terrified that he would find them. "I love you." He said again and my heart did another round of summersaults.
"Can we please go to sleep?" I asked hopeful to keep from finding all of my secrets.
"God yes." He said and dropped his hands from my cheeks. "Take off and burn that fụcking jacket though. Your father's?"
"No actually. Just one of the guys down there. They're all pretty familiar with me." I reminded him. It wasn't exactly a complete lie.
"In any case." He said and unzipped it. "I can't stand the sight of you in it."
"Close your eyes." I teased and he smirked.
"My, you're sassy tonight."
I stuck my tongue out at him. He pushed the jacket off of my shoulders and scanned me over.
"I'd already forgot how this dress looked on you." He muttered. I opened my mouth to say something snarky and just bursting with wit. "But the image of the dress off of you will never leave me."
"Alessio!" I gasped and swatted his arm. Wit be damned. "Sleep you little pervert."
He grinned and kissed me. "Only for you my sweet."
He took my hand and began leading me back up the stairs to the room we shared. "Alessio?"
"Mm?" He replied without turning to look at me.
"I do."
"You do?"
"Back at the casino...you, er, you asked me..." He stopped walked, we were only halfway up the stairs and he was just staring at me. "Well I mean, I said something...and you asked..."
He started walking again at a slightly faster pace now. "I asked if you loved me." He said simply, practically dragging me now.
"Hey would you slow down? I'm trying to have a conversation here!" I said frustrated. He was completely killing the moment. Didn't this man realize I was trying to admit that I loved him?
He dragged me all the way to our room. He spun around and forced my back against the door before opening it. "Say it." He breathed.
"What the bloody hell are you going around now?" I muttered putting my hands on his shoulders.
"What you were just saying."
I pouted. "You mean what I was trying to say. But you wouldn't stop dragging me around your obnoxiously big house like a damn rag doll-"
"Katherine." He groaned impatiently. He put a hand on my waist and one on the crook of my neck.
"Oh yeah, well you asked a question and the answer is yes." I flushed.
"I asked if you loved me." He reminded me. I nodded mutely. "Say it."
He couldn't possibly expect that.
"Say. It."
But he did.
"Katherine." He said softly running the hand up from my neck and up to my cheek. "I love you. Those are not words I use in excess. You realize that don't you? I love my lasagna with extra sauce, I love my dogs large, I love the view from on top of the bridge early in the morning, the feeling you get in moments of complete silence after a show down. I love my suits ironed, tailored, one of a kind. I love many things, but people? That, my darling, is a rarity."
"But you love me." I whispered.
"You are my rarity..." He glanced down to my lips and them back to my eyes. "My single rose in a field of daisies."
"I love you Alessio." I whispered and he opened the door behind me and we fell back into the room immediately tangled up in one another, tripping over our feet and stumbling through the dark trying to make our way to the bed.
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8/11/15
So wattpad decided to spontaneously delete a dozen of my chapters between WTSGD and Chasing Stars and I'm really just not in the mood to rewrite all the author's notes. So thanks wattpad for that. Here is the chapter REuploaded.
Enjoy, and please don't forget to vote and comment.