"Oh my god, why are you making me watch this?!" Luca chuckled next to me, my head buried in his chest as I hid from the horrors on his flat screen, not wanting to watch another second of people being ripped to pieces.
"You made me sit through an entire episode of The Vampire Diaries, I think it's only fear you watch my vampire movie," It was so not the same! The Vampire Diaries was childrens tv compared to the movies he watched, and horror movies had never been my thing in the first place.
"That's not fear at all! You don't get nightmares from watching The Vampire Diaries!" Turning his head to grin at me, Luca arched a brow and I scowled at his smug face.
"Don't worry baby, I'll keep you safe," snorting in response, I shoved at his arm and scooted to the other end of the couch, folding my arms and glaring at the wall in silence.
The only reason I'd made him watch the Vampire Diaries, was because I was already watching it when he came home from his meeting, and it had only been fifteen minutes left anyway. That did so not warrant more than eight hours of bloody mayhem and nightmare inducing fight scenes.
All I really wanted was to take a nice long bath and then turn in early for a change, but stupid as I was, I had let him talk me into watching the entire Underworld - series, we were currently on the second movie and I wasn't sure I could handle two more.
"Can't I just go to bed? You can finish the rest without me," glancing a look in his direction, with the risk of catching a glimpse of the movie, Luca reached for the remote and put the movie on pause before turning to face me.
"You're staying the night?" Well, I had thought that much was obvious considering we were already well into the night, but apparently I'd been wrong and now I just felt... uncomfortable.
Playing with the hem of my dress and biting my lip, I glanced at him beneath my lashes, feeling oddly like my seventeen year old self again.
"Yeah, I mean, if you don't mind..." I trailed off nervously and looked away, feeling stupid for acting so shy when I had no reason to. He was my fiance for gods sake, it was well within my right to spend the night at his place whenever I felt like it. The only thing was, considering I'd insisted on taking things slow and all, we hadn't actually spent the night together yet and I wasn't sure what that entailed at the moment.
Being in bed with Luca, and not doing anything, I wasn't even sure that was a possibility considering how much I wanted him, but at the same time I didn't think I was ready to be so intimate with him yet.
I yelped as he grabbed me by my hips, lifted me up and deposited me in his lap like I weighed nothing. Straddling him, with my knees resting on the couch on either side of his thighs, it was instinct to slide my arms around his neck before braving a look into his eyes.
"Of course I don't mind, if it was up to me you would be living with me by now," Rolling my eyes as my lips curved into a smile, I leaned in to capture his lips in a slow kiss. His fingers tightened on my hips as he pulled me impossibly closer, my breasts were squashed against his chest and my fingers running through the hair on his nape.
The kiss was slow and decadent and absolutely toe-curling, and as he angled my head just as he liked it and flipped me over so he was hovering above me, I knew this was a kiss of seduction. I may have been the one who initiated, but Luca was the one in control.
Pulling back for air, I arched my neck to give him better access as his lips traveled down my jaw, to the column of my neck and even lower. If I didn't do something to stop him very soon, this would escalate quickly, but I couldn't find a good reason to stop him. Not when everything he did felt so damn good.
Sex had not been on my agenda tonight, and maybe part of me wasn't ready for the intimate connection it would establish between us, but in that very moment I couldn't give a rats ass.
One of his hands remained on my waist as the other slid up my bare leg, beneath the hem of my dress and even further, until I was quivering in anticipation as he stroked his hand on the inside of my thigh. He was so close... so close to where I wanted him to be, but apparently Luca had decided tonight to go slow. Could he be anymore frustrating?!
My hands fisted in his hair and his eyes shot to mine, and because I was so turned on I had trouble utilizing my words, I hoped my eyes conveyed everything I wanted him to know. His slow sexy grin made me do an entire body-shudder, and just as his hand slid further up the inside of my thigh and he was so close to where I needed him, the moment was interrupted by the shrill sound of a phone ringing. Luca growled and turned his head to glare at the coffee-table just as the ringing stopped, only for it to start up again a second later.
"Fuck," The curse was clipped, his hand disappeared and he pulled me up so we were both sitting on the couch, my body tucked into his side as he reached for his phone and I watched his face get tight and his eyes turn dark as he looked at the screen before putting the phone to his ear.
"Give me a second," apparently, whoever he was talking to had that second to give because Luca turned his eyes to me and his voice was gentle when he ordered, "get ready for bed, mi amor, I'll meet you there." Usually I didn't take kindly to being ordered around by him, but whatever this was about I decided it was best to just do as he said and nodded before pressing my lips gently against his and untangling myself from his embrace.
As I walked down the hall of his condo to get to his bedroom, I heard him return to his call and suppressed the urge to press myself against the wall and listen in on the call. I suspected whatever it was had something to do with Luca's ominous premonition of "war", and it was obvious he wanted to protect me from all that, and I figured he would tell me if there was something I really needed to know.
On that note I walked into his bedroom, not hesitating before crossing the room to his big dresser and digging around until I found one of his t-shirts to sleep in, before taking it with me into the bathroom to get changed and take care of business. Slipping my dress over my head, I pulled on his large black tee that fell all the way down mid-thigh and pulled my hair into a loose bun so it wouldn't be so crazy in the morning. Stealing his toothbrush, I leaned my hip against the basin and thought back on everything that had happened the past few days.
Luca hadn't been kidding about Casper and Gio, they followed me everywhere and even stayed outside my apartment at night. I felt sorry for them, figured the job of babysitting the bosses fiance probably wasn't all that much fun, but in the three days they'd been my shadows, I'd gotten to know them a little better and discovered they were both pretty good guys. Sure, they were gangsters, and they were both a little scary, but Gio was hilarious and Casper was like an annoying older brother who was always up in my business.
The other day I was out shopping with Letty, who for some reason thought my entire situation was hilarious, and as we made our way through the lingerie-section at H&M Times Square, Gio was never more than five feet behind us and he was scowling the entire time. This Letty also thought was hilarious, but I did try to make up for his pain by offering to buy him lunch, which he then promptly refused and told me Luca would skin him alive if he let me spend money on him. Which I told him was ridiculous, it was my money to spend and Luca couldn't decide who I spent it on, and the only response to that was a twitch of his lips, a small shake of his head and if I wasn't completely mistaken, an affectionate look.
"Wait until I tell your cousin about this, he's going to laugh his ass off," We were sitting in the courtyard outside my parents house when Letty told me this, and I scowled at her as I shoved a grape in my mouth. My mom it seemed, had settled into the fact that Luca was forever more to become a permanent fixture in my life, and therefore hers as well, so she was planning a big family dinner where Luca was expected to sit at her table and I was kind of freaking out about that when she told me.
"You are not telling Tony anything," Letty gave me a look like I was crazy, which led to me throwing a grape at her head, then she threw two back and thus commenced the "War of grapes" as it would forever be referred to in the future. Through all of this my mother sat at the end of the table, partly laughing and partly scolding us for our childish behavior, it wasn't until my cousins and my aunt Maria came that things took a turn for the worse.
"Why is there a scary-looking mafia dude sitting in a car on the front curb?" This was Tony, and before I could stop Letty, she shared everything that was my crazy life and I sighed as I watched dark scowls appear on my cousins' faces as they turned their eyes on me.
"You think you should have told us this?" Folding my arms, I glared between the two of them.
"So you could do what? The only thing that would do would make you worry, and there is nothing to worry about."
Tony turned to Carlo who's scowl was even more profound after my lame excuse, and pulled his phone out of his back pocket.
"I'm calling Luca, telling him we're in on Ariana's protection detail," My eyes bugged out at this declaration and I shot out of my seat while shouting, "You are not!" before lunging myself at him in an effort to get to his phone. This was halted by Carlo who stepped right into my path and wrapped his big burly arm around my middle and shuffled me back towards the table while I fought him as I watched Tony walk away with his phone to his ear.
So, now it seemed Gio and Casper at least had some time off, because for some asinine reason, Luca had agreed to my cousins' stupid ideas. That night me and Luca had our first fight as an engaged couple, which ended in me hanging up on him after telling him exactly how I felt about him agreeing to the asinine plan. He didn't like that very much, the me-hanging-up-on-him-part, so he showed up at my parents house to tell me this in person and to explain things more thouroughly to my idiot overprotective-cousins. So, in the end I now had two more bodyguards and I was right and Letty was wrong, Tony did not think my situation was hilarious.
That was yesterday, now I was in Luca's bathroom, done with brushing my teeth and decided to do inventory. I figured I'd be spending a lot of time there eventually, and it was probably a good idea to pack a bag and double up on stuff like shampoo and conditioner, and definetely I needed to buy a toothbrush, I was thinking pink.
I had no idea how much time had passed when I finally left the bathroom and crossed the hall to the bedroom, I could still here Luca on the phone and he didn't seem happy. Closing the door behind me, I turned on the lamp on the nightstand and flicked off the overhead before climbing into his ginormous king-size bed that had the softest sheets I had ever felt on my skin. His mattress felt like I was lying on a cloud and I figured this was bad, because with a mattress like this I might never want to get up and I was already not a morning-person. Whatever. Maybe I could put a rock under the mattress or something, that would probably get me up in the morning. At this thought, I turned off the light, snuggled into the soft pillows and felt my lips curve up in a smile as I smelled Luca all around me. Yes, I could definetely get used to this, and that's when my eyes fluttered closed and I drifted off to sleep.
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"This shit is not good," Luca growled into the phone as he prowled to the windows and stared out at the city, his jaw clenched as he heard Ana leave the bathroom and twisted his head to see her disappearing into his bedroom.
"I know man, with Romero Villanueva pulling unsanctioned moves this isn't just war anymore. Vigo told me Volkov offered Carlos a deal, he'll back off the cartel if he hands over Romero. Problem with that is, seems not even the old man knows where his fuck-up of a son is, the asshole has gone to ground and it's likely he's making moves to get out of the city." Luca wasn't so sure about that, but he didn't voice his worries because he didn't fucking like having this conversation on the phone in the first place.
He'd had dealings with the Villanuevas and while he respected the patriarch, Carlos Villanueva and his oldest son Franco, he'd never liked Romero. He was a sick powerhungry spoiled brat who thought he was untouchable, and he was fucking stupid. What he couldn't wrap his mind around was why the fuck Romero would take out Mikhail, it didn't make a lick of sense and Luca had a bad feeling this shitstorm was just beginning.
"Fuck, I don't want to do this shit over the phone. We'll talk more tomorrow," Gabriel had been working his ass off trying to get a handle on this situation and Luca didn't like it, because Gabriel had enough shit to deal with without all this fucked up war-business to add to it.
"Si, one more thing Luca; Carlos has asked for a meeting with both you and Volkov, he wants you there as a mediator," Closing his eyes, Luca wrapped his free hand around his neck and pushed out a breath. He'd been expecting this, had been warned by Dmitri himself that it might come to this, that didn't mean he was happy about it.
"Set it up. I've got to go, Ana's here and she's right now asleep in my bed."
The line went quiet and Luca waited with strained patience before Gabriel said quietly, "I'll take care of it fratello, go sleep with your woman." Then the line went dead and Luca stoved the phone in his pocket before spending another few seconds staring blankly out at the city, knowing deep in his gut that things were about to get ugly and he hoped to christ he'd be able to keep the people he loved safe. Then he turned off the TV, flicked off all the lights and made sure the front door was locked and the alarm was set before he walked to his bedroom and joined his woman in bed.