☊ playing games
summer walker
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ARYA DIDN'T REALISE HER hands were shaking until the burner phone screen's text messages began to blur into one another.
What was wrong with her? Arya had to get a grip of herself, and quick.
Now she had all the pieces to the puzzle, she knew what she had to do.
Ditching the phone in the toilet, Arya made sure it had fully flushed before she emerged out of the bathroom. Alessandro was nowhere to be seen. She breathed out a sigh of relief. Walking into the closet, she began to fish out all the clothes she'd need for an overnight trip.
Finding a suitable sized duffel bag, it took her all of 5 minutes to have everything she needed packed. Alessandro still hadn't come searching for her, which was a good sign.
She also had enough time she brush her teeth, tie her hair back, secure her bonnet, change into a large oversized tee for bed before Alessandro had shown his face.
There was a 90% probability that he was probably nursing his bruised ego, or running to a bar to drink away his sorrows.
All of a sudden, as if proving to be that 10%, the bedroom door was thrown open, and in walked Alessandro.
He walked in with an air of calm, not arrogance, but he seemed different from before. All calm and collected. Like he knew something.
"I don't want to talk to you right now." Arya put up her hand in an attempt to side step him when he found her in their walk in closet. She'd hidden her duffel bag on top of the clothes' wardrobes with their suitcases, making it look untouched.
"Monique."
Arya froze.
"What?"
"That's your sister's name, isn't it?" Alessandro's intent gaze kept her rooted to her spot. He knew he'd caught her out. "You didn't bring up your sister by coincidence."
"What are you talking ab-?"
This time Alessandro was the one to raise his hand. "My men did a background check."
"You did a background check on me?" Arya spluttered. It didn't offend her, but now she was unaware of just how much he knew about her past.
Alessandro drew closer to her. "Don't try change the subject."
Arya closed her eyes, rubbing them with curled fists. "I'm not doing this right now. I'm going to sleep somewhere else."
He scoffed in her face. "Of course you are."
"What's that supposed to mean?" Arya stopped what she was doing to throw him a critical glance.
"This is what you do, Arya. You run when you can't handle the fact that you need to own up and take fūcking responsibility."
Arya blinked at him, exasperated. "I run? You avoided me for a week because you couldn't take responsibility of the fact you knew it was wrong to hide my past from me."
Alessandro ran his hands through his hair. "This, again? Arya, I didn't tell you because I wanted to protect you!"
"Oh, like you promised to in our vows? You protect, I care. God forbid I find out that my Ma slept around and got pregnant with twins, because I'm that fragile, right?"
This time Alessandro went silent. He had no defence. Marco had warned him that he was taking a risk not telling Arya what she deserved to know; the truth.
That she wasn't heiress of the Corsican Mafia Don, but instead was a DuPont by birth certificate with Caponelli blood streaming through her veins.
"You don't need to protect me, Alessandro." Arya shook her head. "I asked you time and time again, what were you hiding from me. I gave you chances, but you lied to my face. Then when I do the same, you see how much you don't like it."
"This isn't the sa-" Alessandro cut himself off. It was the exact same situation. Arya was right. "Look," he reached his hand out to her face but Arya pulled away at the last moment, making him drop his arm. "I'm sorry, va bene? I should've come to you first. And I've learnt my lesson, this won't happen again."
Arya didn't respond, her gaze everywhere but on him. And that's when Alessandro knew, they had a lot more to talk about.
"You're going to meet her, aren't you?"
Arya thought of lying, thought of manipulating this conversation elsewhere, but the truth was that she was tired of keeping up this facade. It was ruining their marriage, all these hidden secrets they refused to tell each other.
Whether Alessandro did or didn't let her, she was going to find a way to Monique. Her...sister.
Without looking up, Arya already knew exactly what Alessandro thought of her leaving to see the only blood related family she had left.
"I won't allow it, Arya." Alessandro shook his head vehemently. "It's not safe."
"I'm not asking you for your permission, Alessandro." Arya replied softly. She needed him to understand; nothing - no one - would stop her.
"The fūck you are," Alessandro hissed, running both hands through his hair. He was frustrated because he knew, he already knew, Arya was set on doing this. "Arya, it's not safe. You don't know who she could be working for, or if this is some ploy to get you in the wrong hands. Do you know her past? She was a special agent before she recently retired! That can't be a coincidence!"
Arya only looked him in the eyes. She didn't have to say anything.
"Fuck." Alessandro strode up to her, pulling her body against him, pushing one hand to the base of her neck and the other in her roots, forcing their lips together.
She knew what he needed. No, what he wanted. But that wasn't the way to resolve this argument.
Arya stayed frigid as he tried to kiss her. When he realised, he cursed out loud to himself and let go of her as if she'd caught on fire. Alessandro felt something he hadn't felt in years settle in his gut - fear - at the thought of Arya leaving him. He wouldn't allow that to happen.
"Why are you being like this?" He asked her, scornfully.
"She's my blood."
"You don't know that yet."
Arya agreed, she didn't know that yet. But if this was the truth, she didn't want to live with the regret of never having given her sister a chance to be in her life.
"You're not going." He told her, as if that was the last word. The entire conversation, Arya had scrutinised Alessandro calmly, after she'd just watched him go through the seven stages of denial and back.
Now he was the calm one.
"I am." Arya argued.
"No, you're not. If I have to alert every guard on this premises, I will."
Arya's molars grind together.
"Alessandro, she's my blood," Arya could heard her voice raising, but she didn't care. "The only family I might have left." She clutched a hand to her chest, fighting tears of frustration.
"You have me!" He nearly roared.
She clenched her fists, glaring at him. "You know that's not the same."
"I know that this could get you killed." Alessandro turned away from her, rubbing his temples as if this argument was making him lose brain cells.
Arya knew coming into this that he would only care for her safety, but this was her sister. Her own flesh and blood. "I...You don't understand."
Alessandro spun back around instantly. Rage flashed in his eyes.
"The fūck I do, Arya. You know why Marco carries that gun with him wherever he goes? Huh? It's because that was the same gun that the Bratva used to tear his father apart with bullets. I've watched my own cousins slaughtered in front of me by people I thought I trusted. I had to witness my father's beaten-up corpse being airlifted from the bottom of a cliffe, but instead of admitting he committed suicide, I had to cover up the truth by saying he was murdered, because God forbid anyone find out he struggled with his mental health. And you accuse me of not understanding?"
Silence riddled the awkward space between them. Arya knew he didn't want her pity, or an apology.
"This is too much, Alessandro," Arya rubbed her temples now. "We need space from each other."
"So this is what you do? You run because we disagree?" He glared after her.
"No." she glared back. "Watch me walk away, and not look back." Turning on her heel, Arya began making her way out of the room like she promised.
"Arya, stop." He snapped. She ignored him. He strode over to her before taking her by the wrist and pulling her back with a tight grip. "I said stop."
Arya didn't hesitate, spinning around so quickly she couldn't recognise anything around her. Without a second of hesitation, she struck his cheek so fast that his face whipped to the side.
Arya didn't react, not even when he turned to face her with blind rage in his eyes. She wouldn't let a man put her below them ever again.
"Don't you ever put your hands on me like that again." She ordered, clutching her sore wrist. Sure, he'd taken her by the wrist before but it was never out of force like he'd just done.
Alessandro's eyes didn't flinch, the blue almost black and his gaze as hard as steel. "I'm tired of wasting words on you."
What did that mean?
As if he'd read her mind, Alessandro towered over her, backing her into a desk in their room and forced her legs apart with his hands so she was perched on the edge. She watched wide eyed as he got down on his knees. "I'm going to knock some sense into you another way."
Alessandro wrenched her leggings down to her ankles, making Arya gasp. Where had this come from?
Arya began lifting herself onto her elbows at the thought of refusing him, but deep down she knew that this might be her only way to leave. If he was knocked out, that is, fast asleep. Which only happened after they...you know.
Alessandro took her by both thighs and pulled them towards him forcefully, leaving Arya on her back with her legs now resting on his shoulders.
Planting kisses along the apex of her thighs, Arya breathed out headily, feeling herself grow wetter and wetter. She didn't take her eyes off him, though.
Stretching her legs wide, Alessandro gazed down at her pussy. "Look at you, a wet mess." He blew against her folds, making her jerk and whimper. "Such a pretty pussy." He groaned as if it pained him.
Then, without any other warning, he began to feast like his life depended on it.
The heels of her feet dug into his back as his tongue ravaged her, so that she fisted his hair in both hands, writhing against his mouth.
Alessandro took every last drop of her and then some. Every now and then he kissed her clīt, and she rewarded him with a moan that had his cock at attention.
Pushing one finger inside her, he felt the way she squeezed him. His tongue moved in a figure 8, as he slowly fingered her. Suckling on her clīt, he pushed his finger in and out of her again and again, feeding off her moans and pants and screams. Every bump of his nose against her clīt driving her closer and closer to insanity.
Her heels dug deeper and deeper, caving into his back as her legs began to shake uncontrollably.
Arya's' screams echoed in the room, tearing into the walls as his tongue thrust deep inside her, her head rolling back with ecstasy. Crying out his name, Arya gasped as she came once, twice and once more. He took every last drop, and then some.
Alessandro laughed against her folds, pressing a soft kiss against them. "Get up." He ordered, leaving her there exhausted and spent, walking over to the bed while unbuttoning his shirt.
"What now?" Arya groaned, covering her face with her hands. Her legs were already aching.
All of a sudden, Alessandro was back in front of her. Gently, he scooped her into his arms, causing her to wrap her legs around his waist. Carrying her with him, Arya wrapped her arms around his neck, whispering the words 'I'm sorry' into his skin.
Arya may have been raised to know exactly how to seduce a man, but the guilt that came when it aimed at someone who didn't deserve it was something she'd never been able to rid her conscience of. Especially with Alessandro.
He hadn't felt the words she'd spoken into his neck, instead carefully dropping her down onto the bed. Gazing down at her, Alessandro's eyes gleamed with an emotion Arya tried but couldn't define.
This is all lust, she convinced herself. They had a pattern of arguing and having sex then sleeping and repeating. This couldn't be any different...right?
Arya forced herself to look away.
"You asked 'what now'?" He cocked his head to the side. Alessandro shrugged off his dress shirt, watching her as if she was his prey. "What I want now, is you on top."
He started undoing his belt, sliding it out of its loop holes.
"Alessandro, I don't have the energ-"
"Find it," he said, darkly, "Get. On. Top."
*
THEY lay wrapped up in each other, smothered by the dark. Arya could feel Alessandro drifting off to sleep.
"Alessandro." Arya called out to him. He mumbled back a response.
This was her chance. Placing a brief kiss behind his ear, Arya cautiously lifted herself off his resting form. She gently walked to the closet, finding her duffel bag where she'd left it. Her heart raced, and whether it was from guilt, anticipation, or something else, Arya couldn't tell.
Walking back into their bedroom and glancing over at Alessandro sleeping peacefully made her heart wrench. Her gut wrench. Every fibre of her being wrench. But he wouldn't let her step a foot off this premises if he knew what she about to do.
Throwing on one of Alessandro's Canada Goose coats over the full-length bodysuit Arya had changed into after using the bathroom, she subconsciously pulled the material to her nose to smell. His smell flooded her senses, and a sense of calm washed over her. If she had to spend the rest of her lifetime making it up to Alessandro for what she was about to do, she would.
Just as she made it to the door, Arya froze when the sheets behind her were rustled.
"Don't." Her skin was prickled with goosebumps when she felt Alesssandro stir. "Don't leave me." His voice came out muffled.
After a second of standing frozen in the doorway, Arya let out a low breath in relief when she realised Alessandro was speaking in his sleep. But that was only seconds before the guilt hit her just as swiftly. She hesitated whilst holding onto the door knob.
Arya knew the extent of what she was doing. This could damage their marriage in an irreversible way, if she broke his trust. Glancing back at him, her eyebrows drew together. Why and how could such an aggravating man make her feel this way? Someone who'd kept such a big secret hidden from her? Who'd made it clear when they first married that it was all forced, that none of it was real?
Shaking her head, Arya knew she couldn't lie to herself. Confusing feelings with sex was a lethal mistake. Alessandro didn't feel half the way Arya did when she did something so little as look at him. It wasn't love - far from it - but somewhere deep down, it scared her that she knew that's what this feeling could blossom into.
Taking a deep breath, Arya shut the door behind her, finding herself alone in the dark and empty expanse of the hallway. It was then that the reality hit her, cool and hard.
There was no going back now.
A/N:
I always told myself I wouldn't be that kinda author who gives a smut scene before the mc pulls a hide and seek move but HERE WE ARE LOLLL but in my defence it seemed the most logical way to get Alessandro to not be on her azz lmao
is there such thing as too much smut? bc that is what every chapter is starting to feel like 💀 i can't wait to acc start writing them beginning to feel romantic feelings n all the the lovey dovey parts. And y'all would tell me if you're not feeling any connection...right🤨when i say constructive criticism is what i thrive off, i mean it, so being honest does a lot especially since im rewriting this plot - anyways i luv y'all sm