Tempted By The Mafia Boss

CHAPTER TEN

Salvatore

The one thing I like about my staff at the club is how observant they are. They check and watch out for shit that looks like trouble.

They all know to do it.

From the security guards outside to the exotic dancers on the platforms.

Never can tell when enemies may walk in.

The women here though take that keen attention to detail a little too far, and when they use it to start checking up on me it pisses me off. Especially when I don’t want the attention.

The tall blonde woman in my office now is like that. I forgot her name. I think it’s Cora or Corrin. One of those, and she’s one of those women who always has her eye on me.

She thought it would be nice of her to come to my aid last night although I turned her away and here she is again tonight, fishing to see if I’m with Mimi.

We’re in my office and she’s supposed to be in the playboy lounge. She’s a fairly new waitress. Been with us now for over two months. Christian hired her on the basis of her looks and he was right to. She has the looks and like the other waitresses who work the lounge she’s daring. Daring, meaning she’s not worried about working topless or calling the shots if the playboys who book the lounge have any special sexual requests. She does it all and said so on her resumé.

From blow jobs to threesomes and other requests.

That was what she had written.

Up until last year this woman would have been my type, my kind of woman who’d be as daring and adventurous as me.

Tonight.. no.

“I thought you might want a drink,” she says, resting against the wall. She looks at me with her large green eyes like she’s committing me to memory.

“I don’t need a drink. But thank you,” I say.

“Anything else you need?” Seduction ripples from her in waves with the question and she pushes off the wall and makes her way over to me. She sits on the edge of my desk and her little negligee rides up her hips and she parts her legs wide enough so I can see she’s not wearing any panties.

She smiles and I narrow my eyes at her. I sit back against the leather of my chair and give her a crude smile when she widens her legs even more exposing her pussy lips with a bright smile on her face.

“I think if you like your job, I would really love it if you could go back to the lounge and do your work,” I remark, much to her disappointment.

The smile on her face recedes and she stands knowing not to push me. I’m one of these guys who I think she knows appears to be even tempered but cross me and it will be your first and last strike.

“Oh… um…okay…” She doesn’t look at me as she walks out. I didn’t expect her to.

What I also don’t expect is to see Gabe standing at my door.

He was about to knock when she pushed it open and walked past him, not before glancing back though at the mess his face still is.

Gabe’s face is still fucked and it’s actually swollen.

“Can I come in?” he asks and I nod.

He walks in and I straighten up. I’m still ready to pop a bullet, and I’m still reminding myself that he’s my brother.

He sits in the chair in front of me and we stare at each other.

Of the brothers we look the most similar. We look like Pa. Vincent and Nick look like variations of our mother. Frankie looked like us too. Sometimes though when I look at Gabe it’s like I’m looking at myself.

“What did I do to her?” he asks. “What did I do to Mimi?”

I’m not actually surprised that he asked the question like that.

My rage the other day probably spoke of everything and it must have been a tell that that fight could only have been about Mimi. Nick guessed it right off the bat and tried to get me to cough up the info a few nights ago. I kept my silence though. I kept that part of the implied promise I made Mimi. I kept it then and I’m keeping it now.

“I’m not at liberty to discuss that with you,” I answer and he bows his head, dipping it in frustration.

When he lifts his head and his eyes meet mine again, remorse comes into his eyes.

“So, I did do something. Salvatore… it must be bad for you to want to kill me.”

“Gabe, you know what? Yes. It was bad.” I think I can tell him that much.

“The guys said they haven’t seen you with her. Please don’t tell me that I did something to screw with the two of you.”

I laugh, not a humorous laugh because what he said wasn’t funny. Not one fucking bit.

I know I’m acting like a prick. I’m acting out though because his actions made it all bad for me. His actions made Mimi believe I’m just like him.

That she’ll have the same fucked up result and it’s supposed to make me feel better that it will be worse with me. Fucking hell.

“Gabe… you know what pisses me off? I get it, you went through hell for many years. But Mimi? Jesus … when I found out you were with her I couldn’t believe you would cross the line knowing you couldn’t return the feelings she had for you. She’s one of us. She was basically family, and the way you treated her was fucked up. I can’t begin to unravel it. You went there with her because she was an easy target. You dragged her into your shit because you knew she’d go to you willingly, no matter how many times you let her down. And now that you have your happy family she’s left with the aftermath. So you can go figure it out for yourself.”

“Salvatore… I’m not going to disagree with you, all of what you said is true. It’s all true and I can’t take back what I did. I’m sorry. I truly am. I didn’t mean to hurt her and definitely not you. I can’t cope with this… us not talking. Us like this, but I’ll do whatever it takes to fix it.”

He rises to his feet. I don’t answer because there are some things you can’t fix. This situation is one of them.

I hate this with us though too.

I don’t know how to be like this with him.

He leaves and shortly after I leave too.

I’ve been brainstorming what to do.

I haven’t calmed yet but I’m calmer.

The answer to what I want is still there in my mind.

I still want Mimi and this news hasn’t changed the fact that she’s still mine.

What’s changed is strategy.

Tact.

I never chase a woman who doesn’t want me and I’ve never come across a woman that didn’t want to be with me.

It’s always been different with her though. Always.This is property © NôvelDrama.Org.

I get back to my apartment and can tell straightaway that something feels off about the place even before I open the door.

Instinct makes me want to reach for my gun, but the subtle scent of sweet honey calms me.

The place always smells like that when she’s here. Nearly a week has passed though since she was last here. The scent started to wear off.

I walk into the living room where the scent lures me to follow and that’s where I find her. She’s sitting on the floor in the dark leaning against the floor to ceiling windows.

Her hair looks silver against the moonlight and the city light, the tear stains on her cheeks are more pronounced, her eyes bright but just from the color, not bright with the emotion I always see in them.

She doesn’t look at me until I get right up to her. She’s dressed in a black business dress and a blazer. Looks like she went to something important. It’s unnatural since I’m used to seeing her in lingerie, casual wear, or nothing.

I lower to sit next to her and she stares at me.

The other day I acted like I was pissed at her and I acted like a prick.

What I’m pissed at is the situation and that she doesn’t trust me.

She has keys to my place and she knows she can always come here to me. I haven’t seen her here in this state though in a long time and I’m not going to be a prick tonight.

“Come here baby,” I say, reaching for her.

She comes to me, snuggles between my legs out of habit and I hold her so she can rest her head on my chest.

God help me, this chick has made me go fucking soft. I can’t help my damn self when her delicate fingers run over my chest. I feel it everywhere.

“Why were you crying Babygirl?”

“My restaurant… I can’t do it. My plans… they just. It’s just shit like everything else,” she rasps on a hush.

This is what we normally talk about. Her dreams. This was what she was planning out, fuck I even helped her do her business plan. It was the only thing I could do to help her find herself last year.

She came up with some pretty damn good ideas and I know she was on the verge of signing contracts so this is news to me.

“What happened with the restaurant?” I ask stroking her cheek.

“They’re selling the place. I have to start looking again but I don’t know if I can do it. Bad enough that my hundred grand is shit next to the three million they want, but I asked my father to help me and he said …he said no. He wouldn’t invest in me. He said no, Salvatore.”

Mimi’s father likes to spoil her on the regular, but it’s the kind of spoilage to cover up what I call a strained relationship. A handbag here and there and all the shoes in the world. Clothes and an apartment. Business though, no… that man would never enter in any kind of business relationship with her. So it’s not surprising to hear this.

Going to him would be the obvious thing to do. The man made a pretty penny from working for my family.

She knew he’d have the money and he does. Three million is pocket money to him.

It’s change to me, and I have an idea she won’t like.

I’m a mobster. Greed flows through my veins like blood.

When I see something I want I take it. I take it the easy way or the hard way.

I find a way, and greed for this woman has made me find a way.

What she needs is a wakeup call.

One that will tell her she’s mine.

“Don’t worry Babygirl, we’ll sort something out. Why don’t you run a bath and relax?” I tell her and she lifts her head.

“Really? You want me here?” Her thick black lashes beat softly as her gaze clings to mine.

“Always,” I tell her. It sounds like a promise. It is.

Her shoulders relax and out of habit she plants a kiss on my lips. Brief and familiar, crazy and it makes me crazy.

She gets up and walks away. My eyes land on her ass as she pads across the corridor.

It’s time to step up my game and cut to the shit.

I won’t and don’t accept the excuse she gave me. That it will be different with me. Fucking fuck that. I’m not about to lie down like a little bitch and accept that.

I get that she’s broken. All I have to do is fix her.