????MAFIA POSSESSION ????????
( HIS ADDICTION ????)
BY, ROYAL DIADEM ❣️
CHAPTER 22
CAROLINE WATCHED Luca leave without locking her in and wondered whatwould actually happen if she ran. Would he chase her down? Would he kill
her? Would someone else kill her? Would she be able to stay hidden? Moveand dye her hair and write under a pen name? But she promised she
wouldn’t run. She told him she would stay and follow the rules. And if sheleft now, she might never find out what actually happened to her dad.
She snooped around a little,
because how could she not? The kitchenwas well stocked with every sort of utensil she could name and many she
couldn’t. The pan-try was full of nonperishables and the refrigerator wasclean and free of any rotting vegetables. She turned on the TV and scrolled
throu-ghLuca’s suggested movies on Netflix. Mostly mindless actionmovies, a few psychological thrillers, and a handful of docu-mentaries about
everything from nature, to aliens, to American history. She cli-cked off theTV and wandered around the apartment.
It looked more spacious than it probably was because it was so empty.
The bookshelf housed only books. Reference materials, a few cla-ssics,
some biographies, a very pretty bible that looked brand new despite being
sandwiched between a worn copy of Orwell’s 1984 and a bent World War.
Two paperback. He obviously didn’t read it, but Caroline supposed thatowning a bible had to count for something.
The spare bedroom consisted of a neat twin bed against one wall with alittle empty side table. No dresser, but a large closet, also empty. He
reallydidn’t even sto-re things in the guest room? The linen closet in the hall nextto the bathroom looked right off of Pinterest. The towels were folded neatly,
soft grey and white. Some extra hand soap, a package of toilet paper, sheets also impossibly neat on the shelf above the towels. Caroline closed the
door. Neat freak. But it stirred something in her to imagine Luca folding afitted sheet to perfection.
The half bath was borderline sterile. Everything was white, the walls,the sink, the toilet, the hand towel, the light bulbs over the mirror. Themedicine cabinet disappointed if she were looking for anything interesting.
No prescription bottles, nothing less than over the counter. Some cough
syrup, ibuprofen, aspirin, allergy relief, an open box of band aids, and half atube of Neosporin.
The last door in the hall had to be his bedroom. Would he be upset that
she snooped? What did he expect her to do when he left her alone? She
opened the door and breathed in the smell of clean sheets and something
that was unmistakably Luca. It sent a shiver down her spine. Of course, he
made his bed, and it didn’t have any extra pillows. Of course, the top of his
dresser was completely empty. Of course, the table at the side of his bed
had only a reading light and an alarm clock. Of course, the desk by thewindow was organized to a fault with
pens in one drawer, stationery, and
stamps in another, and all the important potentially incriminating stuff inthe locked drawer at the bottom.
The ensuite bathroom was less sterile with touches of muted color in the
dark veined marble sink and the blue toothbrush on the counter. Nothinginteresting in this medicine cabinet either. High-end shampoo and
conditioner in the shower, an expensive razor, some hair products, butnothing that pointed to the inhabitant being a vicious mafia thug.
She wandered back out to the living room, a smidgen disappointed andalready bored. He said there was a gym and a spa in the building. Shehadn’t been super active since she’d been kidnapped, and it might feel goodto hit the gym. She changed into the athletic clothes she packed and headedout to the elevator. A helpful illustration on the wall told her which floor thegym was on and advertised the spa’s premium waxing service.
The top-of-the-line equipment in the gym made her feel like she didn’tdeserve to use it. But it wasn’t crowded, and it was pleasantly cool, and she
could zone out on the elli-ptical and piece together everything she knew
about Luca. Coffee with sugar, biographies, and docu-mentaries. Neat freak,no clutter, no sentimental items. He liked control and maintained it well. Hehad some sort of moral compa-ss, even if it didn’t line up with hers it seemed to work for him. And even if she didn’t understand it, he seemed to
follow it unwaveringly. She admired that.
When Caroline’s muscles felt like jell-o, she decided to treat herself andgo to the spa. The lady at the counter suggested a manicure and a wax.
Caroline agreed. Luca would probably appreciate the wax and he mighteven reward her for thinking of it. She’d never considered waxing her ladybits before, but the lady at the counter a-ssured her that it wouldn’t hurt asmuch as she thought and that she would feel so pretty and clean and niceafter.
It did hurt,.
but not too much. And Caroline did feel pampered and se-xy
afterward. She returned to Luca’s apartment and changed her clothes and
dug throu-ghhis bag until she found her phone. She left her laptop since that
felt like overstepping and she didn’t need it. She sorted throu-gha myriad of
notifications. Spam emails, friends and coworkers wishing her a nice
vacation, social media updates. She settled onto the couch to scroll throu-gh
a news site.
Caroline startled when the door opened, and Luca walked in and set his
keys on the counter with a heavy sigh. For just a moment, she expected him
to smile at her and say “honey, I’m home” in a joking way and stand behind
the couch to wrap his arms around her and kis-s her cheek and ask what sort
of trouble she got herself into today. But the moment pa-ssed when he
looked from her phone to her face with his eyebrows raised.
“I’m just checking the news,” she defended herself. “I’ve followed all
the rules. I haven’t talked to anyone and I didn’t leave the building.”
He walked over to sit next to her on the couch with the lethal grace of a
prowling pan-ther. “Good girl,” he purred, and she wished the way he
praised her didn’t get to her like it did. It didn’t help that he smelled so
masculine.
“How was your day?” She put her phone down on the coffee table and
changed the subject.
He reclined against the armrest and stretched an arm behind his head.
“Tiring.”
She couldn’t resist prodding him. “Did you beat up too many debtors
for the mafia?”
His expression was unreadable as he examined his bruised knuckles.
“The gym my brothers and I grew up in was blown up last week.
Everyone’s trying to figure out what happened.” Caroline didn’t say anything. She understood the feeling of the rug being ripped from beneath
their feet. Luca continued. “My brother is getting married to Lorna Bianchi.
I’m the best man, so I’m helping with the wedding prep.”
Caroline hadn’t paid enough attention to figure out which twin stayedwith them at the cabin. “Antonio or Alessandro?” she asked.
Luca raised one eyebrow, amused. “Giovanni.”
Caroline’s face scrunched up in confusion. “But, while we were at thecabin…”
“Yes.” Luca sat up. “Alessandro was fu-cking Giovanni’s fiancé.” Hesounded entirely too calm and matter of fact.
“Does he know?” she asked. “Does Giovanni know?”
Luca shrugged. “He’d be blind not to.”
Caroline floundered for a moment. “Isn’t that… I don’t know, weird?”
Luca exhaled sharply with a shake of his head. “No. Out of all of us,
Giovanni is the least jealous.” He paused and Caroline wondered if he wasimplying that he was the most jealous and that made her stomach do a littlefli-p-flop because his possessiveness was hot. “And he’s in love withsomeone else. This is an arranged marriage. Our father thinks it will benefitus.”
“An arranged marriage in the twenty-first century?” Caroline couldn’thide her disbelief.
Luca’s face again, a perfect mask of pleasant apathy. “More commonthan you think. It’s just business.”
Caroline actually pitied Lorna and Alessandro now. “So your father can
just decide that for you? You’re all just pawns?”
Luca’s expression didn’t change at all. “We’re all pawns, Caroline.
There’s always someone moving the pieces, pulling the strings.”
“You aren’t the one playing the game?” she challenged.
A small sigh and he leaned forward. “We all have someone we have toanswer to. You answer to your editor. I answer to my father. My father willanswer to god.”
Caroline remembered the bible on the bookshelf. “Do you believe ingod?”
Luca looked off into a memory Caroline couldn’t see and shook his
head slowly. “I believe he abandoned us.”
“That’s… dark.”
“Do you believe in God?” He threw the question back at her.
Caroline rubbed her hands up and down her arms. “My mom did.” Shelooked up and squinted at Luca. “What’s your mom like?”
The shadow of a smile. “Perfect. Italian, loud, great cook, supportive.”
He took Caroline’s hand from where it rested on the couch and examinedher manicure. “Nonna always said she was too good for my father.” Heturned her hand over in his. “You went to the spa?”
“Yes.” A shiver of excitement ran down Caroline’s spine. “And thegym. But I didn’t leave the building.” The pad of his thumb over herknuckles felt breathtakingly intimate.
“So you said.” His voice was velvet. Dark and so so soft. “Are youlying to cover something up, or do you just want to hear how well behavedyou are?”
She did want to hear how well behaved she was. She wanted him to tellher how good she was, how perfect and lovely. It made her heart beat just a
touch too fast. “I haven’t lied to you.”
He slid closer to her, hand coming up to cup her cheek as he pressedtheir foreheads together. “I wouldn’t recommend it.” That was a threat ofthe best kind. She tilted her head up to kis-s him, but he leaned back with asmall laugh. “So easily excitable, gattina.” He planted his li-ps on thesensitive skin under his ear as he shifted to kneel on the ground in front ofher.
Electricity buzzed throu-ghher blood when he pushed her legs apart andnosed up the inside of her thigh to plant a kis-s over her clothed center.
“Luca,” she breathed. He looked up at her throu-ghpretty eyelashes, thepicture of innocence. If a hellhound who could tear her apart and put herback together piece by piece could be innocent. “Please.” She wasn’t evensure what she was asking for.
He smiled softly, almost lazy, and hooked his fingers under thewaistband of her pan-ts. She lifted her hips obediently, and he pulled off herpan-ts and underwear in one go, leaving them to pool around her ankles. Hepushed her knees apart and she gasped at the sudden cold air against hernow hairless nether region.
Luca hummed so low in his chest she could feel the vibration in herbones. “You got more than a manicure at the spa.” The hunger on his face
would be terrifying if she didn’t know how good he could make her feel.
“I thought . . . I thought you would,” she fumbled over her words. Sheboth hated and loved the way he could scramble her thoughts so she couldn’t even form a sentence.
He leaned in to kis-s her chastely on the li-ps, but the power behind it, thethreat, left her slightly breathless when he pulled away to smile at her andpet her hair. “So pretty for me. So considerate.” She glowed in the
praiseand it went straight to her core. His fingertips barely there on her thighsalready threatened to drive her to beg. He settled back down between herlegs with a focus and intensity accompanying the hunger in his eyes that shewas sure would leave her limping.
TBC