LUCA (You Will Be Mine) (The Sicilian Mafia Series Book 1) (21 page)

“Okay. I would like that.”

Smiling, he took me in for another kiss. “Good. This means I can have you all to myself more often. That is one thing I will never lose control over.” I saw the stern look in his eyes, and it made me chuckle. “Finding something funny, amore mio?” I closed my eyes, letting the burn take me over.

As if sensing the reason for my sudden change in mood, Luca surprised me. “Era il giorno ch'al sol si scoloraro per la pietà del suo factore i rai, quando ì fui preso, et non me ne guardai, chè i bè vostr'occhi, donna, mi legaro.”

I moaned. I actually moaned. My God, what was he saying? It had me breathless and wanton. He could have been reciting a shopping list, but it would still have turned my legs to jelly.

Sensing the lust coursing through me, he asked, “Did you like that, amore mio?”

“What did you say? It sounded beautiful.”

Luca smiled. “It was a love sonnet by Petrarca. He fell in love at first sight with a beautiful woman named Laura. He wrote sonnets for her.”

“That’s beautiful. What does it mean?”

Luca stared at me and started playing with my hair. “It was the day the sun’s rays had turned pale with pity for the suffering of its maker. When I was caught, I put up no fight, my lady, for your lovely eyes had me bound.”

I snuggled my head into Luca’s neck and nibbled him gently. “Hmm, sounds lovely.”

With a serious expression, Luca pinned my wrists. “Now I know how Petrarca felt when he met his Laura. A picture—only a picture and I was gone. I know I came across as someone who was familiar with you when we first met, but you don’t understand. I already was. I had known about you for days. Known about your will, your power—your strength. I had that picture of you in my head every minute of every day. I knew I had to have you. I knew I had to be with you.”

My breath caught. I wanted him again. In fact, I was about to demand him again when there was a knock at the door.

Luca growled. “What?”

“Clara, are you in there?” Belinda’s timid voice was echoing through the door.

Luca grumbled and handed me my robe. “Don’t take too long. I need to have you again.”

I shook my head. “I do have a business to run, you know.”

“My cock first, your business second.” His stern look had me in a fit of giggles. “What’s so God damned funny?”

“Oh, please. Spare me. ‘
My cock first, your business second
.’ Jeez, put on the brakes, Casanova!”

Luca smiled and did up the rest of his buttons on his trousers. With a belter of a smack on my arse and a yelp from me, I answered the door.

“Belinda, good morning.”

“Oh, sorry. I didn’t realise you two were…” Belinda hitched up her eyebrow and copped a glimpse of Luca’s statuesque torso. “My God, he’s hot,” Belinda whispered.

I giggled. “I know; believe me,” I winked.

“So you two have…” she waved her hands in front of her.

“Yes. Twice already this morning. I think it was going to be a third before your knock on the door.”

“Sorry,” she whispered again.

“Don’t be. I’ve already told him how important this all is to me.”

“What are you two whispering about?” Luca shouted.

Getting near to the door, Luca’s eyes looked stern. “What you looking at?” Luca shouted towards Tony. I didn’t even realise he was there staring until Luca mentioned him.

Tony dutifully turned the other way, causing an eye roll from me.

“Clara, get in here now and close the door.”

“Yes, master. Whatever you say, master.”

Belinda’s giggles set my own off. Shutting the door, I turned to Luca. “Happy now?”

“No, I think you need reminding again.”

“Reminding of what?” Belinda
was
rather nosey at times.

“That Clara is mine.”

“Oh, really?” Belinda’s face looked amused as hell. She knew exactly what I was like and knew this wouldn’t go down very well.

“Yes. Really.”

I sighed. “Now do you see the double standard here, Belinda? I can’t stand outside—completely covered in a silk robe—and yet he can stand here bare-chested if he wants.”

Luca huffed. “That’s different. You don’t have Belinda drooling over me like Tony was obviously drooling over you.”

I rolled my eyes. “Oh really?”

“Yes. Really.”

“Belinda, please repeat what it was you said to me when I opened the door?”

Smiling, I knew Belinda would go along with this. She didn’t get embarrassed easily.

“I said, ‘My God, he’s hot.’”

I waved my hands in front of me. “See, there you go.”

Looking stunned and apparently lost for words, Luca grumbled something under his breath and headed for the kitchen.

Belinda immediately bellowed out a laugh, and before long, the two of us were both clutching our sides. I think that was the first time I had ever seen Luca lost for words.

Calming down, I turned to Belinda. “What can I do for you? Is everything okay?”

Looking serious all of a sudden, she said, “Oh, yes. Two things really. One, I just wanted to know if everything was okay after last night. It was pretty stormy out there with Luca and that other guy. Who was he anyway?”

How easily and quickly I had forgotten the outside world. Luca had me wrapped in his bubble. Normally, I would have been popping away, but for some reason I wanted to cement us in it instead. “His name is Antonio Cavelli. A rival of Luca’s.” I paused for a moment, wondering what on earth happened. “What happened after I left? Did you see anything?”

She leaned in and whispered, “Well, some people were just shocked. I think others were seriously ready to come in their pants after you slapped him one. If only Jeffrey had been here. I think he probably would have. He’s always liked you.” Pausing to giggle for a moment, she then carried on. “Well, anyway, Luca dragged that Antonio outside for a few moments, came back in looking like a bull about to charge, and then he stormed up the stairs to your room. Soon after, a lot of people wanted to get on with the reason why they were here in the first place. Lots of people disappeared after that. Despite the interference, the night was very successful.”

I smiled. “Good.”

“Which reminds me of why I’m here. Is it business as usual tonight? The phones have been ringing practically non-stop all morning.”

I felt so guilty all of a sudden. People were so used to me just being around to sort everything out. I was being selfish. “I’m sorry you’ve had to deal with it all yourself.”

“It’s not a problem, baby. You know that. I’m glad to help.” I saw the sincerity in her eyes, and it made my heart flutter.

“Yes, business as usual tonight. I’ll come down in a minute and deal with some of the phone calls.”

She looked towards the kitchen. “I’m not sure Luca will be pleased with that.”

I looked with her. “He can be as pleased or displeased as he wants; I’m not going to pander to his needs simply because he snaps his fingers every five minutes.”

Belinda looked about ready to burst. “My God, having you two around is going to be fun. Do you think you could slap him one again tonight? I think a lot of people wished it had been them you had smacked. Even I thought it was hot. You both look at each other like you want to fuck each other and pull each other’s hair out at the same time.”

I giggled. “Talking of which, shall we head out now?” I was feeling naughty all of a sudden.

“What? Like that?” She pointed to my attire.

“Yes and why not?”

Belinda burst into a fit of giggles. It suddenly felt like we were being very naughty children.

“Come on, let’s sneak out now. Luca’s probably making breakfast, so he won’t notice for a while.”

Very quietly sneaking out the door, Belinda and I scurried our way down to my office. We waved at Tony, and he didn’t seem to know where to look. Poor boy.

Once inside, I released a long, deep breath, and then the laughter erupted again.

As the laughter stopped, Belinda started talking. “You know Jeffrey wants to come tonight.”

“Oh really?”

“Yes. You know what’s going to happen, don’t you?”

I sighed. “Yes, I do. I think I will have to figure something out on that front. Luca doesn’t seem to want to let me out of his sight.” I paused for a moment, thinking. “I have an idea. Once you give me the list of names of who was calling, would you mind dealing with some if I dealt with the others?”

Belinda’s face brightened. “Sure! I would love to.” Then, frowning a little, she asked, “What’s brought this on?”

“I think it’s time I accepted help. I can trust you. I always have. I just don’t like to relinquish control.”

Squeezing my arm, she gave me a sympathetic smile. “I’m always here for you, baby. You know that.”

Realising she always had been, I found myself blurting something I never thought I would. “How would you like to become Manager?”

She seemed startled and looked away deep in thought. “You kind of are already anyway, but we could make it official. I’d give you a pay raise, and if you wanted, you could give up your client list… If not, you could at least shorten the list a bit. That way, you wouldn’t have too much responsibility on your shoulders.”

I thought for a moment she was going to turn me down, but then the shock on her face soon turned into a big, beaming smile. “I would love to. I won’t give up my clients completely because I actually enjoy that side of work. I always enjoy doing this with you, though.”

“I know; that’s why I thought I’d ask. Consider it done then.”

After a considerable amount of squealing, Belinda went through the lists of people who wanted to enquire about tonight. Deciding to just go with the flow, we each in turn phoned them to let them know they were welcome at any time. My girls could then decide who they wanted to play with.

I was about three quarters of the way through my list when I heard a commotion outside. All I heard was, “Where is she?” before he came barging into my office like the bull he always was.

He spotted me in my seat and then my lack of attire. I swear I could almost see the steam coming out of his ears; he looked
so
mad.

“What are you doing down here dressed like that?”

I put my finger to my mouth and smiled. “I see you’re still shirtless.”

“It doesn’t fucking matter what I wear; it’s you who can’t go round looking like that.”

Abruptly, I stood to attention letting my anger rise. “Don’t you fucking tell me what to do, arsehole.”

Clenching his fists, Luca looked as though he was about to charge. “Don’t make me come round there.”

I looked over his shoulder and found Belinda smiling away. She was obviously highly amused by us. Possibly even turned on.

Staring back towards Luca’s heated eyes, I stood my ground. “I’m not going anywhere. Why don’t you go back upstairs and make us some breakfast? I’ll be up in a minute,
darling
.”

The sarcasm in my voice had Belinda bellowing again. It was like waving a red flag in front of the ever-increasingly crazed bull.

I thought he was going to shout back, but oh no. Instead, he marched around to my side of the desk towards me. I took that opportunity and ran around the other side.

Belinda darted out of my way as quickly as possible, and I was off, sprinting for the stairs.

“Clara, come back here!” Luca was shouting from not far behind. He didn’t scare me, though. In fact, I was having fun.

I saw Alessandro in the hallway downstairs along with some of the others. “Good morning, Miss Murphy.”

“Good morning,” I said breathlessly.

“Alessandro, stop her!” Luca shouted.

Alessandro, as instructed made his play to grab me, but all of a sudden Luca growled. “No, get away from her. Don’t fucking touch her!”

Conflicted, Alessandro dropped his hands, but felt obliged to stand in my way. Every time I darted, so did he. With a smirk on my face, I said, “Alessandro, you better get out of my way.”

I could tell he was watching Luca leisurely walking down the stairs. This was definitely Luca’s downfall. He never seemed to rush for anything. He thought I was now under control, but he had another thing coming.

Before any of them could register what was happening, I unhooked my silk gown and showed Alessandro—and anyone else who was watching—my assets.

Alessandro’s eyes nearly bugged out of his head, and I knew then I would be able to carry on my journey.

“Fuck, Clara. What the fuck are you doing? Alessandro, stop fucking staring at her!” Luca’s growling was escalating around the hallway, and I knew that once he caught me I was going to be in big trouble. “Clara, don’t you dare fucking run away from me!” I puffed a sarcastic laugh, winked at Alessandro, and then bolted. “Get back here right now. Don’t fucking make me run after you.”

Too late, I was out of the hallway and running through the kitchens. “Hey, Tony. Hey, Samantha.”

“Hey yourself. What you doing in here like that? And why are you all out of breath? Does it have anything to do with that ruckus outside?” It would seem that everyone had gotten used to Luca’s presence.

I smiled and was about to answer when Luca barged through the door. For a split second, I almost lost it. He looked fucking hot, but he was even more so when he was angry.