Chapter Fifteen

Grazia comes out of the room with her bag packed.

I imagine she's excited now to leave this place, and to go back home where she belongs.

But I'm still feeling odd about thinking of her leaving tomorrow.

"I thought we'd go back to my house for dinner," I say to her, gathering my own stuff together.

"Dinner?" she asks, sounding confused, which is understandable.

"Yes. As a reward for behaving so well. And for what you just did for me." I wink at her, and she giggles.

"Oh! Just let me pack in the rest of my sketching stuff. It's in the kitchen," she says, leaving the room quickly.

I put my own clothes on and check my phone, messaging my head of security person to let him know what the plan is.

"You can stay at my house for the night, so that if your brothers arrive early, you will be ready for them," I shout to her, hearing her moving around in the kitchen.

I make my way to the door, switching on lights in case we need to come back here tonight for any reason.

I'd rather be prepared than not.

"Okay, I'm ready." Grazia meets me near the door. "Do you need to blindfold me or something?"

She's asking in a light-hearted way, but it's a question I've already thought of.

It might be best to make sure she doesn't see the road out of here, in case things go badly and I need to bring her back.

But we've also just had a good few days, and I want dinner to go well.

"No. I will trust you. Just don't do anything stupid, please," I say.

She looks pleased with my answer. I take her arm and lead her out to the car, opening the passenger door for her.

I'm still on high alert, in case she tries her luck, but I get into the driver's side without any issues.

The drive back is silent, both of us feeling the uncertainty of what's about to happen.

Never mind the sex that we just had, which was so very different from everything we've shared so far.

Grazia chats a bit about the Mexican landscape, and how different it looks from her home, but otherwise, the car has a comfortable silence to it.

As we enter my driveway, and she gets a view of the house, Grazia smiles at me. "This is so different from the dungeon house I was expecting you to be living in!"

I'm not sure how to take that comment, so I ignore it for now.

I help her bring her bag inside, and tell her that she can use the spare room next to mine for the night.

She looks at me mischievously.

"So, that's your room?" she asks, pointing at the closed door. "Can I see it?"

I'm pretty sure I know what she's doing, but I can't help myself. I open the door to my bedroom and she walks in ahead of me.

Closing the door behind me, I watch her make an effort to look around the room, the view out of the window, and the en-suite bathroom with the clawfoot tub.

That tub is my guilty pleasure when I get the chance. Then she saunters over to the bed.

"Soft pillows," she says, pushing down on them, looking right at me.

Unbelievably, even after having used up what I thought was all of my energy just a couple of hours ago, I notice that I'm already hard, watching her walk around my bed.

Before she can move away from it, I walk over to her and kiss her neck.

This time, the sex is just as passionate as it was on the floor at the beach house, but Grazia has a new energy to her.

It's like setting her free has awakened the sexual fiend that would have torn me apart if I had decided to fuck her that night at the wedding.

We tumble into my bed, naked, hot, and sweating, for at least half an hour.

Our bodies know each other so well by now, having sex with her feels like the most natural thing to do.

Once I know Grazia has cum three, possibly four, times, I enjoy an incredible release as I'm bent over her, while she's face down on my side of the bed.

"Okay," I say, once we're both laying side-by-side, out of breath. "We should get some food now. I've had it set up on the terrace."

"Oh okay! I could definitely eat. We worked up quite an appetite."

Grazia's voice is silky smooth, and I again notice the change in her since we arrived here.

I'm enjoying seeing her for who she is, outside of being a mafia princess.

She has the fire to be a strong and independent woman, but she can also be soft and sensitive, almost delicate.

She opens my cupboard and slips one of my long-sleeved, button-up shirts over her shoulders, adding her underwear and nothing else.

"This okay?" she asks. I nod and walk over, grab her around her waist, and kiss her shoulder.

We walk down the stairs and out of the big doors that lead to my terrace. My housekeeper has set up a beautiful table setting.

I've already made sure that a chef came in to help her with dinner, and there's a server waiting for us to sit down so he can serve us.

The small table is set with candles and flowers in the center, and a couple of bottles of wine as well.

I didn't think that tonight was a tequila kind of night, so I had some of the best red wine fetched from Carlos' mansion. He won't even notice it is gone.

Neither Grazia nor myself are dressed for a fancy occasion, but somehow, this makes the atmosphere perfect.

The air is cool, the sky clear, and in the distance, we can just hear the waves.

It's not as romantic as the beach house, but at least here, Grazia can feel less like my prisoner and more like my dinner date.

As the food is served, Grazia thanks the servers, and they all smile at her.

I've noticed that she has a way with people, making them feel seen and appreciated.

We eat while chatting about random topics, mostly spurred by questions that Grazia has about Mexico.

She seems to have fallen in love with the little bits of the country that she's seen, and I can't blame her.

I've traveled in between the US and Mexico, as well as further into South America, and there has never been a place that felt quite like home to me.

Once dessert is done, Grazia begins telling me all about the stars and the constellations.

She explains how her late grandmother used to teach them how to read the skies, and once again, I can see how much the older woman helped to shape Grazia's young mind and turn her into the woman she is now.

I pour more wine into Grazia's glass and hear my phone buzz inside my pocket. I sigh.

There is nothing that can be important enough to bug me now, surely.

All I asked my men for was a quiet night with Grazia, and yet they cannot go a full day without bringing me problems.

I almost ignore the phone completely, wanting to leave whatever it is until tomorrow.

But as soon as I look at the message, I'm glad that I've checked it. It's from Luca, telling me that he's landed and is heading to my house now.

They're so much earlier than I thought they would be, that I'm barely ready. I am glad that Grazia came back with me tonight, at least.

But now, as I look at her, staring at the stars, sitting in my shirt and her underwear, her lips still plump from our kissing, her cheeks rosy and her chestnut brown hair flowing over her shoulders, I don't want to give her up.

Not even for the money and power that I was so hungry for when I brought her here.

Shit.

I have to tell her. She needs to get dressed and look more like a prisoner when her brothers arrive here.

They're not going to be motivated to hand over anything to me if it looks like their sister is enjoying her time here.

"Grazia," I say, my voice a lot harder than it has been in a while. Perhaps since I thought she had tried to trick me.

"This message," I show her my phone, "is from your brothers. They're on their way, you need to get ready." Downing the last of my wine, I stand up from the table and wait for her to process the information.

She looks at me, the smile fading from her face.

I don't know if it's from my tone of voice or the thought of leaving here, but I can see her mood shift.

"Okay, I'll go get dressed and get my bags sorted."

She gets up from the table, and I walk with her to the hallway. We reach the bottom of the stairs and one of the guards comes into the house.

"Boss, your guests have arrived," he says, as we see car headlights coming up my driveway.

They were much faster than I expected, so maybe Luca messaged me when they were close already, and not when they landed like I expected.

"Grazia, go get dressed." I turn to her, but she's already running up the stairs, looking nervous.

I stand still, ready to greet the Baldinis and keep them distracted until Grazia comes back downstairs.

Luca, Enzo, and an unfamiliar man walk through the door, followed by two more of my guards.

I reach my hand out to Luca first, who takes it, but clenches his jaw as he does so.

Then I shake Enzo's hand, skipping over the third man, since he seems to just be their security detail.

Both of the Baldini men scan the room as if they're expecting an ambush. I would be insulted by them thinking I would stoop that low. That is, if I cared what they thought.

"Where is Grazia? I thought she was going to be here?" Luca says, looking around the room.

He's already on the defensive and I see my guards close in around us, feeling the tension in the air.

"She's upstairs. I have sent for her. She should be down any minute."

I look up the stairs, almost expecting her to be coming down as I speak. How long does it take to change into some proper clothes?

"We want to see her before we do anything else. We won't be signing anything until she's in front of us."

Enzo's tone is much calmer and more in control than his brother's.

I know that Luca complains about his brother being too controlling, but I can see that the one is in control of his emotions, while the other needs to learn to control his anger.

"We can wait here. She'll be down in a minute," I say to them, crossing my arms and positioning myself in front of the stairs.

I will allow Grazia to see them, and even speak to them, but she's still mine until they sign over the deal.

We wait in silence for a few more minutes, not taking our eyes off each other, until finally, I can hear Grazia's footsteps coming down the stairs.

I look up at her, keeping my face neutral so I don't give away any of the feelings that have popped up between us over the last two or three days.

She's changed into her jeans and looks much more put together than the girl who ran up those stairs just a few minutes ago.

Even her hair is now tied back in a low pony, and she's wiped off the last of the makeup that had been on her face.

There's a strange feeling in my chest as I realize that this is possibly the last time that I will see her ever again.