Chapter 44

I let my legs flutter underneath and waited, watching his rugged and powerful features along with the lips that haunted me since I last felt them torturing mine.

I wish I could hurt him for leaving me hot and bothered.

But Massimo's eyes weren't vacant. Instead, they held conflict as his body remained collected. His control was back, and I didn't want to imagine the expense it had taken.

"Pick one, and a date," he demanded as he opened the portfolio.

Three wedding invitations lined the black velvet. All were beautiful and elegant with intricate touches, but one in particular caught my attention. It was black and white with a subtle touch of champagne.

"First," I looked up at his eyes, "I need something in return."

He shut the book, placed it on his thighs, and leaned down.

"What do you want?" he asked, ready to spill money for an answer too soon. Too eager, which meant I had the upper hand.

It was about time I did.

"I have a proposal."

His head rolled, and his eyes closed briefly.

He should've known I didn't need his money.

"A proposal?"

"Sì."

His brow arched. "In a bathing suit?"

I withheld my smile. Damn him for lightening my spirits.

I tried lifting my body off the pool with my arms but failed miserably as my wrist gave in to the pain. Before my body fell back into the water, Massimo stood, and his hands held my arms, lifting me. The portfolio bounced off his legs and into the pool, sinking into the deep.

I didn't think about how his touch sparked my skin. Or how his strength picked up my weight with ease. I also didn't notice how close our bodies stood, and the breath he took through his teeth when his eyes traveled down.

I didn't feel or see anything. That was what I convinced my mind to believe, to ignore.

Water rolled down my body, splashing him, but Massimo didn't pull away and his pants dampened. Chlorine mixed in the air as he picked up the towel from the back of the chair. He pulled it apart, stretching it open for me as his eyes preyed on my two-piece light blush-colored bathing suit.

I took the towel from his hands and brought it to my hair, squeezing the excess water that poured down. I didn't cover myself, not yet. I wanted to show what he'd missed, what he could've had but hadn't touched.

The body that wasn't his.

Oh so slowly, his hooded and thirsty eyes returned to me.

My lips curled smugly.

"Alessandra," his deep voice warned as his jaw clenched.

"I have a folder ready. I can grab it quickly," I said casually and twisted my body to retrieve it. Massimo's hand stopped me, his strong hold pulling me back before him.

"I don't need visuals to see the depth of things."

I let my chuckle free and shrugged.

"It paints a clear picture."

"The picture was crystal, right from the beginning."

"Are we still talking about my proposal?" I asked cheekily, my attitude shining through.

I struck a nerve. Annoyed, Massimo breathed deeply.

"What is it that you want, Alessandra?"

I wanted too much. But for now, I settled for a way to escape from the mental-fuck-train I was trapped in.

"It's a business proposal."

His brows pinched. "Go on."

I finished drying my body and tossed the towel onto the chair to face him in nothing more than a thin bathing suit. Massimo's lips twitched upward. He was onto me.

"Should we sit under the shade?" I asked the same moment a cloud rolled over the beaming sun.

Great. I tried to buy time to think about my first words, and it backfired.

"Here is fine."

Fine!

"I" My confidence faltered, and I held on to the curiosity his eyes portrayed to carry out my words. "I'm aware most high-profile wives in the Mafia stay home, but I studied too hard and made a successful career for myself to waste it. I poured everything I had in me to get where I left off, and I need it back."

Massimo's body turned rigid. He hadn't expected my honesty.

"You want to work?" he asked in disbelief.

I nodded.

"Doing what exactly?"

"I'm an architect."

Massimo's lips twitched, impressed.

"Let me get this straight, you graduated, made a successful career, and worked in Italy with your family's blessing."

I chuckled. "I wouldn't go as far as calling it a blessing."

His head shook with skepticism. I understood how he felt. Women in our world married younger than my twenty-six years. Therefore, I had the time and guts to maneuver my way and win over my grandfather's conservative and mafioso beliefs. It had been a fight, but I won. When my father found out, he was furious, but it was too late. I'd already started school, and my nonno didn't allow him to pull me out." A Zanetti never leaves anything unfinished, Franco," my grandfather had said. Funny as his grandson did, and I'd seen her living and breathing strong to tell the lie.

Even to this day, Father has never acknowledged what I've done or accomplished. The only one who waited for me after I'd received my diploma was my grandfather, even if it was only to make sure I did as I'd promised.

"You didn't know," I murmured.

He didn't answer, and I was unconvinced that someone like the control-driven man that he was didn't have a detailed script of my life from my birth to the minute I stepped foot in Miami. I was conflicted and wary as it contradicted who Massimo was, leaving me with, why didn't he?

"Your family never mentioned it. And no, I did not look into your past."

"My father made sure no one said a word about it. Like it was a bad dirty secret for his daughter to be educated in a male prominent career," I scoffed. "Wouldn't want a made-man to feel intimidated by a woman whose job should be to warm the sheets and please her man. Not carry a briefcase," I sassed.

The corner of his mouth curled, amused. And yet his features sombered, causing me to panic inside for the thoughts that changed his demeanor.

"I'm not intimidated." His eyes fell to my lips before he continued. "If anything, I'm impressed."

He was?

"I actually want to see this folder you've put together."

Or did he doubt me?

If that was the case, bring it on.

"Okay." With a smirk, I turned.

"Wait."

I stopped, faced him and the towel stretched out for me to take.

With a smile, I continued walking as I said, "I'm all dried now." I made my way inside knowing each step I took his eyes would take the movement of my ass.

Payback was exhilarating, and I wasn't done with it or with him just yet.

MASSIMO

I should've looked into her. Dug deep into her past to uncover all her secrets. That was what I did for anyone who entered my life. It gave me leverage, power over them. But I hadn't.

Alessandra wanted to work, and even if I didn't see anything wrong with the idea of my future wife working, I struggled with the idea of her roaming the streets with a target on her head. I've kept the severity of the threats that stalked Miami, and even New York, from her. It wasn't a topic to be discussed with a woman, but Alessandra was different and I've stowed away the dangers for far too long.

An architect.

I smiled. Jesus, this woman was beauty and brains.

But why?

Most people worked for money. Was that what she needed? All she had to do was ask. I had more than what I knew to do with it. But Alessandra wasn't one to ask, and I hadn't offered. A mistake on my part since I had a credit card in my desk drawer specifically for her that I hadn't given her. It had slipped my mind, and now I was facing the consequences.

I knew what the answer had to be.

Nothing inside her folder could change the outcome, but I had to come up with a strategy, a smart way for her to understand that the answer revolved around safety and nothing else. That was why I asked for it, to have a minute to think through it without her skin and toned golden body distracting me.

It was cruel for me to give her a sense of hope after losing control yesterday. After I broke my vow to never leave a mark on her body. And I restrained myself from checking her wrist after seeing how her body failed to pull her out of the water, afraid and unsure how I would react or what it would spark.

Alessandra hadn't mentioned it, and neither had I.

Was I even able to apologize?

No, I wasn't, but I had to acknowledge what had happened.

Was I sorry?

Yes. No! Fuck, this was new territory, mined and uncharted. But what I did know was that the sound of her cry from pain and the detest and agony piercing through her eyes wasn't something I liked.

Two knocks interrupted my thoughts, pulling me back as the door to my study opened. Alessandra's fuck-me black heels stepped inside with a click-clack cadence that proclaimed power and determination. An attractive sight to see. After a quick glance down her long legs that were exposed in a deep maroon dress that hugged her body, my eyes were captivated by her emerald greens. They were ready to debate and win.

Alessandra was ready to fight, looking like a businesswoman. The kind that turned heads and demanded attention in any room she walked into. A fucking delicious dream of confidence.

She sat across my desk, keeping her eyes from drifting away from mine. Her spit-fire spirit hardened my dick that hid under the desktop.

"Before you start." I cleared my throat, opened the drawer to my left, and placed the black plastic card in front of her.

Alessandra looked down at what I'd offered, and her eyes flared.

"I told you I didn't need your money," she said through clenched teeth.

"You think I will use your father's money to pay for the wedding?"

Her lips curled. "I haven't touched his money in years." Alessandra took a deep breath to calm the fire that swirled in her eyes and the tension in her muscles. "I see where you would misinterpret when I said I didn't need your money." She placed her folder on the credit card and repeated her words. "But I told you I led a very successful business before leaving Italy. Before you. When I said I didn't need gifts, jewelry or your money, I meant it."

I didn't like it.

It was my duty to provide for what was mine. How could I be the boss of a famiglia when I couldn't provide for its queen?

"You are losing before your proposal is even given, Alessandra," I warned.

"Why?" she fought. "Because you can't have me paying for my own needs?"

"Yes."

"Massimo, this is absurd."

"Is it?"

"Yes!" Her arms flung while her ass squirmed to the end of the chair.

"If money is your drive to work because your pride won't allow you to take mine, the answer is no."

"But it's not!" Her cheeks colored while her hands expressed her desperation. "You brought money into this, not me."

"And yet, you are unwilling to accept it. You are not paying for our wedding or anything you need."

"Then you won't get your date." She seethed, and this time, I lost my patience.

Alessandra had no idea of the thin thread of power, change, and questions that threatened her future.