Vicious Romance

Chapter 10

"Okay, close your eyes," Noah urges me. I shake my head firmly. What happens if he tries to do something funny?

"Alina, close your god damn eyes," he instructs me, this time with a stern attitude.

I scowl.

"What for?" I ask innocently.

He frowns at me and leans towards the counter.

"You know what for... now close your eyes before we have to eat burnt pizza," he remarks angrily. I smile slightly at his comment and shrug my shoulders.

"I don't mind eating burnt pizza, especially if it means knowing what's in it," I simply state to him. His brows furrow at my words, and he groans at me.

"You're being quite frustrating, you know? The more you argue with me about this, the longer you're going to be here. With me. And then the more I'm going to be tempted to kiss you," he realizes as he winks at me.

I turn away from him, as the embarrassment hits me, once more.

"Fine, whatever," I say to him as I close my eyes, turning in his direction, and wait for whatever Noah has prepared. I hear his feet shuffling along the floor, and the oven door opening as the aroma of Italian spices fill up my nostrils. Damn. It smells good.

I listen to the metal clanging and clattering against each other on the counter and occasional grunts coming from Noah, but after what feels like whatever, the noises stop.

The aroma gets stronger as I feel his breath on top of mine.

"Okay, open your mouth," he whispers.

I chuckle to myself.

"So you can shove poison down my throat? No, thank you," I comment lightly.

He laughs faintly at my joke.

"I would never poison you. You're too... beautiful," he says genuinely. I feel my smile fade, and things get quiet real quick before I clear my throat.

"Right, okay, anyways, open your mouth," he says awkwardly to me. I comply with him, and slowly begin to stretch my mouth open, preparing myself for whatever is going to enter my mouth.

I feel it enter my mouth, slowly and gracefully- a sudden warm, and comforting feeling rushing through my body. Several different flavors shoot through my mouth, as I slowly chew the bite of pizza.

I slowly open my eyes and see Noah smiling at me slyly.

"Was it worth the wait?" he asks. I nod eagerly, as I grab the warm slice from his hands, and quickly take another bite. He smiles at me once more.

He takes the entire pie and places it next to me, while he takes off his apron and puts it on the series of hooks next to the oven. He climbs over the counter once more and sits on his stool. He takes a slice from the large pie and feeds himself.

"This is good, where'd you learn to cook like this?" I ask before shoving another bite in my face.

"My mom. Mister Giordano here helped too. But mostly my mom. She was an amazing cook," he responds too quickly. He looks down at the counter. I stare at him for a moment before responding.

"Was?" I ask quietly, already knowing half of his answer.

"Yeah, was. She passed away a while ago. Bank robbery. I mean, she wasn't robbing a bank. She was caught in the middle of one. Hostage situation went wrong," he adds with sorrow. Without thinking, I place my hand over his and squeeze it.

This wasn't in his file. Has this been going through his head throughout the entire night? Our entire way here? While cooking? He couldn't have made this up either. The look on his face... it's too faded. This is real. It has to be.