Bloody City: Temptations

Chapter Five

Arianna

Night fell long before Alessio had returned home and instead of staring out the window like some lost puppy I'd taken a walk through every corner of Alessio's enormous mansion estate which had been large enough to host likely his entire Familia's top Made Men with ease and space to spare. I'd also gone to my room and had picked out clothing for tomorrow when I'd go into Genoa to get clothes.

I'd also had dinner alone since tradition made it so that a woman could eat with a man who wasn't family or she wasn't sworn too, and so I had taken the spot at the head of the table and looked around at the eleven other spots around it that remained unoccupied, though the view out of the windows at all of the gardens. The sight was breathtaking from the elevation of Alessio's home, and if it wasn't like a cage I'd have felt comforted by all of the darkened shades of reds, yellows, and blues.

It had only been once the plates had been cleared and the staff went to their own homes likely no more then fifteen minutes away that isolation set in and I felt the need to hold back whatever emotions being trapped in this house elicited from me.

"Alessio won't be home until midnight," a voice says and I turn to see Matteo standing in the doorway of the dining room before he pushed off the onyx coloured frame and left the door open as he was expected to.

"Does he do this often?" I ask staring at Matteo as he rounded the dark room with the wall of wine bottles behind tinted glass, before lowering my gaze as I'd been taught to never stare at a man more powerful then myself which was pretty much all men. I'd broken this rule with Alessio, kept finding my eyes gravitating to his eyes that were like an Atlantic storm whenever I'd looked into them before he'd stormed off.

"Yes, and you don't have to bow your head. Women aren't expected to be subservient here, and Alessio would prefer his wife have confidence," Matteo advised softly, the smirk I'd seen him not let up on since he'd had to separate from Gabriella several hours prior.

"I'm not his wife yet Matteo," I point out and the second youngest Salvatorini brother shrugs dismissively as if it was any different.

"Since Alessio had asked you, it was his way of stating claim on you. You are his and he is yours, enter in alive and leave dead. The last line of initiation may as well be how mafioso engagement works".

"I am not a possession," I state and Matteo laughs lightly as he rubbed the bridge of his nose, as if amused at my response.

"You say that now Arianna, my brother doesn't go after much but he's never not gotten what he wanted. My brother and I are similar in that way, but I won't bother if something doesn't go my way I change the plan, or abandon it until its a more suitable time. Alessio would kill for you if you asked him too, he'd rather give everything he has in the moment because he likes things being instantaneous. He will possess you in ways that you didn't think was possible in life," Matteo says with a short lived laugh.

"Sounds like a control freak, or the results from affective narcissism," I counter and a dark amused look crossed Matteo's face.

"He's a man of discipline and focus, he doesn't often lose his calm and when he does it's like letting a wolf into a rabbit pen. From the outside your family gave you to a monster and a killer, to a man without morals," he continues, "Alessio will fulfill those ideas but will also make you see the light in him that he keeps hidden away if you don't give up on him".

We both then heard the sound of an engine, drawing my eyes out of the windows and through the trees I could see the headlights of his low sleek sports car before it disappeared. Several moments passed then the front door opened and steps followed and paused then nothing, not even the slightest sound, though Alessio had to be walking through the house proven less then a minute later when my fiancé stepped into the room and Matteo turned to him meeting Alessio's glare.