Rising to the top

Chapter 8: Ball

He chuckles, "Yes a ball. Were you not made aware of the fact that mafias have balls too?" 

"Well I definitely wasn't expecting to have to go to one. I didn't even go to my high school prom." Looking at him with doubt in my eyes.

"So this will be the first dance you've been to? He turns around to look at me. "I guess I'll have to make it a night to remember with you." 

Those words made my cheeks flare up a bit. A night to remember with me? The fuck does that mean? 

He notices my cheek color change, "Something wrong, amore?" 

I looked up at him to notice him smirking down on me. "Nope nothing at all. When is the ball?" I say trying to change the subject.

He lets out another low chuckle, "It's in two weeks."

"Well I suppose I need to start planning out what I'm going to wear." I say walking away from him. "Cya later."

I walk even faster away from him. What the fuck was that about.

Time skip: 2 weeks

"Aria, it's time to go!" I hear Bella yell, clearly frustrated at me for talking too long. 

"Coming!" I yell down. Damn girl won't even let me take my time.

I start walking out of my room and onto the elevator. I'm not going down two flights of stairs in a ballgown and heels. Fuck that.

I stepped out of the elevator as I watch peoples mouths drop. 

"Dude. You look amazing." Bella tells me, looking equally as beautiful. 

She had on a sparkly white, off the shoulder, skin tight dress. It matched Carlos's tie. Did I forget to mention she was going with one of the bodyguards, Carlos? Yeah the same one that kidnapped me. Fun. Either way she had no feelings towards him, everyone just needed a date to the ball. 

I was one of the main parts of the events, unfortunately. Since we were allegedly combining and becoming one big all powerful mafia, blah blah. 

I was wearing a black off the shoulder ball gown. I felt hot as fuck.

I guess I needed to wear an extra one because dresses also represented wealth and power, or something like that.

I looked around the room as people stared. I kept looking until my eyes landed on Leonardo. I always thought of him as attractive, but him in this specific suit caught my eye a lot more than normal. I was checking him out, and he seemed to be doing the same. 

"You look great, mia cara." He said reaching his hand out to me, "Should we get going?" He said looking at me, then looking around the room.

He collectively received a nod from everyone as we started to head out. Dante was going with Angelina, of course. Bella was going with Carlos as I mentioned earlier, and I'm going with Leonardo for obvious reasons. Diego was also tagging along since one additional security guard was allowed to tag along for safety reasons. Sure it's a ball that's supposed to have no violence, but things can always take a turn. 

We arrived at the venue after about 30 minutes of driving. 

"Ready?" Leo asked me, reaching his hand out to me as we both left the car.

"As I'll ever be I suppose." I step out, not expecting the cameras flashing in my face.

I forgot this event would be on television. Dammed mafia leaders.

They weren't on television because they were mafia leaders, they were on television because they all ran businesses to cover up the fact that they were rich because they were killers. Most of them being "music" industries. My parents have a tech industry. Kinda smart if you ask me. Being able to recruit smart ass people that can hack into anything. Again, smart.

As we stepped inside I looked around to see people in fancy dresses everywhere. Damn this event was actually big. I was hoping it'd be exaggerated.

We made our way to our designated table right before someone walked up to the front looking like he was about to speak.

We all looked his way as he spoke, "Welcome to the 16th annual ball. I'm glad to have you here celebrating this tradition with us. It's a pleasure to see a bunch of familiar faces. Food and drinks are on the right, and bathrooms are on the left. Enjoy yourselves!" He says, beginning to walk off stage as I hear clapping and people start talking to one another.

I see what looks like a married couple approaching us, "Hello Leonardo. Pleasure to see you again."

He gives him a handshake, and the wife looks at me, "Hello nice to meet you. Who might you be?"

A smile appeared on her face. I examine the woman who looks to be in her mid 40s. "I'm Aria." I say back. 

"Oh you must be the woman Leonardo is set on marrying. How sweet." She says clearly faking a smile. She must be scared of the mafias aligning just like everyone else. Typical. 

"I must say, I am surprised to see Leonardo has a woman by his side, one he's marrying nonetheless." The husband starts to speak.

"It almost sounds to good to be true." Continuing on.

"What do you mean by that?" He asked, curiosity growing on his face. I knew he knew what they were getting at.

"Well to put it simply, the engagement happened fast. It sounds fake, like it's all apart of some plan." The woman speaks up.

"Is that so?" A smirk growing on his face as he replied.

What does he have in mind. 

I looked over him as he looked at me, smirk still present on his face.

He leaned in and before I knew it, he kissed me. What the fuck??

I was shocked, and you could clearly tell I was by the look on my face. I realized I needed to make this look real, so I reciprocated the kiss. That kiss felt so good though, I can't lie. It didn't feel like some fake kiss, it felt so real. It had so much passion behind it on his side, I almost started to believe there was real intent behind it, but of course it wasn't. We were just in a fake relationship..

He pulled away, smirk back on his face.

The husband and the wife looked shocked as they quickly walked away.

"Damn." Bella looked at us with a smirk also on her face. What's up with all of the smirking.

My parents looked shocked, but had to play it off. 

"I-" I started to say before he leaned in close, going to whisper something in my ear.

"Play it cool, but we're being watched."