Bloody City: Temptations

Chapter Seventeen

Arianna

Alessio's mansion wasn't large enough for the next week, the twinge of desire that had spiked in me, like he had all his words so carefully chosen to make me want him close, to not step away from me, and now I was worried that he wouldn't and whenever we shared close proximity something always seemed to happen, it was also nearing the end of the month when the trip to Ticino would happen and Alessio and I would have our official debut to his Underbosses, and Advisors, which likely also meant high ranking Capo's.

No matter what the Salvatorini Familia was going to know now who was bound to their Don.

I'd dreaded being married when I'd become of age, worried that it would happen at any moment and I'd be forever trapped but now that I knew who I was being married to, to who I would share a bed with, and raise children I knew that they would be in the safest place in all of Europe but also already signed up for a life that very few would understand the complexities of. Alessio had seen it, I had seen it, and deep down I knew that he kept himself in a cage because of what it would mean if his mask slipped.

Waking in the middle of the night I rolled to the edge of the bed where the full moon shone through the large eight pane windows with the curtains hanging down with a stream of the evening light highlighting the light grey sherpa I lay wrapped in for warmth in the enormous junior suite of Alessio's house. A house so large I'd only finished exploring all of it a few days ago and found that he'd filled it with secondary things for convenience, though I originally thought he'd done it in case he got lost in his own home.

Crossing the room to the back of the door that led out of my room I pulled my robe off the brass coat stand that was partially wrapped in leather likely because it had a bench built to it. Carrying the robe into the closet that was connected to the bathroom and began opening the ebony lacquered oak hardwood drawers until I found a black and white Chanel two piece swimsuit that I'd bought when I first got to the villa. At the time it had seemed like a cute purchase but now I felt like I was signing someone's death certificate if any of Alessio's security saw me in this.

Why would they be at the actual villa and not on the grounds though?

Looking over at the robe I shrugged knowing that it would do especially since no one was allowed in the villa aside from actual ranked Familia members and they had to be invited, or be Matteo since he seemed to have a free for all access to the home.

Trying the robe around myself I walked out of the closet and grabbed a towel for when I would leave the pool. Leaving my room I padded down the hallway as quietly as I could and took the back hallway to the lounge at the back of the villa where a second set of stairs were and walked down into the carpeted living room with various black leather sofas and a whole bar on the one side of the room along with a large fireplace on the same wall that I'd walked along the top floor of around the veranda that lined the room with various doors leading off of it or a main corridor that led East to West in the house.

I can't imagine having a home with such thought out corridors as to link sides of the home.

My parents home in Vicenza was a rectangle with a courtyard garden and surrounded by trees and a security house just off of the main one, and more like a modern take on colonial styling. Alessio's was a palace that seemed to go on forever. Stepping outside and looking down along the side of the house I saw that there was the rest of the home's length passing along through more of the gardens along with a separate building out with a second entrance which I recognized as under construction while steps led down the back to a path while another part was being built behind and through the scaffolding and the shadows I could tell that there was another gate though it was covered by multiple steel panels and a dozen security.