The Mafia and Her ✔

Chapter 17 - Izan

*[Make sure to read chapter 16 first, I posted it yesterday!]*

Izan 

It'd been a week since my men found out about her scars, and they were getting too attached, and I feared an unfortunate ending. 

"Explain again, please. I wasn't paying attention, sorry," Verena closed her laptop and faced me on the couch. I was sitting on the opposite side, but since the couch was not that big, our knees touched. 

I didn't hate it. Instead, I thrived whenever she touched me by mistake or intentionally. She soothed my raging thoughts, which was weird.

I grabbed my beer and took a sip, not bothered by her short attention span. "Dario Romano, the Italian Mafia Don, and his fiancé, Jolene Hansely, will arrive tomorrow. He's my best friend, and they will stay with us for a week. Since I have an extra empty bedroom, I offered they stay in our house."

"Our?" she asked after I realized what I had said. I hadn't said anything wrong. It was basically her house, too, since she was living here.

"Yeah. Anyway, do you have a problem with them coming over?" I didn't see the big deal of saying it was our house, but her flushed cheeks told me I caught her off guard, and I liked how bothered she looked. I wanted to touch her face.

Where did that come from?

"No, of course not! I look forward to making new friends. Is Jolene nice? Will she like me?" she asked, fidgeting with her fingers. I sighed, grabbed her hands, and made her look at me.

"Who doesn't?"

Her eyes widened as if I said something weird. "What?" she whispered, looking over her shoulder as if someone was listening.

"Who doesn't like you? Even Carlos said you weren't that bad last week," I admitted, and she smiled widely.

There it is.

"Including you?" she asked, and I finally understood her shock. I groaned and let go of her hands. 

"I mean, it's only fair I ask since you're always grumpy around me, and you sometimes have this disgusted expression on whenever I talk your ears off, understandably so, but still. I mean, do you really like me? Are we actually friends? Is it not for show? Please say yes, we're real friends and not just pretend because my fragile heart cannot handle a rejected friend's request. I know I overthink bu-"

"Vera." I grabbed her chin and made her look at me. "Shut up," I demanded calmly, and she instantly nodded. I almost grinned but held it back. 

"Good girl," I whispered when I made sure she was absolutely calm.

She fucking giggled again.

I sighed, tired from her mood switches, and said, "Listen to me. You're living with me, and that's proof I like you enough to let you be this close to me. I wouldn't let a stranger be this close to me even if I owed them. You're not a stranger, Vera. You're family now, but obviously not blood-related because then we could not..."

"Could not what?"

I realized what I was about to say. 

My thoughts had been wilder than her talkative self lately. "Never mind. What I mean is that everyone here likes you, so Jolene will definitely like you, if not love you. So, shut your pretty little mouth from spitting these destructive thoughts before I find a way to shut it for you."