Chasing Stars - A Midnight Mafia Novel

Chapter Six

Day Five

It was a little hard to put my mind to thinking of all of the reasons I didn't want to be with Alessio when everything between us seemed to suddenly be falling into place. We were actually spending quality time together. Time outside of the (now shut down) casino, time away from the family, time out of all of his businesses. We'd played hooky yesterday again. Had started the day by coming to our coffee shop again and walking home together. Afterwards we'd spent a well-deserved break in bed, if you know what I mean, and then we'd gone for another "shooting lesson." This shooting lesson was much more fun because we actually went to play paintball. We joined a group of complete strangers, teenagers actually and had played for hours. Seeing I was so exhausted we decided to finish the day in a long soothing bubble bath, Alessio joined of course.

When I woke up I had another addition to my wardrobe. He'd added a large section of workout clothes to my growing collection of clothing. Not only the clothes, but the headbands, the shoes, the gloves, the works.

It was even harder to be thinking of all the reasons I didn't want to be with him when he was sitting a coffee cake down in front of me too. We'd come to our coffee place again, he'd jogged down and I had rode with Simone again who had met up with Silvano and were only a few tables away enjoying their own breakfast.

We were arguing about the self-defense classes again.

"Three times a week?" I tried my case again. I could not do three times a week, I wasn't sure I could even do one. I was still sore just from paintball. "Why three?"

"Because four would be too many." He said simply and took the seat across from me.

"And you want to take me shooting-"

"Twice a week."

"And I'm supposed to go to work everyday twice a day to do the news, find time to do my writing, go jogging with you every morning-"

"You haven't done any jogging Katherine."

"And you want me to start taking shooting and self defense classes five times a week? I mean, am I supposed to find some time to sleep or eat sometime too?"

"Of course you are. I'd prefer it is you could arrange your schedule to include a shower, and I will of course make sure you have time for me to bend you over and-"

"Alessio!" I gasped and then leaned forward over the table and hissed. "We are in public."

He smirked. "So I've realized."

I leaned back and took a bite of my coffee cake to avoid having to talk to him until my blush died down.

This time it was Alessio who leaned forward the table. He lowered his voice, just barely, obviously not really caring who heard. "You know I would have no qualms with stripping you, throwing you on that table right there, dumping this piece of shit smoothie on you and licking you clean for the whole shop to see."

I turned to look at the table he was speaking of. A frail looking couple who looked to be pushing their eighties at the youngest were seated, the husband was reading a newspaper with large reading glasses on and the wife was humming along a small tune as she was writing in what appeared to be their checking book.

It was almost sickening how tempting it was to take him up on that offer. I turned back to him and squeaked out an uncertain response. He wouldn't do it anyway, not without stabbing out the old man's eyes to ensure he didn't look at me while I was exposed. "Regardless, that's too much. I mean next you're going to want to put me in-"

"Boxing or karate. Really, I'll leave that choice up to you. But it would be best to wait until after you complete the self-defense courses."

"I'm sorry this is way too much."

"I want you to be safe."

"So you'll keep me safe." I muttered and looked down.

"Until my last breath. That should go without saying. But this is for the instances in which I cannot be there. Three times a week should be fine. There's only ten classes so you'll be finished before the month is even over."

"And then karate?" I shook my head in disbelief.

"Or boxing. Like I said, it's your choice."

"And what if I don't like karate or boxing? What if I don't want to do either?"

"Oh, so you would prefer something else? Savate? Kalaripayattu? Taekwondo?"

(Savate is essentially French boxing, but fighters are permitted to use both hands and feet in combat. Kalaripayattu an Indian martial art originated in the 13th century, considered to be one of the oldest fighting systems in existence. I trust everyone has already heard of taekwondo)

"Are you making up words now?" I said flatly and he laughed. "Okay, how about this. I take classes once a week."

He frowned. "Twice for both."

I drummed my fingers on the table thoughtfully. "Once a week for shooting. And six times a month for self defense and I get to bring Stacey."

"I don't give a damn if you bring Stacey. Hell you can bring your whole damn studio if it makes you feel better."

I laughed. "Do we have a deal?"

He pursed his lips thoughtfully. "Six times a month for both, and we've a deal."

"Only if you promise to be the one to be my gun instructor."

He smirked. "Deal." He glanced over to Simone and Silvano. "So Katherine, will you be walking with me again today? Or would you like Simone to drive you?"

I popped the last bite of coffee cake into my mouth and stood up. I wiped my hands off on my pants with a smile. "I'll walk."

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8/11/15

Wattpad decided to completely delete the text, in, uh, about twelve chapters so I've had to completely reupload all of those today. THANKFULLY I do all my writing on microsoft word and copy and paste it here so little of the actual work is lost (just some light revisions probably) but the author's note has been lost as well and I'm just not really in the mood to write another one.

So just please do remember to vote and comment.