Mafia Betrayal

Chapter Forty Five

Charlotte

By the time Luca and I caught up with Layla, she was already parading poor Ralph around like some sort of circus animal. She was in love with him and even I had to admit he was pretty cute. It was good that Luca had gone ahead and bought him. I probably would have said no if he had asked me, and I knew this was the perfect present for her. There weren't many kids for her to play with around here, and a puppy would certainly keep her entertained.

"Well, Santa must have thought you were extra good this year." My mother beamed down at her and she rubbed Ralph's head. The puppy was running back and forth, greeting every person in the entire room.

"Merry Christmas Elena!" Luca said, kissing my mother on her cheek.

"Merry Christmas to you guys." She smiled, reaching up to hug him and then hugging me. "Layla looks like this is the greatest day of her life."

"She was completely spoiled by her father." I groaned, pretending to be annoyed. In reality, I loved the fact that Luca doted on her the way he did. It was what I always dreamed about when we were on our own. Seeing them together was better than I ever could have imagined and, for all I was concerned, Luca could spoil her all he wanted.

"As it should be." My mom smiled. "I seem to remember another little girl who was completely spoiled by her father, as well." Her face softened, overcome with memories. "You know Josh used to love Christmas shopping for you. We would always make a deal, one or two big presents that we knew you'd really like, and he'd act like he was going to go along with it every time. But the closer we'd get to Christmas, the bigger the pile under the tree would get. I'd ask him about it and he'd pretend that he didn't know what I was talking about. And sure enough, every Christmas you'd open up all kinds of things I had never seen before."

I put my arm around her and leaned my head against her shoulder. "I wish he was here, mom."

"I do too, baby." She wiped a small tear off of her cheek. "Anyway, enough of the sappy talk. What did you end up getting Luca for Christmas?"

I froze, words failing me as I tried to figure out what to say. I couldn't exactly come out and tell her I got him a marriage license for Christmas. We had planned on telling everyone together, and if we told her in front of other people, there was a lesser chance she'd explode.

"Baby, do you want to come help me in the kitchen for a minute?" Luca asked, suddenly appearing at my side.

"Sure!" I said enthusiastically, thankful for the out he provided me.

I followed him into the kitchen, confused when I saw almost everything already done. "What did you need help with?" I whirled around to face him.

In one sweeping motion, he pinned me back against the counter, ravenously kissing my neck.

When he pulled away, he was breathing heavily. He pressed his hips against mine, and I could feel his erection against my thigh. "I needed help with this."

I hit his shoulder playfully. "You're terrible, you know that? Our whole family is out there. It's Christmas morning."

He growled against my neck. "I swear to God if I ever hear you use Christmas as an excuse for something again, I'm going to ..."

"Jesus Christ, you guys are like horny teenagers. Do you ever give it a rest?" Angelo smirked smugly, walking into the kitchen.

"Not even you are going to bring me down today, Angelo." Luca smirked, not even bothering to pull away from me.

"You seem awfully chipper." Angelo eyed us suspiciously. "What happened last night?"

"Are you hungry?" I changed the subject, wiggling it from under Luca. "Carmen made all kinds of things for breakfast."