Arranged Mafia Marriage

Theresa

What was that about? He had been dreaming, no doubt about it. And he had been crying out for his mother. I heard it. In that brief moment, his voice had sounded frightened and childlike. It had struck a chord in me and I had not been able to stop myself from trying to soothe him. I had tried to reassure him and his eyelids had flown open, and for a few seconds, he had looked at me without comprehension. In those unguarded moments, I had seen something in his eyes-helplessness, anger, and fear. So much fear. He had been afraid for his life. Something happened to him when he was a child, something that scarred him for life and made him the man he is today. Cynical and unable to trust anyone. Someone who isn’t even able to open up to his brothers. Oh, he’s ready to do business with them, all right, but anything more than that is off the table.

As soon as he realized I had seen past the usual barriers he puts up against the world, and when I had pushed him about the dream, he had told me to get out. In all honesty, part of the reason I reminded him about the dream is because I knew that he was going to kiss me, and if he had, I might never have left the room. Which, maybe, wouldn’t have been that bad, considering I had been so turned on by him that I hadn’t been able to sleep earlier. But I didn’t want him to kiss me just then. Not when I had finally glimpsed the man behind the monster, the human behind the unfeeling brute that he likes to pretend to be.Copyright Nôv/el/Dra/ma.Org.

He lashed out at me then, tried to hurt me, and when I still tried to push it, he shut me up with that kiss. Oh, my god, that kiss. He never can lie to me when he kisses me. He meant this kiss to be hard and punishing, but all I felt was his passion, his frustration, his need to connect with me, his need for me…

He yearns for me, that much is clear. He wants to do things to me… He… I squeeze my eyes shut. Oh, my god. He wants to possess me, to crawl under my skin, inside my heart, into my head, occupy my every thought, be my breath, my sight, become the one thing I can’t do without.

And I’ll let him. I won’t stop him. This is what he meant by his ‘perversions.’ I have no doubt now. I’ll let him do to me whatever he wants. I want what he can do to me. Question is, will I survive it?

“Theresa?” My sister bursts through the door of my room.

I moved back in with my parents first thing in the morning because he told me to leave and because I couldn’t face another run-in with him so quickly after last night. I packed my bags and called Seb, who drove me home without a comment. He promised to be back within the hour to take me to the shop. Not that I don’t want to spend time with my parents, but I can’t keep away from the shop either.

The shop is my one accomplishment and I intend to make sure I take good care of it. I don’t intend for anything to sidetrack me from my business, not even once I am married. So I’ve decided to show up to help Elsa, given I have the entire day stretching out in front of me without him to distract me.

“Sara,” I turn to her, “what are you doing back from university?”

“What am I doing back from university?” She rolls her eyes, “You’re getting married, T, and you thought I wouldn’t come?”

“I didn’t mean that,” I murmur as I take in my sister’s hair, which is dyed in a shade of-is that delphinium blue? Jesus, did she actually dye her hair blue? Her face is wreathed in a big smile as she launches herself into my arms. “Oh, my god, T! Oh, my god, you are getting married! I can’t believe you are getting married.”

“Um,” I pat her shoulder, “it was, ah, very sudden.”

“I’ll bet.” She pulls back in the circle of my arms, then stares down at me from her much taller five-foot, nine-inch height. “Who is he?” She waggles her eyebrows. “Is it true that he is one of the Sovranos? That’s what Mom told me. When are you going to introduce me to him?”

“Um,” I shuffle my feet, “you are going to meet him at the wedding.”

“But that’s still a few days off.”

“It’s only three days away.” I scowl at her, “Besides, I won’t be seeing him until at the wedding.”

“Really?” She blinks rapidly, “You are not going to see him before that?”

“Nope.”

“You won’t miss him?”

I hesitate.

“Aww,” she pats my cheek, “look at you, so much in love. And all along, I thought after Xander you wouldn’t be able to-” She claps a hand over her mouth. “Shit, didn’t mean to blurt that out.”

“It’s okay.” I grimace.

“No, it’s not.” She slaps her forehead with her palm. “You know me. Always saying things without thinking them all the way through. Shit, why can’t I learn to be more like you?”

“You don’t want to be like me.” I wince.

“Why not?” She frowns, “You are petite, gorgeous, curvy, you run your own successful business, and now, you are marrying one of the most powerful men in the city.”

“The jury is out on that,” I murmur.

“What do you mean?”

“He’s not one of the existing Sovrano brothers.”

“Eh?” She tilts her head, “You are not making sense.”

“He’s, ah, Xander’s long-lost triplet.”

She opens and shuts her mouth. “Are you serious?” she finally chokes out. “Didn’t Xander’s twin Christian get married very recently?”

“Yep, and I am going to marry Axel, his triplet. His long-lost triplet.”

“Oh?”

“Y-e-a-p.” I step back from her. “A triplet who, likely, hates all of his brothers and who is only marrying me as a way of consolidating his position within the Cosa Nostra.”

She blinks rapidly, “So you mean you are marrying him because-?”

“I want to,” I murmur. “In fact, I am the one who proposed to him-”

“Get out of here,” she laughs, “you proposed to one of the made men of the Cosa Nostra?”

“So?” I scowl at her, “Can’t women propose to men?”

“Of course, they can. It’s just, you-”

“What about me?” I fold my arms across my chest.

“I mean, it’s just you, Theresa. You have always been shy and self-effacing and-”

“Just because I am the quiet one doesn’t mean I don’t know what I want.”

“I didn’t say that-”

“Then what do you mean?”

Sara blows out a breath, “I am not trying to fight with you, big sis. I know you and I, in the past, have not always seen eye to eye-”

“That’s putting it lightly,” I scoff.

She chuckles, “You really have changed since I last saw you.”

“Which was, like, almost a year ago.”

“Not my fault,” Sara tosses her head. “Every time I wanted to come home, you encouraged me to stay on at university, to take on a few more credits, to study as much as possible.”

“I know.” I shuffle my feet. “I must have come across as so callous to you, right? Pushing you so hard.”

“You meant well.” Her tone softens, “I understand why you’re so keen for me to ace my university results.”

“If you do, you’ll be able to find a job in a company… Maybe in a city like London. And you could be completely independent, away from the influence of the Cosa Nostra.”

“You want me away from the Cosa Nostra, yet you are marrying into the clan?” she murmurs.

I draw in a breath. How do I explain it? “From the moment I saw Xander, I felt sure I was going to marry him. Then when he died I… I thought my world was coming to an end; until Axel stepped in front of me and took a bullet for me-”

“Hold on, someone shot at you?” She exclaims.

I shuffle my feet, “I don’t think the bullet was intended for me, anyway.” I shake my head, “The point is, as soon as I saw him, I had this inexplicable reaction to him. I felt an immediate connection, as if he were the piece I’d been missing all along.”

“But-” she begins to say and I hold up my hand.

“I know. Axel is not Xander. The more I get to know Axel, the more it’s clear how different they are as people. And yet,” I lock my fingers, “yet I can’t get it out of my head that this is my chance at happiness. I never took the initiative with Xander and I don’t want to make the same mistake with Axel. I feel like I have been given a second chance and I don’t want to waste it.”

“Haven’t you thought, it’s because Axel looks like Xander that you should, maybe, walk away from him? That you may be marrying him for all the wrong reasons?”

I stare at her, “Are you only twenty-one?”

She chuckles, “I sound like an old woman, right?”

“No,” I shake my head, “you are right, though. Those are all valid questions I have asked myself, but each time, I arrive at the same answer. That I want to marry Axel. I want to be with him. Maybe it’s him I am attracted too. Maybe it has nothing to do with the fact that he looks like Xander. I saw Axel and it was like colpo de fulmine.” A bolt of lightning. I bite the inside of my cheek. “It wasn’t like that with Xander. Oh, I thought it was, but what I felt for Xander pales in comparison to what I feel for Axel.” I pull my hair up off of my shoulders. “Either way, fact is, I don’t have a choice. This, the Cosa Nostra and Axel, are my future. You, on the other hand, don’t have anything or anyone holding you back.”

I take her hand in mine.

“You are starting with a clean slate and I want you to see the world first. To discover what’s out there and decide for yourself what kind of a future you want. If, after that, you decide that you want to return to Palermo and settle down here, that’s fine. But I want to make sure that you have the options I never did, know what I mean?”

“Oh, T,” Sara squeeze my hand, “you are incredible. I am so lucky to have a sister like you.”

I blink rapidly, “I can’t believe you are all grown up and about to graduate from university.”

“Just because I color my hair blue doesn’t mean that I am still a kid.”

“I know.” I laugh and tug on a strand of her hair, “It suits you. It’s quite striking, actually.”

“Right?” She shakes the hair back from her face, “I figured I’d throw caution to the wind for once.”

“As long as it doesn’t interfere with your campus placements,” I warn her.

“Oh, please, they look at my grades and my IQ and acumen, not to mention, the way I get algorithms to bend to my will.”

“I know you are a math whiz,” I murmur. “Half the time, I don’t know what kinds of problems you are solving in your head or how you manage to see those numbers and discern patterns among them.”

“It’s easy, really. All you have to do is take a step back and absorb the entirety of the problem that they pose to you. Then, you have to listen to what they are trying to tell you and-”

“Stop,” I raise my hand, “it’s all Greek to me.”

“It’s algebra, actually,” she offers.

“That, too,” I laugh. “I don’t know how the two of us could be so different. Me, the straight-laced one who loves flowers and the way they allow me to express my creativity, and you, the talkative nerd with the old soul who can bounce into a room and own it, not to mention, ride roughshod over numbers.”

“Jeez, that was almost erotic.”

“Shut up.” I slap her shoulder.

“Speaking of, have you slept with Axel yet?”

I bite the inside of my cheek.

She stares.

“Oh, my god.” She claps her hands. “Theresa and Axel, banging in a tree. F-U-C-K-I-N-G,” she sings at the top of her voice.

I scowl, “Shut up! See? This is why I don’t like telling you anything. In some ways, you still haven’t grown up at all.”

“Theresa and Axel banging in a-”

I slap my hand over her mouth, or at least try to, for she ducks, then jumps up and races toward the door. ” F-U-C-K-I-N-G.”

Heat sears my cheeks. I jump up, lunge forward and grab at her dress. I manage to grip the back of her shirt and tug. The shirt tears with a ripping sound.

Sara screams, “Mom, look what T did. She tore my shirt.”

Footsteps sound, then my mom pops her head through the door, “Hush, your father’s trying to take a siesta after lunch. And aren’t you girls grownups? Surely, you can sort things out without squabbling like you were ten.”

“Mom, Theresa and Axel are-”

I manage to slap my hand over her mouth this time. She tries to speak but the noises are indecipherable.

“What are you doing?” My mom frowns at me. “What is Sara trying to say?”

“Nothing,” I say at the same time that Sara nods frantically. She gestures with her hand, says something, but again, the noises that emerge don’t make sense.

“What is she trying to tell me?” My mom comes inside the room. “Is this about Axel and the wedding?”

I nod.

“Well?” My mom looks between us, “Are you going to remove your hand, so she can tell me?”

I shake my head.

“Don’t be silly,” my mom’s scowl deepens, “and you can’t indefinitely gag your sister like this, you know?”

I nod, “She was saying that Axel and I are getting married.”

“And?” She eyes me with a funny look.

“And…he’s taking me on a honeymoon.” I cringe. What the hell? That’s a big fat lie. Okay, maybe not, but I certainly don’t know if he has a honeymoon planned. Or if he’s even going to be strong enough to travel. Although, seeing how he’d stormed across town and to the nightclub, his recovery is progressing by leaps and bounds.

“Is he now?” My mother’s face breaks into a big smile. “After your father and I married, we honeymooned on the Amalfi coast. It was so hot, and we had this small beach house by the sea. We swam every day, ate dinner and-”

My sister digs her nails into my forearm. She widens her gaze at me.

“I’ll release you, only if you promise to stay quiet,” I hiss as my mother continues to relate the same story she has narrated to us over and over again throughout our lives.

She nods vigorously.

“Not a word out of you, you hear?”

She holds up her pinkie in the gesture of making a promise.

I lower my hand, and instantly, she bursts out, “Theresa and Axel banging in a-”

I leap toward her. She screams, dodges my outstretched arm, and runs around my mother, who watches us with a bemused expression. She hides behind my mother and I try to reach around to grab at her. She screams again and takes off running, and I chase after her. “Wait until I catch you, you stupid girl. I am going to pull on your hair and make sure you regret this for a very long time.”

I chase her all the way to the front door, which she throws open and darts out, only to collide with Cass who’d been about to knock. Both of them stagger.

“Catch her,” I yell.

Sara screams again, darts around Cass and runs off, past Karma, who turns to watch her take off out down the garden path, before she turns up the road.

I make to go after her, but Cass grabs my arm, “Hey,” she chuckles, “was that your younger sister?”

“You mean, was that my pain in the ass sibling, then yes, she is,” I glower at the now empty garden path.

“You two fight a lot growing up?” Karma asks as she draws abreast with us.

“All the time, and apparently, nothing has changed.” I shake my head. “What are you two doing here, anyway?”

“Your wedding dress,” Karma beams, “we’re here to take you for a fitting.”