Owned: A Mafia Menage Romance(48)

“Figure it out?” she repeats uncertainly. She pulls back slightly and stares up at me with those giant brown eyes again. For her safety and mine, I release her and take a half step backward.

“Hm, yes,” I say convincingly. “We’ll do the nuclear family thing, as far as anybody knows. Roman and I will figure out what's really going on, you know… Those guys in the airport and whatnot. We’ll lay low for a while, the families will get together. And then we'll see.”

“We'll see what?”

“We’ll see what we will see,” I say, searching for words that make some kind of sense in some kind of order. I don't even know exactly what I'm trying to say here, I'm just trying to lighten the mood. “If it works out, great. If it doesn't…”

“Then we could stop?” she says with a little bit more hope in her voice than I was really wanting to hear.

Sighing, I nod. Okay. She's not on board. Well, what did I really expect? “Yes, Princess,” I assure her. “If it doesn't work, then we'll stop.”

I glance over my shoulder to see Roman glaring daggers at me. Maybe he didn’t really feel I was authorized to make that offer, but what am I gonna do? She’s staring at me like that, and I'm a little bit helpless. I’m just a man.

“Sounds good to me,” he growls, and stomps back out the doorway.

“So all that stuff about… About being owned and stuff? That was just, what? Just the way you guys talk or something?”

“Oh, no no no,” I chuckle, shaking my head. “We definitely own you, there's no mistake about that. That's all been arranged.”

“Well… Then I don't understand!” she says, her eyes flashing. She knuckles her hips and switches her weight to one side, scowling. “What kind of bullshit line is that anyway then? If it doesn't work out? What kind of a game are you playing, Alek?”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa! Easy, girl!” I say with my hands up. She really is at her best when she thinks she's being sassy. I'm going to try not to take advantage of that.

“Don't tell me to go easy girl!”

I shrug. “I'll say what I want. You’re really in no position to complain.”

“Christ. You are really a piece of work, you know that?”

“Yeah. I hear that one all the time, actually.”

“AAUGH!” she yells suddenly and stomps off. I find her standing in the kitchen, turning helplessly in a circle. There aren’t any boiling pots or knife arrays so I think we’re probably okay for the moment.

“Come on, Marie. Don’t be like that. Tell you what: I’ll put it another way. You be a good girl, be nice, be obedient. And I'll be a good boy. I'll be gentle, I'll protect you. Deal?”

Peering at me suspiciously, she purses her lips as though considering it. What's to consider? Is there a better deal on the table?

“For how long?"

“Oh, okay… Reasonable question. Let's say… Six months. You try it for six months. We’ll try it for six months. That should get everybody off your back who's interested in you and Roman being together. If it doesn't work? We'll figure something else out.”

She shakes her head, chuckling with no humor. “That's not how it works with us, Alek. Italians don't just split up. We don't divorce, nothing. That thing there, with the priest and all those people? That was serious business. We do not fuck around.”

Somehow, this makes me like her even more. Even with all her huffing and puffing, she has a clear sense of what she has to do and I know she’s going to do it. More importantly, she knows too.

In a weird way, she is just like us.

“And yet,” I point out, “here you are with two big strong Russian men in your house. You’ve already broken the rules, Princess.”

She opens her mouth to say something, then clamps her lips shut stubbornly.

“Yeah, that's what I thought,” I tell her. “You already know it. We've already broken so many rules, Princess, what's a few more?”

“This is crazy,” she says for the thousandth time, her hand fluttering up to her forehead as though rubbing at her scalp is going to somehow stir her thoughts back into sanity.

“Yes, totally,” I agree, and I finally let myself pull her into my arms again. It's like slaking a thirst to have her near me. I don't know what I'm going to do with myself if this feeling continues. It's going to be very difficult to control myself.

“You know, Roman might not tell you this, but he's really very happy.”

Knitting her eyebrows, she shakes her head. “He doesn't look happy.”

I tip my head from side to side. Every time I move, I can feel her body against my body shifting slightly. I know she can feel my cock getting harder, and I sort of wish it wasn't because I don't want to scare her off. Then again, I kind of like her when she’s scared too.