I had to stifle a smile at Gemma’s played demureness. As if this wasn’t what she’d been praying for. I got it, though. She didn’t want to hurt Mick’s feelings. He looked butt hurt and pissed. Maybe I really should have had qualms doing this, but it was the only option, and he should be glad he got off this easy. Because I would have definitely killed him before watching him take Gemma into a room for their wedding night. If anyone popped that cherry, it was going to be me.
“Then it’s settled?” Remo asked with his usual impatience, one dark eyebrow raised at Mick. He still looked like he wanted to refuse this fight. However, with everyone watching and in front of his Capo, he would have lost his face.
He nodded, then sought his father’s gaze as if he was hoping the man would come to his aid, but he seemed content to let go of Gemma. That didn’t really come as a surprise. The Carlucci women threw more money out of the window for clothes than some European monarchs. Mick needed to marry someone who came with a wad of cash to fund his sisters’ and mother’s expensive taste.
A few of the men began sparring, but Mick cornered me before I could go talk to Daniele and Diego, and most importantly, to Gemma.
His skin was still flushed, and he looked angrier than I’d ever seen him. He was usually a chilled guy. Not much for conflict or violence unless absolutely required. “You are an asshole, Savio. Did you begrudge me getting a girl before you for once?”
“You would have never gotten her if I’d been in the play.”
“You could have asked for her hand, why didn’t you?”
“Are you telling me you aren’t man enough to face me in the cage, Michelangelo?” I asked quietly.
Mick and I had been friends for years, never as close as Diego and I, but losing his friendship wasn’t something I risked lightly. But fuck, Gemma was worth it.
“That’s not the point. I agreed, didn’t I? But you are playing dirty. As a Falcone, you know you have to win.”
“I’m not playing, Michelangelo. I’m going to beat you in a fair fight. The only reason why my name matters is because fighting runs in our blood, it’s ingrained in our nature. I don’t fear pain, or a brutal fight, never have, never will. Can you say the same?”
He scoffed.
“We both know she wants me, not you, Mick.”
He didn’t say anything ,only glared. It was the truth. He knew it as well as I did. I didn’t get how any man could be excited about marrying a woman who didn’t want him. The idea of spending my life with a wife who thought of something else while I fucked her made my skin crawl. “You could have asked me to back off and give her to you without a fight.”
I raised my eyebrows. “If you’d given her up that easily, you deserve her even less than I thought.” Not to mention that it would have cast a bad light on Gemma if Mick would have broken off the engagement. This way she’d look like a sought-after bachelorette—which she was despite her family’s dismal financial situation. Money wasn’t an issue though. I’d always choose protecting Gemma over saving Mick’s hide. He was a big boy. He could deal. His father would find someone else for him to marry soon enough and then he’d forget about this.
I walked past him, done with the conversation. This discussion would end once and for all in the cage in three days, and after that, the hottest girl in Vegas would be mine.
I approached Gemma, Diego, and Daniele. None of them appeared happy about the situation. “Your interest in my daughter comes as a surprise,” Daniele said, disapproving. “I hope you’re aware of the weight of your decision. This is about marriage.”
I smiled tightly. “I know what’s at stake, don’t worry.” My eyes found Gemma whose cheeks were still pink, but her expression was perfectly controlled.
“Can I have a word with Gemma?”
“No,” Diego snapped. “Not until you’ve won that fight. You can already start practicing patience. You’re going to need it until the wedding.”
“Of course.”
Gemma had been checking me out and she was curious about my bull tattoo. I doubted she’d make me wait until our wedding night to sink myself into her pussy. Diego and Daniele didn’t need to know that though.
She avoided looking at me. I had to stifle a smile at her embarrassment. I couldn’t wait to drive the demureness out of her. In the fighting ring she showed how she could kick ass, I wanted her to be this tough outside of it as well.
“You’re in a sickeningly good mood,” Remo said with a scowl when we settled at the dining room table that evening with the entire family. Only Adamo was still working for Luca in New York, hadn’t even come back for Kiara giving birth to Massimo, nor would he return to celebrate his own birthday with us in a few days.
“How did it go?” Serafina asked before I could say anything. Of course, Remo had told his wife about my plan.
“Are you really going to fight for Gemma’s hand?” Kiara asked wide-eyed while she rocked three-month-old Massimo against her chest. Nino was trying to feed Alessio. Serafina was cutting the spaghetti for Greta while Remo tried to stop Nevio from getting up to play.
Fuck. Only a few years ago, my brothers and I would have spent the evening with pizza, booze, and a few hookers for entertainment. Now hookers were banned from the mansion, even from my wing. Instead the little monsters started to outnumber us slowly.
“Don’t tell me you’re getting cold feet already?” Serafina taunted me with a knowing expression. She might look like an angel with her blonde hair and fair skin, but she was far from angelic.
I smirked. “Even after winning the fight, that doesn’t mean I’ll have to marry Gemma soon. It only means I’m the one who’s getting her.”
“Her parents probably want her to marry once she turns eighteen,” Nino drawled.
That was in less than two years. Eighteen months to be exact and never going to happen. I heaped spaghetti on my plate, shaking my head. “I’m going to tell Daniele that I want to wait for Gemma to finish college before I marry her. That should give me at least three more years.”
Everyone stared at me as if I’d grown a second head.
“I doubt her family will allow her to go to college, considering it’s not common in traditional families,” Nino said.
“My word’s going to be law once we’re engaged. If I want my fiancée to go to college, then she’s going to go.”
Serafina’s brows shot up. “You want to wait five more years to get into a girl’s pants?”
I chuckled. “Nobody said anything about that. I want to wait with marriage, not with sex.”
“Sex!” Nevio shouted, flashing his little devil smile.
Remo narrowed his eyes at me. As if the kid was learning the bad words only from me. He used the words fuck and pussy more often than I did.
“She’s only sixteen,” Kiara said worriedly.
“I realize that,” I said, getting annoyed with their interrogation. “I didn’t say anything about getting into her pants right away. I can wait.”
“Really?” Serafina asked.
“There are enough other girls around who can keep me entertained.”
“Gemma will be ecstatic to hear that, I’m sure.” Serafina’s voice dripped with sarcasm.
It was a miracle that Remo hadn’t throttled his wife by now. She was a piece of work.
“Her upbringing has been traditional. Her family is one of the most traditional in the Camorra. If you coerce the girl to sleep with you before your wedding night, that will cause trouble I’m not in the fucking mood for, get it?” Remo said.
“Nobody has to know. It’s my and Gemma’s business what we do when we’re alone.”
Nino shook his head in disapproval. “You assume she wants to break with her traditions, but that might not be the case.”
“We’ll see.” They hadn’t seen how Gemma looked at me. Maybe her upbringing had been traditional, but her body still functioned like everyone else’s.
“I’m going to say this only once,” Remo said. “Once you win this fight, you’re going to marry that girl, and if you pop her cherry before the wedding night, you better make sure nobody finds out, or I’m going to castrate your bull. Got it?”
I flashed him a grin. His expression remained stone. “Don’t worry.”
“Pop cherry?” Nevio said to Greta, who smiled in return.
Serafina sighed and sent me another scathing look.
“It wasn’t me. You can blame your husband.”
“It’s a waste of time. You two do what you want anyway,” she said.
“That’s right.” And it would stay that way. No engagement or marriage would shackle me down. Gemma was too in love with me to control my life like Serafina and Kiara did with my brothers.
Toni came over the same night. We had too much to discuss handling it over the phone.
“This is so bad boy of him,” Toni whispered, almost beside herself from excitement. I wasn’t even sure who of us was more excited. Toni never liked to fight herself, but watching the cage fights in the Arena, that was her thing. One day she’d follow in her father’s footsteps and manage the Arena, that was clear.