He nodded once and then grinned at me.
Rocco’s secretary became still. Watching him. She watched him until he turned his eyes toward her. “That’s all for my fiancé and I.”
She nodded, fixed her hair, and then smiled at him. She tucked the list against her chest when he turned away without a response. I watched her until she closed the door behind her. She was an attractive brunette, runway ready. Giada, Rocco had called her. She was someone I’d expect with Capo. She’d look right on his arm.
Giada & Capo.Their names even seemed right together.
Rocco suggested that we continue the meeting until the food was delivered. I couldn’t have agreed more.
I lifted my hand, like I was in school. “I want exclusive rights to you,” I said. “Starting now.”
“You will have to explain that in more detail, Mari,” Rocco said, shifting some papers around.
“She means,” Capo said, a slight grin touching his eyes. “She wants us to be exclusive. Right now.”
“A little ahead of me,” Rocco said, and I could hear the grin in his voice. Capo and I were staring at each other. “We were going to discuss this next.”
“However many times Capo wants to take me out on date night is fine by me.” I waved a hand. “Let it be a surprise, just not three times a week. But I’m ready to discuss these terms now.”
“We have arrived at exclusivity due to the lady’s urgings.” Rocco flipped a few more papers. He grinned again. I think he found me amusing. “Since you have declared your feelings on the matter of the two of you being exclusive, we know where you stand, but I feel it best to discuss the matter in detail. If you would rather not be intimate with Capo, you cannot expect him to be celibate. He would take lovers, but would be discreet, of course.”
“Discreet,” I murmured. “Of course.” And I’d be made a fool of. And even worse, I didn’t like the idea of the brunette secretary slipping in and out of his room while I slept next door, or wherever.
Rocco nodded. “Mari, you would have to be discreet—”
“No,” Capo said. “No one touches my wife but me.”
The room became exceptionally quiet. When I turned to look at Rocco, he was staring at Capo. Rocco’s face rarely showed any emotion, but Capo’s response seemed to take him by surprise. He wasn’t expecting that.
Was it not a big deal before? I had no reason to think they hadn’t discussed a few points of the terms ahead of time. I could tell which ones when Capo became firm on a few things before I even had a chance to think them through.
“It’s settled then,” I said. “No one touches me. No one touchesyou.”
“Esclusiva.Esclusivo.” Rocco wrote on his paper.
“Are you a virgin, Mari?” Capo asked.
“Why?” I blurted out. “Will it make my price go up? I don’t think it can. I mean, you’ve already offered me everything, money wise, as long as I don’t leave.”
I didn’t like the way Capo looked at me. He was trying to dig the information out by sheer will alone. Did he expect me to be experienced because I was a poor girl on the streets?Oh, that’s right, I thought cynically, I basically went to his club looking to sell my body for a dollar. Turned out, I was about to sell my secret in return for my life.
“Does it matter?” I tried one last time.
“It matters to me,” Capo said. “Your answer will direct our first time together.”
Direct our first time together?What did that even mean? He’d be rough with me if I weren’t a virgin?
I stood from my seat, the first time since I’d attempted to walk out on him, and went to the window. The view from this high up was dizzying. New York seemed so beautiful at this height, when your feet couldn’t touch the ground.
“I don’t know,” I said, my voice barely above a whisper.
“You don’t know,” Capo repeated. I could imagine his face, his dark eyebrows drawing in.
Silence washed over the room. After a little time, he asked me to explain.
“I don’t know!” I said a little louder. “When I was sixteen, I was fostered by a rich family. Political. He...would touch me. It didn’t go as far as sex, because I left before it could. I refused to let him dothatto me. Keely helped me get a fake ID, and I worked odd jobs wherever I could. I slept at shelters. Sometimes at Keely’s when her Mam would allow it.
“I kept my head down so I wouldn’t get sent back to foster care. I avoided the cops, too, until I was old enough to legally be on my own. He did things to me, though, things I’d rather not discuss. I’m sure you’re both smart enough to understand why I really…don’t know if I’m a virgin or not. But I am clean. A man hasn’t touched me before or since. I never had the time to worry about a relationship, but even if I did, I never thought I’d want to be touched again.”
