“As well as can be expected,” he complains. “Do you have an ETA?”
“Four hours,” I answer. We’re halfway across the Atlantic Ocean.
“I’ll have your driver meet you when you land,” Giovanni promises.
“Luca’s here,” I say.
“Luca!” Giovanni shouts.
From the other side of the plane, Luca hears his name. I hold out the phone and explain that I’m talking to Giovanni. Luca stands, climbs across the outstretched legs of the men between us, and takes the device from my hand.
He has a one-sided conversation with Giovanni in Italian. I can easily understand that he’s giving my brother a hard time for never learning the language. We spent summers in Italy when we were kids, and Giovanni never picked up Italian the same way I did. Everyone gave him a hard time for being monolingual, though I never joined in the insults.
Luca hands the phone back to me and returns to talk to my bride.
“Always busting my balls,” Giovanni grumbles.
“I’ve also got ten new men from the Rocca family.”
“Got it,” Giovanni says. “I’ll send more than one car.”
“Send three,” I command. “I want a private one for Marlena and me.”
“You got it,” Giovanni agrees.
“And I want you to assign a few more people to her detail,” I say, watching her interact with my cousin. I know her well enough by now to be worried about what she might do. I can’t watch her all the time, and I know she’s worried about her brother.
Part of the reason I took her to Italy in the first place was to discourage her from going off on her own looking for him. I know she thinks it’s her responsibility, but that will only get her in trouble. I want peace of mind knowing that she’s safe and not walking into the lion’s den. I’m not going to accuse her of lying to me. I just want to remove any temptation.
“No problem,” Giovanni agrees. “See you as soon as you land.”
I hang up and go back to my daydreaming. I think about Marlena and nothing else. I know there are probably tons of problems waiting for me back home. All the things that I left to Giovanni to take care of will need to be discussed. I’ll have to let all my capos know that I’m back in the country.
But none of those things are even remotely as interesting as the woman sitting across from me. I like the way her hair flows freely across her shoulders. I like the way her eyes light up when she smiles. I like the tiny, flirty dress she’s wearing, and wonder if it’s something she picked out or something that one of my shoppers bought for her.
I glance around the cabin to make sure no one else is too interested. But they’re all either sleeping or playing with their phones. There’s a card game going on in the rear of the plane, near the bathroom. And Luca is telling her some story about me as a kid.
It almost feels like paradise, except for this painful boner I have. I almost wish that this plane ride could last forever. I want to get back home so that I can get Marlena alone, but I know that there is a lot of business I’ll have to attend to first.
I tear my gaze away from her and look down at my phone. Maybe if I can answer a few emails and make some calls, it will minimize the work waiting for me when we land. I spend the rest of the flight buried in my device. There’s no end to the work, and I’m surprised when the pilot comes on the intercom to say that we’re starting our descent.
I check in with Marlena. She’s strapping her seatbelt on. Luca is nowhere in sight, and it takes me a minute to locate him in theback with the rest of the card players. I squandered a perfectly good opportunity to talk to my bride, and I kick myself.
She smiles, noticing my attention. That will never get old. I’ll never get tired of the warmth in her eyes. It’s something I don’t feel like I deserve, but I’ll fight to the death to defend.
The plane touches down, and we step outside. Marlena and I are first, as it doesn’t matter where we sat. Everyone moves aside so we can leave the plane at our leisure. I see my regular driver waiting beside a limo, and a collection of other smaller cars around him.
“We’ll touch base back at the mansion,” I tell Luca when he descends from the staircase.
“Right,” he agrees.
The muscle splits up into various cars, leaving Marlena and me alone at last. I help her into the backseat and take the added precaution of sliding the privacy window shut. There’s a lot of space for us to stretch out, and yet we’ve just gotten off an eight-hour flight.
Marlena takes her shoes off and puts her feet up on the opposite seat. Without even thinking, I pick one of them up and begin massaging it. The things I do for this woman amaze even me.
She moans with pleasure, which gets me thinking about all the other things we could potentially do in the limo. Of course, I need her permission, and I don’t want to pressure her by asking.
She does me a favor, and after I’ve fully destroyed the tension in her toes, she moves closer. I pretend not to notice, pouring a glass of champagne for each of us. She takes one sip of hers and then sets it down in the cup holder.
