* * *
It’sa brisk spring morning when I step outside, but it’s less cold than it’s been recently, and I can sense the weather changing. Leo clears his throat, and I look over at him. He’s wearing a warm woolen coat over jeans and thick black boots. He offers me his hand. “Come. I have something for us to do.”
Intrigued, I take his hand, letting him guide me through the gardens around the back of our property. He moves toward Mama’s greenhouse, and I jerk on his hand, slowing him to a halt. “Be brave,dolcezza.” He fixes me with earnest eyes. “Do you trust me to have your best interests at heart?”
I nod immediately because I know he would never hurt me.
“Then, come.”
My heart is pounding in my chest as we approach the greenhouse and I see the supplies stacked outside. Leo spins around, taking both my hands in his. “You haven’t cooked anything since your mama passed. You haven’t been out here or to the vegetable patch or the herb garden. You loved all these things, Nat, and Mama Rosa would want you to take joy where you used to.”
“It reminds me too much of her,” I admit with the usual pain in my chest.
“Isn’t that all the more reason to do it?” he gently asks, squeezing my hands. “It’s Mateo’s twenty-second birthday next week. I know how much he would love you to bake him a cake. It would help him to stop worrying about you. Your papa too.”
“We could have a little party,” I blurt, my mind running with Leo’s idea. “Just a few of his friends.” My eyes narrow. “No girls.” I don’t trust myself not to launch at one of them if they even dared to throw eyes in Leo’s direction. “Your family and us.”
“That sounds perfect, and I know your brother would love it.”
We spend the rest of the morning outside, planting tomatoes and strawberry seeds in the greenhouse and tidying up the herb garden and the vegetable patch.
Using some of the produce already there, I make a hearty soup as a late lunch with some homemade bread. I haven’t had much of an appetite these past few months, and I know I have lost weight because most of my clothes are too big now.
But Leo is right.
Food was something Mama and I enjoyed together. Cooking and eating it, and I’m doing her an injustice by not taking care of myself. I need to work on my mental and physical well-being and try to find a way of living without the woman who was my greatest inspiration.
Papa and Mateo return from dealing with business and join us, and for the first time since Mama died, I feel a modicum of contentment.
* * *
“I need your mouth,”Leo whispers when we are seated in the back row of the movie theater after sharing a gorgeous meal at one of Leo’s favorite Italian restaurants in the city. We had to be on our best behavior in the homey restaurant, because it was too public, but hidden in the shadowy corner of a dark theater, we can be less discreet.
Still, that doesn’t mean I’m going to blow him for the first time here! We haven’t even discussed taking things to the next level, but I am ready for more. My mouth hangs open as I gawk at him. His chest rumbles with laughter as he pulls my face in close to his. “Get those dirty thoughts out of your head,dolcezza. I meant I want to kiss you.” My shoulders collapse in relief as I lean in toward him. His lips move to my ear. “Not that I’m opposed to your mouth on my cock, but I would never disrespect you by asking you to suck my dick in public.”
Lust pools in my belly, and I squirm in my seat. Tingles spread up and down my spine, and my cheeks heat.
He cups my face, amusement mixing with adoration in his eyes. “When we do that, I want to be in private with you so I can worship your body the way you deserve.” His smile expands as warmth explodes on my cheeks. “I’m going to make you feel so good,” he purrs in my ear before pulling back and peering deep into my eyes. “But only when you are ready.” He kisses the tip of my nose. “You are so precious to me,dolcezza. I hope you know that.”
Warmth expands across my chest at his words as I press my mouth to his for a quick kiss. “I know, and you are all that to me too.” I rest my forehead against his. “Thank you for being patient with me, Leo. For looking after me these past few months when I couldn’t look after myself.”
“I will always take care of you, my love. Always.”
18
Natalia
“Mateo was in a good mood on Saturday,” Frankie says to me on Monday, as we exit the school cafeteria after lunch.
“He was. It was good to see him looking happy again.” I wasn’t the only one who sank into depression after Mama died. My brother is like a shell of himself. He has thrown himself into work and stopped the partying and the whoring. Papa is pleased, and that in turn pleases Mateo. But he’s miserable, and I’m glad my little party helped to cheer him up. Even if it was only temporary.
“It’s good to see you looking better too,” my bestie adds, linking her arm through mine.
“Leo is right. I need to make more of an effort, and I’m wasting the precious little freedom I have left.” While I haven’t seen Carlo Greco since the day of Mama’s funeral, I know it’s only a temporary reprieve. I graduate in two months, and I’m sure he’ll be beating a path to my door then, insisting on naming the day. Mateo told me Papa asked the Grecos if they would delay the wedding until I am twenty-one so I could attend NYU, but Don Greco declined.
Bastardo.
It took all the joy out of my acceptance to the prehealth program—which is the premed track at NYU—under the early decision application process. I found out three weeks ago I have a place. I enrolled anyway, in the hope of a last-minute miracle, but it’s unlikely Carlo will permit me to attend. I expect he’ll want to keep me chained to the kitchen and the bedroom, and I can’t imagine I’ll have many liberties.
