A new home

Mia's POV

We stop in front of a huge mansion. I am sure if Riccardo gives me trouble, I can hide from him for weeks without him finding me. I will not be surprised if my bodyguards are with me all day. I get out of the car before the driver can open my door. I wouldn't say I like that they treat me like I am the lady of the house. I will only stay here until I have reached my goal and paid back Riccardo. I know Riccardo does not respect women and never will because of what one woman did to him. 

"Your room will be next to mine. I wouldn't say I like to let my girlfriends sleep too far away from me. Also, I wouldn't like it when someone cheats on me. I will kill you if you try to do that," Riccardo says. 

"Who the hell will I cheat on you with? The man on the moon? You know your clan will never betray you and that everyone is scared to death of you. You have put your damn mark on me, and no man will even think of looking at me. Even men not in the Mafia will not try to cross the mighty Riccardo Marino," I say sarcastically. 

"That is true, but I want to warn you not to do anything you will regret later. I do not trust you because I still do not know if you are like your parents," Riccardo says. I sigh. I swear this man will drive me nuts before this day ends. Damn, he is always so severe, and he has been threatening me all day. I want to get to my room and rest. It has been a long day. I am used to eating once a day, so food does not bother me. I want nothing to eat and want to go to bed early. It is already late. The housekeeper shows me my room, and I am about to take a shower when a servant comes to call me. 

"Donna, dinner is ready, and the Don asks you to join him at the table," She says. She is about my age, and I can see she is a little shy. I better make friends in this house, or I will have a hard time. 

"Thank you, but can you tell the Don I am not hungry, and you can call me Mia," I say with a smile. The poor girl looks like she is going to have a stroke. 

"You are Donna Costa! I can never call you by your name, Donna. The Don will shout at me if I show up at the dining room without you, Donna. Will you please come with me? I am still new to this job, and honestly, the Don is scary," The young girl says. 

"What is your name?" I ask. 

"Lucia, Donna," She says. 

"I will go with you, Lucia, but only because I know how rude the Don can be. He is our Godfather, but damn, he can be rude and mean," I smile. Lucia looks relieved, and she smiles back at me. 

"Thank you, Donna. Unlike the other woman who comes here occasionally, you are so kind. She acts like she owns this house," Lucia says. I wonder who it is and if she will be coming around now that I am supposed to be Riccardo's mistress. I am ready to tell Riccardo that I am not hungry. We ate on the plane, and I am not a big eater, and a little food makes me full. We walk to the dining room, where Riccardo, Aria, and an older lady await us. Riccardo gets up and plants a kiss on my cheek. He pulls out a chair for me, and I sit down. 

"Mother, this is Mia, and she is my girlfriend. Mia, this is my mother, Sienna," Riccardo says. 

"Hello, Mia. It is good to meet you," Sienna says. She is Riccardo and Aria's mother as they take after their mother. 

"Hello, Donna Marino. It is nice to meet you," I say. 

"So what did Riccardo do to you to make you pretend you are his girlfriend," Sienna says. She is not stupid and sees right through our little show. 

"I do not have to buy myself girlfriends, mother," Riccardo says. 

"She is too young. You like experienced women, and I see the women that show up at your house, Ricci," Sienna says. 

"Her father stole from Ricci, and now she has to pay for it," Aria says. Riccardo glares at Aria. 

"My private life has nothing to do with you two," Riccardo says. I am in the middle of a family feud, and I wouldn't say I like it. 

"As long as you fall in love with her and marry her. I have two useless children that can not give me any grandchildren. It is time you two get married and give me grandchildren," Sienna says. 

"Umm, do I have a say in this?" I ask. 

"Oh, child, I am so sorry. Let me get you some food," Sienna says before I can protest, she grabs my plate and load it with food. 

"Wow, that is a lot of food," I say. I swallow hard. How am I going to eat all of that food? 

"Mia, you are too thin. If you want healthy babies, you need to fatten up," Sienna says. She sounds like a typical Italian mother. She sounds like my mother when she talks to my sister. My mother will never speak to me that way as I am unimportant to her. I sigh. 

"You do not have to eat all the food, Mia. Just eat until you are full," Aria comes to my rescue.

"Yeah, I was wondering if I will get half of it in my stomach," I say. I am still looking worried. 

"Try to eat as much as possible. Ricci, I will not stand for what you are doing to Mia! She is a person, not a thing. You need to love and protect her while she is in your house. I do not want to see those plastic dolls show up at your house anymore! Mia is now the woman of this house," Sienna says. I do not want to be the woman of this house. I want to go to my room and work on my cell phone game. I will work all night because the faster I leave this house, the better for me. I do not want Riccardo's mother forcing us to have a baby. I want to finish eating as fast as possible to escape this crazy family. 

"I am exhausted. May I go to bed? It was a long day today," I say. I know I will need servers on which to run my game, and I need to get them as soon as possible. Now that I have the funds, I can put the servers up and start running my game. I have everything in place. All the paperwork is done. I did it a while ago with the money I have saved, so all I need to do now is put up all the servers. As the game grows, I will need bigger servers and people to operate them. I know I am dreaming big, but as soon as I get this going, I do have a team of geeks in New York that will help me to run the servers, and they will get us a big place to rent with a lot of servers, for now, I need to start small and with only a few servers to run the game and that I can handle myself. I have a few friends. Well, not friends, more like people with the same interests that are tech-savvy, and I trust them. They are all girls, and we want our company to only consist of women. One day I want to write video games for all platforms. The team I have helped me to write the cell phone game, and they know that I will never forget them if I make it big. 

"You may go," Ricci says. He looked at my plate, and I looked down at my food, and I realized I had eaten more than I thought I could. 

"Maybe I was hungrier than I thought," I say shyly. 

"Yeah, I can see that," Ricci says. Now they have me calling the bloody monster Ricci in my head. 

"Good night, everyone. I hope you all have a good night's rest," I say as I get up and prepare to go to my room.

"Good night, darling. Sleep well," Sienna says. The other two mumbles good night, and I do not even want to know what they will talk about when I leave. I do not care. All I want is to get away from this weirdness and go and work on my plans. I need to get my friends to instead run the server for me. I do not want Riccardo to know what I am up to and how I plan on getting his money back. Yes, I will send them the money to do what they need to. I know they will not let me down. 

I reach my room and call Dora, one of the girls. We discuss the game, and I pay the money into her account. On the plane, Riccardo gave me all the passwords to my father's business accounts, and I changed them. The bank and credit cards are all canceled. The only way to do business now is via internet banking. Dora can not wait to get the servers up and running and launch our game. I did most of the work and am giving the funds, I get fifty percent of the profits we make, and they will share the other fifty percent. I am sure it will be one hell of a success, as I know the potential of my game. Cell phone games are big these days, and people spend money playing them. I am happy now that I got things on a roll. Dora will keep me up to date with how they are doing. I have sent her all the files on the game. There is a knock on my door. I shout that it is open. I have already showered after talking to Dora and can not believe how big my room is and how comfortable my bed is. 

"I wanted to check if you are settled in," Riccardo says from the door. I was lying in the sexy lingerie Aria gave me to wear, and I could feel Riccardo's eyes go over my body. I thought Aria was knocking and did not expect it to be Riccardo. I jump off the bed and then dive under the covers. 

"I am fine," I say. My face is on fire, and I know I am red like a tomato. 

"I can see that. You looked relaxed," Riccardo says, and for the first time, I see him smile. I know it is at my expense, but damn, that smile makes me weak in the knees. Why does the devil always have to be so damn sexy? No woman can resist a smile like that. It feels like Riccardo can read my mind as he walks slowly to my bed. Oh hell, no! I keep the cover to my chin and hold on for dear life. He must not think he can seduce me. I am still a virgin, and I am not planning on giving this devil my virginity. Damn, I have not even had my first real kiss yet. Riccardo bends over and kisses me on my lips. I try to keep my mouth shut, but he is a master at kissing, and before I know what I am doing, I let him kiss me. My lips part under his, and although I do not know how to french kiss, it comes naturally as he leads me into a very dangerous kiss. He let go of me with that damn sexy smile still on his lips. I want more, but I know I can not give in to him. 

"Damn, you! You stole my first kiss," I say. Riccardo laughs. 

"You are not as immune against me as you thought, la mia, Mia," Riccardo says. 

"I was not enjoying it. I only let you kiss me because I do not want to look like a fool when we kiss in public for the first time," I lie. 

"Keep telling yourself that, little one. Sleep well. I hope you have sweet dreams," Riccardo says. He laughs softly as he walks out of my room. Even his laugh is sexy. Damn, this man is dangerous to my heart. I can not let my guard down around him again. I can not fall in love with him as I know he is only using me, and it will be stupid of me to fall for him and the games he likes to play. I will not be like other women and give him the satisfaction of knowing that I am in love with him and he can do with me whatever he wants.