Damiano “That’s enough for today.” I told her after watching her fire the last bullet. Althaia let out a breath and rolled her shoulders from constantly tensing her body. She would definitely be sore after today. I watched her as she made sure there were no more bullets in the gun and the magazine before putting the safety back. I was impressed by her. She was a fast learner and fast with her hands. I had no doubt she would be great in no time as long as we kept practicing. “You did well.” I smiled, taking the gun from her as we made our way back to the table. “You think so?” She asked excitedly and I gave her a nod. “Better than Arianna when I was teaching her.” She let out a small gasp and smiled big. “No way! I am so going to throw that in her face. Who knows, maybe I will even be better than you. Better watch out, Damiano, I am coming for your throne.” Althaia chuckled. “Sorry to burst your bubble, love, but that’s not going to happen. Though I wouldn’t mind having you by my
Althaia “Hold the fuck up!” I shouted when I saw Luca and Giovanni pulled out their knives. “Why do you have a knife when I am completely unarmed?” “You stole fifty thousand from me. I’m here to teach you a lesson.” Luca had his crazy look on. I stared at him, feeling uneasy when I remembered him telling me how he loved to cut into people’s skin. “I won that money fair and square.” I let out a nervous laugh. “No.” He stepped closer to me, and I just blinked a couple of times, shifting around my feet as I had no idea if he was being serious or taking the piss on me. “Come on, Luca! You can’t be serious. Put the knife away.” I scowled and crossed my arms. “No.” He gave me a maniac smile, coming closer to me. My eyes widened and I uncrossed my arms, taking several steps back. What the fuck was I supposed to do? How was I supposed to fight them when they were armed and I was utterly defenseless? I looked at Damiano, seeing him observing us with his arms crossed and expression comp
Damiano “How come you want to train me all of sudden?” Althaia asked as I drove. “It’s just that you didn’t seem too happy about when Arianna wanted to train me.” “I know. At the time, Arianna had pointed out it would be for the best to train you after the night of the auction. I didn’t want to realize it back then, thinking I would be able to protect you at all times….” I frowned as I remembered back to it, seeing her covered in blood and looking completely lost. “I had to come to terms with I wouldn’t be able to control everything. And she was right. If I train you, at least I will know you would be able to defend yourself and stand a chance.” I said. That night when I found her in the woods haunted me for weeks. The way her body fell limp against my body, and the blood that kept flowing from between her legs had me freeze on the spot for the first time in my life. It all felt too familiar. The way Sienna had died in my arms, and now I had Althaia in my arms, fearing she woul
Althaia The sound of my stomach rumbling woke me up, reminding me just how hungry I actually was. I rubbed my eyes as I slowly sat up on the bed. I looked around with my tired eyes, seeing it was completely dark in the bedroom. I looked next to me on the bed but was met with an empty space. “Damiano?” I called out after him but got no response. I called again and listened for any movement in the house, but it was as quiet as it could be. Weird. Where did he go? I turned on the lamp on the nightstand next to me, seeing a small note attached to it. Come and find me. - The Devil. I found myself smiling at the note. Looked like someone was in a playful mood tonight. Either that or he got bored when I was asleep. I looked at the time, seeing I had been asleep for a good two hours. I scrunched up my face when I realized I had been sleeping for a long time and he definitely got bored. I was still naked, having me wonder if I fell asleep in the hot tub. It was too relaxing and I
AlthaiaI felt the world stop, and my heart was about to burst out of my chest as I looked at him.Damiano was down on one knee, smiling so beautifully as I got lost in his eyes that gleamed with endless love.“You have no idea how much you have affected my life. When I first saw you, you took my breath away. I thought you were the most beautiful woman I have ever seen. And I still do every time I look at you. You are my fire who saved me from the depth of the cold darkness. You are the reason for my existence. You are my innocent woman who blessed my eyes with her beauty and hypnotized me with her eyes. You are the beautiful love of my life. Althaia… Will you marry me?”My eyes welled up with tears. I was too stunned to say anything, barely believing my eyes that this was happening right now. I took a sharp intake of breath, forgetting to breathe for a moment. My heart was beating uncontrollably and tears ran down my face.There was no one else I would want to be with.There was no o
Althaia We were still lying outside when the sky started to brighten. I pulled the blanket up closer to my chest while resting my head on Damiano’s chest, his hand caressing my back as I went back to admiring the ring on my finger. I was on cloud nine. I looked up at Damiano and he was already looking at me with a smile while he was playing with my hair. “I was just thinking when did you get to place such a unique order.” I said and held up my hand to show the gigantic oval-shaped diamond ring. He must have planned this weeks ahead to get the ring handcrafted on time. “I placed the order while you were visiting your father. I went to retrieve it when you were still sleeping.” “You can get it done that fast?!” I asked in surprise. “You can say I’m kind of well-known around here. It has its perks and things get done a lot faster that way.” Damiano gave a cheeky wink, making me laugh. “Right, being the biggest fearing Mafia Don makes you only ‘kind of well-known’. People hear the
Althaia “I thought you got kidnapped! I was about to send out a search party! But then Lorenzo told me Damiano took you to Italy. You could have said something!” Cara scolded me with a frown as I watched her all cuddle up in bed while we were facetiming. I was outside by the pool, sunbathing and drinking my beloved iced coffee when I decided to call Cara but I had forgotten about the timezone. “I didn’t even know he was taking me to Italy to meet his family. He made it a surprise.” I tried to explain to her. “You could have sent a text or something.” She continued to sulk. “I’m sorry, but I’ve been kind of busy these days.” “Oh, yeah, I can see you’re so busy looking fucking hot while sunbathing in Italy.” Her sarcasm had me giving her a blank look. “Busy with what? Fucking Damiano all day?” “That too.” I wiggled my brows before we burst out laughing. “I’ve been getting my ass kicked a lot lately. Damiano has been training me and Giovanni and Luca showed me absolutely no mercy
Althaia“I must admit, it is some exceptional wine.” Mr. Roberts complimented as he tasted the different wines.Chiarina and Vico had done an amazing job in touring us around the vineyards and explained everything in detail on how they harvest the wine grapes and when to harvest them. I was so intrigued by it all and I got even more fascinated when they explained how they measured the sugar, acid, and tannin levels to base the style of wine they wish to produce.“However, I’m not sure if I like the wine bottles. They are a little dull to my taste.” He commented and took a look at the bottles. Damiano and I shared a look and I mentally rolled my eyes as Mr. Roberts had been trying to drive the price down by finding ridiculous excuses. Such as how he finds the wine bottles boring. And I found it hilarious how Damiano pretended not to hear him by checking his watch every time he made such comments. It was obvious Mr. Roberts wanted the products, he just didn’t want to pay the full price.