Piers stood at the window, unable to sleep. He wanted to hear her voice, wanted to feel Hila Zaidi in his arms, hell, he wanted to take her, roughly, the way they always mated.The phone pinged as though it had heard his silent plea. He grabbed it and looked at the screen.“Wait for me in the Town House, pretty boy.”That was all. He sighed, raking his hand through his fair, tousled hair again,He needed a smoke. And he needed her.Without pausing to think, he called the security at the gate. He was leaving. He had to meet the woman he ached for. The woman who had saved them tonight. Striding out, he lit a cigarette and inhaled deeply, his jacket over his shoulder. He noted the lights under the doors of his twin sister and his younger brother, his lips twisting cynically.He had an urgent task to carry out now; he wanted Hila to meet his father. The approval of his Pappa was all that he craved and Hila had done something which had earned her the grudging admiration of the Don. Piers h
PiersHe reached the townhouse, entering the heavily guarded entrance and going up in the elevator gliding silently to the rooms at the top. The rooms on the third floor were reserved for the Mafia Don and his family. The second floor was where the Don held his meetings and his guests stayed if at all any were in attendance. Piers knew that an Aba sheikh and his attendants were occupying a few of the rooms; Pappa had some deal going on with them and he needed to keep them close. Hence the security as well. He frowned. How would Hila manage to get in?He need not have worried.Even as he shut the door, a figure stepped out from the darkness and an arm went around his throat. He chuckled softly,“Woman, are you trying to kill me?” he asked softly, unconsciously echoing his father’s way of addressing the woman he loved.He knew it was Hila; her scent, her natural body aroma, for she did not use any fancy perfumes, surrounded him and he groaned. He was tall and lithe but she came up to hi
Ria sat at the large table in her small office beside her Pappa’s in the Club.She had discovered that she was good at this, managing things. ‘A natural’, drawled Danielle in her husky, smoker’s voice when she came in from time to time, to supervise what the young woman was doing. Dani and Grace were thinking of adopting a child, Danielle having finally given in to her partner’s demand. So she was busy with the process although Grace was the one who was doing the actual work of meeting officials and running around.Ria smiled as she sent a mail to one of the suppliers, a caustic note reminding the man of how things were not happening fast enough. The fact that she was her father’s daughter with the clout of the Don behind her, led to most people responding double quick, she thought with a grin.Philippe put his head around the door and caught her dimpling at the screen of her laptop.“What’s funny, babe?’ he said, his voice a tender growl as he walked in, followed by Lou and Dom who h
Proserpina “Mumma, can I help with those?’ demanded a persistent voice at my elbow, and I sighed.It was Tara.I had baked a fresh batch of chocolate chip cookies for my boys who were home from their elite boarding school. But the entire batch I had baked the day before had been devoured.Now I sighed and turned to smile at Lou and Dom along with Tara, who had entered the kitchen. Tara came to me and began to help me.“Is it for Claude’s girl?’ asked Dom, who had no sense of decorum at times.I sighed. The boys were now almost as tall as me, as was Tara.“Help yourself, “I said drily, for I had seen the gleam in Dom’s eyes as he looked at the macaroons I had baked, the flavoured, delicate cookies sandwiched together with a creamy filling between them. After cooling them slightly on the baking sheet, we removed the cookies from their shells and paired them up according to their size. Tara and I had painstakingly sandwiched them together with ganache, buttercream, and jam filling to mak
HilaShe entered the house and was immediately assailed by the aroma of cooking; tempting, appetizing whiffs of food long-forgotten, wafted into her nostrils; familiar ones, nostalgic ones that brought back memories of sunny, laughter-filled afternoons with her family.Astonished, Hila turned to Piers instinctively. He grinned, his white teeth flashing in the dim corridor.“Mumma,” he said simply and that explained everything.The achingly familiar aroma of chicken in honey garlic, roasted for special Shabbos dinners by her mother when she was a small child in Israel, accompanied by honey-glazed carrots, tantalised her reminiscently. She sighed unconsciously and did not notice Piers sliding a quick, triumphant grin at her. Another familiar aroma: could it be…?Piers was hurrying her along the carpeted corridor, an urgent hand on the small of her back although she wanted to linger and savour those tantalising aromas. She knew the familiar aroma of lamb chops, as they basked in the deli
Hila “Thank you for saving my family,” said the Boss in his rasping baritone, leaning back in his chair, the narrow-eyed, hooded gaze never leaving her face.Hila met the steely gaze and tried not to flinch. The man carried an undeniable arrogance, a sense of power. Added to that, was the sexual aura about him, like a cloak that made women want to throw themselves at him, to be used by him, for she doubted that he knew what it meant to be tender, to be loving.No, this was a man who took women to bed to satisfy his urges, who would know how to be cruel, to punish. She wondered fleetingly what the equation between Pier’s mother and this massive, brooding man was like.Surely, despite having such a large brood of kids, he was not a man who knew how to love?, she thought as she studied the brutish-looking man before her.He was dressed impeccably, in a pale grey suit with the white shirt open to his waist, revealing a muscled, hirsute chest. But it could not detract from his underlying a
Hila She stood, unable to decide what was happening around her.The beautiful woman who had unhesitatingly gone close to the Boss, was years younger than him and was obviously pregnant. Once again? thought Hila incredulously, more kids? How did she do it and still retain that youthful, serene look?The lovely woman with her hair in a messy bun, made to follow the Boss but then stopped and smiled fondly at Hila.“Dear Hila,’ she said, her voice soft and melodious as she added,” Forgive our manners but we tend to be a little boisterous.’She gave Hila a quick hug and then left, her wide hips swaying as she hurried after the Mafia Don who stopped to thunder at her threateningly,“WOMAN!’She was sensuous, every inch of her, thought Hila in undisguised admiration, and most importantly, she had the Don eating out of her hands, despite his bluster. That figure was to die for, the swell of her full breasts and her softly rounded stomach, the wide hips, a body that kept the Maia Don wanting f
Hila She sat in the living room, listening to Ria and Tara as they made her feel at home. Piers and his brothers had left the room and Hila felt strangely comfortable in the company of the young women. Tara spoke about her life in Bhutan and Hila was curious to know more about this strange family. It was unlike any Mafiaso family she had seen.Ria smiled and joined in, stroking the old golden dog that lay at her feet. The shouts of the younger boys could be heard off and on and Hila relaxed for the first time in many yeas.*After a while, Piers re-entered.“Dinner, is served,” he said smiling and she stood up, surprised to see that it was almost two hours since they had entered the living room.Piers smiled again and they moved to the dining room where she saw that the large table was set for dinner with crystal and silverware.As she gaped, Piers said in a low voice, “Mumma wanted to do something special; to make you feel welcome.”Hila felt an unfamiliar burning behind her lids.