ELENA'S POV It was already 6 pm and I wore soft slippers as I padded down the stairs for dinner.“You're done?” Luca asked from downstairs as he set the table.Just something that I was yet to get used to again. He cooked, cleaned, and did most of his stuff by himself. Why? What was the maid for then?The said maid was standing there and bringing a tray of empty glasses and a bottle of wine.“Ma'am…” the maid said bowing in respect as she sighted me.“Rosa, how's it going?”, I asked her kindly, feeling a sense of connection to the 19-year-old maid.She smiled and placed the tray down. “Great. I shall retire now”, she said bowing respectfully to both of us before quietly retiring.I still didn't get her. She was so kind yet so quiet.“She doesn't talk much” Luca offered sending me a soft smile.I nodded and sat down at the table as he put a plate in front of me.“So uh, what about Enrico?” I suddenly asked Luca who was about to pour me a glass of wine stopped and forced a smile.“Do
LUCA'S POV I immediately went up to my room and jammed the door, anger brewing through me.What in the nine fucks was wrong with me? It wasn't my first time around a woman as beautiful as she was so why was I getting worked up over it?It was due to the fact that I hadn't touched a woman for so long but it also felt weird because I didn't know if it was just a physical attraction or if I was truly intrigued by her.Sighing, I pulled my shirt over my head and tossed it on the bed without sparing it another glance.My hands hovered over my phone resting on my table and I contemplated leaving the house for a few hours to clear my head. Maybe I could go out for a ride on my bike or I should just fuck it and go to bed.Tough choice.I was about to pick up my phone and call someone when there was a knock on the door.“Elena?” I asked to be sure even though I knew she was the only one who could be there. Rosa had since retired to her room and even if she hadn't, she wouldn't come up to my r
ELENA'S POV I heard muttering.“No…” the muttering was close to me.I froze and remembered that I was in Luca's room.Stirring in bed, I realized his arms were holding me tight and his face was nuzzled into my hair.“Luca…?” I whispered in the dark as I tried to stand up but his strong arms didn't move.He was having a nightmare.“No…” his breathing had become shallow and he was squeezing me tighter.“I didn't do it…” he whispered, his voice stressed as he mumbled a few things.I quickly twisted myself out of his grip and he rolled over to his side and his face squeezed in pure distress as his head lolled from side to side.I was confused, I had never been in this position and I had no idea what to do. I cursed and tapped him gently “Luca?” I whispered, my palms sweaty.He stirred but didn't wake up, his face squeezing up “Luca!” My voice gained tempo as I hit him lightly on his arm.He didn't even flinch and it seemed like it was getting worse by the way his breathing quickened an
LUCA'S POV I stumbled out of the house, trying to keep my calm as a guard opened my door for me and I got in.Viper who had become my new driver whenever I didn't feel like driving, slipped into the driver seat, ready to go but I didn't want to go anywhere.“Out” I simply said from the back where I sat He turned his neck around. “sir?”“Get out” I repeated, my temper rising.He quickly got out of the car, closing the door silently so as not to tip my anger into fury.My phone vibrated in my pocket, I wanted to ignore it but it was coming from my private line which was only connected to my mum so I just picked up the call and put it to my ear “Yes, mum?” I asked, my voice softening.However, it wasn't her “Mum?” The person repeated and I frowned. Elena. Oh right, I had given her my private line.“Oh, Elena. I didn't realize that you were the one…” I looked at her number which I had saved as “little wife”, and sighed.“Well, I am. Where the hell are you?” She didn't sound angry that
ELENA'S POV His face betrayed no emotion as I walked out on him.As I entered my room to quickly brush and take a shower, I knew one thing already.This was stupid.This little game that we were playing was purely stupid but he was the one who was giving me a green light sometimes and then giving me a red light later.It was annoying and I wanted to scream at him, to tell him that if we at least wanted this fake relationship to work out then we would have to know how to get used to the other person. We needed to connect on a deeper level if we were going to fake this marriage perfectly but he was a mystery that refused to be solved.I deliberately took my time to get ready as I sat in front of the mirror, slowly dragging the comb through my hair after blow-drying it. My mind wandered back to this morning when he had that nightmare. He was scared of something, traumatized and as I remembered what he was muttering about, I realized that he must have been accused of doing something he
ELENA'S POV It was something that should never be voiced out. My heart had fluttered as I looked at him and it didn't feel wrong, it felt right, too right.I just gulped and looked down at my fingers that I was knotting in my lap.He kept driving and after an hour or so, he pulled the vehicle into the parking lot of our destination and he looked back at me.“I told you not to worry, we're here” he muttered as he got down and opened the door for me.He helped me get out of the car, his hand resting on the small of my back as he leaned in closer, his hot breath tickling my face.“We're now in public Elena. Stay close to me and stay in character, you're my wife and I expect you to behave like that, okay?” He asked.I tried to calm my racing heart as I quickly nodded and pulled back.Whatever this strange fluttery feeling was, I needed to get rid of it.He looked me over, his eyebrows furrowed as though he was thinking about something and then he nodded.“Good. Now let's go” He said, no
LUCA'S POVThose eyes. Those brown eyes that stared up at me when I asked her if she trusted me. She could be a goddamn good actress or she could have really meant what she said. I had given her reason to trust me but I didn't want her to. I needed her to understand that I wasn't the type of person she could trust. I had told her but even I could not stay away from her.She was tapping her feet nervously against the floor and I gently placed a hand on her leg, she flinched and looked at me with a confused look in her eyes.“Calm down” I muttered to her.She huffed and looked back at Doctor Giovanni who was still checking some files on his table while humming to himself.At last, he looked back at her and smiled. “Yes, Elena. Sorry for the waiting, I was just checking a few things to see if they correspond” He apologized.She nodded, her hands knitting on her pleated skirt.As she was staring at him and waiting for him to begin, my eyes wandered all over her slim petite body. Beautiful
ELENA'S POV “Where are we going?” I asked for the umpteenth time as he opened the car door for me. His escorts got into their respective cars and Luca got into the driver's seat. “A place of mine,” he said again vaguely as he put on the ignition and backed out of the hospital premises. “I'm hungry” I muttered with a huff as I stared out of the window. He sighed and kept his eyes on the road though he looked distant. “Then we'll stop and get some food, sound good?” “Yeah. I want a burger and a coke” I said, giving him a side glance. “That's junk food” He muttered back. “Well, that's what I want” I shot back. I was being stubborn but after the little stunt he pulled that morning, I was mad at him and mad at myself for becoming this worked up over it. “It’s not good for your health, Elena” Irritation was beginning to creep into his tone as he spoke. I huffed and leaned back in my seat. “I ate junk food all the time before I got married to you so going out once in a while is no
ELENA'S POV“Kill her…”“We should have killed her when we had the chance”“Kill her now”They all advanced towards me with their guns at the ready.No, no. Make it stop.I wanted to scream, to open my mouth but no sound came out, I was all alone.“He's not here to save you now”“You can't even live without him”“Weakling”One of the men with the dark eyes raised his gun, his face quite hazy as he squeezed the trigger.I screamed immediately, thrashing about when someone held me tightly.“Elena?!” The voice sounded distant yet so familiar and the person was holding meNo, they wanted to kill me.I tossed about in the strong person's hold until I was tired.“Calm down. It's just a dream” a voice that was unmistakably Luca's reached my mind that was clouded with fog.I opened my eyes and spent a few seconds trying to adjust to the bright sunlight that was filtering through the blinds before I could focus on Luca who was above me, his arms holding my hands tight.“Luca…” I whispered.He
AUTHOR'S POV“What do you mean you didn't get that done?!” Bianca screamed at the man who had come to give her the reports.The man bowed his head slightly and sighed. “Look, Miss Conti. We did do our best. Things went haywire at the last moment” he explained.“Things went haywire?! Paulo, I paid you three million just to do this one thing. Get rid of the bitch but you're telling me things went haywire?! Do you know how much that cost me?!” She yelled, her eyes wide.The man clothed in black clothes that seemed to buff out his muscular physique snapped back immediately. “And do you know how much it cost me?! 28 men! Dead! Those were the best in my ranks and they're 6 feet deep now! What do you think this is to me?!”Bianca almost flinched when he advanced towards her but he stopped himself in time and looked away, his body brimming with anger.“As I can see, things didn't just go haywire. What happened?” She managed to calm herself down to speak.He sighed. “The don came. Don Luca cam
LUCA'S POV My shoes clacked against the stoned floor as I walked into the small shelter where I had discovered years back and made mine.I probably looked like a murderer or an assassin with the way that my cloak seemed to blend in with the night. Good. I felt like a murderer anyway and I was entering this building with every intention to kill.After I drove Elena home, I helped her to bed, made sure she was fine, and left as soon as she dozed off.Exactly 12:07 am now.“Don Luca…” someone's voice came from the shadows matching my steps as I neared my destination.“Yes, Lorenzo?” I asked, twirling my keys around my index finger while my eyes were fixed straight ahead.“The men are clearing up the scene and they're almost done”“And who's my guest for tonight?” I asked, stopping at the door.“The driver. The last car to tumble over. Thankfully he had only sustained a few hits to the head so he's alive and in the perfect shape to talk. We've…treated him good already” Lorenzo's voice dr
ELENA'S POV “Hold on!” Luca yelled from his car before he rolled his window up just as a bullet bounced on it.Fuck, that was close. I had always wondered why he had made all his cars bulletproof and now I was seeing why.Lorenzo who was still returning fire turned to me. “The boss?” He yelled over the sound of tires and guns.I gripped the steering tighter. “Yes!”Looking into the rearview mirror, I spied 5 enemy cars. 5. Okay, that was still a lot.Luca's car sped up, overtaking mine and speeding to the front of the road where the alley ended.What in the fuck was he doing.Lorenzo stopped shooting and looked at what was happening, a look of confusion on his face.“Wait, pull over!” He suddenly yelled at meI didn't turn to look at Lorenzo but my eyes widened. “Are you crazy, they're right behind us!”Luca's car reached the mouth of the alley and with a skilled drift of his car, he swerved his car to the side to block the entrance of the alley.How were we supposed to leave?! What
ELENA'S POV“Get me all the information you can on him, leave no stones unturned” I said to Lorenzo a few days later as I packed up my stuff in the bar where I now worked as a mixologist as planned.Lorenzo had been sent to drive me back home and he was walking me out of the bar already when Bianca came up to me.“Elena, can I talk to you for a second?”I nodded and told Lorenzo that I'd be out in a minute before going to meet her at the door.“What?” I asked, folding my hands across on my chest.It had been a week since Luca had a crash and he was discharged two days after so I had resumed work three days back and so far, I had no problems with Her, she even seemed nice.“Look about that day in the hospital. I'm sorry. I just lost it when I found out you had a connection with the person who tried to kill my boss. Don Luca has helped a lot of people so when I did my research and I found out that you knew him… I just assumed the worst. Was he your friend? I saw a photo of you both year
ELENA'S POVI had been here for about 20 minutes already and the atmosphere was silent as I had placed my head on the bed frame, letting his run his fingers through my hair.After he had told me that, we hadn't spoken about it. I was silent and so was he. We just stayed in the calm environment saying nothing.“You know… I want you to hate me he suddenly spoke up and that made me want to raise my head up but his strong arms pulled me down.Another testament to how weak I was. He was injured and still far stronger than I was.“What the fuck does that mean? Why would you want me to hate you?” I asked confused.“Because then I'd know that what my dad said was true. He used to tell me that I was unlovable and I did believe him so tell me how it's possible that you love me?” His grip on my head loosened.I used the opportunity to release myself from his grip. “You're not. You're the best thing that happened to me. We've both come out from homes that tried to restrict us from growing but th
ELENA'S POV “NO! LET GO OF ME!” I trashed in Gareth's strong arms, tears brimming in my eyes.What had happened?I was at the bar one moment then I saw the news going on about a car crash. Luca's car.I had called and called but he hadn't answered so I quickly left with Gareth only to receive a call from Doctor Giovanni who said that Luca was in an accident and he thought I should know about it.Thankfully Gareth had raced to the hospital but now he didn't want me to enter the room. I couldn't even see the insides of the goddamn room.“Gareth, let me go” I thrashed in his arms, kicking wildly.“Ma'am, I think you need to wait for the doctor to give his permission for you to go in” he said, trying to make me see reason.I heard the sound of rushing feet and I turned around to see Bianca rush in, her hair messy and her eyes wild.“Is it true?” She asked.I turned my face the other way and I heard her gasp. “Oh fuck, is he alright?” She didn't wait for me to answer, she started marching
LUCA'S POV “When you said you were coming over with your wife,I sure as hell wasn't expecting her” Bianca said, pouring me a glass of wine while she gave Elena who was looking around the club excitedly a glare.I took the glass from her and took a sip from it.“Don't say that again firstly and also she's the new mixologist. I'm here to tell you that you're in charge of her and no goddamn thing must happen to her”, I said, my eyes fixed on Elena who was sliding her hand across the counter.Bianca forced a smile and straightened up, the tiny shirt she wore hiking up to show her a bit of her bra.“When did you start dressing like that?”, I frowned at her.She looked down at her body like she hadn't realized what she was wearing. “Well it's a strip club after all”“Don't give me that shit, you're not one of the girls and you weren't wearing that before I came here” I frowned at her.Her smile faltered. “Oh, there's someone watching me?”“My club, remember?”“I also remember you entrusted
LUCA'S POV She was still staring at me with those large does eyes of hers and I was waiting for her response. “So why are you looking at me like I said something that was impossible” She blinked and relaxed her head on my shoulder. “It's a bit surprising that you want to employ me in your club or bar or whatever. Is it safe?” I nodded immediately, stroking her hair. “Completely. The woman in charge, she'll take care of you and you know I won't ever put you in a place where your safety isn't guaranteed” She was clearly thinking about something judging by the little creases on her lips. “I do wanna know though. How are you comfortable trusting me with this, In your space when you know what I am” she raised her eyes to me and I melted at the sight. When did I get this smitten over this woman? “You're not a what, Elena. I don't know what you think you are but I know who you are and do you wanna know who you are?” I kissed her forehead softly. She nodded, her eyes fluttering close f