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I found myself being dragged out onto the dance floor. “Cesare---I don’t think this is a good idea. I don’t really know how to do this.”
Cesare flashed me a smile. “It’s okay. It’s all about following the lead. I happen to be an excellent leader.” He placed a hand on my hip, then held my other one tightly. He smelled of cologne and cigarettes which shouldn’t have attracted me but it did. “I did some research on you.”
I looked up at him. “Oh? Did you find anything salacious?”
“You went to Italy your freshman year,” he said, “you stayed for nine months, and you did the online program while you were there. Why were you in the Old Country?”
“I have family there,” I said, “my Nonna was sick. She’d never met me before. The family wanted me to spend some time with her.”
“Why haven’t you spent time with her before?”
“It’s my father’s family,” I explained, “he died when in I was in high school. He wasn’t really around because of his job.”
Cesare turned me around, and pulled me into his chest. The two of us swayed together. I could feel his cock pressing into my backside. My cheeks flushed. “What did your father do?”
“I don’t know,” I replied.
“You don’t know?” Cesare said.
“He showed up on Christmas and my birthday. That’s it. He wasn’t very involved.”
Cesare turned me around again and stroked my cheek. “Your father was a dangerous man?”
I nodded. “He never said what he did. But in the Old Country…there were whispers when I was there. His mother sent him to Boston to live with her family when he was a teenager. She didn’t want him to be like his father. He still ended up that way.”
“Are you part of the underworld?” he asked.
“I don’t know what you mean.”
He tilted his head to the side as we swayed together. “No. I suppose you don’t. Just know that if something happens to my sister…”
“You’ll hold me personally responsible,” I said, “I know. Nothing’s going to happen. I’m not important enough. My dad never married my mom, and you know how the underworld is about bastards.”
He growled. “Don’t talk about yourself that way.”
“It’s the truth.”
“If you run into any trouble, you tell them that you’re under the protection of the Luna family. I know Laura’s going to get attached to you. She doesn’t have a whole lot of friends. I would like for her to have at least one good friend. You do that for her….no one in this city will touch you.”
“I don’t need protection.”
“Take the offer,” he told me.
“You don’t need to bribe me to be friends with Laura. I like her.”
His eyes darkened. “I’m not bribing you. I’m offering you something the Luna family doesn’t do often. If you are a daughter of the underworld, you know how this world works. Someone will come after you if they think you are interfering with the wrong element. Take my protection.”
I shook my head. “I told you before. I don’t need it.”
He growled again and it vibrated through his chest. “I’ll only make this offer two more times. After that, you’ll be left to your own devices.”
I smirked. “Good.”
“You’re being stubborn.”
“I don’t need protection. No one cares about me. I’m nothing.”
“I don’t like the way you talk about yourself.”
“The music ended,” I told him.
He pulled away but he held onto my hand as he led me back to the table. Laura was already eating her food and she smiled at me. “So?” she said. “What’s the verdict, Cesare?”
“She’s feisty,” he replied.
Laura grinned. “That’s Cesare speak for ‘he likes you’.”
He pulled out my seat for me and I sat down in between Laura and him. While Laura kept the conversation the whole night, Cesare barely said a thing. He just stared at me like he was trying to figure out who I really was the whole time. Don’t remember, I begged the universe silently, don’t remember, don’t remember…
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