Page 97 of The Chaos She Brings

Kai

Tess is finally walking around, but I can see she’s in pain, even though she tries to hide it. Enzo has been occupied, dealing with the Mafia side of things, while I’m looking after Tess.

I walk through the flat looking for her, after finding our room empty, to see her cooking. She loves it—almost as much as she loves making the place a mess as she does. She’s wearing one of my tops as a dress and the sight has my cock stirring. It’s been too long since I’ve been inside her, since I felt her warmth.

As she cooks, I silently start cleaning up behind her.

She’s quiet, too quiet. I find I no longer like the silence. I want it filled with her rambling.

“You okay?” I ask, stepping up behind her and wrapping my arms around her waist as I rest my chin on her head.

She turns in my arms, snaking hers around the back of my head and resting her head on my chest. “I’m thinking about my parents.”

“Your adoptive ones?”

“Yeah.”

“You never talk about them.”

“I barely think about them. They were nice. And I’m so grateful they adopted me. But after I was eighteen… they just didn’t really care anymore.”

I frown. “That’s not nice. I’m sorry they made you feel unwanted.”

She shrugs, pulling away from me to start assembling pasta sheets into the oven dish. “They did their best. But sometimes I got the impression that they didn’t really want me. They were so strict sometimes, everything had to be a certain way. It was suffocating.”

I stiffen and Tess, of course, notices. “It’s not like you. You have a reason to need control, and you might think you need it, but you do pretty well even when everything is falling apart.”

Her words soothe some broken part of me, because she’s right. I’ve realised recently that I don’t need to be in control all the time. That it’s okay to let go, to let someone else take charge.

Tess continues, “My father had so many rules, and they would shout at me whenever I did someone wrong. My mother was just… there. I don’t know. They were fine. I don’t have bad memories. I just don’t really have any good ones either.”

“What made you think of them?”

“Just… everything. I have this whole new family I know nothing about. I don’t even know if I’ll have the opportunity to know them. I still haven’t met my father.”

The door opens at that moment and Enzo stalks in followed by who is quite obviously his—their—father. They’re like carbon copies of each other. Same ridiculously expensive suit, hair coiffed to perfection, a hard edge to their faces. There’s no denying the resemblance.

Tess see’s it too because she squeaks and runs behind me to hide.

“Hurricane?” I laugh, trying to step out of her way. “What are you doing?”

“I can’t meet my father while I’m not even wearing pants!” she chokes out and I turn to face her, seeing that her cheeks are bright red. I try to ignore that she just told me she’s not wearing anything under the top because I do not need to get an erection while meeting her father—the head of the Italian fucking Mafia—for the first time.

Enzo looks like he wants to laugh but is doing a good job of holding it in. Massimo Russo looks as if he can’t quite workout how to approach this situation. There’s a hesitation to his movements, like part of him wants to run over and hug Tess, while the other wants to remain stoic. There’s an amusement in his eyes as he watches her squirming behind me. He turns to face Enzo. “Shall we continue our conversation in your office?”

Enzo nods and the two of them head off down the hall. Once they're gone Tess finally stops trying to make herself as small as possible and instead sprints to the bedroom to put on proper clothes. She comes back a few minutes later wearing tight blue jeans that hug her curves and a red top that clings to her perky tits. I groan, not knowing which outfit was more tempting.

I snatch her around her waist and drag her towards me so I can kiss her deeply. She sinks into it, wrapping her arms around me so she can tug on my hair. My hands come up to cup the back of her head, tangling my fingers in her auburn strands. Her body moulds into mine, and I sigh into her mouth as our tongues clash.

A throat clearing has me jumping back away from her. Massimo Russo is staring at us with a hard, unreadable expression.

Tess looks like she’s ready to pee herself with anxiety.

“It’s nice to meet you, Tessa. Sorry it’s not under better circumstances,” her father says, his eyes softening just a fraction as he looks at her.

She doesn’t correct him on her name like she would anyone else. Just nods before saying, “Nice to meet you too.”

He turns his attention to me. “And Kai, it’s good to put a face to the name. My son’s told me a lot about you.”