Page 48 of Vows of a Mobster

“Want to keep me company while I’m making dinner?” I offered Marissa.

“Sure.” She was avoiding my eyes and I wondered what was the matter. When she came back from talking to Mateo, she seemed tense.

We entered the small kitchen, and I quickly got to business. It would be a quick spaghetti dinner with garlic sauce and bread. Usually we did this prep food, talking but her tension was starting to seep into me.

I put the water on boil, while I crushed the spaghetti to have them ready to put into the boiling water. Then started on the spaghetti sauce. Finally, I couldn’t take it anymore.

“Marissa, are you okay?” I asked her, glancing her way.

I knew something was wrong. I just wasn’t sure if she’d share with me.

“I have to tell you something,” Marissa started. “I just don’t want you to be mad.”

I frowned, not understanding. “I could never be mad at you,” I told her. After everything we went through. Her and Daphne were everything to me and Emma. Giovanni too.

“You might be after you hear this,” she murmured, eyes avoiding me.

“Please, Marissa. You are starting to freak me out,” I told her. “And please look at me. Did something happen?”

Her green eyes met mine and I realized they were exactly the same shade as Mateo’s. Weird that I didn’t recognize it till just now.

“Mateo wants you to work for him starting Monday,” she blurted out.

I considered her words. I wasn’t sure how I felt about it. I liked him but felt he was too attractive to be around. He wouldn’t harass me like his brother though. But darn, he made me feel so hot. I wouldn’t be able to resist him, because my panties literally melted around him.

“Oh,” I finally answered, unsure what else to say. “Is that way you are upset?”

“He’s the head of our family,” she continued. “And he wants you.”

I must have been really tired because my brain was too slow to catch up. “I’m not sure I follow.”

“He is the head of the business, the boss of the famiglia, the one that dictates what happens.Themobster!”

I stared at her in shock, my mouth wide open. “W-what?” I stuttered as fear within me grew.

“I was stupid,” Marissa’s voice on the brink of tears. “He told me he wouldn’t make it to the party. Besides, I never thought he’d notice you. The women he usually has, they are nothing like you. But you caught his eye and he wants you.”

“But I-I” My eyes widened. “Do you think he knows?”

There was fear in her eyes too. “No, I think he just wants you.”

“But why?” Mateo was the boss, a mobster. Oh my God, this wasn’t good. I could still remember what he did to Giovanni. “You let me meetthe mobsterwithout warning me?” I screeched. “And work in his company. I thought you said it was legit.”

“I’m sorry,” she whimpered. “Agosti Enterprise is a legitimate business. I didn’t lie.”

I shoved my hands through my hair. “Oh my God, I told him-” I cut myself off. “I told him I’d kill him if he told anyone I wrote smut.”

Her eyes got big like deer in headlights. “You told him?” she asked in shock.

“No, he figured it out,” I muttered. “But that is beside the point. I threatened the Boss. I-I… Oh my God!”

“Brianna, he’s relentless when he wants something,” Marissa looked desperate. “If you refuse him-”

She let the words linger, but I knew exactly what she meant. “But why me?”

“Well, you are very pretty,” she offered. “Like very, very pretty. I tried to offer Daphne but he said no.”

“Who did you offer me to?” Daphne walked in that moment with Emma at her tail. The fact she was asking it so calmly, like it was no big deal, meant she was used to this and she didn’t know who we were talking about.