CRISTIANO
My mother looks across the dining table at Megan and smiles with approval.
That’s a win for me, but the biggest victory is my grandfather approves too.
This is the dinner meetup I was dreading. Instead of turning into a disaster, the night has been a success.
Seated around the Arthurian-style table is my mother, my grandparents, Lorenzo, Megan, and me.
Lorenzo is the only person here who hasn’t looked happy to see Megan. The asshole has sat in his chair looking stiffer than board left to dry out in the sun for far too long. He was expecting me to fuck up tonight and I nearly did.
Every time Megan is referred to as Evelina, I recall how closely I fucked up.
Judging from the proud look on my grandfather’s face as he listens to Megan talk about her work with UNICEF, I know I have this in the bag and the empire at my fingertips.
It has my name on it and the bonus is her—Megan Porter.
She makes this scheme believable because it’s clear to everyone around us that I want her. I can’t stop looking at her, and it’s obvious when I’m thinking about her.
I can’t stop my heart from leaping whenever she smiles at me any more than I can calm the hardening in my cock, or the need to bend her over the table and fuck her.
Tonight she looks beautiful in a navy sleeveless dress which hugs and caresses her body in all the ways I want to. It’s the kind of dress to make a man go crazy.
I’ve never met a woman who could make me lose control the way she does.
It’s unnerving because we’ve only known each other for a little over a month.
So how can I feel this way?
Maybe she just has that magic about her because I can tell my family loves her. They don’t love easily. You have to work hard to earn it.
I suppose if Megan were working tonight to earn their love, she would have deserved every ounce of admiration my family has shown her.
She played the natural and took our made-up story to award-winning romance status.
Her beautiful autumn eyes glistened when she told them the story of how we met at the coffeehouse in the city and how I asked her out on our first date when I fixed her car. Then her cheeks flushed a vibrant color when she told everyone how I proposed.
As Megan showed off the oval-cut diamond engagement ring I gave her last week, my grandmother teared up. The ring looks similar to hers, so I knew what I was doing when I bought it.
“So, when can we start wedding planning?” Grandfather directs the question at me and takes my grandmother’s hand. “I would love for the wedding to be soon.”
In any other family, he would seem abrupt and the suggestion inappropriate. But in our family, my grandfather is still the law and it doesn’t matter what people think of him.
The question also isn’t really a question. It’s an order to get plans for this wedding together as soon as humanly possible.
“We’re hoping to get married in six weeks.” That’s when I can sort everything out for the wedding I know he wants me to have.
“Six weeks is perfect,” Mother says, brightening her already radiant smile.
“It will have to do,” Grandfather concedes. “I trust you will be bringing Evelina to my birthday celebration in Italia.”
“Yes.” I glance at Megan.
“I can’t wait to attend,” Megan says in a voice sweeter than sugar.
I catch sight of the narrowed look Lorenzo gives her and I don’t like it. All I want is for him to believe what I’m showing the world and back the fuck off, but I can see he’s scrutinizing and trying to dissect us.
I thinkhesuspects my relationship isn’t real. Which means this motherfucker could stir shit if I don’t take enough precautions to protect my plans.