Chapter Twenty-Two
fter we screwed one another on the edge of the steps, Marco and I didn’t say anything further to each other. After the cops left, I was pissed. Once more, Marco showed that he didn’t trust me. He wanted to make sure that I didn’t turn him in, but he ignored all the ways I’d already proven myself.
So after we parted, I cleaned myself up and focused on putting clothing away. Marco left the house, I’m assuming to go back to work, and I’d spent the rest of the afternoon exploring my new home. Not that there was much to see. The place was a total bachelor pad, but it was beautifully decorated.
I’d taken over one of the rooms that had a desk. Setting up with a laptop and a few of the art supplies I’d had from home. Marco made it clear that I was going to sleep in his room, no matter my thoughts on it, but that didn’t mean that I couldn’t find a place of my own.
“Knock, knock,” Marco’s voice called through the crack in the door.
The sound of his voice caused me to jump slightly. In the master bedroom, I could always hear the door open. There was a security alarm that chirped slightly when that happened. Not surprising considering Marco’s line of work. I’d only been there for twenty-four hours, but I’d grown used to the alert.
“Shit,” I muttered, pressing a hand to my chest in an effort to calm my startled heart. “What are you doing here?”
Marco lifted a brow at me.
“Scratch that,” I murmured before getting up from the desk. “I just didn’t expect you back so soon.”
“It’s six o’clock,” he told me.
I shrugged. “I didn’t think you were a nine to five type.” I didn’t know anything about the mafia, but I imagined that the hours weren’t traditional.
He snorted. “I’m not,” he told me. “But Sasha insists that Dom come home for dinner every night, so he likes to wrap up any business by five.”
I made an agreeing sound in the back of my throat. I didn’t know Sasha well, but I was learning that the petite blonde was a force of nature. It didn’t surprise me that she made her mafia Don husband report home in time for dinner.
“What are you doing in here?” Marco asked, breaking me away from my thoughts.
I raised a pen. I’d been looking to occupy my time, so I’d figured I’d sketch something for Mikey. When he first started treatment, I’d drawn him little pictures all the time. Cartoons and characters he liked. Once, I even made him a little comic book. As his disease grew worse, I’d stopped. I hadn’t had the energy to be creative anymore. “I was just doodling,” I told him. I raised the sketchbook slightly before throwing it down on the desk. “I hope it’s okay that I’m in here.”
Marco nodded. “You can be anywhere you want.”
“It’s not your office, is it?”
He snorted and shook his head. The question obviously amused him. “Not sure if you’ve realized this, but my work can’t really be done on a computer.”
A shiver ran down my spine. Considering that I knew next to nothing about the mafia, I didn’t really know what to believe. I hadn’t let myself imagine what a job like Marco’s entailed. In order to survive, I’d blocked out that night in the alley. But now, it was coming full force, and my lunch was starting to work itself back up my throat.
“Have you eaten?”
I shook my head, not trusting myself to speak. “I didn’t realize how late it was.” Now, that I thought about it, my stomach felt empty. I hadn’t thought about the fact that I hadn’t eaten since after the bridal shop. Even then, I only ate a few bites of my salad, as I was too nerved up to eat a whole meal.
“I thought maybe we could go out.”
I was surprised. “Really?”
Marco nodded. “I don’t have food here, so we can either order out or go out.”
That made more sense to me. For a brief moment, I wondered if my fiancé wanted to go on a date. Marco always did the opposite of what I thought he would do. The first night we had sex, I expected him to just take what he wanted from me, more worried about his own pleasure than my own, but he hadn’t. I’d come multiple times. Even when we’d had sex this afternoon on the stairs, he’d made sure that I was okay before he took me.
“Sounds good,” I told him after a few minutes. “Just let me change.”
Marco shrugged. “You look great.”
I snorted. I was still wearing my old skirt and sweater combo. Sasha convinced me to buy a ton of new clothes, but they were all much too luxurious to wear around the house.
“I appreciate that,” I told him, laying a hand on his chest as I walked past him. “But it won’t take long.”
I slid my hand away from him, but he gripped it in his own, squeezing it slightly before he allowed me to pass by him. The feeling of his skin on mine made my heart beat a little faster. I ignored the feeling as best I could and made my way towards the room to change, telling myself that we were simply going out for dinner and not to read too much into it.