Page 10 of His Vicious Desire

I’m in my phone for her number.As the phone rings, my cock, that was previously thick at the mere thought of Bianca, goes limp.I go to end the call, but her voice comes through before I do.

“Gaetano, I was beginning to wonder if you found someone else.It feels like ages since you called.”

“You open tomorrow?”

“For you, absolutely.”She rushes to assure me.

“Good, I’m not sure of the time.I’ll call before I head out to you.”

“I’m looking forward to it.”

Ending the call, I bring up the camera in Bianca’s room.She’s watching something on her laptop.Whatever it is has her laughing, and fuck my chest aches, wondering what it would be like if she laughed like that with me.

Gaetano

This isn’t happening.No fucking way.It’s been since my shitty marriage when Mary kept forcing herself on me that my dick wouldn’t get hard for a woman.

It doesn’t matter that Stella has done everything right.She was naked beneath the robe she wore when I walked through the door.I’m not subjected to small talk.With a smile, she dropped the robe and crawled onto the bed—presenting her body to me and allowing me to study her body the way I liked.

None of that mattered—my cock won’t rise.I squeeze my eyes shut.Fucking hell, I’m swallowing down the bitter laugh rising in my throat.All I want is Bianca.And my cock won’t accept anything else.

“Gaetano, did I do something wrong?”Stella’s eyes are wide.

Clenching my jaw, I shake my head.“Did you still want to start that eyelash business out in LA?”

Gaetano

A month later

I’m antsy, annoyed with everyone, so I can get the fuck home and plug into Bianca’s feed.I bite my tongue not to swear when Sandro gets a text.He lets loose the curse word I want to.

“What’s up?”I worry it’s business that will keep me away from home.

“Bianca is pissed.She found out I picked her roommate.”

I send an eyebrow up at him.

One shoulder goes up.“Like I was really going to leave something like that to chance.She’s a kid on scholarship.I wanted a good influence on Bianca.And I don’t know what she’s bitching about—she and the girl get along.”

Another text comes through.He reads it and rolls his eyes.“Not this again.She’s got a hair up her ass.Keeps accusing me of having something to do with a guy asking her out disappearing.”

I go still then force out the question I know the answer to.“So you didn’t have something to do with the guy?”

His sigh is heavy.“No, although I reserve the right to gut a fucker for hurting her—I don’t know what the fuck she’s talking about.Bobby thinks I should…you know, let her have the college experience and shit.”

Running a hand over his face, his jaw tightens.“It’s the last damn thing I want to do.At the same time, it’s what they do—civilians.They go to college and meet who they want to marry and all that shit.I want that for her.To meet a civilian, someone in IT, or a lawyer, or something, anything that will keep her in the lifestyle she deserves.She’s not going to find someone if I kill every guy who looks her way.”

The words are stuck in my throat.To argue with him, hedoesneed to kill every guy who looks her way because they don’t deserve her.The little fucker who asked for her number had multiple charges of assault on women, and two women had taken out restraining orders against him.He didn’t deserve to breathe the same air as Bianca.

“Have no doubt, every guy who gets close to her will be vetted times ten.But if he’s a good guy.Then I need to give her space to, you know, fall in love or whatever.”

I’m nodding.Agreeing with him.Even though everything in me wants to argue.

Long after he’s gone, I sit in my car turning over his words in my head.What the hell am I doing?There is no scenario where Sandro will accept me and Bianca getting together.He made a promise to his mother on her deathbed.It would take him dying before he broke that promise.Hell, if he knew he was dying, he would still ask me, Bobby, or Luca, to try and see it through for him.

I don’t want him to fail in that promise.His mother was a good woman who loved her family deeply.Even though she had no love for the mafia, she always treated me and my brothers good.She stepped in and went shopping for me and my brother to keep food in the house after my mom died.As a mom through and through, she saw three kids who needed one.

It was her love for Bianca that had her demanding Sandro promise the best she could think of.And that was a life outside of the mafia.A life without someone like me in it.

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