Page 36 of Alessia
Okay, let me know when he's here.
I look up to see Harper staring at me, a small smile tugging at her lips. A noise distracts me from her, and I look around to see where the sound is coming from. Behind Harper flies a small drone. It hovers and then it flies over the house. Probably Vinnie playing with a new toy. I need to tell him that if he wants to see and not be heard it needs to be a lot quieter than this one. My phone pings with an incoming text.
Manchini is here
“Are you coming?” I hold out my hand in question.
She takes my hand, and we walk down the stairs to the main dining room where lunch is served. I greet the other Dons and take a seat at the head of the table, the place where my father used to sit, Harper takes the seat on my right, and I can feel all eyes settling on us.
“Goodafternoon gentlemen and welcome to today’s meeting. My chef has prepared a lunch for us.”
“I came here to talk business not to be sit and eat lunch like a bunch of housewives.” Manchini interrupts me.
“Thanks for the interruption, I was missing an unnecessary comment.” I stare down Manchini and I hear Harper choking back a snort and try my best not to join her.
“As I was saying I thought we could first enjoy lunch and afterwards drinks will be set up in the living room so that we can discuss other matters.” I nod to Elio and waiters start to place our lunches on the table. Wine is being served and the Dons start to talk among themselves. I take a hold of Harpers hand under the table and start talking with Don Russo to my left. A few minutes later Harper lets go of my hand but I leave my hand on her thigh and start stroking her with my thumb. I make slow circles up and down her thigh and I can feel her muscles clenching. Out of the corner of my eye I can see she’s starting to feel something.
“Who is this pretty lady you brought with you today, Alessia?” Don Russo asks.
“This is Harper, my girlfriend.” I hear Harper almost choking on her chicken salad, my lips twitch up in a smirk.
“Hi, I’m Harper. Nice to meet you.” She extends her hand to Don Russo and he shakes it.
“Nice to meet you Harper. What do you do for a living?”
“I’m a nurse, that’s how Alessia and I met each other.”
After lunch, the waiters clear the table and the men walk into the living room for drinks. Harper excuses herself and walks up tomy bedroom. I walk over to the men and again I feel all eyes on me.
“Let’s get down to business now, shall we?” The Dons hum in agreement.
“First order, as you know my father died which makes me the rightful heir and head of the DiSanti family.”
“And since when do we let women lead the families? Isn’t that a man’s job?” Manchini speaks again.
“Thank you for your refreshingly masochistic view of women. It’s not like we’ve never had a female Don before. As you know, in our families it is not common to have only men in charge. You are lucky that it has been that way for the last sixty years or so, but my father got a daughter first and therefore you have to put up with me now.” Well, that shut him up real fast.
Manchini is one of those men who doesn’t have feminism in his vocabulary. But that doesn’t mean he can talk to me so disparagingly and most certainly not in my house. Too bad that this house is now neutral ground otherwise he would have been flying from the balcony without a parachute. I look out to the balcony and see the same drone as earlier flying by the windows. Fucking hell, Vinnie.
After a long afternoon everything is set for Sunday and the men start leaving. I walk upstairs to search for Harper and find her on my bed reading. She’s completely sucked into the story and doesn’t even notice me until my weight dips the bed.
“Oh hi, I didn’t hear you come in.”
I give her a quick kiss and ask, “What are you reading?”
“Funny enough, it’s a mafia romance. Never knew I would actually be involved with a Mafia princess.” She chuckles.
“And what happens in this book?”
“He’s the Don and he’s a total asshole, it’s an enemies to lovers trope so I hate him now and so does the FMC.”
“Glad we did the strangers to lovers thing.” I say.
“Yeah, but you are a fucking whirlwind and I kind of didn’t have a choice,” she says with a glare.
I take the book from her and toss it on the bedside table.
“Hey! I was reading that.”
