Page 35 of Bought By the Mafia

“I should call Mickey.” Maybe he could not only keep her safe, but prevent her from doing something ridiculous.

She waved her phone. “Already did, and he’ll be here in five.”

“Good.”

As Simona strolled past me, I took hold of her hand and drew her to me so I could place what I initially intended to be a perfunctory kiss on her lips. Her lips were so soft and inviting. Brushing against them lightly was temptation enough for me to coax open her lips and kiss her deeper than I intended. Her tongue played with mine, wrecking my insides. When I let go of her, I realized I might have taken it farther than I had initially planned on. It was supposed to be a simple kiss for Allison’s benefit and for us to keep up our ruse, but it almost spiraled into me taking Simona onto the couch and fucking her in front of Allison. Even Simona looked surprised. If she thought she had an upper hand, I wiped that thought away from her head, whispering into her ear, “Don’t do anything foolish. That was a reminder of who you belong to.”

“Shouldn’t I be saying the same about you,” she said, then yanked her hand away and made her way to her room. A few minutes later, she was out of the apartment.

“So it is true,” Allison said after we were alone.

“What is?”

“You and Simona being in love. To be fair, I have to say I wasn’t convinced, but the way you look at her. It says everything.”

“How do you two know each other?” I asked.

“She bumped into me while I was cycling in the park,” Allison said. “I had no idea who she was until now. But I won’t let you avoid the topic.”

“I don’t think I was doing any such thing.”

She laughed. “It’s fine to admit that you’re in love with your wife, you know. That’s the normal thing.”

“Am I that obvious?”

“It’s impossible not to notice,” she said smiling, “Whenever she’s in the room, she’s the only person you see. Your gaze follows her every move. It’s quite cute, actually. Who would have thought it? Giovanni Morelli is in love.”

“Things change. People change,” I said. I should be glad that our ruse was working even on someone like Allison, a friend of mine, but I still felt guilty for not telling her the truth.

Allison bent her head to the side. “I don’t know. I would have bet a million dollars that you would remain the same.”

“That’s an odd insult.”

“It’s a compliment. You are constant. Not predictable, but constant nonetheless.” She glided over to the sofas and plopped herself onto one. “So, what made you change? What’s so special about Simona?”

I tried to think of what to say. Toss in a few lies about how she was the most amazing person in the world, something sappy like that. But Allison would sniff it out. She knew me long enough. The truth is better. “Simona, a box of surprises. You never know what she’s doing next, or what you’ll find out about her. She keeps me on my toes.”

“You make her sound like she’s suspect and you’re a detective trying to catch her.”

“I’m happy, if that’s your concern.”

Allison shrugged. “I can’t argue with that.” It was as if my response was not what she wanted to hear. I’m not sure if I was mistaken or not, but I thought I saw her face grimace when I spoke about Simona positively, but that’s could have been a trick of the light. Allison was the last person I could ever suspect of jealousy. She was comfortable talking about exes. She differed from Simona in that regard. I should prefer her attitude to Simona’s but somehow, I got a kick out of Simona’s jealousy. It meant she felt something for me, however little.

We were soon interrupted by my maid, Brita, whom I gave instructions to clean and iron Allison’s clothes. After that, I offered Allison breakfast, which she declined. She said something about being on some sort of fasting diet. So we drank coffee while her clothes were being prepared. Brita came back with a neat stack of ironed clothes in her hand and presented them to Allison.

“That was quick!” Allison said. She sounded disappointed. Maybe she had been enjoying our conversation and wanted to stay longer, I thought. There wasn’t any harm in her being around for a few more hours. We were just friends.

“You don’t have to go,” I replied.

“I don’t know about that,” Allison replied whilst taking the clothes from Brita. “Your wife might rip me to shreds if she comes back and finds you here.”

So Allison, too, had noticed Simona’s reaction. I wanted to tell her it had more to do with Simona’s mistrust of me, and I couldn’t exactly tell her that without telling her the truth about my marriage. Instead I said, “We had a long day yesterday. That’s probably why she seemed grumpy. She has no taste for blood.”

Allison chuckled. “You’d be surprised. I know a lot of women who do anything in their power to keep a threat away from their man.” Gesturing to her clothes, she said, “I better get dressed.”

Half an hour later, she was gone. With nothing else to do, I went to my study and got to work. Concentrating was hard. The more time passed, the more I wondered where my wife could be. I didn’t want to be a weirdo stalker prick and call her to find out where she was. She had already told me, after all. But my mind went to that dark place again and again. Where Simona and that assistant of hers were not only colleagues but lovers. Images of her and him fucking in a storage tormented me until finally when it was late in the afternoon, I gave up and dialed her number. It rang for so long I thought she would never answer. She picked up on the last ring. “What now?”

She sounded irritated. It only made me irritable in turn. “Where are you?”

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