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  Wrapping a robe around her, she entered the bedroom and found a negligee waiting for her on the bed. With no sign of Daniel there, she quickly pulled it on and released the robe. Putting everything in the laundry basket, she returned to the bedroom and began to brush her hair, sitting at the vanity table.

  Seconds later, Daniel entered. He wore a pair of pajama bottoms and nothing else. In the low lighting, everything seemed to stand out on his body, and it made her ache to see more.

  He stepped up behind her, taking the brush from her. “May I?”

  “Sure.” He had the brush anyway.

  Staying perfectly still, she watched as he brushed her hair. The locks were a little damp, and he was so gentle. It didn’t take long for her to close her eyes and enjoy the way he brushed her hair.

  You’re totally losing it on this guy.

  He didn’t linger, and once her hair was brushed, he dropped a kiss to her shoulder.

  There was no need to avoid it. She made her way toward the bed, being sure not to make eye contact with him. Climbing in, she snuggled into the comfortable bed, aware of how nice it felt.

  Daniel slid in behind her, wrapping his arm around her waist and pulling her close. She didn’t fight him.

  At first, she was a little afraid. She wasn’t used to sharing a bed with anyone. Slowly, she relaxed against him, enjoying the feel of his body against hers.

  Closing her eyes, she found sleep.

  Chapter Five

  The following day, Daniel woke up and watched Natalie sleep. She was pressed up against him. Her hand was around his waist, her head against his chest. He didn’t want to leave the bed, but his cell phone was ringing.

  Slowly, he slid out from beneath her, wanting to kill whoever was calling him. This was his fucking honeymoon, period. He didn’t even go away for a couple of weeks. Staring down at Natalie, he wished he’d fought a bit harder.

  Gritting his teeth, he left the bed, padding across the room to take out his cell phone. He didn’t linger in his bedroom and took the call.

  It was his father.

  “Hello,” he said.

  “We need you today,” Frank Solano said.

  “Seriously?”

  “You can do what you need to do later. I need you in. Don’t disappoint me.”

  The call ended, and he gritted his teeth. He was so fucking angry.

  “Bad call?” Natalie asked.

  He turned to find her leaning against the doorframe.

  The negligee he’d picked out for her made him aware that he had a dick, and as he stared at her, it was getting a whole lot harder.

  “Business.”

  “They want you to go in?”

  “Yes.”

  She nodded and stepped away. “That’s okay.”

  He moved back into the bedroom and found her making the bed. “I have a cleaner who does that.”

  She stood up and glanced over at him. “I’m not going to be able to handle some stranger making my bed.”

  “You make beds now?”

  “I also clean and cook. I guess you could consider me your new cleaner.”

  When she bent over the bed to fix a crease, he could only stand and admire. He thought about her in a maid’s costume, showing off a fine curve of ass, and his cock was all ready to play this morning.

  She stood up, and she turned toward him.

  He’d not moved.

  Her gaze moved down his body, and he knew his pants were tented because of his dick, but he didn’t care.

  She didn’t say anything, just looking from his dick to his eyes.

  Neither of them spoke or moved.

  “You do breakfast?” he asked. He was going to prove to her that it didn’t matter how aroused he was, he could control himself.

  She nodded, running fingers through her hair.

  “I’m using the bathroom,” he said.

  “O-okay.”

  He smirked at her and left the door partially open. Stepping into the shower, he put the water on, relishing the icy blast as it rained down on him.

  The cold water did nothing for his erect cock, which pissed him off.

  Wrapping his fingers around the length, he began to work his dick, up and down, going from the root up to the tip and back again. Placing another hand on the wall, he thought about Natalie, bent over the bed, her ass in the air, looking so inviting, and yet not even asking for attention.

  Her subtle sexuality was like a drug to him. He wanted more, and yet couldn’t get any more. He always had to wait, to be patient.

  He thought about her turning to face him, and instead of looking a little embarrassed at seeing his aroused state, she would remove her clothing, giving him the show of her nice big tits. The negligee would fall to the floor, and she’d step out of it.

  She wouldn’t try to hide.

  No, she’d kneel before him, taking his pants down and wrapping her fingers around his length. The moment her hot mouth sucked on the tip, he’d be a goner, but he wouldn’t let her off that easily. No, he’d take his sweet time, counting sheep if he had to in order to gain control.

  Holding onto her hair, he’d guide his dick into her mouth, and she’d swallow him down, moaning as he did, going to the back of her throat.

  Before he could finish, the first waves of his arousal crashed through him. The white streams of his cum spilled out, hitting the floor of the shower and washing down the drain. Even his own fantasies were against him, not allowing him to get to the end and to experience that sweet bliss, and it would definitely be bliss.

  Resting his head against his hand, he watched the water run down the drain, giving himself a few seconds to gain control. Running a hand down his face to clear the last of the arousal, he turned off the shower and stepped out. Wrapping a towel around his waist, he entered the room.

  Before he did, he frowned and took a step back into the shower. There in the basket was the negligee. At some point during pleasuring himself, Natalie had entered.

  He wondered if she’d stayed.

  Then his curiosity got the better of him, and he wondered how much she knew about sex. She’d tried to escape the life, but that didn’t for a second mean she was a naive woman. A virgin, yes, but that didn’t mean she was unaware of sex, fucking, the works.

  He changed quickly and found Natalie in the kitchen. Ingredients were on the counter, and when she looked at him, she smiled, but he saw the hint of red in her cheeks.

  “Morning,” he said.

  “Morning. Nice shower?” She shook her head. “Sorry. I … I was…”

  “You saw me with my cock in my hand.”

  “You were … very vocal. I’m sorry. I tried not to look, and I don’t usually stare.”

  “Did you enjoy what you saw?”

  She bit her lip, and he wanted to kiss those lips. He didn’t.

  “Yes, I did,” she said. “Does that surprise you?”

  “It does, and I like it.”

  She placed a coffee in front of him. “Should we talk about this?”

  When she made to pull away, he captured her hand, and pressed a kiss to her wedding ring. “We’re husband and wife. I don’t expect you to talk with anyone else but me.”

  “You’ve got no chance of me ever talking about this with anyone.”

  “Do you know what happens….” Now he couldn’t finish.

  “Yes, of course. I’m a virgin, Daniel. It doesn’t mean I don’t understand what sex is or what you have to do.” She squeezed his hand and pulled away. “Won’t your dad be angry with you for being late?”

  “It’s the day after my wedding. Most people get a few days off. I’m sure spending the morning with my wife is fine.” He winked at her.

  If his father was pissed, he wouldn’t let her know.

  The doorbell rang, and he let Natalie keep on cooking breakfast while he went to answer it. Ronnie and Vincent were there, and they looked pissed. “We figured today was a day off,” Vincent said, speaking up first.

&n
bsp; “It was. It was supposed to be. I guess things are different for us.” He shrugged and stepped back to let them in.

  “What’s that smell?” Ronnie asked.

  “My wife is cooking. It smells good.”

  “She cooks?” This from Vincent.

  “Cleans too. She doesn’t want a stranger in her home cleaning her bed.”

  “She’s a keeper,” Ronnie said.

  They headed back to the kitchen. There Natalie stood at the stove, flipping bacon on the pan. She wore an apron this time, which was a good thing as some of the bacon fat splattered on the front.

  “I never thought I’d see a Valenti in the kitchen,” Vincent said.

  She turned toward them, a huge smile on her face, which twisted his heart. “I spent most of my years in the kitchen. Mary taught me a thing or two. She probably shouldn’t have, but I happen to like being there. Take a seat. There’s plenty for everyone.”

  “Of course there is,” Daniel said.

  “You’ve got enough food in here to feed an army. I hate to think of this going to waste if you don’t eat it, and they look hungry.”

  Vincent and Ronnie stood together, touching their stomachs.

  Daniel burst out laughing and rolled his eyes. “I didn’t say you couldn’t feed them. Be careful, or they’ll be here all the time.”

  Taking his coffee, he looked at her a final time, wishing he could stay with her, but took it to the table where they had some privacy.

  “I want one of you to stay here, to keep her company,” Daniel said, taking a seat.

  Neither of them spoke as Natalie rushed inside, putting a coffee in front of each of them.

  “I’ll be back soon,” she said.

  He watched her go and wished he didn’t have to leave her today. Something was happening between them, and he didn’t want to leave her while he could help those feelings develop.

  Ronnie and Vincent glanced at each other.

  “I don’t care who stays or who goes.”

  “Either way, one of you will be with her at all times. You can swap and change it if you’d like.”

  “I’ll take first babysitting duty,” Vincent said. “You want to split it by days or weeks?”

  “Days. One day you’re with her, next day I am.” Ronnie turned to look at him.

  “I want a full report though of everything that’s going down. I won’t be kept in the dark.”

  “Don’t worry, we’ll do that.”

  They all stopped talking as Natalie joined them. She placed their three meals in front of them.

  Bacon, eggs, hash browns, and some tomatoes. It all looked so good.

  She came back with her own breakfast and buttered bread.

  Taking a slice of bread, she sat next to Ronnie, who immediately stood up. “You’ve got to sit next to the boss man. I insist.”

  She glanced at him, and he liked that she checked if it was okay with him.

  “Yes, I want you to sit here.”

  Natalie took her place at his side. Vincent and Ronnie were giving him sly looks, but he didn’t give a fuck. He couldn’t spend the entire day with his woman, so he was going to take every opportunity he had to get close to her.

  ****

  “So I’m not allowed to work anymore?” Natalie asked, staring at Vincent.

  “That’s right.”

  “You know, you get to work. I think this is a little unfair, and totally sexist.”

  Vincent was sitting at in the living room, reading a cooking magazine. “Be that as it may, what you do reflects on your husband. Working for your keep is not exactly going to go down well.”

  She rolled her eyes. “I like to work!” She flopped down on the sofa.

  “Shopping is work?”

  “I don’t shop.”

  “Maybe we should try it?” he asked, looking at her. “Have you ever tried to shop?”

  “Nope. I tend to avoid activities with people who hate me.”

  “I’m sorry about your mom trying to kill you.”

  “I got over it.” She couldn’t just sit down, so she stood and began to pace the living room. Everything sparkled so she couldn’t even clean anything. She’d cleaned the kitchen twice already and reorganized the shelves.

  She didn’t like that another woman had an order inside her home.

  The last thing she’d ever wanted was to get married to someone within the mafia, but now that she was, she wanted this to remain her home, and because of that, it meant she was going to have things the way she liked it.

  Her apartment wasn’t large. It was a modest one-bedroom, and she loved it.

  Of course, since her impending wedding, she’d not been back there. Her father had demanded she stay at home until the wedding. The apartment had been cleared out and was probably leased out to someone else.

  “Fine, let’s go shopping. Let’s go and do something, rather than be cooped up in this place.”

  She was used to doing everything and nothing. Sitting around all day waiting for Daniel to come home was not how she wanted to spend her days.

  Humming to herself, she grabbed a jacket and her bag.

  Vincent was already at the door, waiting for her.

  “Whatever the lady wants,” he said with a wink.

  They walked toward the elevator and she sighed, leaning against the wall, waiting for it to move.

  “I’m not good at this,” she said.

  “Being the lady of leisure?”

  “Yes. I couldn’t stand sitting in the kitchen and doing nothing. I just … I can’t do it.”

  “It’s fine. We’ll see how shopping is for you.”

  The elevator opened to the underground parking lot. When Vincent went to open the door to the back passenger seat, she shook her head. “Not a chance.”

  “You’re going to be a modern mafia lady, huh?”

  “Nope. I’m going to be myself.”

  Climbing into the front seat, she buckled in, and waited as Vincent did the same, only he turned over the ignition.

  “Let’s get this show on the road.”

  He pulled out of the underground parking lot, and the moment she was away from the apartment, she felt a million times better.

  “I’m so pleased right now,” she said. “Will you be the one taking care of me?”

  “Not all the time. Between Ronnie and myself, we’ll keep you safe.”

  “I don’t get a soldier?”

  “Daniel would only trust your safety with one of us.”

  “Do you wish you weren’t his brother?” she asked, turning to look at him.

  Vincent shook his head. “There’s nothing about Daniel’s life I crave. At least being the bastard, I don’t have to be ordered around. For the most part, Frank wants nothing to do with me. My mom wants nothing to do with my dad. It works.”

  “It must have been … hard.”

  “Not really. Daniel’s not an asshole, and being friends with him, it’s not hard either. We all want the same thing. I’d die for that little shit,” he said with a smile. “I know he’d die for me. That in itself is the problem.”

  “How is it?”

  “We’re just the bastards while he’s the king.”

  She swallowed the lump in her throat. “This world is cruel.”

  “I can’t deny that. It’s not the easiest world to live in, but it’s our world.”

  Natalie stared out at the street, watching ordinary people pass through their lives, looking so normal.

  “I always wished I was one of them,” she said, pointing out at the street. “Completely oblivious to the world around them.”

  “They have it easy to a point, Natalie. They’ve all got problems though. Being in the mafia doesn’t exactly mean your life is over.” He pointed at people. “Her father could have abused her. His mother could have beaten him as a child. Someone on these streets could have been a loser, and be wanting to stalk a woman to kill her? They’re not free. Does it make their vices worse because they are civili
ans?”

  She shrugged. “I don’t know. I didn’t think of it like that.”

  “Can I ask you a question?”

  “Sure.”

  “Do you like Daniel?”

  This made her pause, and she looked at Vince. They had stopped at a traffic light. “I don’t really know him.”

  “But you like him?”

  “I … this is hard. He seems nice … and he’s been very accommodating.” She felt like a bitch. “Yes, I like him. I didn’t want to, and for the past week, I did kind of hate him.”

  He chuckled. “None of us expected him to demand you. That was news to us.”

  “I don’t even know what I did to gain his attention, you know? I’m just me, and we just talked. Nothing actually happened.”

  “From what I know, you talked to him, and you spoke about things that were more than fashion and gossip. You didn’t care about who was screwing who, or what that meant for you. You didn’t talk about purses or jewelry.”

  She talked about everything else.

  “You didn’t look scared of him either, or see him as an easy target. You treated him like an ordinary guy.”

  “Because I’m an ordinary girl.”

  “Regardless of what you were trying to achieve, Natalie, you are and will always be a Valenti. That in itself means you were no ordinary girl. Say he hadn’t taken your hand in marriage, and you married someone who wasn’t aware of this life. You could have gotten him killed. If someone wanted to make a statement, a guard close by wouldn’t stop it. What would you have done then? Not only would you be dead, but so would someone else. Daniel does what he has to. You’ve picked a damn good guy, and you should be proud. He’d never hurt you, or allow anything to happen to you.”

  Chapter Six

  “How are things going with the girl?” Frank asked.

  “It’s been one day. Things are going good.” Daniel watched as his father leaned back. He’d just watched as Frank tortured a rat, trying to find out where the leak of information was coming from, and they thought they’d finally found it.

  Even with his shirt covered in blood, Frank was happy. No one commented, not one maid, as they flitted around the room, cleaning up after him. This was the Solano way. Everyone expected Frank to come home looking a mess, and no one ever commented.