Six

Dante  

She's playing with her food from the other end of the table. We almost fought about her insisting on sitting so far from me. It is already obvious how much she doesn't like me. She has proven to be very stubborn, and I think she doing all this intentionally to get on my nerves.

I have a burning urge to command her to eat. I am not used to having stubborn people around me. 

She has hardly touched anything on her plate. 

"Isabella , eat something or I will come there to help you stuff up your mouth," I couldn't help it. 

She gives me a coy look. What? 

"You wouldn't force me to eat," she says, raising her eyebrows at me. 

"You surely underestimate me, Bella. I also don't want to but the way you are playing with your food is an invitation itself," I tell her. Her lips part slightly as if to air out protest but she purses them again. 

She pieces her fork in a piece of bacon and lifts it to her lips. She slowly parts her lips, bites it off the fork, and licks her lips even more slowly. Her eyes are fixed on mine the whole time. She's doing this on purpose. 

I watch as he chews, torturously unhurriedly, and finally slows. Fuck! Why is this so sexual? 

I take it off and sip my coffee. This is crazy. 

Isabella De Luca is undoubtedly a very beautiful woman, but she is also young. I have to grab myself some self-control. She is here under my protection. I won't touch her. It would be despicable if I did any of those things I haven't stooped thinking about doing to her, to those full lips, to that slutty mouth... Damn that mouth, that likes answering me back. I have a good number of things I can put that smart mouth to use. She will learn not to be so smart with me. 

She still doesn't even clear half of her plate. 

"Am full," she announces, placing her fork on her plate. She gives me the look that screams "Now what?" 

"Good," I mutter. She's probably not that much of an eater. 

I push back my chair and get up. I pull on my jacket and walk toward her. 

"Now you be a good girl and stay home till I come home. Elvira will keep checking up on you. Let her know if you need anything. I am confident lunch will be ready on time but you can inform her if you want it earlier or later. Don't waste your energy trying to escape, because you won't succeed. Don't fight with my staff. I have given them orders to tie you up until I come back home," I tell her. She gasps in shock. Isn't it so amazing to shock Isabella De Luca? 

"Where are you going?" she inquires. 

"To work," I respond. It should be obvious. 

"What am I supposed to do with my life that whole day? I am going to die doing nothing other than thinking about the easiest ways to stab you in your sleep," she says nonchalantly. 

"That's so confident of you, Signorina. I will inform my staff to keep away any sharp objects from your reach. If you prove to be so insolent, then I will have to look you up in your room the whole day, and I am sure you wouldn't want that. I will send you some books to read. I hope you like reading," I tell her. My phone rings with an incoming call from Gabriele. I excuse myself and walk out of the kitchen to answer him. 

"Federico is so mad at you. He wants to meet up, probably to either murder you or threaten to break all your business alliances," Gabriele says. Always goes straight to the point. That's one of the many reasons why I chose him to be my right hand though he is just a cousin from my mother's side. It had to be a family member because they are more trustworthy and skilled with my kind of business. 

"Federico can go fuck himself or he does! I don't give a flying fuck how he feels about what u did and I am not going to talk over tea about the repercussions of my actions. I did what I did and I find care if it hurt his feelings," I respond, bile rising in my throat. 

That motherfucker Federico! He just wants to find the De Luca family line I guess. He wanted to kill Roberto De Luca. Well, he thinks he killed him. But things didn't go his way. He was the De Luca family fortune so bad he has lost his senses. I understand he has been Roberto's rival ever since they started working in the mafia, but he is being unreasonable. I can't just let him have his way with the De Luca family. I owe them a lot. That's why I am going to keep Roberto's heir safe, even though she claims she doesn't want my protection. I am sure Federuci wouldn't dare attack my territory. a lot of his holdings are supported by my strings, and if he dares to do anything stupid, I will cur them and they will crumble. He knows better than to act all worked up about me getting in his way last night. 

After two hours of meeting with the board in charge of my ship holdings, I drive to Monreale to meet with the project managers and the team handling the building of industrial buildings we are erecting in town. I spent three hours taking a tour around the site and meeting with the interior designing team. After that, I go for lunch, and that's the time I start wondering how my stubborn Isabella is doing back home. I hope she hadn't bitten off someone's ear or finger. I don't know why I can't stop imagining her fighting my staff trying to escape. I am sure Federico's men would shoot her on the spot if she stepped out of my home. I don't know how to make her understand how much danger she is currently in. My only problem is that I am not patient enough to wait for her to realize this. I have very little patience. 

By the time my car pulls into the driveway, it is almost eight. I am so exhausted from all the work and moving about, but there is something about having something to look forward to when you finally go home. I have been thinking about her the whole time during the drive from work.

Has she had her supper yet? Why do I feel like she refused to have lunch? It's perturbing how she has managed to invade my thoughts and destroy me the whole time I was trying to concentrate while at work. I didn't make a call home to know what she was up to. 

When I enter the house, it's quiet. Everything is the way it is supposed to be. Chairs in their usual places, the minibar, the tables, frames, vases, everything is intact. It's crazy how to expect her to have made a frenzy of rage, trying to run away. 

I head straight upstairs to her room and enter without thinking twice. She immediately turns her head to look at me, shock written all over her face. 

Oh. She's still here. 

She is sitting on the bed with her legs folded, and a book in her hands. So she settled for a novel. I stand transfixed in the doorway, staring down at her. She's still in the white top and denim shorts I left her in. I guess she has been here the whole time. 

There is a grave silence between us, tension like magnetic forces that a pulling me to her. My eyes scan her from her kohl-black hair plunged over her shoulders, to her effervescent, champagne-brown eyes which are dew-pond round, staring back at me, to her dainty nose, and finally to her trout pout lips. They look succulent, sultry and velvet soft. God! I wouldn't want to do that to those lips!

Control, Dante ! Control!

I slid my hands in my pants, fighting the urge to cover the few strides between me and the bed so that I could bask in the warmth of her body. 

Shit! This is getting out of hand. I haven't talked to Sofia in a week. I think it's been long. I need to see her.

"How are you?" that's the only sensible thing that I can manage to say at this time. 

"I think I am fine as per what you might think is fine," she responds indifferently. 

"That's very specific but good enough. Good night." 

Her eyes bulge at me. 

I am running away from her. I don't like how my body is responding to her, it's out of control. I don't like it when I lose control. 

"You've just come," she says, closing the book. 

"What are you trying to say, Bella?"

"Nothing. Good night," she shrugs. It must be something, but I won't press it. 

She looks down at the book. I want her to look me in the eyes and tell me what's bothering her. 

"Is there a problem?" I ask. 

"No, you go ahead," she responds, still not looking up at me. 

"I will leave when I want. Now you tell me what's wrong before I force it out of your mouth," I am calm enough but hopefully clear. 

She just looks blankly at me. She just wants a taste of me, doesn't she? 

I remove my jacket and place it on the chair in front of the dresser. Guess I have to cover the strides after all. Isabella doesn't break eye contact while I approach the bed. 

That glimmer in her eyes is unreadable. Is it fear or excitement?