Chapter - 9

"You've been avoiding me," Vincenzo said as soon as Sofia settled into the car a day later to go for their trip to France to do God knows what.

Sofia raised a brow. "Whatever gave you the impression?" Admittedly, those were the first words she had said to him ever since their encounter in the arms room when he had told her about this supposed trip.

She had resorted to having Antoinette bring her meals up to her room so she didn't have to go sit with the rest of them. And even though it had partly been because she hadn't felt like talking to Vincenzo, it had also been because in the week she had spent in his home, she had realised that she wasn't particularly welcomed by his men. Sure, they were all polite to her, but it was clear they didn't think of her as one of them. Even Pablo who had trained her had kept his distance beyond the treats she sometimes slipped him.

She had felt lonely, specially after knowing that, official or not, Vincenzo already had a woman. The initial plan had been to get close to him so she could get into his house and gather information on him. But now that she was employed as his translator, that wasn't required. If anything, she was actually more involved in his work now than she would've been otherwise if she had only been one of his girlfriends. So, she had decided to keep her distance from the man.

Even though she liked the way he made her feel and enjoyed the light banter they usually had going on between them, she realised it wasn't particularly smart on her part to get emotionally attached to the enemy like that. It would only hurt her in the long run, specially when he already had a woman he could end up getting married to. Besides, she had a little kid back home to think of as well. Any way she looked at it, it just wasn't going to end well for her.

Apparently though, her deliberate absence hadn't boded well with him judging by his accusatory tone. "You've refused to get out of your room."

"And do what exactly?" Sofia asked, and despite not wanting to, she couldn't help herself when she added, "Watch you play tonsil hockey with that girlfriend of yours?"

It was Vincenzo's turn to raise a brow. "You mean Mia?"

"Being coy doesn't suit you, Mr Moretti."

"And green doesn't suit you, gattina," he shot back, making Sofia frown.

She wasn't jealous, was she? She hardly knew the man and it was not like they had promised each other anything. Is that why she had been feeling so down ever since their encounter in the arms room? She mentally shook her head. No, she couldn't be jealous. It was probably because she had been missing her son back home, having not met him in so long. Yes, that was probably it.

"I'm not—" she began to protest, only to cut herself off when the passenger's side door opened and a man took the seat followed by the driver.

"We're all set to go, boss," the man said, his voice slightly accented.

Vincenzo nodded. "Good." Then, looking at Sofia, he said, "Sofia, this is Dante, my cousin and.... business associate. And Dante, this is Sofia, our translator."

Dante turned around in his seat to look at Sofia. "A pleasure to finally meet you, Sofia. I've heard a lot about you."

Sofia smiled, taking in his handsome face sporting a goatee. "Likewise," she said. "Though, I can't say I know much about you. Apparently, your boss only tells me what I need to know. Clearly, you didn't make the cut."

Dante chuckled. "I'm wounded, boss. I've been with you for so long and I'm still not important enough?" He said, his tone teasing as he told the driver to begin driving towards their private airstrip. Talk about being filthy rich.

"Shut it, Dante," Vincenzo replied, rolling his eyes at his cousin's theatrics good-naturedly, hitting a button so the privacy screen came up between them, leaving Sofia alone with the Don.

Having noticed the exchange between the two cousins, Sofia couldn't help but smile. It was obvious the two were close and it was nice seeing Vincenzo being relaxed for once, even if it had been short lived.

"You two seem close."

Vincenzo nodded. "We are. We practically grew up together at my father's estate back in Genoa."

Sofia nodded, taking in the new piece of information. She knew his parents lived back in Italy along with his sister, cousins and aunts, but it was good to know that he trusted her enough to willingly share stuff like that with her. "It must have been fun growing up with siblings like that."

Vincenzo chuckled. "You should ask my mother. She used to go crazy trying to take care of us all. We were a bunch of idiots, always on the go, getting into loads of trouble all the time. Specially me and my sister."

"You have a sister?" Sofia asked, trying to sound as clueless as possible.

"Yes. She also stays in Genoa with her husband and daughter."

"Oh, okay," Sofia nodded.

Her focus shifted when Vincenzo waved a visa card in front of her. "This is for you. You'll have a few hours to yourself once we reach Paris. You can shop to your heart's content there before our meeting."

Sofia took the card from him, inspecting it. It was black and gold, the kind she had only heard of or seen in movies. The ones that came without a limit. She wondered how many people he had killed to afford him such luxuries in life—the larger than life villa, a Mercedes, the private aircraft they were heading towards, a bunch of bodyguards and God knows what else. Her guess was too many.

But what this shopping spree would present her with was an opportunity. An opportunity to do what she had been meaning to for a long time.

Shaking her thoughts away, she asked, "What exactly is this meeting about?"

Vincenzo shook his head at her, seemingly amused. "I gave you a limitless card and all you want to ask about is the meeting?"

Sofia shrugged. "Is having a good work ethic a crime around here?"

"Of course not, gattina. Relax for now. I'll tell you before we go in there."

She couldn't help but roll her eyes. "Always so secretive," she muttered under her breath, not in the mood to push him for answers. Not that the infuriating man would tell her more than he wanted her to know anyway.

She heard him chuckle from beside her. "Patience is a virtue, gattina. You should remember that while you're employed under me."

"In case you don't know, Mr Moretti, the early bird gets the worm."

Vincenzo chuckled again, the sound somehow equally endearing and irritating to her. "Incomplete knowledge is a dangerous thing, gattina. The entire adage is, the early bird gets the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese. So sit back and relax, my little mouse."

Sofia rolled her eyes, yet again. "Oh, this just keeps getting better. First, I was a wild cat and now I'm a little mouse."

Vincenzo couldn't help but smirk before leaning in close and murmuring in a deep, sinfully seductive voice, "I happen to like them both."

Sofia blushed despite herself at his words, suddenly feeling too shy and unfocused to say anything sassy in return, specially when he skimmed his nose along her neck in the way they both seemed to like so much, her more so than him.

"You've got nothing to worry about, gattina," Vincenzo murmured, placing his hand on her thigh and squeezing lightly, sending a zing of pleasure straight to her core as he leaned in closer still, placing a tantalizing kiss at the base of her throat.

"Ab-about what?" Sofia asked a moment later, her eyes closing of their own accord as Vincenzo continued his ministrations on her neck.

"Mia is simply a house guest, nothing more," Vincenzo elaborated, now feathering kisses along her jaw, the hand on her thigh moving up higher, inches away from the place she wanted it the most.

Sofia gasped as Vincenzo lightly bit the shell of her ear, almost as if to prompt her to respond. "House guest," Sofia breathed out, repeating his words. "Okay."

Feeling a sense of deja vu, she felt him smirk against her neck for the second time in past forty eight hours. And then, giving her thigh one last squeeze, he was pulling back from her, opening the car door and practically dragging her out behind him to the tarmac that they had now reached.

"Looks like someone had a little to much fun on the ride over," Dante commented and Sofia looked down at herself, noticing her flushed skin, which only flushed some more when he chuckled.

Vincenzo smirked from beside her.

"Jealous you're not getting any, Dante?" Sofia cooed at him, recovering quickly now that Vincenzo wasn't so close to her. Dante rolled his eyes, but the smile on his face indicated that he was amused.

"Let's go, kids," Vincenzo said from beside them, clearly amused as well.

And just to drive the point home, Sofia stuck her tongue out at Dante before following Vincenzo into the plane.