Page 32 of Mafia’s Fake Bride

“Come on, let’s look around.”

Marie followed and saw that there were many other people onboard, quietly in the shadows working to keep everything on the yacht in order. Marie saw the stateroom they’d stay in, a large room with a double bed, television, and its own bathroom. There were quite a few decks, one with a bar and an attendant. There was a pool on another deck, along with a hot tub that caught Marie’s eye. She’d never been in one and wanted to try it. They could order food from the kitchen below from anywhere on the boat and Marie realized they didn’t have to leave it for anything. It really was a city on the water.

“We could just live on this boat forever, Matteo,” she said once they were alone in their room. She sighed happily and looked over at him. “I need a bathing suit, maybe even a bikini.”

She grinned at him happily with a naughty tilt to her lips.

“That we can arrange, just find one online and I’ll have someone go and get it for you.” He sprawled out on the bed and gave his own sigh of happiness. “I’ll need a few things too, and later we’ll go out for dinner.”

“Oh, but we could just stay here…” Marie sighed out as she came to lie beside him. “It’s so fascinating.”

“The food will be worth taking a step away from the yacht for a while.”

“It better be.” She took his hand in hers and looked over at him. “Thank you. I was going stir crazy back home. You really have to find something for me to do.”

“But I don’t want you to work, you don’t have to.”

“Oh,” Marie responded softly. “But I’m used to staying busy, Matteo. This is really hard for me you know? Not doing anything all day.”

“Do you want to be a Mafia Queen or something?” He looked over at her with a grin. “What could you do? What skills do you have?”

She was a little miffed at him for dismissing her, but she forgot about it as she turned over towards him. “I have one skill that you can’t live without.”

Her hand slid down between his pants and his skin. His eyes went wide and a smile stretched over his face.

“Oh yes, you do have some very good skills that I very much adore.” He pushed his zipper down and opened his belt to give her easier access to the parts of him that she was most focused on.

With a whisper of a groan Matteo lifted his lips to hers as she began to stir them both into a passion that was never far away. She wanted to tell him about how much she loved him but kept it to herself. That was for another time, someday in the future.

A wave of dizziness made her skin go cold and she gripped at him. She felt as if she might fall out of the bed, but when she held onto him, she steadied again. Maybe it was just seasickness, she thought and took a deep breath. His lips brushed against hers and Marie forgot about the moment, too caught up in her husband to let the moment be ruined.

18

A few weeks later Marie put her laptop down and leaned back in her chair. She was at the kitchen table where she was studying, the sun going down. The sky hadn’t gone completely dark yet, though, and Matteo would be home soon. They were going out for dinner, so the oven and stove weren’t on.

She’d taken her laptop to the kitchen, where she usually studied, and had been sat in the hard chair for hours now. In between studying for school and writing papers, she was catching up on what it meant to actually be a mob wife. Yeah, she’d had talks with Trina, but she wanted to go deeper.

Some might say that she was seeking out the truth about her father, and in a way, maybe she was, she decided. She only knew her mother’s side about what kind of man her father was. She didn’t know about his life from those spiteful venomous words, just that her mother hated him. Marie wanted to know about him but the one woman that could tell her the most about him hated her. Marie had only met her the one time, but she knew when she was hated.

She’d felt that same cold hate from Celeste that she’d felt from her mother. It left her unsettled even now when she thought about it. Celeste was not an avenue for information then. The only way she could get to know him, and by extension, Matteo, was to study other Mafia families.

The truth was obvious about the reality shows she found online to watch; these were people being paid to make drama. She moved on to documentaries and then began to read about the subject. She saw things that horrified her, that took some of the glamorousness out of her fantasies about what this life was about. The truth splashed her with cold water, and Marie sat in the kitchen of the penthouse apartment as the minutes passed in a stunned state.

Matteo could be a very dangerous man and if she wasn’t careful, life could be very short. Not from him, she doubted he would ever truly physically hurt her. He could destroy her emotionally, that was definite, but not physically. Frustrated now, she got out of the chair and picked up her phone.

The only people she had to call were Trina and Matteo. She needed other friends. Or a group of some kind to join. She’d seen a lot of groups at the school’s online website, maybe she should find a group that actually met and got together.

Then she thought about something that had been niggling at her. Matteo never went out without a gun on him lately. He seemed stressed too, distracted when he was at home. Something was bothering him, but she wasn’t sure what it was, because he didn’t talk to her about those things.

He talked to her, that wasn’t the problem. It was just that he didn’t talk about his day, his feelings, what was bothering him. She wanted to change that but had no idea how. And now, after the research she’d done, she doubted she’d ever get her future Mafia king to ever talk to her about the business.

Despite the warnings she’d read that afternoon, she wanted in the family business. She brought the subject up an hour later as they sat at dinner in a very expensive Mexican restaurant. Matteo had just revealed the family owned the place and that beneath their feet a casino was ramping up for a night of gambling.

“Look, I know that me becoming involved in the business is something that takes trust. Nobody knows me, nobody trusts me, except you maybe, but can’t I do something down there?”

“I don’t know.” Matteo blinked at her, unsure of what to tell her.

“I’m not well educated, I know that, but I’m a good observer. I’m a problem-solver and I’m eager to learn. Surely there is something I can do?”