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“What are you and Duran?”
I considered the question, not sure how to answer after what had happened this morning. “We’ve talked about how we feel about one another briefly, but we’re not anything official.”
“Are you comfortable with him? Do you trust him?”
“Yes,” I said, a little confused. “Why?”
“Ahmed told me how you met him and I just wanted to make sure you were alright,” Adriana said. She studied me with a concerned gaze. “Made men can be horribly callous without meaning to be. Even the ones that love us.”
“Duran can be pretty callous,” I agreed. “But he’s not always that way.”
“He’s guarded like Ahmed.”
“Yes,” I said slowly. “But there’s moments where he opens up and it feels like it’s worth more because he’s so guarded most of the time.”
Adriana nodded. “Ahmed went through that phase right before he told me he loved me for the first time. He was almost angry about it, like he couldn’t admit it to himself. I think it’s just years of conditioning when it comes to hiding their feelings all breaking down at once. Ahmed fought it for a while.”
“He goes hot and cold a lot,” I admitted.
“Have you slept with him?” Adriana said casually.
I struggled to hide my surprise, but she was leaning on the edge of the pool as if her question was the most ordinary thing in the world.
“I didn’t mean to,” I said quietly. “I was supposed to save myself for marriage, but Duran can be hard to resist.”
Adriana laughed and leaned in, a mischievous smile played around her mouth. “I grew up in a pretty strict household and then Ahmed showed up and my family was horrified. They’re not very open minded and to have a man from the Middle East who’s also a made man. They hated him.”
“Oh,” I said, surprised. “How did you end up with him then?”
“We ran off,” Adriana said, her eyes glittering. “And I had sex with him the first night and never looked back. To hell with all the strict rules, it turns out sex feels amazing.”
We both laughed. It felt strange that I could relate to what she was saying after so many years of being a virgin. There was a twinge of guilt in my stomach, but I pushed it away and forced myself to focus on the conversation.
“So how is Ahmed a made man? I thought you had to be Italian,” I said.
“He saved the boss’s life about five years ago,” she said. “The Romano family is indebted to him now so they made him a soldier. He’s the first man without an Italian bloodline who has been brought in like that that I know of. And of course it helped that his family has done business with the Esposito brothers for a long time.”
“He must have really impressed the boss.”
Adriana smiled and tossed her hair back, a glitter of pride in her eyes. “He is quite impressive, in more ways than one.”
“He has that in common with Duran, I suppose,” I said, laughing.
I sat aside my empty glass, feeling more relaxed now that the wine had hit my veins. Internally there was still a clock ticking down the seconds until Duran would return, but I was able to silence it a little better now and focus on other things.
Chapter Eleven
We spent the afternoon together and when dinnertime came, Ahmed returned from his work in the office upstairs and joined us at the table. Neither Adriana or I felt like making dinner so we found some pizzas in the deep freezer below the kitchen. When they were finished cooking, we gathered some paper plates and cups and brought everything out to the front yard to eat on the veranda.
“How long do you think Duran will be gone, Ahmed?” I asked tentatively.
Ahmed shifted in his chair and crossed his legs, his fingers running over the rim of his glass of beer. “A few days perhaps. It’s hard to say.”
“He’s being elusive,” said Adriana, raising an eyebrow. “It’s men’s business, I suppose.”
Ahmed inclined his head. “That’s true.”
“Don’t be a bastard,” Adriana said.
