Novel Square
19
I had thought that our drunken conversation in New York had caused something to shift in our relationship, but once we got back to the house things returned to the way they were before. Carlo was still caring but kept a more reserved distance from me, especially in front of his men. While I knew Carlo didn’t feel the same way about me that I did him, I knew that he did care for me. I also knew that he saw his affections for me as a weakness and was cognizant of how he behaved in front of his men. Though it had been years since my father and his other men had betrayed him but Carlo was still weary, almost to the point of paranoia. I understood where he was coming from, but that didn’t mean I had to like it.
I had no idea what I wanted to do now that school was over. I considered a graduate degree but I was burned out on school, at least for the time being. It only took me about a week after getting back from New York to start crawling the walls, begging Carlo to give me something to do. If I was going to be home for the foreseeable future he might as well put me to work.
Apparently Carlo liked the idea of keeping me around to work for him because within the month I was overseeing all of his legitimate businesses. Each firm had its own president, while I directed each of them at a high level and managed the parent company. Really, it was mostly reviewing reports and handling the portfolios from each of our lines of business. I was on a bit of a learning curve but I picked things up fast, much to the relief of Nicky, the old man who currently ran things for Carlo. The poor man walked with a limp, using a cane for support. His weathered skin was tan and etched with wrinkles, his hair thinning and snow white. He had deep set watery eyes that were the lightest blue I’d ever seen. When he smiled his entire face scrunched up into a mass of lines causing his eyes to be completely consumed by thick wiry eyebrows.RêAd lat𝙚St chapters at Novel(D)ra/ma.Org Only
According to Nicky, he had wanted to retire years ago but Carlo wouldn’t let him until he found a successor that could handle things as well as he did. It was kind of sad seeing as Nicky was about a hundred years old and well overdue for retirement. I understood Carlo’s hesitation to let Nicky go, the old man was still sharp as a tack and his other men weren’t exactly the CEO type.
Glad to be of use, I dove head first into the work. It gave me purpose and a sense of direction. I could see myself doing this long-term, it felt like I was finally pulling my weight and contributing to the family. Another plus was the fact that the men were starting to look at me with more respect, and less like a child they were forced to babysit.
By the time Gina checked out of rehab, I was fully entrenched in the business and Nicky was well on his way to a happy retirement. I still called on him for help from time to time but he spent less time at his office in the city and more time at home with his grandchildren. I had opted to set up shop at the house, commandeering my own office. I also kept an office in the city, where I had a full staff, for when I absolutely had to be present to handle things or take meetings. But I had been away for so long I preferred to work from the comfort of home.
…
Exhaustion weighed heavily on my shoulders as I walked the short distance from my office to Carlo’s. I had put in long ours this week in preparation for my week long staycation with Gina. It was two o’clock in the afternoon and I only had an hour before she would be here. I needed Carlo’s approval on a few changes so I could send them off to the main office and power down for the day.
I had been slowly making changes to some of the procedures and streamlining the management of the businesses so it was easier to oversee at a high level. While Nicky had been good at his job, he was old school. Just converting the various businesses to the same software was going to be a year-long process but it would save so much time when it came to reconciling at the end of the year. The new software would also make it easier to hide the money we were laundering from the illegitimate business dealings into the legitimate ones.
I walked into Carlo’s office but didn’t see him, then I heard the shower running in his adjacent bathroom. Why the man needed a full bathroom in his office when he had one right upstairs in his room I had no idea. Normally, I would have just set the file on his desk and left, but I didn’t have time to wait. I walked over to the bathroom door which was ajar, with every intention of letting him know I was waiting for his approval on these drafts and he needed to hurry his ass up.
All my good intentions were shattered, however, when I reached the entrance to the bathroom and saw his reflection in the mirror through the crack in the door. He was in the glass shower stall opposite the mirror. His forehead pressed to the stone wall beneath the showerhead, the stream of water pounding his back. He was gorgeous, all ripped muscle and tattooed olive skin, but what caught my attention was his hand wrapped around his incredibly hard cock.
My heart started to race, my breaths coming faster and my nipples tingled and tightened. He was working himself at a furious pace and then he groaned. Oh. My. God. I squeezed my legs together, Jesus, I didn’t think I had ever been this turned on before. I didn’t even think it was fucking possible but I was pretty sure I just had a mini orgasm. His speed picked up and his shoulders tightened, his ass clenching, and just before he came he groaned out again.
“Mia,” It was rough and strangled, but it was most definitely my name. I froze as he climaxed and slowed his movements, milking every bit of his orgasm, his breath coming out in ragged pants.
All of a sudden, rage traveled through me. That MOTHERFUCKER! He wanted me. That much was obvious, but how long? I was pretty sure my lust for him was written all over my fucking face and he just left me hanging, looking the lovesick fool.
Oh, hell no.
I quickly backtracked and headed to my office before he could notice I had been there. I shut and locked the door. I was going to torture him. Then, I was going to fuck some goddamn sense into him. I threw the file on the desk and turned towards the mirror behind it. I unbuttoned an extra couple of buttons on my shirt and adjusted myself so you could just barely see the top swell of my breasts and if I leaned just right, the top of my lacey bra was visible as well. Thank God I took up Carlo’s proclivity for dressing up for work even if it was just in the house.
Next, I twisted my long dark hair into a bun and secured it with a pen, pulling out a few strands to make it look like it had been that way for a while. I admired my handiwork in the mirror for another minute and headed back to his office. I was done playing the good girl. The second he said my name in the shower he gave me the green light. I was going full force, he wasn’t going to know what hit him.