Tempted By The Mafia Boss

Charlotte

He’s still listed as living at the same address. But I don’t want to pitch up at his house and have someone like his wife or a girlfriend answer the door.

I don’t want to do that, it would be too much for me to handle and it would be awkward.

My family is one thing. They would have missed me to no end every day as they told me they did, but I don’t even expect him to remember me. I don’t.

So I decided on the one place I could go that would be safe and casual.Belonging © NôvelDram/a.Org.

Somewhere low key, as low key as it could be for me because there’s nothing low key about The Dark Odyssey. Nothing whatsoever.

There was nothing low key about it ten years ago and definitely not now.

The minute I step in I notice the wonderous changes.

The floor is marble and the sound of my heels clicking against it is different to the grayscale flooring it previously had.

Tonight, it actually looks like I stepped into Venice. It really does and I’m proud of the way the place looks.

Gabe told me once that the idea was class and sophistication, a place to live out your wildest dreams and being somewhere that looks like this gives people the comfort to do that, not like some seedy back alley set up where anything could happen to you.

I wait in line behind a couple who have been whispering to each other and touching since we came through the door. The woman is wearing a kimono. The man dressed in a suit. He looks like a banker or someone official and professional for his attire.

They look good together and you can tell they’re a couple who are really into each other. They’re here to have fun with each other and not anybody else.

They take the gold masquerade masks the receptionist hands them and saunter away.

I’m next in line. I’m not wearing lingerie so I don’t have on any of the silky dressing gowns and kimono-type wraps most of the ladies are wearing. I have on a dress. A long black evening gown with diamantes splashed all over it. It’s probably more the sort of thing you’d wear for an actual masquerade ball.

I get a gold mask from the receptionist and put it on straight away. She also hands me the golden token to give to someone I want to end my night with. I don’t bother to explain to her that I’m not here for that.

The receptionist who was here in the past never gave me anything like that because she knew I was here for Gabe.

I’m still here for Gabe just not the way I was ten years ago. Eighteen and ready to lose my virginity.

I go through the large oak doors and I’m enveloped by music and …the truly scandalous activities happening around me.

And still I’m as fascinated as I ever was. If there’s one thing I discovered about myself since meeting Gabe it’s that watching people live out their wild fantasies is something that fascinates me.

The Dark Odyssey intrigues me for the beauty and the temptation. It’s stylish, very stylish, with the grand gold roof and décor fitting to the masquerade balls you’d see in Venice. The hall is endless and packed as always.

Nevertheless, it’s what’s happening on the outskirts though that entices me to stare. From where I am I can see five cubicles and all the people inside are having sex. There are couples, threesomes, foursomes.

The music dips low as it changes and the moan of a woman crying out in pleasure grabs my attention. She’s to my left, practically a few paces away from me having a threesome with two guys, and my whole body flushes from the sight.

I find myself staring like I did the first time I was here, except that first time I was with Gabe and he only allowed me to see a little bit of what was going on because I was far too young to be in here. The club is for people who are twenty one and over. At the time of my first visit I was seventeen. The club opened eight months before my eighteenth birthday.

People are just as raunchy now as they were back then. Worse.

I watch as both men suck her breasts while she strokes their cocks. Then the guy to her right picks her up and settles her down on his cock in reverse cowgirl. The other guy moves to the front so he can plunge into her pussy and the two guys start pumping into her.

At least … given all I’ve been through I can still watch.

I still think it’s the power of the mask. It may look pretty but it was made for so much more than that. It hides your identity but gives you the freedom to watch and those you’re watching can’t really tell what your expression is as you do.

I won’t stand here all night though like some perv and continue to watch longer than what may be deemed acceptable. And… I’m not here for that.

I look away and continue to the bar, placing an order for a fruit cocktail when the bartender approaches me. Then I look around while I sit on a barstool.

Several men glance my way, giving me stares I always get from men. It’s the breasts. I’ve been getting attention like that since I was fourteen. The dress I’m wearing though has probably thrown them off kilter because no one else is dressed like me.

I must look out of place. I feel a little awkward as it is because the dress scallops around my thinner figure and it’s meant to be a little tighter.

Antonio wanted to keep me thin so he made sure I was given less food if he saw that I was putting on weight. That’s what happened recently. I was sick with the stupid bug that swept through the village and wasn’t well enough to see his clients. I lost weight from not eating then gained it back once I got my appetite and I gained a little more. He saw and decided I need to starve for a week then be given a bowl of soup and an apple in the weeks after.

I shake the memory of him free from my head. I don’t want to think about him anymore tonight. Over the last few days I’ve been back, there have been calls to Pa about him and the funeral. I told him to let them know I was too distraught to attend given the nature of the way he was murdered.

Thank God they understood. Someone else contacted us about money and inheritance to let me know my asshole of a husband had his will written so there was nothing there for me except my allowance for the year which came to a total of thirty grand.

He gave everything to his brother’s family and a dog charity. That’s what the man did.

He made sure there was nothing in his will that would leave me any money. It was because of the way that the allowance was set up however that I was able to get anything.

It was fine. I don’t want his money. What I do have is savings. Savings from the fucking allowance and the money I got from teaching at the school. I didn’t buy anything other than lingerie he gave me money to buy and personal items so I have a total of seventy grand in savings. It’s enough to get an apartment and take care of myself for a while.

If I get this teaching job I’ll make further plans. It would be nice to buy a house. My own place.

Small steps though.

This is however a big one. I’m here at The Dark Odyssey and I’m not sure what I’m supposed to do now.

I’m here and I planned to just see Gabe, that’s it.

Just get a glimpse so I can see he’s okay. Happy even. Not talk, or let him see me or anything where we communicate. I just want to see him for my own peace of mind and then I’ll let him go.

I need to because he’s part of the past and more so because he belongs to a life I don’t want to be part of anymore. People say you can’t change who you are. I beg to differ. I’m about to.

I don’t care what the circumstances are that gave me my freedom, I have it and I don’t want to live the next ten years watching my back or being afraid.

That is what the last ten years were like for me. As much as I love my family, I don’t ever want to be put in the position where I have to worry over their lives if I don’t play nice. I don’t want that ever again.

The music changes to an upbeat club mix and the people go wild. Bodies clash together and people are shamelessly grinding against each other. Sex isn’t allowed on the dance floor but what is happening around me is like a massive orgy.

It feels weird being here around so many people. I haven’t been around this many people in forever. And just like before, I think the place looks like an erotic lingerie party.

The bartender returns with my drink and gives me a smile. “Can I get you anything else?” he asks.

“No, this is great. Thanks.” I dip my head and take the glass smiling at the way he decorated the drink. He winks at me and moves away to serve the next customer.

My spirits lift a little when I see Nick, Gabe’s youngest brother. He has a blond-haired woman with him and they’re holding hands. I continue to watch as they disappear into the crowd and I scan up to the balconies.

I’m admiring the artwork of the gold mask that’s there and a smile tugs on the corner of my mouth when I see acrobats in the air on an aerial hoop. How original.

And… oh my God, there’s a couple having sex on the hoop. They’re twisted in this contorted upside down position where the man is hooked on to the hoop with his feet and the woman is practically glued to him and the two are naked having sex. The hoop must be on some rotating device because it floats away like a dream into the darkness and they disappear.

They disappear but the man who appears in my view makes my heart stop beating in my chest.

My breathing constricts and I fear that if I look away to rub my eyes and check that who I’m seeing is real he’ll disappear.

It’s Gabe.

Gabriel.

It’s him. He’s standing on the second floor balcony just peering over the side. He’s actually not that far away from me but it feels far away.

He’s standing there, arms rested on the balcony rail and he looks perfect.

Ten years looks good on him.

I shouldn’t be surprised.

Ten years on a perfect man just improves what was already there.

With his sharp haircut, high, exotic cheekbones set in a face that was chiseled by God himself, Gabe looks like a masterpiece.

I gaze up at him and I remember everything I shared with him. Every single thing.

I don’t mean to but I set my glass down and find myself standing and taking small steps toward him. It’s the magnetism of him that draws me to him, to what I can’t have. A man I wanted and never got to be with. It all ended after that one night of passion we shared.

One night of passion, then I was taken. Gone from the beautiful man I gave my heart to.

Seeing him now I remember it all starting with that last night, then I think of other things. The memories imprinted on my soul. Like us reading poetry in the meadow and him kissing me, the little boat rides we took down the river just to see the swans going to bed on the bank because the area reminded him of the post romantic poems I used to read him.

I fell so deeply in love with him I wanted nothing more than to be with him forever.

I’m staring and I walk right up to the furthest point of the dance floor. He’s about twenty feet above me. I gaze up at him and he’s looking ahead, but then he looks down.

His eyes fall on me and I know he won’t recognize me.

I’m wearing a mask and I look different. My hair is much longer and I have it down tonight, long and flowing to the center of my back.

He’s looking and I’m looking and all I do is smile.

It’s my goodbye.

It’s strange how I’m looking at him and he still feels like mine.

He straightens and his stare intensifies and I wonder if he knows it’s me.

Anyone would think that would be a good thing.

It’s not though. It’s better if he doesn’t.

Better for me.

The thought moves me the minute I think it and I leave.

I leave The Dark Odyssey and close the chapter of my life when I loved Gabriel Giordano.

Loved.

I’m so foolish.

Ten years have passed and I still love him.

I never stopped.

I still love him.