"What?" My lips parted as I stared, faking confusion.
"What were you doing?" His brows were raised as he closed the door behind him, stepping forward.
I got off the bed, stepping away and tracing my possible escape routes. All I had to do was take him down. It wouldn't be so hard. I could kick him in the crotch or dig his eyes out.
"Jasmine." His voice brought me back from my imagination. "I asked you a question."
"I wasn't doing anything. It's nothing. Please, just go." If I heard one more cruel joke about the scar, I could possibly get myself murdered by screaming his head off.
"It's nothing to be ashamed of, in my opinion. I just didn't take you for the type to do that." He shrugged, a smirk sitting on his face.
"Wait, what exactly did you think I was doing?" I frowned.
"Do you really want me to say it?" God, no. It wasn't what I thought it was. This was way worse.
"Did you think I was…"
"Touching yourself? Absolutely," he confirmed with a nod.
I groaned, rubbing my face with my hands. I was half relieved, half mortified as I told him, "I was not."
"Again, it's not something to be ashamed—"
"I really wasn't! And you should have knocked before you walked in." I crossed my arms, returning to the bed and slumping on it.
"My apologies for that one. And fine, you weren't touching yourself. You were simply… exploring." I almost laughed with him, but it would have been at my expense.
"Fuck you," I grumbled.
"From how I see it, you prefer your own company and—"
"No! Get out!" I threw a pillow at his face, but he caught it before it could touch him.
"I came here for something important, Jasmine." He sat, his face suddenly turning grim. I sat up, alert. "Roman was spotted all the way in Sicily."
"That's a good thing, right? He's far away and I can go back to my apartment." From the look on his face, it was far from good.
"He was spotted with my father."
I honestly had no idea how I was supposed to react to that information. I had no slight clue who his father was or what he was capable of, but I did know that the thought of Roman with his father put Luciano in a state of unease, and that was enough for me to be terrified of the news.
"What exactly does this entail? Are you in trouble?" I questioned.
"Try we, Jasmine. We might be in trouble."
"What do you mean, "we"? What do I have to do with any of this? I didn't even—"
"Don't tell me you forgot what led to me taking his fingers out all of a sudden. That would defeat the whole purpose of my actions. You're supposed to know that I will fucking kill anyone who hurts you if I have to, as stated in the contract."
It really was stated in the contract:
Clause #3: Party B gives party A consent to do whatever party A chooses to whoever does any harm whatsoever to party B (brutal beatings, murder, etc.)
It didn't make sense that those kinds of words were used in a legal contract, but Luciano could very well take me to court because of that, and he would definitely win.
"What do we do now?" I was going crazy, I had to be.
Day by day, I had reason to question my sanity on the day I picked up a pen and signed that godforsaken contract. Maybe I could back out of the contract on the grounds that I was not in the right state of mind when I signed it.
Clause #5: Party B will be released from the contract and all of its terms on two grounds ONLY:
1. The deadline (six months) is reached without a mutualcontract renewal.2. Party A gives party B permission to opt out of the contract with a written and signed document.
"I'll handle it. I'm expecting my father to arrive at any moment of his choosing, since it's something he enjoys doing. I'm going to talk him out of whatever Roman is trying to him into." I didn't miss the hint of doubt and – dare I say it – fear he had in his tone.
I couldn't ask if he was afraid of his father. He would either deny it or attack me verbally.
"Is there anything I should do?" I inquired.
"Make yourself scarce when my father is around. Do not engage in an active conversation if you ever come across him. Only give answers to questions he asks, no matter how hard that might be for someone like you." I gave him an offended look at his last statement.
"I can handle myself," I mumbled, watching his lips curl upwards as he smirked.
"I'll be heading to New Orleans this Friday. I want to go see my father," I announced.
He nodded, a look of understanding passing his face as he stood up. "I'll notify the air crew. Just tell me what time you want to go."
"What air crew?" I raised a brow at him as he headed for the door.
"You'll be flying to New Orleans, won't you?" I nodded. "Save the ticket money and the stress. I'll take you."
"You're telling me you have a private jet?" I didn't know if I was right to be surprised or not.
He replied with a simple shrug as he opened the door.
"Oh, and… Jasmine," he called out. "If you ever do need help with pleasuring yourself, you can always find me."
My heart was stuck in my throat as I watched him step out of the room and close the door, that aggravating smirk plastered on his face.
I grabbed a pillow and muffled my embarrassed screams into it.
Screw you, Luciano D'Angelo.
~
"Someone looks bright all of a sudden. Did you sleep with him?" Vera's familiar tease had the rest of the tension in my body dissipating.
Luciano had driven to his club after I practically begged because Vera wanted to see me. The bastard wanted me to kneel and say please because he said and I quote, "I'm bored. Entertain me, Jasmine, my darling."
I may have knelt because of how desperate I was for stimulation.
The house was driving me crazy and I needed an evening to myself with lots of alcohol, so there I was, embarrassed and sober because all of a sudden, the two shots of tequila didn't seem to kick. I had never gone past two. Maybe my alcohol tolerance had gone up.
"No, I didn't. I hope I don't have to. He's such an ass." I didn't care who could hear me. In fact, I was hoping a tattletale was around the corner to tell him what I thought of him.
"I think it runs in the blood or something." Her eyes flicked to the other end of the bar, where Matteo was tossing glasses of Scotch into his throat back to back like his life depended on getting alcohol poisoning.
I noticed him sporting a new tattoo on his wrist. It stuck out because it didn't fit in with the rest of his dark tattoos of skulls and snakes.
"Remind me what your favorite flower was again," I said, drawing my attention back to Vera.
"Daisies, I love daisies."
I looked back at the tattoo of a single daisy on Matteo's wrist, a smile growing on my face. "Daisies, yeah."
"That was such a random question, Jaz. Are you drunk?" she laughed.
"No, not yet. Still waiting for that tequila to kick in." I shrugged.
"Wanna test your limits?" She pushed a glass of vodka in my direction, wiggling her brows. "You can always say no."
"Ah, screw it." I grabbed the glass and tipped it, the content pouring into my mouth. I could taste a bit of lemon in there.
"That was a good one." Vera rubbed my back, lowering her voice. "That should be enough. We don't want you getting too drunk for your first night together with the Capo."
"Jeez, Vera! I already told you we're not doing any of that!" I playfully elbowed her in the side.
"Okay but does he know that, though?" She gestured at Luciano, who was sitting on one of the couches with different hands of different people going different places on his body.
He was staring at me, paying no mind to the searching hands on his body, as he drew a glass to his lips and drained the content. He raised the empty glass to me in a mock toast.
"In case you don't know how to interpret his look, those were "sleep with me" eyes right there." I swatted in the direction of Veronica's hand to stop her from teasing, but I missed and she only laughed even louder.
"Can we talk?" was the first thing Matteo said when he finally grew the balls to walk up to where Vera and I sat. He was obviously not talking to me, and it was a no-brainer that they'd had a fight about something.
"No," Vera replied, not sparing him a look.
"Please," he begged.
"Please, get away from me, Matteo. Not now. I just want to have this night without you in it, which isn't working so well now that you're here."
I looked in Luciano's direction, but he was no longer there. It was awkward being in the middle of a fight between Vera and Matteo, but I didn't want to leave Vera with someone she didn't want to be with at the moment.
"I'm sorry. Should I call you tomorrow?"
"I'll call you if I want to talk about it, Matteo." He nodded in understanding and walked away. I felt bad for him. Even the usual cocky flair, which always seemed surround him, was missing.
"Do you—"
"No, I don't want to talk about it. You know what, I'm actually very sleepy. I'll text you when I get home safe." She dropped a couple of bills in front of the bartender and left.
I stared at her for her usual signs of drunkenness, but there was none.
I made my way up to Luciano's office, attempting to return the favor of walking into his private space without knocking.
Of course, the last thing that I predicted a woman sitting on his lap and shoving her tongue down his throat when I opened the door.