Gold Digging Bitch

Roman's POV

“Oh fuck. I am going to cum…” The woman's breath hitched as she clung to my shoulders, her movements growing increasingly frantic before she finally collapsed against my chest.

I let her catch her breath for a moment before moving her aside. I was not the kind to kiss and cuddle afterward.

I slipped under my bathrobe and walked up to the empty hall. I sat down on the sofa, catching a quiet smoke when the door of my apartment flew open without a knock.

Luca walked in with a mask of annoyance, “Where the hell were you? Why weren't you answering my call?”

Before I could answer, the woman inside my bedroom emerged out, clutching her heels in one hand and her bag in the other. She awkwardly greeted Luca before making her way out of the house.

Luca looked at me in disbelief, “You need to stop doing this.”

I grinned before blowing out a smoke ring. Luca shook his head and handed me a file, “Here, take a look.”

I turned my eyes towards the black file in his hand and asked, “What is it?”

“You have got a marriage proposal.” He answered in an ominous tone.

I stared at him for a while before cracking a laughter. I helped myself with another puff, “That's what you are worried about?” I took the file from his hand and tossed it away, “I get hundreds of proposals every year. Give it to my parents, they will reject it like they reject all the others.”

“Your parents have already approved it.”

My hand stopped halfway to my mouth. I looked at him and asked, “They did what?”

“I am serious. They seem quite pleased with this one.”

This piqued my interest. I tossed the remaining cigarette butt into the ash tray and reached out to open the file. The first thing to greet my eyes was a photo of a woman smiling at the camera. 

She had long black hair that fell loosely over her shoulders, framing a delicate face with high cheekbones, a slender nose and full lips. Her dark brown eyes were striking, brightened by thick lashes and naturally arched brows. There was something unusually lively about them, a warmth that seemed almost out of place against the polished, guarded expressions I was accustomed to seeing.

It felt strange but in a rather exciting way.

I asked, “Who is this?”

“She is Old man Voss’s granddaughter.” Luca revealed, catching me off guard.

“The Voss? But I thought he had no heir.”

“Everyone thought the same but he managed to hide this one from the world.”

“That cunning old fox.” I smirked and asked, “What is her name?”

“Alina Whitmore.” Luca spelled out, forcing my eyebrows to knit themselves together.

“Whitmore?” I slowly placed the photo back on the file and felt the tip of my fingers burn in disgust.

My assistant nodded, “Apparently Voss's daughter fell in love with a commoner and was disowned. This girl grew up completely away from the cartel.”

A socialite, the word alone was enough to sour my mood. I had never understood the fascination women like her had with a life that amounted to nothing.

They attended parties, smiled for cameras, wore clothes that cost more than most people's houses and spent their days deciding which charity gala was worth showing their faces at. And when it is time, their entire ambition is to marry into a wealthy family who could afford to maintain the lifestyle they had grown accustomed to.

I flipped through her profile and almost scoffed. The eldest daughter of the Whitmore family, a business graduate, currently working in the Marketing department of her family business. It might look impressive to people but I knew it was all a sham.

A few years of university and a cushy position in her family's company hardly made her ambitious. Women like her didn't work because they needed to. They worked because it gave them something respectable to say when someone asked what they did.

I loathed people like her.

I closed the file and handed it to Luca, “I don't like her.”

Luca frowned while taking the file from me, “What do you mean?”

I stood up, rolling up my sleeves, “You know how I feel about women like her. They are bland, lifeless with no purpose or ambition. You cannot expect me to marry someone whose only skill is to look pretty next to her husband.”

The assistant looked genuinely confused, his curious gaze followed me as I made my way to the bar to pour myself a glass of Scotch. He pointed out, “You literally date women from that exact circle”

“Exactly, Luca,” I twisted the bottle close and picked up the glass in my hand, “Women like her can only be bed warmers. I don't need just another gold digging bitch as my wife.”

Luca held the file tightly and looked down as if he was contemplating something. A while later, he said, “How long are you planning on doing this?”

“Until I find the women worthy of standing next to me.”

“You are running short of time, Roman. If you don’t get married in the next three months, your grandfather won’t let you take over the business.” As soon as Luca’s words fell in the empty room, I felt my grip around the glass tighten. Old man Carusso, though wise and respectable, was an unreasonable man. One of his criteria to become the head of the Carusso family was to be married because to him, a man who can't build a family can't be trusted to build an empire. 

“I am perfectly capable of running the business without a wife.” I slammed the glass on the table, clenching my jaw. 

“You think that matters to him?”  He sat down on the chair next to me and continued, “They have tired to marry you off three times already. Alina is not a nobody like them, she is the granddaughter of our biggest rival. Just because the last three brides mysteriously disappeared and no one bothered to ask where they went or look closely into who was behind their disappearance, doesn’t mean it can be the same with her.”

I darted a sharp glance at him, silently warning him to watch what he was saying.

Luca, being the sensible man that he was, refrained from probing into it further and immediately changed the topic, “The Vosses and the Carussos have been at each other's throats for decades. Both families believe this marriage could finally put an end to it. So unless you plan on starting another war and waste your life over petty gang wars, you don't really have a choice.”

“So she is not completely useless. She is a peace offering.” I ridiculed and was about to pour myself another glass when Luca snatched it away. He said, “Roman, you can't put her in the same pool as your play thing. You haven't even met her, let alone know her enough to reject her. This alliance would solve a lot of our problems. So unless you have a solid reason to reject her, I don't think anyone is going to let you walk away from this marriage over mere prejudice.”

I contemplated silently for a while before letting out a tiny grunt, “Alright!” I got off from the seat and fixed my robe “Since you insist, let's go meet this peace offering of yours."