Giovanni and Valentina watched the retreating back for a few moments before Giovanni turned to look at her.
“One of your many admirers, huh?” Valentina rolled her eyes and stepped away from him. With his loud mouth, she recalled Jennifer and his wonderful conversation.
“Yes, Dante had tried to get me to go out with him plenty of times. In fact, I think he was waiting for me to graduate before talking to my dad about pressing for my hand.”
“Ha, your dad wouldn’t have aligned with that family.”
“Yet he aligned with the Constantini’s, go figure.” Valentina shot him a glare
“What are you doing?” Valentina looked at the man through the mirror and smiled. “Getting my hair done. As you know, I have an upcoming party to get ready for.” “You mean the one that’s coming up on Friday at your parents place?” Giovanni took the empty chair by Valentina and she smiled. “I’m sorry, but my mom doesn’t take well to being underhanded.” Vinny tilted his head to the side as he regarded her in the mirror. “You know, you would think our moms knew that this war was over.” She couldn’t stop the laugh that came out and she couldn’t deny that she liked
“Buongiorno (good morning), Giovanni.” Giovanni looked up at his dad as he walked into the kitchen. His dad perched against the island, a cup of coffee in one hand and the morning newspaper in the other. “Buongiorno, papà (morning, dad).” Vinny eyed the man again as he made his way to the coffee pot. It wasn’t odd to see his dad awake, and hell if wasn’t odd for Vinny to be awake either. But it was odd to see his dad still in the kitchen and not in the family dining area, which told Vinny that his dad remained just so he could run into Vinny. “You and Val make a striking couple,” Donatello said, tossing the newspaper on the counter between them. “The media are calling you two the power couple.” Vinny finish
It was simple and sweet and it sure as hell caused her heart to start doing double time, which was something she didn’t like and refused to examine why. But the sounds of cat calls and whistles soon broke them apart and as they did, she stared into his eyes. And she blinked as a flash captured her attention and she turned, seeing a cameraman there. “Thanks for that shot, Vinny; the readers are going to love it.” Val quickly took a step back, her teeth grinding against each other. She should have known better! In fact, she would do well to remember that all of this is for show that Vinny would never care for her like she would want. “Glad you got it, Nico.” Nico smiled at Val but she couldn’t return it. ‘This is just a job, grin and bear it’, she k
Salvatore looked between the couple and saw the hard glint in Vinny’s eyes. Yes, Valentina maybe shouldn’t have been so forceful and left marks on Celeste, but Celeste shouldn’t have disrespected her either; and everyone, including Celeste, knew that. Val did what any princess would have done, stood up for herself. And he had to make Vinny see that; after all, he was the only one who knew the terms of this agreement. So, he grabbed Carlos and told him to take Val down to the dance floor while he took Vinny to the office. Once Carlos took her, much to Vinny’s annoyance, Salvatore grabbed his arm, “let’s go.” “Where to?” “The office, we need to talk.” Vinny sighed, but followed him.  
“Are you allowed to go?” Val rolled her eyes at her friend. “I’m his fiancée Claire, not a lap dog or anything.” “So, you’re free to go after class?” “Yes.” Valentina looked up at her friend and classmate. Claire was one of those people who didn’t know about her world, and that’s how Val wanted to keep it. She didn’t hang out much with her outside of class, so when she asked, she was quick to say yes to get away from that mafia world. And all they knew was that she was engaged, and to whom, but all they knew about Giovanni was that he was some type of business man.
Valentina swallowed hard and looked up at her father before looking back at Vinny, who stood at the doorway, with his arms crossed over his chest and a murderous glint in his eyes. His eyes took notice of the cut on her lip and on her arm, but also of the hands prints. But before she could say anything, the doctor came in and checked out her wound, shooing everyone but Rafael and Vinny out. “De Luca, can you excuse us please?” Vinny asked as the doctor finished bandaging the arm. Rafael glanced at her and slowly he shook his head. “I’m very disappointed, Val.” And in all her years she had never felt so small. And it wasn’t like she made a habit of it. In fact, she was the one attacked! Vinny hunched down and she stared at his jean clad legs, not w
He pulled into the four car garage and quickly cut the engine after he parked. She looked through the window at the other three cars and lifted a brow as he helped her out. “Where would mine go?” He grinned at her question and tossed her a wink. “I have a warehouse at the back of my property that has another five cars. These are merely the ones I drive more often. When you move in, I’ll simply put one of these back there.” She blinked, she knew that it would happen, her moving in and living with him, but to hear it, it felt more real. “Right,” she muttered, which caused him to chuckle. It was as surreal for him and it was her. &nb
The Agreement NoticeAs you can see, the rest of the chapters are gone. I pulled the book down as of Oct 28th because this became my first debut novel! If you have liked what you read and want more, feel free to check it out on Amazon, it’s there for Kindle and paperback, or you can swing over to Barnes & Noble (which is insane to me!)I’m sorry that it’s no longer free, but I hope you’ve enjoyed it enough to want to help a writer along the way, but if not, I understand. And if you were able to read it through, I hope you’d consider buying it to read later on?And of course, thank you for the love and support. Hope you enjoy my other stories as well!