Emiliana   “Hmm… what about this one?” Giovanni thrust a piece of cake in front of me while still swallowing his own mouthful.  I took a bite of the cream filled sponge from the fork - vanilla. “Hmm…” I groaned in ecstasy as the taste hit my tongue. Giovanni’s eyes darkened as he watched me intently, leaning over the counter and swiping my bottom lip with his thumb. He pulled back, sucking the cake from his digit whilst his gaze bore into me. “I love that sound.” He growled seductively, the alluring smirk on his face was begging for more. “Focus.” I swatted his hand away and averted my eyes back to the twenty-odd cakes displayed across the counter. Giovanni had tucked some time aside to spend with me, a

Giovanni   Sleep was a ghost to me that night. Haunting me just like Emiliana’s expression did.  I couldn’t wipe the look of fear on her face from my mind. While Emiliana lay still, resting her head on me with her long brown waves draped across her face, I focused on Mateo. More importantly, how I was going to deal with him. Mateo was once one of my most trusted men. Yeah, he could be a dipshit sometimes, but I didn’t think he would go crawling to help Vittoria. Something didn’t feel right, but after a week of torture, Mateo was still holding strong. I had no information, no clues and I could tell that Louis was breaking. Having him beat the living shit out of his younger brother couldn’t have been easy, but he was just as furious as I was. I sensed that a minor part of his sadistic mind enjoyed inflicting pain on him for his brother’s betrayal. Vinnie had argued with me for the better part of that morning unti

Giovanni “This is the guest list.” Emiliana handed me the piece of paper with a weak smile.“What’s wrong?” I asked, allowing my eyes to scan the names scrawled elegantly on each line.She hesitated on the spot before dropping into the chair in front of my desk. She wrung her hands in her lap, biting down on her lip in an attempt to shove away whatever was bothering her.“Em?” I tugged her attention with my deep voice. There was a slight sadness in her eyes, which squeezed at my chest. I hated seeing her upset and even more so when it was someone else’s fault. My blood began to boil, a fire stoking in my stomach at the thought that someone else had done this to her. Her teary eyes flickered to the piece of pap

Emiliana   Dancing with Giovanni, it felt like I was floating. Drifting in a day dream where only we mattered. We twirled and swayed, the music laying the foundations for our steps. Every swing of our bodies, every step was together and in time. There was still a hint of sadness that wrapped around my heart, the realisation that my parents weren’t here was still too painful to push past. Giovanni sensed it, in every dilatory stare, he could see the struggle and made every attempt to distract me. “Te amo, princessa.” He whispered to me, his arms wrapped so tightly that there was no way of me floating off of this cloud we were on. “Porque, eres una princesa, mi princesa.” (Because you are a princess, my princess.) Giovanni stretched his arm out, spinning m

Emiliana   My knees shook violently, and my eyes stung, burning with unshed tears. Anger replaced all sense of reason as soon as Vinnie uttered that man’s name and I reached for the closest thing to me. Throwing the mug with so much force that the porcelain and its contents exploded against the wall. Vinnie sat motionless, speechless, watching my heaving body as I threw item after item into the air. My lungs tightened, unable to catch an even breath as my rage fired up. “Even in his death he is ruining our lives!” I screamed, reaching for the paperweight on the desk. “Em, please.” He spoke calmly, resting his hand upon mine. His eyes were soft as he silently pleaded with me. I did not know what his next words were, but I was almost certain he was trying to placate me.