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~ Luciana's POV ~

A sharp pain in my head woke me up from my peaceful sleep. My eyes fluttered open adjusting to the light around me when I realised I was in Alessio's bedroom once again. Just like deja vu.

"Hey." I turned my head to find Alessio coming over to me with a glass of water and some pills in his hand. "Take this it'll help with your headache."

For some reason he was being extremely cold with me, just by the way he spoke and made sure to keep his distance from me, I could tell he was being off with me. He hardly even looked at me too.

"Thanks." I swallowed the pills down before leaning back against the pillows waiting for the pain in my head to subside. I closed my eyes, letting mind drift back to last nights events; leaving work in the cold, the explosion, Tomasso and then Alessio.

"So..." His eyes flashed to mine when I spoke breaking the silence that had fallen around us when he sat down on the bed - as far down from me as possible - as expected. "You'll be fine to go home once your headache is gone. I've had people check your apartment, it's all clear."

I nodded thankful that I could at least go home and get away from him and I knew I wouldn't get my ass blown to pieces the second I walked through the door, so that's a plus too. The way he was talking was so formal, like he didn't know me at all. "What's wrong Alessio? You're acting weird."

"Nothing's wrong. I'll be downstairs if you need anything; which you shouldn't really. When you're feeling better you can get dressed and go. I've got you a new car outside next to mine. The keys are by the front door." He gave me one last cold look before walking out the room without sparing me another glance.

I let out a sigh of frustration and glanced down at my clothes to see I was just wearing one of Alessio's tshirts. Honestly I wouldn't even mind going out in this, it just looked like an oversized T-shirt dress. I'll probably keep it, I deserve it for the way he spoke to me anyway and the fact that I almost died which definitely had something to do with him.

I must have fallen asleep again because the next time I woke up my phone said it was 11:58am. Almost three hours after I saw Alessio earlier. I carefully sat up hoping not to aggravate my head anymore. It felt like one wrong movement could push me over the edge and make it hurt like a bitch all over again.

I went into Alessio's bathroom where there was already a spare toothbrush laid out, and did my business before brushing my teeth. My eyes caught my reflection in the mirror causing me to visibly wince at the sight. I definitely wasn't the prettiest thing to look at. My forehead had a few butterfly stitches on where I cut myself last night, my hair was all over the place and my skin was dull and even covered in soot from the smoke. I had a few other cuts on my body but the main ones were on my forehead and my arm which had a few bandages on. My hands were grazed too from the contact I had when I fell to the ground, but it was nothing I couldn't handle. After cleaning myself up I folded my clothes from last night before putting them in my purse, grabbing my phone and holding my heels as I made my way through his huge house. I decided to keep his T-shirt in the end, I liked it and he didn't deserve it back.

The sound of Alessio's voice shouting in Italian travelled down the hallway when I reached the bottom of the stairs where I put my things down. I padded down the hallway towards the voice where I stopped outside a door, I'm assuming it was to his office.

I carefully opened the door, my eyes landing on Alessio who was glaring at some papers infront him shouting down the phone in Italian. When the door creaked open his eyes snapped up to mine, before going colder than they already were. Just like they did this morning.

Deciding I had nothing to lose, I slowly made my way into his office, careful not to touch anything or make any noises, the last thing I needed was for him to shoot me for knocking over an expensive vase or something, just when I thought we were making progress. I stood awkwardly in the middle of the room and eventually he ended his call, tossing his phone down on the desk in front of him. I expected him to look up at me, or at least to acknowledge me after that. But he didn't.

"Alessio." Once again he didn't respond to me which only got on my nerves even more. I wasn't the most patient person in the world which didn't help the situation.

"Answer me." He just continued to go through the papers on his desk pretending I wasn't standing there calling his name like an idiot.

I let out a scoff while shaking my head at his immaturity. And he claims to be a mafia boss.

"You know what really pisses me off about you Alessio? One minute I like you and think you're not as horrible as I thought you would have been but the next minute you just prove me wrong. Either you're cold towards me or you're in a bad mood over something. I should be angry with you! I am the one who almost died here. I'm too tired for this Alessio, everytime I have hope that there's something good between us, you remind me that there isn't. Because you're just the Capo, you're cold and you're heartless. So I'm done." By the end of my rant Alessio had stopped writing but his eyes were still focussed on the desk infront of him instead of looking at me, while his jaw was clenched tightly. I didn't intend on saying all of that, but the more I spoke and the longer he ignored me the angrier I got. I turned around and went back towards the door, stopping in my tracks to say one more thing. "I'm keeping the car by the way, and your shirt."

I slammed the door behind me making my back through his house, frustration and anger burning through my veins. My frustration only got worse when my eyes began to brim with tears. I was the sort of person that would cry when they became frustrated, it was that feeling of anger about something you can't do anything about which always set me off.

I stopped by the staircase where my purse and shoes were when I heard Alessio's footsteps catching up behind me. I wiped away the few tears that had spilt down my cheeks before turning to look at him, trying to put on my most convincing glare. The key word was try, all I really wanted to do was give him a hug and cry my eyes out.

"Luciana." His eyes took in my tear stained face which was no doubt red - another side effect I got from crying which just made me all the more frustrated. Honestly it was just a vicious cycle.

Imagine what it was like when I was on my period. Just try adding crazed hormones to the cycle. Personally, I'd rather die. Anyone else?

"Luciana wait...I'm sorry." I rolled my eyes at his apology and wiped another few tears from my eyes while shaking my head. "No you're not Alessio, you're just going to go back to how you were after this. I told you, I've got nothing to do with your stupid mafia, so stop treating me like I do!"

"I know you don't. That's what I can't freaking stand! You're getting dragged through all of this and you've got nothing to do with it, it's only happening because of me. You're better off staying away from me Luciana. This won't work." Alessio gestured between the two of us while he spoke. "You don't belong in my life Luciana."

"So what? That's it? YOU dragged me into your life and now you're basically telling me to get the hell out of it? You don't get to do that Alessio."

He shook his head at my words, his own anger beginning to come to the surface as well.

"I'm doing it for you."

"I don't want you to do it. Don't you get that? I don't want that." Alessio stepped closer to me, struggling to contain his emotions as he glared at me.

"Well what do you want Luciana?" He spat the words at me, his eyes locked on mine. I shook my head, refusing to look at him as the tears continued to fall from my eyes. Alessio came even closer to me, his scent strong and heavy as he came within arms length of me. "Tell me Luciana. What do you want?" His words weren't loud this time, they came out through gritted teeth, he was trying to push me to say the one thing we both knew. It was like he needed to hear me say it.

"You...I want you."

My words were enough for him, it was exactly what he wanted to hear before he pulled my waist against his, smashing his lips to mine. I stood slightly on my tip toes in my bare feet as my arms wrapped around his neck while I pulled him closer to me, reducing the space between us even more. Alessio's kiss was full of passion, enough to make me go weak at the knees.

Don't ask why I said that to him, because none of it made any sense to me either. I said what I felt in that moment.

The first time we kissed I was drunk, and I had absolutely no recollection of it whatsoever. The second time was the morning after we slept together, it was just lust. Nothing more.

This was different. This was everything I felt towards him all wrapped up in one kiss. Emotions I had no way of explaining. I didn't even want to try and explain them, I just wanted to repeat that moment over and over again in my head. The feeling of pure bliss when our lips met - it just felt so right in a period of my life when everything was going so wrong.

Alessio eventually pulled away from me, resting his forehead against mine. I watched him carefully, keeping my guard up until I knew what his reaction was going to be. The last thing I needed was for him to see me happy before he went in with his foot and crushed my heart into a million pieces.

"Luciana..." I held my breath, waiting for his next words knowing the power he held over me in that moment.

"You're so damn perfect." I released a breathy laugh, before placing my lips back on his. This kiss had a lot more intensity and soon Alessio's hands slid down to the backs of my thighs before he lifted me up. I wrapped my legs around his waist as he carried me upstairs back to his room.

<<<<<<< >>>>>>> <<<<<<<

Alessio rolled over next to me when his phone rang on his bedside table. He answered the call, his brows furrowed while he listened intently to what the other person was saying to him. I watched as his muscles tensed up during the conversation, although they didn't seem to be arguing he definitely wasn't happy.

"What's wrong?" Alessio shook his head and lay on his back thinking about the call he just had after he hung up. "Incompetent people."

"You know if you carry on the way you are, you're going to lose your hair by the time you're thirty." I ran my hand through his brown hair causing a smile to tug on his lips. "That means I only have four years left of sleeping around."

I rolled my eyes at his words with a scoff. "Go on then, try not to catch any diseases."

Alessio let out a laugh and sat up, pulling me closer to him. "Don't be jealous, there's still plenty of me for you."

I scrunched up my nose trying to get out of his grip but he just held me closer to him. "I don't want anymore, I've had enough."

Alessio laughed while placing a kiss on my cheek, nuzzling his face in my neck. "That's not true and you know it."

I rolled my eyes at his words and placed my hand on his chest pushing him away from me. We may have just had sex again but I wasn't about to let him know just exactly how badly my body craved his touch. I didn't need to inflate his ego like that.

"You really do need to relax more Alessio. You're always so stressed."

"I don't have time, I relax when I sleep." I rolled my eyes at his words and sat up properly to face him, pulling the sheets closer to my chest. "That's not good for you. When you're with me you can't work, you have to relax, starting today."

I could tell what I was saying was bothering him, he didn't like taking time off from the mafia. That much was clear. But he had to, it wasn't good for him to only live and breathe the mafia, day in day out. It really wasn't good for anyone except the criminals he works with and the corrupt people who benefited from his work. "Luciana..."

"No arguments Alessio." He rolled his eyes before nodding muttering a 'fine'. I watched him get out of the bed, putting on some boxers before going into the bathroom, clearly not happy with what I said. I won, that's all that mattered to me though.

I lay in Alessio's bed waiting for him to finish taking his shower when he finally came out with only a towel wrapped around his waist. I lifted my head up to look at him watching as walked into his closet. A minute later he returned in just a pair of sweatpants and a T-shirt. I think it was the first time I had seen him dressed in casual clothes, honestly it was a good look on him.

"You can take a shower if you want." I nodded keeping my eyes on him as he made his way towards the door. "I'll make us some food."

I rolled my eyes when he left the room in a mood leaving me to take a shower. I quickly took a shower and changed into another one of his T-shirt's, putting on the same underwear from last night. Thankfully it was clean otherwise I would have had a problem.

I made my way downstairs to the kitchen, my feet guiding me towards the gorgeous smell that was coming from there. I walked in to see Alessio moving around his kitchen, which was beautiful by the way, so I decided to stop in the doorway watching his back muscles tense under his T-shirt every time he did something. That man was honestly something else.

I made my way over to him wrapping my arms around his waist from behind. As soon as I made contact with him he tensed up before relaxing when he realised it was me. The movement was only for a split second but I noticed it straight away, only because I used to be exactly the same when we first moved to New York all those years ago.

"It's almost done. You can just sit over there." He nodded towards the breakfast bar before going back to making what seemed to be pasta. "Are you annoyed Alessio?"

"Nope." I rolled my eyes at the clear annoyance in his tone and let go of him going over to the breakfast bar and taking a seat on one of the stools. "You're doing a great job of hiding it. Are you just not used to people telling you what to do?"

Alessio didn't respond to me giving me my answer. The only people that would tell him what to do are his parents, and from what I observed from his encounter with his father in front of me, his father is a pretty demanding guy.

Alessio came over to me placing a plate in front of me with the best looking pasta I'd ever seen. The fact he could make it in less than twenty minutes on his own like that was impressive.

"I didn't know you could cook." Alessio rolled his eyes sitting next to me with his own plate. "There's a lot you don't know about me."

"I know you get pissed off really easily." I sent him a teasing smirk causing him to send me a glare in response. "That's because you're honestly the most annoying woman I've ever met."

"You weren't saying that half an hour ago." My words came out in a teasing sing song tone and I took a bite of my pasta while Alessio cracked a small smile when I said this. "Shut up."

We finished eating our food in silence before I took the plates over to the sink. "You don't have to do that." I shook my head at Alessio who got up to come over to me with his glass. "I want to, it's not fair that you had to cook and now you'll have to clean up too."

He gave me a small amused smile and shook his head, taking the plates from my hand. "I have people for that. Don't worry about it. Thanks for caring about me though." He sent me a wink before placing all the rest of the plates and things next to the sink in a neat pile. "You're getting
ahead of yourself, I was just being nice."

Alessio glanced over at where I was now leaning against one of the counters waiting for him to finish, an amused smile playing on his lips. Eventually we left the kitchen and I followed Alessio into his living room. The whole room was so beautiful and light and open. The floor to ceiling windows let all the natural light in while the furniture was minimal and modern, fitting the house perfectly.

We spent the next few hours curled up on his couch watching random movies. The movies were all awful, which probably didn't help the fact that I was trying to get Alessio to relax more. He complained about every movie we watched, there was no way he would ever let me take him away from his work to do this again. Not that I was complaining, he was extremely difficult to watch anything with. Every few minutes he was making comments about the movie or shuffling about on the couch. But the worst part was his phone. He would not put the damn thing down. Every few minutes he'd be texting someone 'important', which was only going to be 'a quick message'. He was so invested in his work, it was admirable but at the same time just super freaking annoying.

"Alessio someone's at the door." I tried to nudge Alessio awake but instead he just pulled me tighter against his chest, nuzzling his face into my hair. We eventually fell asleep after watching the last movie and by the time we woke up it was pitch black outside. It was bound to happen though, we were so comfortable under the blanket and the movies were so damn boring. "Alessio."

"Shut up." I rolled my eyes at his tone and tried to sit up again but he just pulled me back down again, stopping me from moving from my position on top of him. "Leave it, they'll go away." As soon as he said that the knocking instead turned to banging, causing him to let out a groan. Eventually he begrudgingly sat up, pushing me off him on to the couch causing me to glare at him. "Don't look at me like that, you're the one who kept trying to wake me up."

"Just go and open the damn door already." Alessio chuckled at my words before placing a kiss on my cheek, he got up of the couch letting out a yawn as he walked out the room. I rubbed my eyes tiredly before looking over at the clock seeing that it was already 8:30pm.

"It's just this idiot." Alessio came back into the living room a few moments later looking even more annoyed than he was when I woke him up. He sat down next to me just as Tomasso came through the door, amusement clear on his face as he took in the two of us.

"Having fun are we?" I rolled my eyes at his teasing tone and turned back to Alessio who was leaning back against the couch with his eyes closed, his Adams's apple bobbing when he swallowed. I drooled I can't lie. It's obvious he never relaxes, it's the first time he has in ages and he's absolutely shattered.

"Alessio I should go. It's pretty late." His eyes opened revealing his tired red eyes when he looked at me. "Are you sure? You can stay here if you want?" I shook my head and stood to my feet, straightening his shirt on me properly. "I've got work tomorrow."

"You work for me, just skip if you want."

"See this is why it's not a good idea that I work for you. I don't want special treatment." He rolled his eyes at my words and stood up too, taking my hand in his. "Fine." He leaned down placing his lips on mine, kissing me softly. Alessio pulled me closer to him, placing his hand on my waist while he deepened the kiss. I had to stop myself from getting too into it when I remembered Tomasso was standing a few feet away from us. I placed my hand on his chest pushing him away from me slightly to break the kiss.

"Don't let him make you work, you need to sleep. You're exhausted." I heard Tomasso scoff from his place by the door in response to my words. I turned around to see him looking down at his phone although he was clearly listening to our conversation. "Stay out of this."

"Why don't you stay out of things that don't involve you? Alessio has things to do."

"You claim to be his bestfriend yet you don't care that he's clearly too tired to work." Tomasso just rolled his eyes at my words and went back to looking at his phone, refusing to entertain the conversation. "I'll go to sleep earlier tonight don't worry." Alessio turned me around to face him again and I could tell he was amused by what I was saying but he was trying to keep me happy which just annoyed me even further.

"Leave it, do what you want. I shouldn't even care." The irritation in my words caused him to let out the laugh which he was clearly trying to keep in. I pulled my hand out of Alessio's passing a chuckling Tomasso on my way out. I heard Alessio follow me out the living room, still laughing to himself while he followed me.

"Luciana wait, come here." I rolled my eyes and grabbed my things from where I left them by the stairs, heading towards the door. Alessio quickly caught up with me, wrapping his arms around my waist before I could open the door. "You're cute."

He placed his lips on mine once again. This time I tried to push him away first but instead he just pressed me against the front door stopping me from doing so. Eventually I gave into the kiss, there's only so much I could hold out before I gave in. He was the best kisser I'd ever met and I wasn't about to pass up on the opportunity to kiss him, no matter how many people ever thought I looked desperate just giving into him like that.

Alessio finally pulled away from me, pecking my lips one more time before he pushed himself away from me, leaving a gap between us, giving me his signature smirk and a wink after he spoke. "I knew you cared about me."

I rolled my eyes at his words and turned around opening the door to leave. I heard Alessio follow closely behind me as I made my way towards the two cars parked next to each other, one of them I instantly recognised as Alessio's Lamborghini. "Luciana."

I turned to look at him and seconds later he tossed me a set of keys, which thankfully I caught otherwise that would have just been embarrassing. I wasn't even that far away from him yet too. "That's for you. I thought I'd give you a little upgrade since the demise of the last one was probably my fault."

I looked down at the shiny keys in my hand, my eyes instantly widening when I saw the logo on it. "Alessio..."

"It took me a while to find out what your favourite car was. Eventually I had to ask Daliah since she was the only one who knew the answer." He came closer to me, turning me around to face the car, while keeping his hand resting on my waist. He wrapped his own hand around mine and pressed the unlock button on the key causing the lights on the Audi R8 to flash twice.

"Drive safely amore mio."