Page 5 of Claimed by The Italian

“I do. Look, Lorenzo, I know how you feel. I fell for someone once...I wanted him more than I wanted to be alive. I thought I could make it work and keep doing what we do, but it’s not possible. Okay? Being in the mafia means you’ve made your choice. You are married to your work. Imagine what Marco would say if he saw you getting weak in the knees over that girl.”

I don’t bother to mention that he’s already noticed my affection for Lydia. I growl in irritation.

“I’m not going to get distracted. Hell, I won’t lay a finger on her. But you can’t get involved. I’m a grown man. I am the head of this family. Don’t think that you can just stick your nose in and complicate things more.”

“You should fire her,” Bianca says bluntly. “Send her off with enough money and ask her not to come back. She’s here for the money. Give her a reason to never come back here.”

“Maybe she’d come back for me,” I growl. “I’m not sending her anywhere.”

“This is the biggest mistake you’ll ever make, Lorenzo. She’s no good for you, and you’re even worse for her. She’s too young, too naive. She’ll never be able to understand what it’s like for us. She doesn’t belong here.”

“She’s mine,” I growl, slamming my fist down on the desk. “I don’t care what you think. I don’t care that you keep acting like you know best. I knew from the moment I saw her that she’s for me.”

I know better than this. I know better than to think we can have something together. I’d never put her in that kind of danger. Whether I like it or not, my life is too dangerous to have a woman like her involved. I hate that Bianca is right. I hate that I have to push these feelings down. But they’re threatening to overwhelm me. They’re building inside me like a volcano ready to erupt. My cock is constantly hard at the thought of her. Every possessive bone in me wants to say screw it all and run to her now. I’d fuck her anywhere, anytime. I want to know how it feels to be deep inside her. I want to know how it feels to truly make her mine.

But I can’t. Bianca watches me quietly, waiting for me to keep lashing out, trying to get this out of my system. But this is my life now. Full of frustration, and never satisfaction. I can never truly have what I want.

I have to resign myself to unhappiness.Chapter ThreeLydiaI don’t know who the people Lorenzo is meeting tonight are, but when I see the sleek black cars pulling up in the driveway, I get a flicker of nerves in my stomach that I can’t explain. These people seem like they’re here for sinister reasons, somehow. They step out of their vehicles, dressed in sharp black suits and sunglasses even though the sun is setting. I smooth down my maid’s uniform, feeling anxious. I know that all I have to do is serve drinks, but the thought of being in the same room as those intimidating people is making me regret saying yes to this.

And then there’s the fact that I have to be around Lorenzo too. It’s a good thing in one way, I get to ogle him from across the room. But I also feel a slight pinch of fear in my stomach every time I’m around him. He’s still such a mystery to me and I want to use tonight to try and figure him out.

I open the door for the guests and wait silently for them to file inside. I know it’s my job to blend into the background, simply a staff member, uninvolved with everyone’s business. But the minute the Moretti family comes inside, the handsome older man at the front of the pack looks me up and down like I’m a piece of meat. I turn my eyes away from him, shocked and embarrassed. I’m not used to that kind of attention and I don’t want it. Not from him, at least. The only man I want to look at me like that is Lorenzo.

They head into the dining room and I wait patiently outside the room with a bottle of red wine, waiting to be called inside. When I eventually hear Lorenzo call my name, I scurry into the room, desperate to please him. His cold eyes fixate on me as I enter the room. I can see the fire in his eyes and the fire is catching to me. I feel like my whole body is aflame.

Blushing to myself, I hardly notice how quiet the room is. There’s an unspoken tension between the people here. Bianca sits, straight-backed, right next to Lorenzo, and her cold eyes sweep over the Moretti family. There are five members of the other family here and yet somehow, Lorenzo and his sister seem twice as intimidating. I swallow, pouring wine as red as blood into the empty glasses and try to ignore how awful the silence in the room is. Are they talking business in here? Or are they old friends that are having an uncomfortable catch-up? It’s hard to figure out what’s going on. Once again, Lorenzo is unreadable to me.

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