Page 89 of Little Dove

“He’s used to you the exact way you are, and he probably thinks that you changing it will change you in some way,” Sienna suggests. “Or some other stupid bullshit that swirls around in the male mind.” She looks at Massimo pointedly.

Massimo ignores her and says, “He probably just likes your hair as it is, Gia. No need to overthink it.” Gia doesn’t look convinced but she lets it drop.

“Alessio doesn’t care,” Sienna says with a shrug. “The only thing he cared about was that I don’t chop it all off.” Her lips pull up into a wicked grin as she winks at Sofia. “He likes something to hold on to, is how he put it.”

“There really is nothing better than a man grabbing you by the hair to either hold you in place, or pull you back,” Rori nods with a wistful sigh. “But trust me, even with short hair, that’s not a problem. They just need to grab in the right spots so they don’t yank your hair out.”

I listen in fascination as they start talking about the best positions for a man to grab their hair, and when I look over at Massimo, he looks disgusted, intrigued, and horrified all at the same time. The wicked gleam in Sofia’s eyes tells me she knows exactly what she’s doing as she encourages the conversation. I’m just soaking all the information in. I don’t know if I’m ready for anything like that yet, but the idea of Lazaro gripping me by the hair while we’re having sex certainly has my stomach jumping in excitement.

“Fucking hell, enough,” Massimo groans, slumping back into the chair and covering his face with his hands. “I don’t want to hear this shit, and I certainly don’t need the images in my head.”

“He’s just jealous that he doesn’t have someone’s hair to grab,” Sofia taunts. “Poor Massimo. You haven’t found one of the maids or cooks to occupy your bed while you’re here?”

He lowers his hands to glare at her. “I’ve been a bit busy with people attacking the house and trying to kidnap you all,” he tells her sarcastically.

Sofia waves that away. “When has that ever stopped any of you before? Just remember, if you upset any of my staff enough to make them quit, I’ll not only kick your ass, but you’ll be finding me a replacement and paying their first year’s wages instead of Nico.”

Massimo rolls his eyes. “That only happened once, and it wasn’t just me. Alonzo was in on it too.”

I glance at Rori out of the corner of my eye, and see her eyes flash with jealousy before they go blank. Poor girl, she really needs to figure things out with the man or this isn’t going to end well. “What did you do?” I ask, too curious to keep the question to myself as I continue to work. Thank God I learned to multitask when I was training because this is too good to miss.

“What did he do?” Sofia huffs angrily. “I was helping the housekeeper back home when I was twenty, and I was put in charge of overseeing the maids.” She jerks her thumb at Massimo and scowls. “This one decides that the newest one would make the perfect addition to his harem. So he seduced her, and then she decided that she couldn’t just have one, she wanted two, so they invited Alonzo into the mix for some fun. They were going at it hot and heavy for a few weeks, until the girl started thinking it was going to be a permanent arrangement, and the two of them decided they’d had enough. Massimo dumped her, and Alonzo ignored her when she tried to go to him. She was so upset that she left. Unfortunately for me, she left when we had a very large number of guests, and we were so short-staffed already that I had to work so much overtime to keep up that I was run ragged. I tore a strip off them, and then I told Papa so he could deal with them or I would have stabbed them both.”

“We already apologized,” Massimo reminds her in exasperation. “We were young and horny, what did you expect?”

“You weren’t that young,” she snaps. “After that, I wasn’t allowed to hire anyone young and pretty. Do you know how hard that was? Every girl in the fucking town wanted to catch your attention and they were all applying. I ended up having to hire an old woman that could barely see, and moved about as fast asa glacier. I had to do just as much work as before for almost six months until we could find anyone else.”

Massimo has the decency to look repentant. “I’m sorry,dolcezza,” he tells her. “I didn’t realize the stress we put you under.”

Sofia sighs, her anger instantly deflating. “No, I know you didn’t. Which is why you’re still alive, but now you do, and I’ve warned you.” She gives him a hard look and he nods in understanding and agreement.

“Alright, Massimo and his man-whorish ways aside, I need some dirt on Alessio,” Sienna says excitedly, moving to sit cross-legged on the sofa, grinning at Sofia. “I need something to really throw at him when he’s being an absolute ass. Something to shock him enough to make sure that I win, and he has to grovel.”

Massimo chuckles. “Oh, is that all? Between Sofia and me, we have plenty.” He rubs his hands together excitedly. “Where to start?”

While I finish Rori’s hair, I listen in shock and awe as Massimo and Sofia tell story after story about Alessio, with a few tidbits of the others thrown in there as well. Thankfully, I finish with Rori’s hair just in time for Sofia to drop the bomb about her walking in on Lazaro, Alessio, and Alonzo all in some kind of orgy with a bunch of women in the guest house at the house in Sicily while their fathers were out.

“When you say orgy, do you mean they were like, all going with different people, or were they with one while the others waited their turns?” Sienna asks, also fascinated. “I know I should be pissed, but I’m too curious.” I’m with her on this one. Jealousy is simmering, but at the same time, I’m far too curious to know what the hell happened.

“They were all with different girls, but the girls were touching each other too,” Sofia answers after a second of thought.

“And where were you?” Sienna asks Massimo.

Massimo looks uncomfortable. “I was with Zeno and Urso. We had our own guests.”

“Wait a minute, you were having dual orgies in different parts of the house?” Sienna demands, eyes wide. Sofia looks like she’s not sure if she should be annoyed or exasperated. Rori and I look at each other and grin. “Is that what you Italians do? The boss is away so everyone gathers together to fuck?”

Massimo sighs. “We were young, and it was one of the few times that we didn’t have anything to see to while Papa and Aurelio were gone. We also thought Sofia was gone at a friend’s place.”

“By that, he means he told me to leave to go to a friend’s house,” Sofia supplies drily. “You know, so I didn’t cramp their style. But none of that is the best part.” Then she grins. “When I walked in, well, Alessio was in the middle of, you know, and he jerked back a little too fast, and kind of got things everywhere. Including on Alonzo, who was the closest to him. It was disgusting, but hilarious as shit to watch the two of them freak the hell out while Lazaro was trying to order me out and get himself covered up.”

“Oh, this is too good,” Sienna says gleefully. “Gross, but good.”

“Sofia, your turn,” I call to her. “Rori, I have to let you sit for half an hour, then I’ll rinse you.” Rori gets up out of the chair after I take her cape off. Sofia moves to take her seat, and we get to work.

Over the next half hour, there are more stories from Massimo, though none of them are as good as Sofia’s. I’ll have to keep in mind that she’s the one I need to talk to if I need to know something about Lazaro. She seems to have all the dirt.

When I finally finish with Sofia, I direct Rori over to the washing station, kicking Massimo out of the chair. “Mm, thisfeels so nice.” Rori sighs, closing her eyes. “I love having my hair done. There is nothing more relaxing.”

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