Page 41 of Tainted Princess
CHAPTER TEN
Enzo
I couldn’t get her laugh out of my head.
I hadn’t intended to keep her waiting for so long, but there were some supply issues that needed to be dealt with, as well as a protest group that kept trying to haveTaste of Edenshut down for religious reasons.
Assholes. I bet if they checked, their congregation members would be some of our most loyal clients.
It was the same thing every time; the politicians and the sanctimonious goody-goodies would spend every Saturday night at my clubs, throwing their money at every pair of tits they could lay eyes on, drinking until they fell over, snorting and sucking and fucking to their heart’s content. Then first thing Sunday morning they were back at church, all buttoned up and proper, ranting about the ‘den of iniquity’ that I owned, saying how it was me and others like me who were contributing to the downfall and corruption of the good citizens of Las Vegas.
And I mean, yeah, they weren’t exactly wrong, but come on; it’s not like they were pure as driven snow. I never judged someone for their sins. Hell, sin was my bread and butter; I needed all the sinners I could find.
But don’t come into my house and lay down with the devil, then stand on my lawn and cast stones, ya know?
Anyway, needless to say, after dealing with that shit, I was in a particularly foul mood. So, walking back into the main studio and seeing Francesca, mywife, standing there, surrounded by all of my sins and sinners was just the icing on a very shitty cake.
I suddenly felt…unworthy. I fuckin’ hated it, but it was true. Here she was, the virgin princess of the New York mafia, standing in the middle of my very ownSodom and Gomorrah, and I just didn’t know what to do with that. Part of me wanted to haul her outside and drive her away fromEden—from Las Vegas as a whole—before it could taint her in any way.
But another part of me, I part I almost completely refused to acknowledge, wanted to dirty that princess up good. To see her fall from her ivory tower and land right down in the mud with the rest of us.
Just thinking of it made my dick hard.
I hadn’t really discussed what exactly it was I did for work, but I’m sure she knew enough to know it wasn’t always pretty.
So, the second I spotted her there, wearing her prim little sweater, in a room filled with depravity, I expected her to be, I don’t know, disgusted, I guess. I stalked toward her, ready to yell at her or apologize for my failings or something, but suddenly, she threw her head back and laughed, and I froze in my tracks.
I had barely known Francesca for two days—not even that if we were counting—and in that short amount of time I had seen several of her moods. Proud, fierce, angry, shy, uncomfortable, and even scornful. But I realized in that moment that I had yet to see her happy.
And, fuck me, was it glorious.
Her laugh was bright and loud, like she didn’t care who heard it. The sound threw me for a loop, and as I stood there, watching her and Lexi being completely carefree and playful, I felt something twist in my chest. Something I was not ready to be examining just yet.
So, instead, I reverted to what I knew. Asshole.
I could hear her quick footsteps following me down the hall, two of her strides for every one of mine. She was such a tiny thing, so small she barely came up to the middle of my chest. I didn’t slow my pace as we rounded the corner to the back offices ofEden, pushing open the door to the small conference room where my lawyer was waiting.
Julian Wilkes was everything you’d expect from a lawyer with the ability to turn a blind eye to my more nefarious business models. He was short and round with dark hair that was visibly thinning, but he used that spray shit to try to cover it up. Unfortunately for him, the heat in Las Vegas made sweat an almost daily occurrence. As a result, the collar of his shirt was almost always stained with the runoff of his attempts to fight mother nature and her gift of male pattern baldness.
Today was no different; Julian looked up as we entered the room, his face scrunched as he immediately assessed Francesca, looking to see what kind of threat she would be to our very established yet very illegal, portfolio. I could see the moment he measured her, and then the moment he dismissed her completely. He looked at my little wife and saw nothing that could harm us. Nothing that could threaten to destroy all our hard work.
And while I may have agreed with him in regards to my businesses, I was starting to wonder about my heart.
“Sit down,” Julian stated bluntly. “We have a lot of shit to cover, and I don’t have all day.”
I watched as Francesca stared at him, her expression giving nothing away as she lowered herself to a chair. I pulled out the one across from her and sat, unable to take my eyes off of her.
“I have some documents for you to sign, Mrs. Argenti,” Julian continued, and my heart clenched at the sound of her married name. My mother had never been married to my father, so having Francesca be referred to in such a way was a shock to my system. I realized that up until this moment, I hadn’t really understood that this was real. Sure, I mean, I got it on an intellectual level. I knew what I was doing when I made the deal. But it was starting to hit me that I hadn’t reallyunderstoodat all.
We were married. This was not a weekend getaway or a blind date. This was actually a legal and binding marriage. For the last week, I had been so focused on what I was looking for, what I was getting out of this, that I hadn’t stopped to consider that I really had gained a wife.
“Seeing as how this marriage was conducted without consulting me,” Julian went on, his tone letting me know exactly how he felt being left out of the loop, “and as such there was no prenuptial agreement, I will be needing to add you to all of Mr. Argenti’s necessary documents and accounts. Here is the form to add you as a beneficiary on his life insurance policy—you don’t get full benefits for two years, so if you’re thinking about killing him and running off with the money, you have to wait.”
Francesca let out a derisive snort, not even bothering to look at me before she picked up the pen to sign.
“In addition, Nevada is a community property state, meaning that from this moment forward, any and all properties and incomes earned by Mr. Argenti,” he paused, looking at Francesca with a sneer, “or Mrs. Argenti, should she choose to contribute to the marriage in any meaningful way, are shared as equal property, and thus divided evenly at the time of divorce.”
Francesca looked at me, her eyebrows raised. Yeah, I could tell she was pissed. Julian had basically just called her a leech and a gold digger. Instinctually, I wanted to defend her, to get in Julian’s face and demand he apologize for insulting my wife, but the bigger part of me understood that I had no idea if she was or wasn’t a life-sucking bitch who was out to ruin me.
