The Carrero Contract - Selling Your Soul (Mafia Romance) novel Chapter 174

The rest of dinner is anticlimactic, uneventful and about as interesting as the fifteen minutes we spent in the ladies’ room making polite strained conversation. Everyone seems to be on their best behaviour after the interlude and the meal goes on with no more drama.

It’s not exactly riveting company or thrilling conversation. The majority is discussing the casino, family, New York and stock markets. I swear, for a moment, I forgot Alexi is even a crime lord at all when he can be exceedingly convincing at playing boring businessman and plays nice with imbeciles and their puppy dog wives.

Alessandra and Gino are itching to get the night going, I can sense it seeping from them. Alessandra told me in the bathroom we are heading out to a club after this, just the four of us. To party the night away and I’m not complaining, after spending most of the day in bed. I want to experience a night out like we had in Miami with the way Alexi and I are now. I think it would increase the enjoyment tenfold, being able to curl on his lap and get crazily drunk and horny before letting him carry me back to our shared bed.

That has me excited with anticipation for a good fun filled night, drunken crazy sex with my hot Italian and then lazing away in bed with him as we recover. Sounds like heaven.

I still really love the fact that I get to sleep beside him every night. It’s weird, something I’m not used to and a complete novelty I’m still in the throes of treasuring. I never thought I would ever look forward to sharing a bed with a man on a long-term basis, let alone actually want to be in a relationship with one. I never thought I had it in me to not run a thousand miles from a man trying to trap me into his life this way, yet here I am. Not even attempting an escape.

The opposite in fact. I look forward to climbing into bed with him, even if all we do is curl up close and sleep. It’s a connection like no other and takes trust to be that vulnerable beside someone else, from both sides. Sleeping nose to nose while wrapped up cutely.

I find myself glancing his way through dinner and dessert, even when we move to after-dinner drinks. Listening to him and his men talk and just bask in his presence. Enjoying being able to relax beside him, watch him and be secure in knowing that afterwards, I get to have him all alone and monopolise his attention. Nothing terrifying or sadistic, just tender and safe. My Lexi from his bolthole, the version I was afraid was a one-off. It’s not. He is with me always and I’m starting to realise he is always under that mask, ready to reassure me in tiny ways when I get worried about how he seems.

He isn’t the dual personality I once thought him.

His little looks in return are not lost on me, neither is the subtle way his hand occasionally strays under the table to stroke my thigh or rest on my knee. Little intimate touches kept under wraps just to tell me he likes me by his side. Reinforcing the fact that no matter how Mr Mafia he seems on the surface; his heart still beats for me inside that body. That little shining, flickering candle that never goes out.

Outwardly he seems like he always does, smooth, unemotional and far too cool, but I can see through it.

Alexi is controlled by choice. He masks everything from probing eyes and it’s only now I have got to know the layers of him I can see subtle tells. He does feel, he does care, and he gets rattled. It slips sometimes, but mostly, he keeps it all behind doors of indifference until he is alone and can let it loose. Those closest to him get to see more of who he is, and I get to see everything under that.

I realise that is something very special not even Mico gets to see. The way he is with me, I doubt he has ever shown anyone else in his life for a very long time. I get the special parts of him just like he gets the deepest secret parts of me. That’s why this is working. We both have something more to give that is only meant for each other. Something just for the two of us. A safe space to be weak, vulnerable, gentle, honest. No judgment and no one trying to use it against us in that little bubble.

I never knew I had it in me to be worthy of love or had any love to give that someone like him would want. What we have between us though, is probably the purest and most sacred thing I’ve ever had in my life. He feels like home. I never knew that a person could be that haven I had longed for all my life, that a man could be all the things I yearned for tied into one. Home, security, safety. He is all of those things and so much more and I don’t need to search for that place anymore. Alexi makes me want to be the best I can be for him. My life is no longer about just me and focusing on myself.

He is all that I need and want.

“Right, can we wrap this up and go find a nightclub? I’m bored to my back teeth of talking money and shop.” Gino finally butts in, verbalising what I’m feeling and thankfully Alexi nods. A little subtle sigh that indicates he is done.

“Yeah, time to let off steam and go find a club. You guys coming?” Alexi invites the two, now less surly cousins, but the stricken look on the wives’ faces suggests they won’t be coming if they do fancy a night of fun. I get the impression women get left behind. Invitations stop at the men and they get no say.

I can almost guarantee they are the type of wives who follow the Mafia mistress rule. Don’t mention them, don’t make a fuss and know that weekends are mistress days. Turn a blind eye and don’t get upset.

Sad really and another reason to never get married.

“Not tonight. We must get these two home and back to the kids. It’s a good thirty-minute drive out of the city to where we are living now.” Rob lifts a brow and flicks the first real glance at his wife in the past hour of sitting here. I guess to tell her to ready herself to leave in a brisk controlling gesture. She jumps to obey, pulling her bag to her and making a show of readying herself to get up.

They have all but ignored their women’s presence all night. They even sat them off to one side and paired up beside Alexi to monopolise his attention. I guess I should be relieved that no matter where he has taken me, even before we were a thing, he always sat me by his side and attempted to include me in conversation occasionally. He has never outright shunned me in a corner the way these men have. There was respect, even when I was an untrusted enemy he wanted to break.

Another tell that maybe I have always meant something to him, even before he knew it himself. Or maybe Alexi was just raised differently. His father seems to respect his mother, anyway.

“Next time.” Alexi shrugs off the refusal, uncaring if they come or not. He’s bored and wants to go out now it’s all wrapped up tonight, he’s eager to get going. I can tell that restless nature is fed up doing the mature dinner and business chat with company he is not too enamoured with. It’s practically coming off him in waves of heightened sparking energy that is settling around me, that need to release his excess. Buzzing and coercing me to feel that way too. He really affects everything around me so effortlessly.

He gets up and pulls my chair out to coax me to do the same, eager to get moving now he has seen an escape route, tossing his credit card on the table for the bill as the waitress comes scurrying over. Hand on my naked skin at the back of my dress, other on my arm as he slides me to my feet and keeps a hold on me.

“Yeah minus the ball and chain. We will leave them home and the four of us can go have a real man’s night out.” Arrogant cousin grins directly at me for a second and I don’t miss the implied tone. Rob really is testing my patience. That smug arsehole typical male show of intimidation that translates to ‘I will take Alexi to a strip bar and watch him fuck some random whore, bitch. Just to get one over on you’.

I smile straight back and just shrug innocently. Showing I have zero problem with that.

See, I know one thing for sure, Alexi won’t do what he doesn’t want to do. No man alive will ever sway that stubborn arse to follow the beat of another man’s drum. And he has made it abundantly clear that cheating on me is one of those things. I don’t have to worry about other women anymore. Even if my insecurities sometimes tell me otherwise. I can trust him to stick to the boundaries. Something he is actually good at. If he wanted multiple women, he wouldn’t have tied himself to just one. That’s not his style.

“Sure. My father might be with us for the next trip. See what he wants to do.” Alexi pulls me around to beside him by the hand and motions towards the exit while the waitress comes running back with his card. His reply mentioning his father is a way of saying ‘he won’t be up for anything sleazy’ and even I know that. Alexi is very verbal about the fact that his father has never betrayed his mother in all the years they have been wed. That loyalty and trust in their marriage are important to him. In all the times he came to the club he sat upstairs, and women up there were banned when he was using the VIP lounge.

Unusual for what they are but a sign Alexi was raised differently to the norm for these men.

They may have other weird lies and secrets concerning their criminal dealings, but the basis of their love is pure, and they do not cheat. I see it in Gino and Mico, and even Jackson. All devoted to their women and they never treat them the way these two cousins treat theirs. I can already see Alexi is cut from the same cloth as his father. When you get his heart, you keep it and it transports you to an inner circle of trust where he will never betray you.

No one bats an eye that he just paid for the entire meal and I wonder if this is expected when you dine with the boss. No one else seemed to volunteer to foot the bill, maybe it’s a dominance thing. The boss wants to pay, and anyone mentions it gets kicked in the balls. I could imagine Alexi doing just that. He is a bit of a controlling wanker sometimes.

Alexi takes me in hand a little firmly, guiding me out and pushing me towards the dining room exit with a little pressure on the base of my spine again, sliding lower as he feels me out. Still offering goodbyes and struggling to break loose from his cousin's ongoing chatter. They are clinging on a tad desperately.

Gino and Alessandra already followed suit, jumped up and made their farewells before heading out just in front of us, eagerly. I guess it was unanimous between the four of us that this dinner was less than enjoyable. They get to run off while we are being held back with ongoing conversation, and I sigh heavily.

An evening spent with men talking about casinos, gambling licences, profit and loss and all the yadda yadda to owning empires was incredibly dull.

Normally I’m all for listening in to my smart-brained man and understanding his businesses more, but tonight, dining with the beefy chuckle brothers, was painful. It was repetitive, monotonous basics about installing them into the casino if Alexi goes ahead with the purchase of the one we are viewing tomorrow.

It looks like a certainty, anyway. The way they were all talking it’s almost as if he has bought it already. Apparently, there has been endless months of negotiation and back and forth between lawyers and owners and Alexi needs to do a final once over of the entire premises before agreeing to a final price.

He has seen it before, back in the early days of considering it as a viable option, but he had a brief tour and no real in-depth insight into the building.

Tomorrow, he has the current manager taking him to view every single inch of the casino and bar and the residence rooms in the hotel above. Apparently, the current owner has moved out of the penthouse apartment that takes up the top two floors of the whole building and will be kept as accommodation for Alexi when he comes to oversee his building.

The cousins were angling for the floors to be separated into two living quarters for them and their families, but Alexi snubbed that out pronto. He intends to retire here one day, move permanently, and those top two floors will be redesigned to suit his needs for when that day comes.

Our needs.

That fact gave me the warm fuzzies.

Rob sulked a bit, realising he wasn’t getting free board on top of his manager's wage and then sat quietly for a good half hour trying to show his displeasure while his brother chatted. Alexi ignored it.

He isn’t one to be pushed to change what he wants for anyone, let alone a sulky employee who already pissed him off before the food came.

“We will see you at the Casino in the morning then.” Rob cuts in as we start to walk away and I feel Alexi’s arm stiffen a little, his hand presses to the base of my spine a tad aggressively as he guides me. A sign that this is not what he had planned.

“You’re not needed. I will call you after and tell you what’s happening.” It’s blunt, a little cold, and I can tell he’s moving from pleasant family dinner, back to big boss dealing with a minion.

“I thought we would be there to give input; I mean we are the ones who’ll be running it.” Rob chuckles smugly, once again trying to put himself on a higher footing and I know it’s the wrong thing to have done. The tone, the way he has cut out to step in front of us to block us going, and I can literally count down the few seconds it takes to see the Alexi switch.

3 … 2 … 1 … Mafia boss, boom.

“I will pay you to manage whatever the fuck I buy. You get no input on where I put my money, time or effort. You will do as I say and run my casino how I tell you to run it. Even if I let Cam paint it pink and fill it with drag queens as croupiers.” There is a hint of amusement in the tone to make him sound like he’s teasing, rather than biting, but that stiff cold stance and the undercurrent of a growl in his voice says otherwise.

Rob just got put in his place—again.

He baulks at the mention of me having more say over décor than his input in total, and I cannot help but twitch a little smug smile from the corner of my mouth. Avoiding looking directly at him and his instant WTF stance.

“Well, okay. I was under the impression our input mattered.” Rob tries again, his chuckling is more nervous and his eyes dart to his brother, who is offering no back up this time. He has learned not to mess with Alexi’s decisions; his brother should take a hint.

“It doesn’t. If that is a problem, I have two others willing to relocate here and run things in my absence.”

And it’s the kill shot. Alexi at his finest. Closing down any misunderstanding on how little value their opinion holds in this matter. Tone flat, commanding and a ‘shut the fuck up and get out of my way’.

My way or go fuck yourself because you are replaceable.

I kind of love that about him.

I know how he is, only too well, and he means every single word. He doesn’t get hung up on making emotional decisions over business. He is a stubborn hard arse and easily annoyed. He would fire them just for questioning him this way. Rob looks shocked and shuts up completely.

“We’re all good. We know all this and we’re fine with it.” George cuts in quickly, panic all over that shocked expression of his as he realises, they are teetering on the precipice of abandonment by the Carrero empire once more. They are desperately trying to claw back in and find a footing, so this is the last thing they want.

“Good. Now go home. We have plans.” Cold, curt, to the point, and Alexi pushes me forward again lightly to bypass our tall obstruction who wisely steps aside this time, sheepishly avoiding eye contact with me.

“Sure, Boss!” It’s sarcasm, more sulking, and I eye roll as soon as I pass him and cannot be seen. He’s worse than Alexi with his sulking, moody, foot-stamping tantrums.

Alexi blanks him and we head out far behind Gino now, who has disappeared out the door already and probably hightailing it to their rooms to get changed for party time. Glad to be away from this gloomy duo. They are overbearing as a mood killer.

I exhale heavily as we leave the dining room, and our dinner guests stand at the table as the waitress brings their wives’ coats. Leaving them far behind and I can physically feel the weight lifting as the space between us expands.

“That was tense.” I point out as we walk to the safety of the lifts out of sight, and Lexi takes my hand in his, interlocking fingers snugly. Now he can relax and be himself a little more and can touch me freely the way he has been itching to do all evening.

“It will be more so when they find out they won’t be managing my Casino after the deal is done and dusted.” Alexi doesn’t even break his stride as he says it, face deadpan, and I blanch at him.

“What?” I gawp, shocked.

“You really think I could deal with two assholes who question me at every turn and put my girl down at dinner, on a long-term basis? They are stop gaps because they are already here. I have family who knows how to take orders and whom I trust above all. They will move out here once everything is in order, and my two cousins will be demoted to the security detail under the watchful eye of Beppe, Mico’s brother. He already runs a tight ship for me in other areas and I think he will enjoy having those two under his command. I agreed to bring them back into the family as I saw fit. Dinner just helped me place them in a more suitable position for the long term.”

“In other words, they pissed you off, so you demoted them.” I raise a knowing brow and cast him a wicked look. Unable to stop the smile curling across my face.

“You know me so well.” He winks back, that face breaking from serious expression to cute smile with dimples and he changes instantly from stuffy businessman to my familiar Lexi. Sexier, warmer, more smiley. The devious shithead that I adore.

“Can we talk about the pink and the drag queens though?” I nudge him with my shoulder as he slides out of my hand and puts his arm around me instead, pulling me up against his warm body to meet his snugly. A preferred way of walking together for him. He likes full body contact as much as I do.

“No, to pink. The rest is negotiable.” I get another wink and a full-on smile that almost melts my knickers, and I rest my head against his shoulder as we wander into the first available lift.

“I quite like the thought of a fully pink casino manned by celebrity divas in glitter frocks. Can’t imagine many mob bosses would hang out there though.” I giggle, enjoying the release of tension now we are free to breathe.

“This one included.” I get the stern look now as I tease him for his own sarcasm and burst out laughing properly.

“Well, might as well just gift it to me then, as I think it would be a roaring success.”

“Isn’t one club enough?” His hand slides down to cup my left butt cheek and he squeezes it cheekily, making me jump a little at the surprise manoeuvre. Warming me up for what might happen when we get upstairs. I don’t mind a delay in going out.

“I have ambition. I won’t be happy until I’m wearing your crown.” I jest happily, allowing his hand to stay on my arse as we watch the doors slide closed before us; he punches in the penthouse floor and swipes his card in front of the infrared scanner. He visibly relaxes and I can sense all his tension ebbing away.

“London, stick with me and you will have a crown of your own. Every queen needs one. I happen to like a woman with ambition and her eye on a prize.”