Seized Mafia Bride by Mae Doyle
Lorenzo
My feet hurt from being on them all afternoon and into the evening but there will be plenty of time this weekend for me to relax. I’m fully planning on spending as much time as possible in bed with Mia before Monday morning rolls around and I have shit to do again.
“Brother, you look so happy.” Dane comes up and claps me on shoulder before pulling me in for a hug. When we step back, he lets out a long sigh and looks over where Natalia and Mia have met up with the Bonanno wives. The five of them are laughing and carrying on, a horde of children running in circles around them.
“It’s time for a baby,” I tell him, and he nods. “I’m sure that Natalia would love one.”
“Or more. We want to fill the house.” Dane looks at me and I think that he’s about to say something when Johnny walks up, flanked by Marcelo, Trevor, and Salvatore.
“Thank you for coming,” I say, greeting each of the Bonanno men. “You three know how important family is and how important weddings are.”
“We wouldn’t have missed it,” Salvatore assures me. “You three know that all you have to do is call us and we’ll come help you out.”
“Looks like the wives will want to make the trip from now on, too,” Marcelo remarks, jutting his chin over at the five of them. They’re cracking up about something, Mia laughing so hard that she looks like she’s going to cry. It’s wonderful. It’s exactly what I want for her.
She’s never had a family, and I just gave her the most amazing one in the world. As I watch, Natalia turns and looks at us. She winks at Dane, then grabs a glass of water from the table before pulling her dress up and stepping up onto the table.
“Excuse me,” she calls, raising her glass high above her head. “I have an announcement to make. Normally, I wouldn’t want to take any of the attention away from Mia, but she promised me that she doesn’t care if I do, and you are all family.”
Everyone falls silent. Dane stiffens next to me and I glance at him, but it’s impossible for me to read his face.
“Are you okay?” I whisper, but he doesn’t respond.
“I thought about trying to make this a cute announcement,” Natalia continues, “but it’s best just to throw it out there. Dane and I are having a baby. I’m pregnant.”
There’s a moment of silence while everyone absorbs what she just said, then there’s an explosion of sound. Dane looks thrilled and he rushes at her, lifting her down from the table and spinning her around before kissing her. She’s crying and all of the women start laughing and hugging each other.
When Dane comes back to talk to the men, he has his arm around Natalia, a huge grin on his face. “We didn’t think it would happen this quickly,” he explains, and Natalia shakes her head.
“We didn’t think that it would happen at all,” she corrects. “But this baby is stubborn. Just like us.” She puts her hand on her stomach and then turns to Dane, who kisses her hard.
I feel someone come up next to me and loop my arm around my wife without having to see who it is.
“Isn’t it great?” She asks, resting her head on my chest. “Look at how happy they are.”
“That’ll be you soon,” I promise her. “But until then, I have something else for you.” Turning to Johnny, I nod at him. He gives me a grin and disappears, coming back from the house with two wiggly golden retrievers, one tucked under each arm.
“Puppies!” Mia cries, pulling away from me and dropping down into a crouch. “How did you know that I wanted a puppy?”
“You mention it all the time,” I tell her. “It’s the one thing that you wanted when you were in foster care but weren’t allowed to have. Do you really think that I don’t pay attention to you?”
She’s giggling, letting the puppies lick all over her hands, but finally stands up, looking her arms around my neck. “You know me so well,” she says. There’s a touch of awe in her voice.
“I do,” I tell her, pulling her close. “And I love every single thing about you. Don’t you dare forget that, Mia. I know you better than anyone in the world and love you more than anyone ever has.”
* * *
Thank you so much for reading! I really hope you loved it! Want to read Johnny’s story? Read on for chapter one of Fated Mafia Bride, free in KU!
Even though I know that I should be thrilled about getting to do the flowers for an Accardi wedding, all I’ve tried to do since showing up at the venue has been to make myself scared. I know so many florists who would literally cut off a finger to do the flowers for this family since doing one would mean that they would get to do more and enjoy the money that would come along with the job, but I’m not exactly reveling in it.
From my vantage point, I watch as Johnny Accardi brings a pair of wiggling puppies out to the crowd. The bride drops down into the grass to hug them, laughing and crying at the same time while she does. She’s happy. They all are.
But even though she’s one of the most beautiful brides that I think I’ve ever seen, I can’t manage to pull my gaze away from Johnny. He’s grown up a lot since I saw him last, but it’s still him. I know that I’d recognize him even if I didn’t see him for the rest of my life.
I’m sure that everyone is watching Mia and the puppies right now. I mean, it’s her big day. She looks so happy, she’s smiling and crying, and Lorenzo can’t tear his eyes away from her, but that doesn’t seem to matter to me. I can’t stop looking at Johnny, can’t help but search him out in the group of people when they’re all standing around talking.
I need to get over myself and I know that, but it’s really damn hard right now and I can’t seem to pull myself together.
Just a little bit longer and I’ll be able to leave. I’ve never heard of a florist being asked to stay for the entire ceremony and reception, but Lorenzo was very clear about the fact that I needed to be here the entire time just in case there was a problem with the flowers.
Turning, I adjust a peony in the middle of the arrangement. They spent thousands of dollars on flowers and not a single one has been out of place since I set them all up, but I’ll stay. Of course, I’ll stay.
When the Accardi family tells you to do something, you do it. There wasn’t any way that I was going to leave here even though part of me wanted to make a run for it as soon as I saw Johnny.
Sighing, I lean against a tree on the edge of the lawn and think about the last time that I saw him. It wasn’t prom, although that was one of the last times. He’d picked me up in a sleek black car that probably cost more than my parents paid for their tiny house on the edge of town.
Everyone had told me that he was bad news and only wanted to take me to prom because he hoped he would get lucky with me, but I knew better. I’d seen the way he looked at me during homeroom. It was obvious that he liked me for me, and not just for the possibility of being able to get into my pants.
The night had been magical. I hadn’t slept with him then, even though I’d thought about it. I guess that part of me wanted to prove to myself and to everyone else at the school that he like me for more than that. That even though he could have had any girl he wanted, I wasn’t going to just roll over and give it to him.
Nope, that came later, when he snuck into my bedroom by climbing the tree right outside my room. How fucking cliché is that?
Groaning, I scrub my hand across my face like that’s going to be able to wipe away the memory of the night. When I close my eyes I can still remember the excitement I felt when I realized that we were actually going to do it. We were so young then, and I was pretty sure that I was in love.
That was the last time I saw him. He didn’t come around again and I remember crying my eyes out in my pillow every night for the rest of summer. After that, I went to college, he...well, who knows what the fuck he ended up doing? And the rest, as they say, is history.
And now I have to watch him like a creeper from across the lawn as he stands around and laughs with his family. He throws his head back and laughs loudly at something that his cousins said and I feel the familiar twist in my stomach when I look at him.
I was in love with him in high school, but that was a long damn time ago.
“Pull yourself together, Willa,” I tell myself. “This is a job, nothing more, and if you can’t deal with that then you need to go back home and just drink your sorrows away.”
“Is this the self-pity corner?” A man I don’t know but I recognize as the chef walks up to me carrying a bottle of wine and two glasses. He has a grin on his face like the two of us are in on some big joke and hands me a glass.
Without thinking, I reach out and take it. He pops the cork on the wine and pours us each a full glass, so full that I have to take a sip by dipping my head to the rim before I can lift it to my mouth.
“It’s the drinking wine and mooning after a high school crush corner,” I tell him, holding my glass up for him to cheers. “Thanks for the wine.”
“Not a problem. I’m Scott.” He puts the bottle on the ground between us and reaches out for my hand. I hesitate at first then shake his, giving him the best smile that I can.
He seems nice, but being this close to Johnny makes even talking to another man difficult. I want so badly for it to be Johnny who saw me from across the lawn and brought over something for us to drink, but I also know just how ridiculous that is. He’s with his family celebrating and I’m the help.
Nobody sees the help. We’re invisible.
“Did you get anything to eat?” Scott takes a long sip of his wine and then sighs with pleasure while he waits for me to answer.
Shaking my head, I risk a glance at Johnny. He has his back turned to me now, which is probably for the best. The last thing that I want is for him to notice me, realize that I’m drinking on the job, and then fire me.
Although it wouldn’t be any worse than having the man you gave your virginity to turn his back on you and completely ignore that you even existed, I guess.
“Nothing. Part of my contract is that I need to be available to take care of any problems that might arise with the flowers at a moment’s notice, so I haven’t wanted to risk sitting down to get something to eat.”
“You’re missing out. They wanted braised pig cheeks, and they’re delicious, if I do say so myself.” Scott watches me take another sip. “How’s the wine?”
“It’s good.” It’s also hitting me a lot harder than I ever thought that it would, probably because I haven’t had anything to eat all evening. I know that I should take it easy on the wine, but I sneak another sip before speaking. “They have good taste, don’t they?”
“Yeah, the Accardi family does. Lots of money, too, but it’s obvious that they’re overlooking something really important.”
At his words, I glance around the yard. To my eyes, everything is perfect. Nothing is out of place, the flowers all look like they were placed here just a moment ago, they’re still so fresh. Candles light up the growing dark and the bride looks like something out of a magazine.
Hell, they all look like something from a magazine. Especially Johnny.
My stomach tightens when he turns to the side and I catch a glimpse of his strong jaw. The man simply oozes sex, always has, and that’s probably why he never called me again after he got what he wanted. If he’s anything like his cousins, it will take the right woman to settle him down and until then he’ll probably be a little wild.
I could be that woman.
Yeah, right. Pushing that thought away, I look around for somewhere to sit. The wine is suddenly hitting me a hell of a lot harder than it had a moment ago. When I peer at my glass, I’m surprised to see that I haven’t even had a third of it.
And yet...
And yet I honestly feel like I’m about to get knocked on my ass. “Hey,” I say, turning to Scott, “what kind of wine is this? It tastes really good, but...” My voice trails off and even though I try to form more words, it suddenly feels like my tongue is really thick and fat in my mouth.
He gives me a smile and I swallow hard, trying to get rid of the sick feeling in my stomach.
“I put a little something extra in yours, Willa,” he tells me, leaning close enough that I can feel his warm breath on my face. “I thought that you might need something to help relax a bit. You’ve been so stressed.”
I shake my head. “I don’t need to relax,” I try to tell him, but the words don’t come out the way I want them to. Even to me, it sounds like I’m swimming underwater. Did he understand me? I try to focus on his face but it’s fuzzy.
“But it will make everything so much more fun,” he promises me, grabbing my arm and pulling me closer to him. My feet don’t want to work but I stumble towards him anyway. “Trust me, Willa. You’re going to love this.”
I want to scream. Every inch of my body is yelling at me to scream, to fight, to try to get away from this guy, but I can’t seem to move. My eyelids are so heavy that it’s difficult to keep looking at him, but I force my eyes open.
“Come on, Willa,” he tells me, pulling me away from the candles that light the yard. “Let’s go have some fun.”
The last thing I remember is the way my wine glass slips from between my fingers.
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