Mafia Princess by Kennedy Slope

Chapter Three

The morning sun streamed in, playing across my face. I groaned and tried to roll away from the sun. For a moment, I wondered what our family cook was going to make for breakfast. By now, I normally smelled bacon or sausage.

The thoughts of my old life startled me awake, and I immediately sat up, bringing the blankets with me.

I wasn’t home in my large, comfortable bed. Instead, I was naked after losing my virginity to my new husband—a husband who also happened to be my family’s greatest enemy. And one who had made me scream out in pleasure despite the pain his actions had also elicited from my body.

I felt my cheeks reddened as I considered what Dominic Blanchi had done to me last night. They had felt like nothing I could describe. I had always been told that sex was an obligation. My mother had made it sound like a duty, not something that could be enjoyable.

Looking around, I wondered where my husband had gone. After we had sex, I had fallen asleep too exhausted by everything that had happened that day to do much more. I assumed Dominic would have slept beside me. It only felt right after we had shared our bodies.

Dominic didn’t feel the same way.

I got up from the bed, grabbing the sheet to shield myself as I looked for some clothes. Unfortunately, there was nothing. The room was empty except for my panties. I grabbed them, desperate for some sort of clothing.

The door creaked open, and I pulled the sheet tighter around my body, expecting to see Dominic walk through the door. Unfortunately, it was simply my mother.

“Mama?” I asked, gripping the blanket tighter.

“What are you doing here?”

My mother looked me up and down. It was obvious what I had spent the night doing, and I felt my cheeks redden. “Good,” she said, nodding her head curtly. “I was worried you would put up a fight.”

My mouth dropped open in shock. “What?” I asked.

She ignored me, walking deeper into the room.

“I brought a change of clothing for you,” she told me. “Everything else has been sent to Dominic’s home.”

I swallowed. I remembered packing my things, tears in my eyes as my mother dictated what was and wasn’t appropriate for me to keep.

“Why are you here?” I asked.

I didn’t know a great deal about marriage, but I knew that most mothers didn’t stop by the next day. Dominic and I weren’t going on a honeymoon. After all, this wasn’t a real marriage.

Her mother looked over at the bed. She turned her nose up at the sight of the bed. For a moment, I nearly apologized. I knew the look that my mother had on her face. It was one of disappointment. I stopped myself before I could say anything further. My parents had married me off; they could deal with the fallout.

“Your father thought you would be more comfortable with me checking on...things.” Her mother laid out an outfit on the rumpled bed. She had chosen a pink Chanel skirt with a delicate matching blouse. It was something that I would never have chosen for myself.

I might have been my father’s princess, but I didn’t feel the need to dress like one.

“Did Papa send you to see if I was still alive?” I asked as I sat down on an empty armchair with a huff.

Her mother snorted. “Hardly,” she said. “He wanted to make sure that you and Dominic had consummate the situation.”

Her words were cold, and I felt them like a dagger in my heart. I wanted to believe that my mother cared enough to check on me considering everything, but she just wanted to make sure that I had upheld my end of the bargain.

“Everything’s fine,” I said.

“I can see that.” She pursed her lips together in disapproval, and I wanted to scream. No matter what I did, I couldn’t seem to make my mother happy with me. “I suppose it’s for the best that you didn’t fight it. From what I’ve heard, Dominic isn’t the type of man willing to go without.”

I said nothing. I knew that my mother was simply trying to make me flinch. I did my best not to show weakness.

“I’m going to take a shower,” I told her. I had nothing more to say to my mother. She made it clear that I was Dominic Blanchi’s wife and that her job with me was done.

“Before you do that, we need to talk.”

I sighed. I wanted to get into a hot shower and wash the events of the past twenty-four hours off my skin.

“I don’t think there’s much less to say,” I told her.

“There are things that you need to know about your new husband,” my mother whispered. There was a tone of nervousness in her voice that stopped me on my way to the bathroom. I bit my lip hard to stop myself from screaming. I tasted the copper tang of my blood on my tongue.

“There’s a lot I should have been told about my new husband,” I told my mother defiantly. “But you and Papa decided to marry me off in the dark, so I guess that that is how I will stay.”

I didn’t turn to say anything further. Instead, I walked into the bathroom and slammed the door behind me.

For my entire life, I had been the perfect daughter, and that had gotten me married off to my family’s worst enemy. I was a married woman now, and if I were old enough to be a wife, I was old enough to slam the door in my mother’s face.

* * *

When I came out of the bathroom, my mother was gone, and in her place were members of the Blanchi family ready to gather me and my things and put me in a car.

“Where’s Dominic?” I asked. I had been in a town car for what felt like hours but had probably been no more than thirty minutes.

“He has business to take care of,” the driver said. “He thought you might want to get situated at home first.”

Home, I thought, chewing on my fake nail. I had never lived anywhere else but my family home, and it felt odd to think of another place by such a name. I was also miffed that my new husband was nowhere to be found.

“Where does he live?” I asked.

“The West End,” the driver said. I wondered if he was a member of the Blanchi family. I assumed that he was, but I was surprised by how kind he was treating me. He was only a few years older than Dominic and just as handsome.

“What did you do to get stuck driving me around?” I asked before I could stop myself.

The driver chuckled. “Nothing,” he said. “I volunteered.”

The car came to a stop right in front of my new home. My mouth dropped as I looked at it from the window. I had grown up just outside of the city, but I hadn’t spent a great deal of time outside of my home. When I was permitted to go into the city, it was for shopping or to see a Broadway show.

“How much of this belongs to Dominic?” I asked. I stepped out of the car as the driver opened the door. The building was lovely. Tall and majestic done in the gothic style.

“He owns the whole building, but he lives in the penthouse,” the driver said.

My mouth hung open widely. I couldn’t imagine owning something like this.

“I’ll escort you inside,” he said as he walked in front of me.

I nodded but said nothing. I felt speechless as I walked behind my escort. The inside of the building was as opulent as the outside. The floor was marble, and the heels my mother packed me rattled across the floor loudly.

There was no one else in the lobby, which I thought was odd, but I said nothing about it. I had always lived in a house, a compound, really, so I didn’t know if an empty lobby was typical or not.

“Dom will show you how to work the elevator,” my escort said as he escorted me inside.

“You aren’t coming with me?” I asked, noticing that the man got out of the elevator when he punched in the code.

He shook his head. “No,” he said. “I was ordered just to escort you to the door. Dom isn’t a big fan of guests.”

I gulped at the implications of that. I couldn’t imagine what kind of man wouldn’t allow his driver inside of his home. My father always treated all of the Petrov family, no matter their rankings, as if they were a brother or sister.

“Thank you,” I said, just as the doors were closing. I closed my eyes and leaned against the elevator waiting for it to whisk me away to my new home. I couldn’t help but imagine what Dominic’s house would look like.

We hadn’t spent much time together last night. My cheeks flushed as I recalled what we did last night, and it hadn’t involved a great deal of talking. As the elevator pinged, I stepped out and into my new home.

I didn’t know what I had expected, but it hadn’t been to walk into a home that was light and airy. I gasped as I stepped inside. I had taken Dominic for a man who would want his layer to be sleek and modern, decorated in various shades of black and navy, but his house was quite lovely.

The penthouse had floor-to-ceiling windows, which allowed the sun to stream inside. The floors were dark mahogany, which contrasted nicely with the cream furniture. Walking further into the space, I couldn’t help but be more and more surprised.

The home was huge. I was only in the foyer, but I could tell that I was just scratching the surface of things. A part of me was excited to explore the rest of the house. I had been disappointed by the lack of Dominic, but I was glad to have a chance to look around without him breathing down my neck.

We’d spent a total of eight hours together, and he already made my nerves stand on edge.

I wanted a chance to explore my new home in peace. As I walked around, I couldn’t help but notice that the living space, while cozy, lacked any personal touches. There weren’t any family photos on the shelves. There weren’t books strewn about, and the pillows on the couch looked as though they had never been touched.

Maybe Dominic doesn’t spend a lot of time downstairs. I thought to myself as I walked up the stairs to the second level. A part of me wondered if I should be snooping around without permission, but then, I remembered that this was my house now, and you couldn’t snoop around in your own home.

Upstairs wasn’t much different. Everything was artfully and tastefully decorated, but there was a coldness to it that made it seem that no one lived in this house. As I walked through the house, I was surprised once more by how large it was. It seemed like a waste of space for one or two people.

I took a minute to peek into each room, wondering which one would be mine or if I would be sharing one with Dominic. The thought brought me to a standstill. I had never shared a room with anyone, let alone a man.

The thought made me uncomfortable, which was silly considering how I had spent my evening.

I shook my head and continued with my exploration. The rooms were nondescript. I couldn’t tell which ones were lived in and which were vacant. When I got to the end of the hallways, I came across a door that was locked.

I pushed on it, slightly surprised that there would be a locked door in a house that seemed otherwise empty. The lock made me all the more desperate to know what was behind the door. It had to be good if there was a lock on it.

I pushed again, not surprised when the lock held. “Damnit,” I whispered to myself. I had a feeling that there was something behind this door that was going to help me better understand my new husband.

“What are you doing?” a sharp, female voice called out.

I whirled around, my blonde hair slapping me in the face as I did. “Who are you?” I asked. I cringed at the words the moment they left my mouth.

The woman looked me up and down. She was older, maybe in her forties, with dark black hair and olive skin. Her brown eyes narrowed as she looked at me.

“That room is off limits,” she told me.

I nodded. “I’m sorry,” I said immediately. “I was just exploring.”

The woman released a small huff in the back of her throat. It was already clear to me that she didn’t like me.

“Mr. Blanchi wanted me to show you to your room,” she said. Before I could do anything, the woman wrapped her arm around mine and started tugging me back down towards the hall.

“Do you know if Mr. Blanchi is going to be home anytime soon?” I asked. I was slightly pissed off. Last night, despite my misgivings, I had slept with Dominic, and while I understood that this was hardly a real marriage in any way that counted, I couldn’t help but feel slighted that my new husband didn’t even have the courtesy to greet me in the morning. Instead, he pawned me off on the help.

“I don’t know,” the woman said. She opened the door to a room I had missed, down at the far end of the hall. Again, it was tastefully decorated, but this time in various shades of cream. It was tasteful yet opulent and so different from the girly pink room I had had back home.

“You should get settled in,” the woman said. “I’m sure that Mr. Blanchi will want to speak to you when he arrives home.”

I held back a snort. It was clear that this woman was going to snitch on me for snooping. It didn’t matter. Dominic and I were married in every way that counted. I wasn’t exactly happy about what had taken place last night and this morning, but I knew that having sex with Dominic meant that he would have a much harder time divorcing me if he ever wanted to.

Sighing, I held my head in my hands. I couldn’t believe that this had become my life. I was now sitting around contemplating how to stay in a marriage I didn’t want to be in in the first place.

Because the reality of my circumstances was that I had much more freedom as a mafia wife than a daughter, and if my parents were content with marrying me off, they would have to be fine with the consequences of those actions.