Mafia Princess by Kennedy Slope

Chapter Five

Dominic had been gone for hours, and I was bored out of my mind. I was used to growing up in a house full of liveliness, and it felt odd to be somewhere that was so lonely and cold.

I had thought that Dominic would be home by the end of the night, but as darkness fell, there was absolutely no sight of him. Sighing, I laid back down in bed and grabbed a book that was nearby. Normally, I would have loved a night by myself to read, but now, sitting in bed made me feel as dull as dishwater.

It pissed me off that Dominic was out and about doing god knows what while I was sitting alone in this damn house like a fool.

He’s probably off fucking one of his side chicks, I thought. Dominic hadn’t mentioned other women, though he made it clear I was not to be near other men, but I couldn’t help but feel like another woman had to be keeping Dominic out so late.

Dominic was clearly a man with a ferocious sex drive if last night had been any indication, and I couldn’t imagine him being satisfied with a virginal bride. He seemed to like what we did last night, but I had such little experience that I wouldn’t really know what it meant to be good in bed.

Throwing my book in frustration, I reached out and grabbed my pillow pressing it against my face as I screamed out all of my anger and frustration. I had thought that Dominic and I had agreed on some sort of truce this afternoon.

He had seemed open to the idea of going to Columbia, and I couldn’t stop myself from being excited at the prospect. I hadn’t expected him to agree to the prospect of school so readily. My father sure wouldn’t have. In fact, when I saw my father next and told him the news, I knew that I was going to get an earful. Not that it mattered any longer. I was a wife now, and my father had no control over my life.

Lying in bed, I looked up contemplating what being a wife really meant. Dominic had laid down some ground rules, ones that I honestly had no issue following, but I didn’t know what was expected of me.

The ringing of my phone brought me out of my spell of self-pity. “Hello?” I asked. My cousin Natalia was calling me. I couldn’t imagine what she wanted to discuss at ten o’clock on a Sunday night.

“Sasha!” Natalia yelled into the phone. “What’s up, my favorite cousin?”

I sat up in bed immediately worried about the sound of Natalia’s voice. Her words were slightly slurred as she spoke, and there was loud music in the background.

“Natalia?” I asked. “Where are you?”

“I’m at a frat party!” she yelled into the phone.

I felt my brow furrow. “Are you drunk?” I asked. I was shocked. Natalia was one of my closest friends, probably my only friend, mostly because her father was as strict as my own. I couldn’t believe that she was at a party, and I was even more shocked that she was drunk.

“I’ve had a few drinks,” she said. “You should come! I’m having so much fun.”

“I can tell,” I said.

It sounded like Natalia was having a great time, doing what an eighteen-year-old woman should be doing, and I couldn’t stop the dark pit of jealousy that opened up in my stomach.

“You should come!” Natalia yelled on the phone. I had to hold it away from my ear. I couldn’t stand much more of her yelling.

“I can’t,” I said. “I’m already in bed.”

“With that hot new husband of yours?”

I frowned. I didn’t want to talk to my cousin about Dominic. I didn’t want to discuss this sham of a marriage with anyone. “He’s out,” I said.

“Then, you should come out.”

I bit my bottom lip. “I have no way to get there,” I said.

“Get a cab.”

For a moment, I contemplated just hanging up the phone, but the sound of the music in the background was much more inviting to me than the idea of sitting in my room alone. I had been married for less than twenty-four hours, and I was miserable.

“Fine,” I said. “Text me the address.”

“Yay!” Natalia yelled.

I clicked off the phone and rolled out of bed. I wasn’t sure how Dominic would feel about me going out for the night, but I wasn’t sure that I cared.

I was going to put on the shortest skirt I owned and go out and have some fun. For once, I wasn’t locked in the house under the guise of propriety, and I planned to take advantage of that fact.

* * *

“Idon’t know if this was such a good idea,” I told Natalia as she dragged me into the heart of the party. I don’t know what I had expected, but it hadn’t been for the party to be so loud. Music was blaring through the speakers, and while some people were talking, most people were dancing with cups in their hands. I had never been to a party, but I hadn’t expected it to smell so much like beer and sweat.

“I can’t believe that you came!” Natalia screamed over the music. She was pulling me through the crowd of writhing bodies.

“I wasn’t doing much,” I told her with a shrug.

“You weren’t doing that handsome husband of yours?” she asked with a wink. “I don’t think that I would let him out of my bed.”

I smiled uncomfortably. Natalia’s leash had been just as short as mine when we were growing up. The difference between the two of us was that Natalia had found a way around her confinement, and she’d always been a little more wild than I had. I’d spent my life too scared to defy my father.

Look at where that got me, I thought to myself.

“Dominic is out,” I said.

Natalia looked me up and down. Her stare made me uncomfortable, as if she was seeing something in me that I had missed. I had dressed in a pink knee length pleated skirt and a white blouse, which I was realizing made me incredibly out of place.

“That’s too bad for him, though that means we can have some fun!” Natalia pressed a cup into my hand, and brought it up to my nose, wrinkling at the musty smell.

Looking around, I couldn’t imagine how this party could be fun. Natalia was clearly drunk as was everyone in this party, and as I watched them, I couldn’t help but think about the rules that Dominic had set for me. I was breaking them.

“Let’s go back to my house,” I said. “You should see how much space I have now.”

Natalia rolled her eyes at me. “Come one!” We are only going to be young once she said. It was the last thing that she said to me before pulling me into the center of the dancing. I stood awkwardly for a moment as Natalia started to shimmy and shake in front of me.

“Natalia…” I said, feeling awkward.

Natalia stopped. She leveled me with an intense stare, and for a moment I wondered if my cousin was really as drunk as she pretended.

“Don’t do this,” she said.

“Do what?” I asked.

“Stand there looking so out of place.” Natalia grabbed my free hand. “You are free now. Enjoy it!”

Natalia’s words stuck with me. She was right. I had been shaped and molded like clay by my parents, and when I was to their liking, they sold me off.

Screw them, I thought to myself, as I brought that beer to my lips and downed the entire thing.

“There you go!” Natalia yelled, and I smiled. My cousin was wild, but I was starting to think that I needed a little bit of wildness in my life. The beer tasted sour on my tongue, but it helped to loosen me up.

“Let’s dance!” I said. I laughed as Natalia twirled me around. My skirt flared up around me, and I felt free for the first time. I didn’t care about my parents or my new husband. For once, I was only thinking about myself, and it felt good.

“I’m going to go and get more beer,” I said. I wasn’t a drinker, and the beer was nasty, but at the same time, I liked the way that first drink was already making my limbs heavy and warm.

Natalia didn’t say anything. She was shaking her ass against the crouch of some dude.

I smiled as I lined up at the keg.

“Excuse me,” a deep voice asked. I tensed as I felt a tap on my shoulder.

I turned to see a handsome blonde guy standing behind me. He was about my age, and he had a wholesomeness about him that made him endearing.

“Do I know you?” I asked. I didn’t think that I knew him. He didn’t look like a Bratva member.

“I think we have Organic Chemistry together,” he said.

I smiled as I took another cup of beer. “I don’t think so,” I told him. “I haven’t started classes yet.”

He smiled at me and pushed his floppy hair back from his face. “I’m sorry. You look like someone I had class with last year.”

I smiled and took a sip of my beer. “Sorry, no.” I said. I thought that that was going to be the end of the conversation, but the blonde guy reached out a hand.

“I’m Zane,” he said.

I raised a brow. I had expected his name to be something much more common like Peter or James. He waited for a moment with his hand out obviously expecting that I would tell him my name in turn.

“I’m Sasha,” I said.

I gave him my free hand.

“What brings you here?”

I looked around, my eyes scanning the room looking for Natalia. “My cousin,” I said. “She wanted to show me around campus before I start.”

He smiled at me, and I felt taken aback by his pearly whites. If I hadn’t been married to Dominic Blanchi, I would have been completely smitten with Zane’s handsomeness. Unfortunately, it was doing absolutely nothing for me.

“When do you start?” he asked.

I opened my mouth to speak, before I felt a hand wrapped around my upper arm and felt my bossy being swung around.

“What the…” I was staring into the angry face of my husband. Who looked pissed.

“What the fuck do you think you are doing here?” Dominic sneered.

I opened my mouth to respond, but I was shocked and frightened by the anger rolling off of him.

“Hey, man,” Zane said. “Back off.” Zane stepped towards Dominic, and though I hadn’t known either man very well, I knew that Dominic would kill Zane, and probably had enough lawyers on retainer to make it look like an accident.

“It’s fine,” I said. I laid a hand on Zane’s chest. He was a nice guy, and he didn’t deserve to be in my mess.

“I don’t think…”

Dominic moved his suit jacket. “I didn’t ask you to think,” he said. I gasped as I saw his gun in a holster at his hip. I might have grown up in the mafia, but I had been protected from the violence of the lifestyle.

“It’s fine,” I told Zane. There was a note of desperation in my voice that I couldn’t quite get rid of. “He’s my husband.”