Becoming His Wife by Hayley Faiman

Chapter Four

TIZIANO

Standing in the main room of the casino, Mia makes her way behind the bar and pours a few glasses of water. She brings one to me before taking a seat over by the others. Thanking her, I gulp down half of the glass. I’m nervous about what the fuck is going on. I don’t see how he could have anything more for me.

I’ve done everything he’s wanted.

Gavino walks into the room alone and I’m a bit surprised. Typically, he has Paul or Arlo somewhere near, sometimes Salvatore. He’s not alone often unless he’s at home and even then, he has his family near him.

“You wanted to see me?” I ask.

He smirks, flicking his gaze to Mia who is standing to her feet. “This could involve you too, stay.”

“We’re not serious, Vino. We both know the score and as soon as he’s married, it’s done,” she quickly says, obviously worried that Gavino is pissed about us fucking.

He snorts. “I don’t care who you fuck, either of you. That’s not what this is about.”

Arching a brow, I set the glass of water on the table next to me and cross my arms over my chest as I wait for what he has to say. I’m curious, far too curious to see what is going to happen.

I’m not sure what else I could offer him, what he could want. I’ve already signed over my entire goddamn birthright. The fuck is getting bold and too goddamn greedy for his own good. I know what he wants, he wants a goddamn empire and he’s almost got it, but I have nothing else to give him.

“I think I have a proposition for you. You’re not that into your future bride, correct?” he asks.

“Doesn’t matter. I chose her and I’ll marry her. I keep my commitments and honor my contracts.”

Gavino grins, it’s a cat ate the canary type of grin. He has a fucking plan and I’m not sure if I like it.

“I have someone you may want to meet.”

“Why does it matter, the wedding is in two weeks,” I remind him.

He shrugs a shoulder. “The contract is mine to do with as I please. If I wish to alter it, then I may. You’ve been a good ally, so has your father, and I’m not going to allow you to saddle yourself to someone that you’re just settling for because your time is up. Not if I can help it.”

“How does this involve me?” Mia asks.

“If he doesn’t want her, you have a new virgin to train for the next auction.”

Turning my head, I look over to her. She frowns, and she opens her mouth to say something, but doesn’t get the chance because the door opens and Paul walks through. I watch him and notice that there’s someone behind him. Someone smaller than him.

When Paul steps to the side, he clears his throat and maybe he says something, but if he does, I don’t hear anything. Instead, blood rushes throughout my body, pounding in my ears and my cock stands at immediate attention.

This.

This is who I was meant to have.

I suck in a breath and look at her, really look at her. She’s on the shorter side, probably only around five foot two, she’s curvy in all the right places. She has long blonde hair and big green eyes. Her lips are full, her cheeks pink, and I want nothing more than to drag her back into one of the rooms and have my way with her.

We stare at one another for a long moment, nobody speaking until I hear Mia laugh in the background.

“Well, you have your answer, matchmaker. I’ll be heading back to my office to finish up some paperwork for the auction next month. Seems I’ll have a redhead to add to my roster.”

I don’t even turn around to watch her walk away, something that I always make a priority to do when Mia leaves the room in her tight sexy skirts. But I can’t look away from this woman, she’s captivated me wholly.

“Would you like to talk?” Gavino asks.

Ripping my gaze from her, I look to him. “Yeah,” I murmur.

“Paul, take her into one of the rooms. Get her something to drink,” Gavino orders.

“Boss,” he grunts.

Turning my attention back to her, I watch as Paul wraps his hand loosely around her bicep and gently guides her toward the back rooms. I stay firmly in my place, watching as they disappear, and only when she’s out of view do I turn back to Gavino. He’s wearing a shit-eating grin and he should, he did amazingly.

“Talk,” I offer as I sink down into the chair reaching for my abandoned water and taking a huge gulp.

Gavino walks over to the bar and grabs a glass of water that Mia prepared before he joins me. He sits down in the chair across from me and watches me for a long moment.

“I never told the redhead you’d chosen her. She’s been in training for the virgin auctions this entire time.”

“Vino?”

He shrugs a shoulder. “I couldn’t have an Arlo situation again. Not with you. I respect both you and your father far too much to allow that shit all over again, cugino.”

“But the wedding is in planning, I’ve been paying bills,” I point out.

He nods his head a couple of times. “Si, it is. Just didn’t have a bride to speak of. It’s why there was no woman’s name on the invitation,” he informs me with a shrug.

Honestly, I hadn’t even looked at the invitations, that’s how little I cared about the whole thing. It’s supposed to be one of the most important days of my life and I truly didn’t give a fuck who was going to be walking toward me in the church.

“So what happens now?” I ask.

“You want her?”

I could try to pretend that I don’t, that I’m indifferent, but I’ve never wanted a woman more than I want that one. But I’m also not completely fucking pussy drunk on her.

“What’s the story?” I demand.

He smiles, clears his throat then tells me all about Maci Marshall. He tells me a story about her parents being on and off drugs for years. Her mother died when she was younger, her father was killed in a bad business deal, meaning he was killed by the Savage Beast MC for betraying them—reasonable.

She was sent to another MC, but it didn’t work out with her there, so they called him. She agreed to come to New York, without fully knowing what she could get into here. The MC thought she could be a call girl or waitress for the card room.

“The moment I saw her, I knew she could be nothing other than yours. Says she’s a virgin, too.”

Nodding, I take in the condensed version of her life, knowing that there is probably a lot more to it and wondering if I want to get to know her well enough to find it all out. I’m unsure, but she intrigues me, mainly because I want her, badly.

“She knows nothing of being a mafia wife,” I point out.

He hums. “I could have Mia give her a crash course, or better yet, you could be her guide. It would be a good way to get to know her better, to actually fall for her?”

“Fall for my wife?” I ask, acting as if it’s ludicrous.

Gavino chuckles. “It’s odd, but trust me when I say, it will be worth it. If she is what I think she could be for you.”

“My father fell for my mother, didn’t work out too well for him,” I remind Gavino.

He hums, standing up and leans over the table slightly. “You are not your father, this is not the old famiglia, and I know you, Tiz. You’ll be good to her. You could have something beautiful if you’d just let it happen.”

“You know this?” I ask.

His lips curve up into a grin. “Yeah, I do, because we’re a fuck of a lot alike.”

I don’t say anything right away, he watches me for a moment, then he straightens and shakes his head a couple of times. He clears his throat, and his lips curve up into a grin as if he’s just had a fantastic fucking idea and I’m a little worried, because Gavino Santoro’s ideas can be dangerous.

“Ciana and I will throw your bachelor and bachelorette parties. Here.” Without allowing me to say anything else, he walks past me and leaves me stunned and silent in the empty casino.

Fuck me, I guess I’m marrying Maci Marshall in two weeks.

MACI

Paul opensa door and I slip past him and into an empty office. He doesn’t leave me in there alone, instead he guides me over to an empty chair before he walks over to the door and stands beside it, his hands clasped together in front of him, his eyes focused on me and nowhere else.

“What happens next?” I ask. “And who was that guy?”

Paul doesn’t even crack a smile, he doesn’t flinch or anything, he just stares me down and slightly shakes his head.

I try not to let my mind wander, but I can’t stop it from doing just that. The man who was in the room, his dark hair, his dark eyes, his gorgeous tanned skin. He looked absolutely frightening and made my stomach dip with desire in a way that I’ve never felt before.

I wanted nothing more than for him to pull me close to him, dip his chin, and kiss me. Then I remember Gavino telling the handsome stranger that I was a virgin and I cringe at the whole scene. How completely embarrassing, even if I know it’s important information for these kinds of guys to have, it still really sucked that he just announced it like that.

The door suddenly opens and my entire body jerks as I lift my head to look up. Gavino walks into the room, and I have to bite back the disappointment that he’s alone and the handsome stranger didn’t follow him. Gavino walks around to the desk and sinks down in the chair before slowly lifting his gaze to meet my own.

“Before you arrived, I had an entire file delivered to me about you, stemming back from the day you were born until the day that the Donkey Punchers took you,” he explains.

I suck in a breath, wondering just what he’s going to say about my shitty past, about my bad parents and the fact that I have nobody. Then I think about the future for a split second and what that could look like, but I shake my head, forcing the thoughts to disappear.

“You’re a perfect candidate for what I have in mind, I knew looking at your file, then seeing you in person, that you would work all around. I had to show you to him in person to be sure though and obviously, Tiziano liked what he saw.”

Gavino stops speaking and I wait for him to continue, when he doesn’t, I lift my eyes to meet his. He’s watching me, but he’s doing that assessing thing again. Licking my lips, I chance asking him what it all means.

“Tiziano liked what he saw?” is the only part of my question that I can actually get out.

I’m so nervous when it comes to him. Gavino’s power fills a room and it’s not because he’s trying to, either, it’s just who he is naturally. He is a powerful man. He knows that he is, but he’s not cocky about it, at least not that I can tell.

“Tiz is a Made Man, soon to be a Boss similar to me,” he says, explaining, but I understand absolutely nothing of what he’s saying. “Before he can take over for his father, he has to be married. He wanted me to contract a marriage for him. I hadn’t found the right girl, until…”

“Me?” I gasp. “You want me to marry him? I thought I was going to be a hooker or a waitress, you want me to marry him?” I ask, repeating my words, because they sound so ridiculous, I just can’t even believe them. It all feels absolutely completely and totally unbelievable.

“Si, I do think that you would make a good match, and he was taken with you as well. In two weeks, you’ll be Mrs. Tiziano Bianchi.”

He stands and I open my mouth to say something, but I don’t know what the hell I’m going to say. Instead, he walks away, leaving me with Paul in the room, my mouth working, open and closing, like a fish.

Turning to Paul, I know that my eyes are wide and I look like a crazy person. “What the hell?” I breathe.

Paul clears his throat and I hold my eyes on him. His lips twitch and he shakes his head once. “It is a better offer than I’ve ever heard of, if you want my opinion.”

“It is?” I ask.

He nods his head. “Tiziano Bianchi is a good man, from a wonderful family. He will be good to you. Even if the marriage is not a love match, he will always treat you fairly, he will take care of you, and you will want for nothing in life.”

“Stability,” I whisper.

He hums. “Stability, which judging by your file you have not had a lot of?” he asks.

“Yeah,” I agree.

“It will be a way to have stability and a family.”

Paul doesn’t say anything else, and a few minutes later the beautiful woman from earlier appears. She gives me a kind smile and offers to take me to my temporary room.

I follow her, all the while, my head swims with what has happened to me in the past few weeks. I can’t believe that this is my life, I can’t believe that I’m thinking of marrying this man. A man who I have no doubt is probably part of the mafia or something.

I can tell that there is something up by just the way that they’re all talking, that these are not men on the up-and-up. Especially with the whole contracted marriage thing. But he’s a man who I’m more attracted to than I ever have been another man in my entire life, so I’m not sure I care.

I probably should.

I have a feeling that this could be either the biggest mistake of my life, or the best thing that could ever happen to me. There is no doubt that it’s one way or the other, no in-between. I really hope it’s the best, I’ve had enough of the bad stuff to last me a lifetime.