Sniping Her Mafia King

Arwen took in her image in the mirror and knew she looked good. She wore a dusky blue dress with a deep vee at the neckline. It was fitted almost bodycon style, yet she could breathe and walk freely in it. It hovered about an inch over her knees and with the black heels she was sporting, her legs appeared endless. It was vastly different from the normal yoga pants for her physio practice or the camo and leather she wore when on Bellona missions. This was an outfit to impress.

She put her earrings in and gave one last touch of lipstick to her lips and then smiled at her reflection. A frisson of excitement coursed through her at the notion it was highly likely she was going to have s*x with Adrianu Cavallaro, and she prayed desperately it was as wild as she'd imagined all week. She considered based on the way he'd kissed her today it was unlikely to be anything less than stellar.

She had called Jesse for support, but her friend had only cackled hilariously, welcomed her to the family and told her she may as well change her name to Cavallaro now because they were going to be cousins. Mumbling about her cousin being strangely obsessed with Arwen, Jesse had hung up on her when her boyfriend Torben had exclaimed loudly in the background about Addy calling him for advice on dating one of Jesse's girls and wanting to talk to Jesse. She'd flung herself on the bed hoping for her friend to call back, but the woman had only sent a text message to tell her to lay back and enjoy the ride. She'd responded with a "f**k you too" and threw her phone across the room.

She'd be lying to herself to say she wasn't nervous. Adrianu Cavallaro was a mob boss and engaging with him, starting any kind of relationship with him could put her in his crosshairs. Extra scrutiny to her activities and her role outside of being a guardian and physiotherapist could put the Bellona Collective at risk. Psych-One hadn't been too concerned and if Jesse as Juno had any kind of misgiving of her dating her cousin, she hadn't said so.

Their leader, Artemis, hadn't given her any indication of her having an issue with dating Addy but she wasn't exactly on a first name basis with the woman either. In fact, she knew Jesse knew the woman well but there were things Arwen never wanted to know. Any personal details about Artemis were not on the list of things Arwen felt compelled to learn. The less she knew the better. The woman terrified her.

She knew Artemis valued her. She was an asset she used both for her team missions and solo missions. She also was very much aware Artemis would not put up with Adrianu Cavallaro infringing on Arwen's, and by default Bellona's, privacy. If Artemis had a problem with her dating Addy, she would have made it clear already. The woman was not known for subtlety.

She remembered her first meeting with Artemis. She'd been brought to meet her when Artemis was doing an interrogation along with the previous Juno. She had stood on the other side of the glass while Artemis strategically made tiny little lacerations on a man on his naked body and then taking a tiny vial of what Arwen had later learned was an alcohol concoction and pouring it strategically over his wounds in an attempt to locate a missing woman. Arwen had been impressed with how casually Artemis had inflicted pain and barely made any kind of facial expression. Her voice had never raised. Her tone had never changed. She had simply asked direct questions and when didn't get an answer she liked, made a cut. The man had refused to cooperate until Artemis made tiny slices on his p***s. The man had then spilled everything, Artemis switched her tiny razor for a large knife, sliced the manhood off her prisoner and then beckoned for Arwen to be sent to the room. She'd asked Arwen if the blood bothered her, and Arwen had said the screaming was more annoying than the blood. Artemis had shoved the member in the man's mouth to stifle his screams and then gave a shrug and walked out, calling over her shoulder, if Arwen felt compelled to kill a serial rapist, she could put a bullet in the man's head. Arwen hadn't balked, had shot the man with the pistol she'd been carrying and then followed the woman out of the room.

Jesse told her Artemis had a soft spot for her because of that day. She assumed her friend knew what she was talking about.

She had her bedroom door open and heard Deidre yell up the stairs Adrianu was there to collect her.

"Here goes nothing, Arwen. At worst, you'll have a good meal and a decent argument because the man does love repartee, at best, incredible s*x, and multiple o*****s. It's one night. You got this." She put her hand to the mirror and touched her reflection. She took a breath and then made her way down the stairs surprised to hear a man's voice in the house. Even Trace had never stepped foot in her home, and she'd dated him for three months. Cavallaro being in her house felt like an overstep but she couldn't say anything in front of Deidre who presently found the man to be her knight in shining armor.

The harshness of a blunt four-letter word being uttered at the bottom of the stairs made Arwen's eyelids flicker and she grinned at the blatant hunger in his eyes, "really sir?"

"You look delectable," dark eyes roamed her body. "What is the American expression? You clean up well. I half expected to see leather riding gear."

Deidre let out a catcall whistle from the living room as Arwen hit the bottom stair. Arwen wondered where her shy quiet girl was. In front of Adrianu Cavallaro the girl was being bolder than she'd ever been and Arwen was surprised.

She looked Adrianu up and down, "you look pretty good too." She wasn't lying. His lithe frame was encased in a perfectly tailored suit which probably cost far more than Deidre's desired face creams. His trousers hugged his thighs like a glove and the jacket he wore was so perfectly fitted to his shoulders, she wondered if had to deliver a punch whether the seams would tear. The man's body was poised like a jaguar, and she inhaled the scent of his cologne. Again, she smelled the tobacco he'd had on him earlier in the day and she wondered how she'd missed it previously. She grabbed a clutch off the table. "Shall we go?"

"Absolutely," he motioned to the door behind him. He pointed to Deidre, "no parties and no boys," he winked at her playfully, "and stay out of the liquor cabinet."

"Yes Dad," Deidre mocked him with a smirk, and he chuckled at her responding playfulness.

"Lock the door," he instructed, "and be good."

Arwen stood with her head c****d to one side incredulously. What the actual f**k was going on with these two? Deidre and Miley were giggling like fools leaving Arwen to wonder why the almost nineteen-year-old women were behaving like preteens in the man's presence. Arwen walked over to Deidre, kissed the top of her head, and made a show of sniffing her breath. "You been drinking?"

"Arwen!" Deidre glowered at her.

She preceded Adrianu out the door and then was stunned to hear the locks clicking in place.

"Did you pay them to behave?" she asked as she fought the shiver against the feel of his hand on her low back as he followed her down the stairs. "Usually when I go out, they grumble and complain, and I have to lock the doors before I go."

"You're the mom-figure. They're supposed to give you a hard time." He stopped her from continuing to walk with a tug to her hand, "can you allow me to tell you again how breathtaking you look?" He cupped her cheek as she smiled against his palm, "thank you for agreeing to see me."

"You're welcome but this could very well be one of those be careful what you wish for situations."

"I think you could be exactly what I wished for," he leaned in and kissed her cheek. "Come, we have reservations."

She sniffed him, "did you just shave? You smell good."

He laughed as his driver opened the door of the Escalade for them to get into the rear. She noted there was another man in the driver seat already. "I am one of those men who needs to shave twice a day lest I grow a full beard."

She grinned broadly, "have you ever grown a beard?"

"I have a rule to never shave when I'm on vacation. However, when I'm conducting business and working, I prefer a clean-shaven look."

"Part of the image?" she queried as the car backed down her driveway. She was trying valiantly to put the thought of him with a rough beard against her thighs.

"In my line of work, image is everything, reputation more so."

"Your line of work?"

"Entertainment," he shot her a lazy smirk. "My life is all about fun, Arwen."

She met his eyes head on, "everything you do is fun?"

"I try to make it that way but not always. It's why I try to find pleasure in all I can, where I can." He reached for her hand and intertwined their fingers. "How was your work today? Did you manage to finish what you were doing before I interrupted you?" "Yes."

"You weren't too distracted?"

She pressed her lips together unsure of how much she wanted to divulge but at his hot gaze she shrugged, "I've been very distracted. I had to meditate before getting my work done and again once I was home."

"Just meditate?" he gave a pointed stare.

"Yes." She looked away from his question. She had fought an internal war while in her own shower earlier. In the end, she'd listened to his orders no matter how much she'd wanted to ignore them.

"Good girl," he whispered leaning in closer to her. "You'll be rewarded for listening."

"Addy," she suddenly felt a pang of nerves and met his stare head on, "I don't usually jump into this kind of thing so fast. Usually, it takes a few weeks of dating before I've told a man about my proclivities for," she groped for the word, "play." "Really?" he seemed surprised.

"I know what I like but it doesn't mean I trust anyone else to respect my boundaries. My experience with men in general is give an inch and they take a mile."

"Arwen, we will do nothing together unless it is one hundred percent consensual. Nothing. If we are engaged in any activity from a simple dinner to something more," his eyes were dark and hungry, "intimate, you hold all the cards, cara. If you don't want to go out, we don't go out. You don't want to f**k, we don't f**k. Your choices."

"Just today you insisted we went out," she argued.

"I sensed hesitation and I also knew today you wanted to be told what to do," he tapped her nose playfully, "you were deliberately provoking me by ignoring me. If you didn't want me to chase you, you would have answered. You are too forward not to say what is on your mind. You were playing a game of chicken. I'm not one to jump out of the way."

At her silence he gave a chuckle, the noise warm and velvety around her. "The first night I saw you at the warehouse in my city, you argued back without any hesitation. When I saw you later that morning, you told me off. When I saw you at the wedding, you held your own. Monday at your workplace, you were bluntly antagonistic. You ignored my messages to make me come to you and stake my claim. You do not capitulate to anyone, Ms. Arwen Beddoe, not even a man you should be frightened of."

"I should be frightened of you?" she feigned ignorance.

"As you said, Jesse has told you of our family and thus you should know what I'm capable of."

"I know you're capable of helping twenty women make a new life after they had theirs robbed."

He gave an uncomfortable shrug, "one good thing does not outweigh the bad."

"Such as putting multiple holes in Trace's muscles to make sure he'll never compete again?"

"You said alive," he waved absently. "One of my men," he nodded to the man in the passenger seat on the other side of the glassed off partition, "has a daughter the same age as Deidre. He felt particularly displeased we weren't finishing what we started." "Then Deidre would have known for the rest of her life a man was murdered at her request. It is not a darkness I want her soul to know," Arwen explained and watched as the light bulb went off in his head. "As much as I personally would have liked to put a bullet in his brain and float him down the Potomac, I know she would live with the guilt forever and it's not what I want for her."

"That is fair," he said appreciatively. "I only wanted his suffering for frightening her and telling her to hurt herself. I was not thinking of her involvement or how she would consider it to be a murder she requested."

"Exactly. She called you to the house. She asked you for help. Right now, you are the white knight charging in and rescuing her, the damsel in distress. She was grateful you removed him from the property, but I don't think she wanted as much bloodshed as I." "You are the proverbial mama bear."

She made a face, "she and I only have each other as blood. Our dads were twin orphans. Her mom was an orphan. She had no other siblings."

"Your mother?"

"Died a week after I was born. Sepsis."

"Sepsis? From childbirth?"

"Yup. My dad sued the hospital and won. They failed to properly ensure her placenta was delivered completely. There was infection in her womb. The doctor was old and cocky and kept going on about how first-time moms panicked over everything. Dad brought her to emergency and refused to leave until she was treated. They arrested him instead for causing a disturbance and she died hours later alone while he was in a jail cell."

The words Adrianu uttered in Italian were clearly curses.

She smiled a smile which had no joy in it, "the hospital and doctor's each had to pay out a million dollars in liability to my father."

"Does he still practice?" Adrianu asked of the doctor.

"Funny thing, two weeks after Dad got his settlement and the man's reputation was in tatters, the good doctor killed himself." "Your father was a marine," he said quietly.

"My father, my uncle and aunt were all at a restaurant with a one-year-old baby at the time of his death." She corrected his allegation, "but I have a lot of uncles who are not blood. Clearly one of them stepped up though nobody ever owned up."

He seemed satisfied as a smile tugged at his lips. "Uncles, huh? You said you have no family."

"I don't have biological family aside from Deidre. Marine family, my family at the women's shelter, the girls I work with in the clinic, they are as dear and loyal to me as any blood could be. Deidre is special because she is the only blood I have in this world, and I would do anything for her. The others I love differently and while there are limits to what I would do for them, there isn't much I wouldn't."

"Give me an example. Where do you draw the line for those who are not your blood?"

"Depends on the person, the situation and what is at stake."

"Would you get into a fist fight? I know you box."

"I do box and I have a black belt in karate. Have you met your cousin? She gets me into fights every other week. A couple of months back we were at the club owned by Torben's Greek friends and at the end of the night a guy was coming onto her pretty hard. It was before she and Torben were a thing. Anyway, Jesse of course threw the first punch when he touched her a*s. It started a brawl. I busted another guy's face for her when he tried to step up for his friend she was beating into the ground."

He chuckled, "I'd have paid to watch it."

"Ask Stavros. I'm certain he has the video from his security surveillance saved somewhere to jack off to. He's been hot for Jesse since he took the club. I'd bet my last dollar he cried real tears when she got with Torben."

"I will not be asking him for anything," he made a face of pure disgust. "And never mention Jesse in a s****l way to me again. I may vomit."

"Funny, she says the same thing about you."

"You talk about me sexually?" he suddenly was curious again.

She slugged his shoulder and shook her head against the merriment in his expression, "no. The night we saw you at the warehouse for the fights. She said you and Dylan look so much alike it grosses her out to think of either of you as anything but brotherly and warned us to look but not touch."

"You most assuredly should touch," he invited her, his voice molten hot. "I saw you ogling me that night from across the room. You were bold."

"I didn't know who you were." She admitted and laughed at his surprised expression, "you're not so famous."

"How did you not know me as Jesse's cousin?"

"She said cousin, I admit, I was thinking more Mexican side of the family than Italian."

He made a face, "she is not related to the Chavez family. Those cousins are not real cousins."

"Blood is thicker?" she mocked him.

"There is a reason the men I work with closely swear blood oaths."

"Are you kidding?" she stared at him incredulously. "You make them bleed?"

"I make them drink the blood of the Cavallaro. A shot glass full. If you want to be part of the Cavallaro clan, you need to have our blood running through your veins."

"That's nasty!" she stared at him in horror and the noted the tugging of his lips at the corners and slapped at him, "you're screwing with me."

He threw his head back and laughed loudly at her realization and then pulled her towards him tightly. "Yes, I am screwing with you. Nobody does shots of blood."

"Jesus," she muttered against his chest where he hugged her, valiantly trying not to respond to the scent and feel of his muscular body suddenly pressed against her. "You have a twisted sense of humor."

A loud beep followed by the disconnected voice of the driver in front, echoed around them in Italian.

"What did he say?" Arwen looked up at Adrianu after he responded to the man and then silence surrounded them.

"We are three minutes from our destination. He wanted to make sure I was aware of my surroundings considering I am distracted."

"Distracted? She tilted her head to look at him from where she sat at an odd angle to him. "What could be making you distracted?" she flitted her lashes as his mouth approached hers.

"I wonder," he mocked her before closing the distance.

He cupped her jaw gently as his long fingers nestled into the hairline at her nape, his lips brushing delicately across hers. His kiss was a stark contradiction to the one they'd shared earlier in her office. It was sweet and tender, his mouth plush and warm as it slid back and forth over hers, sucking gently on her bottom lip. He slid his tongue along her barely parted mouth, and she sighed as she allowed him access to her.

She turned her body closer to him, letting him deepen the kiss and sunk into the very real desire she held for this man. She could feel the coiled tension of him as he kept himself reigned in and reserved while he swept her mouth with contained hunger. Her body trembled against the strength of his body and his resolve, yearning to make him lose his control. As she considered what it would be like to see him in full passion and unhinged, she shuddered and pressed closer to him.

She was panting heavily when he finally broke the kiss, her heart hammering furiously against her rib cage. The feel of his heartbeat, a slow steady beat barely registering any increase in its rate made her pout. Did she have such little effect on him? She wondered if he was aroused at all and decided without boldly reaching out and grabbing him, she had no idea if he was even semi-erect from their kiss. She suddenly felt she had failed in her quest to get him excited for her with their kissing.

His eyes were studying her as she sat up and adjusted her dress, but his expression revealed nothing of his thoughts. Suddenly the door beside her opened and she noted for the first time, the car had come to a halt. She paused as she regarded the man reaching in for her from outside. How long had he kissed her? She had lost track of time in Adrianu's kiss and worse, he seemed no worse for the wear from it. She felt disoriented and confused and as she stood beside the car wondering how she'd gotten where she was, he was clearly in far better control than she was. Arwen was a wreck after a kiss in the car which left him unbothered.

She considered possibly she had made a grave error in judgement on whether she was getting away from this man unscathed. Jesse's mocking laughs echoed in her brain.