Page 20 of Dull
“I’m going to kiss you now,” he said.
“Good.”
She felt a little bold and gripped the front of his shirt, pulling him in close, and finally, she was able to put her lips to his, and it was a kiss she had been waiting for since the fair.
****
Lorenzo couldn’t sleep.
His dad’s visit had pissed him off.He and his father never really got along.It was the usual between fathers and sons within the Colombo Mafia.There was either love, like he had seen with Liana’s brother and father.Or it was like his and his father’s relationship.
There was always disappointment.He wasn’t a good enough son.His dad wasn’t a good enough father.It was a fucked-up situation.
Rather than lay in bed and try to sleep, because it just wasn’t happening, he shoved off the blankets and made his way downstairs.He didn’t go to the kitchen, but instead went to his office, where he turned on a small lamp and poured himself a glass of scotch.
He was trying to get Clarissa to fall in love with him.To build the trust that had never quite been there.He didn’t want a fucked-up marriage, but one that was going to last.The thought of spending the next fifty years with Clarissa hating him, or having a marriage like similar couples he had seen, didn’t appeal to him.
His and Clarissa’s marriage was arranged.They didn’t have a way out.When Clarissa was ten, and he was twenty years old, it happened.At the time, he’d been five years older than his intended bride.Not a large age gap.
Although, he hadn’t wanted to be married.He had been.
As one of the youngest among Diego, Giovanni, and Emilio, he had built a reputation fast.They had no choice with the Colombo Mafia.The men had to be strong and capable, otherwise, they didn’t survive.Everyone was always after a piece of flesh.Running a hand down his face, he tried not to think of the years his father had tried to tell him he wasn’t good enough.He fought for everything, and seeing him in that hallway today, his disapproval pouring out of him in waves, was enough to set his teeth on edge.
“I thought I heard you up,” Clarissa said, startling him.
“I didn’t mean to wake you.”
“It’s fine.I couldn’t sleep anyway,” Clarissa said, coming into his office.She was dressed in a pair of dark blue pajamas with white rolled trim around the outside.They were classy, and he figured she had made them.They were oversized, and it didn’t detract from how sexy she looked.
She took a seat on the chair opposite him.“You look angry.”
“Not at you.I’m just thinking about my dad.”
“He wasn’t particularly helpful today, was he?”she asked.
“You could say that, to put it mildly.”
Clarissa laughed.“Yeah, to put it mildly.”She offered him a smile.“After my sister died, all my parents could say to me was how much I didn’t measure up.I wasn’t the right daughter.I was the ugly daughter.The fat one.”
He closed his eyes.“You know, it makes me want to go and kill those fuckers.”
“They didn’t like how I was handling it.To them, it was nothing.My sister died in my arms, and still they didn’t care.It was something that happened, and now they had to deal with the consequences, as if it was this business deal.”
“Fuck them, Clarissa, and this business deal.I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to live by them telling us what to do.”
“Does that mean you want to get divorced?”she asked.
“Fuck, no.I don’t want to get divorced.Do you?”
She shook her head.“No, I don’t.I just thought I would ask, in case that was what you were hoping for.”
“No, I’m not hoping for a divorce.I like being married to you.”
“Really?I mean, I am boring and old and dull.”
He shook his head.“You know, I was a fucking idiot.I didn’t know you, and trust me, now that I’ve had a taste, sewing is not boring or dull, it’s fucking amazing.Time-consuming and a pain in the ass, but it is amazing.”
Clarissa smiled at him.
