Chapter 22: Chapter 22

I opened my eyes sleepily and immediately looked over to the closet where Gino was standing and putting on a pair of jeans with his back to me while he was still naked on top.

I closed my eyes again for a moment of stillness and took a deep breath, suddenly feeling the bed move slightly.

"Good morning."

With a mild smile, I opened my tired lids and stared straight into his dark eyes, which were looking at me with an expression that was completely new to me.

"Good morning," I mumbled halfway into my blanket and he gave me a crooked grin before leaning over and kissing my cheek before getting off the bed.

"Get dressed, anatra," he instructed me, pointing to the open closet, where I immediately discovered my clothes with relief. I couldn't have endured another day in men's trousers. "Were you brought up earlier."

"What time is it?" I asked, yawning softly, whereupon Gino took his cell phone from the bedside table to stare at it thoughtfully for a while. He seemed to be reading something, but after a moment he turned back to me.

"11 o'clock," he said and ran into the bathroom while I slowly got out of the warm bed and headed straight for the closet.

I curiously ran my hand over the many dresses and then pulled out a yellow summer dress that looked rather boring, but absolutely comfortable and suited the weather outside. The sun was already shining brightly in the room and, despite what had happened last night, I was in a pretty good mood and wanted to go out to the beach.

"I put some hot water on for you," Gino explained when he came out of the bathroom and looked at the dress in my hand, slightly irritated. "Oh, dio mio. Am I dating my grandmother?"

He took it from me without asking and I watched, slightly overwhelmed, as he slid it back into the closet and pulled out a red, really eye-catching dress.

"Looks better on you," he winked, handing it to me, walking past me to the bed, where he perched on the edge and pulled out his phone again.

Unsure, I padded into the bathroom and took a quick shower before putting on the tight, red dress. It went just a little over my butt and had quite a bit of cleavage. Front and back!

I looked at myself in the mirror and tried to remember why I had bought such a dress in the first place, if it was even mine. It felt like I was seeing it for the first time.

"Ludovica? I have to go really soon and at least wanted to have breakfast with you," Gino rushed me and when I compared his now slightly irritated manner with the patient one of tonight, it seemed as if he had two personalities.

"I'm coming," I called through the bathroom door, which suddenly opened and in the mirror in front of me I looked at Gino, who let his eyes wander to my bottom in amazement before our eyes met again in the mirror.

"Much better," he whispered, getting so close to me that he pinned me with his body against the sink in front of me that I clawed my hands, startled at his sudden approach. "How am I supposed to resist a sight like that, especially when I know it's all mine."

I blushed again and kept staring at him in the mirror in front of me, feeling his hands on my thighs moving up and down.

"Are you actually on the pill?" he asked and I shook my head slightly while his fingers reached my middle and I groaned softly. "Fuck it. I'll be careful."

He sounded so aroused that his sound sent goosebumps down my neck, which kept hitting his hot breath as he pushed my dress up a bit and just ripped my panties to the side.

"We shouldn't be without contraception," I blurted out quietly, thinking about a baby, but then Gino penetrated me with his full size, which made me want to groan loudly, but he held his hand tightly on my mouth, smothering any sounds of my lust.

"Fuck," he whispered, locking his other hand around my waist to watch me in the mirror as I closed my eyes in pleasure every time he moved deep inside me. "You're the first one I fuck bareback," he breathed into my ear and bit my earlobe lightly, causing me to spread my legs a little wider in excitement, which he seemed more than pleased with.

He moved faster inside me, pushed hard and groaned again and again when I stretched my pelvis further towards him, until I opened my eyes in panic and recognized Dario in the mirror, who suddenly stood behind us in the door frame and looked at us with a bewildered look.

"Gi-" I tried to point out to Gino that Dario was behind us, but before I could even get a sound out, he was clamping his hand tighter over my mouth again while resting his head against my shoulder and relentlessly into me pushed in. My head was spinning and just as I was embarrassed to think I would never get out of this embarrassing situation, Gino unexpectedly pulled out of me and quickly straightened my dress.

"What the fuck are you doing here!!?" Gino snapped angrily at his brother, fastening his jeans. "Ever heard of knocking?!"

"Otherwise you like to have spectators," Dario replied coldly. "Dad wants to see you. Now," he added in a deep voice and I felt a quick kiss on my slightly trembling shoulder before footsteps left behind me and the door of the room slammed loudly.

"Shit," I whispered, not wanting to feel bad, but did anyway and quickly turned on the cold water in the sink to wash my face.

My body was still consumed with heat and passion and it took me quite a while to catch my breath and sneak out of the bathroom. My gaze fell to the mirror in the closet and I looked at myself lost in thought until I realized that this dress wasn't me. It didn't suit me, even a Gino probably wanted it.

I quickly pulled it off and dropped it on the floor to grab a pair of plain black jeans and a white blouse, which I hurriedly pulled on while my stomach slowly let out a loud growl.

Of course I didn't feel like meeting everyone downstairs in the kitchen, but I didn't want to starve even more, so I ran nervously to the door and was about to open it, but it was pushed open from the outside.

My heart was beating so fast that I unconsciously stopped breathing and was only able to relax a little when I looked into Nicolo's wide eyes, startled.

"I didn't want to scare you," he said apologetically at my probably completely insane look and I immediately shook my head with a smile.

"You didn't," I lied, giggling awkwardly, then took my time looking at his getup. As always, he was wearing a jogging suit, this time in white and light blue, and looked at his cell phone and ran his fingers through his dark hair until he turned back to me.

"Well, we should be leaving in an hour," he explained nonchalantly, and I nodded my agreement before following him down the aisle in silence.

Driving school. If I thought about it, it wouldn't be bad to be able to drive myself, but since I'd had more bad than good experiences at school, this memory kind of took the fun out of it.

I rolled my eyes in frustration and then trudged down the stairs, where I heard Gino, Dario and Enzo discussing in Italian when I arrived in the entrance area.

All three suddenly looked in my direction and when they then abruptly stopped speaking, I avoided their eyes in embarrassment and quickly followed Nicolo into the living room.

"What about them?" I asked uncertainly and turned around again, but the three had already disappeared outside.

I wonder if they were talking about me.

"No plan. I'm not really interested either," Nicolo replied, shrugging his shoulders and it became more and more incomprehensible to me that he was supposed to be Dario and Gino's brother. He was so. well, normal. He didn't have the slightest charisma of a mafiosis.

"Neither do I," I whispered to myself and sat down on one of the chairs at the dining table, where I found at least rolls and all kinds of cold cuts, which distracted me from my brooding about everything.

I just helped myself, poured myself another coffee and picked up the newspaper that was lying on the spot in front of Enzo's chair to leaf through it absent-mindedly.

Palermo seemed peaceful from the outside and certainly peaceful for the tourists, but when I got to the many obituaries I suddenly felt very different.

Lots of girl names and hardly any were older than me. I was sure that they didn't die of natural causes.

With a sinking feeling in my stomach, I refolded the newspaper and put it back in order to enjoy the rest of my coffee looking out the front window until I felt hands on my shoulders and winced slightly.

"If you want to go now, Dario can drive you," Enzo informed me and then removed his hands from my shoulders to settle in his place at the headboard.

My gaze fell to him uncertainly and when he looked at me waiting for an answer I avoided him and looked over to the couch where Nicolo was sitting and just shrugged his shoulders disinterestedly.

I didn't want to be in a car with Dario. I felt uncomfortable enough even being in this shitty situation and living under the same roof with him. In addition, he had seen me having sex with someone else, so to speak. with my fiancé. I was beginning to feel really shabby giving both my body in such a short time, but I knew that with Dario, I, like also with Gino, had no other choice, but that didn't make it any better either.

Fuck!

"What would be the alternative? That we have to walk?" I turned nervously to Enzo, who then shook his head almost imperceptibly.

"I would be the alternative," he smiled, but his gaze suddenly changed and he seemed thoughtful. "Is there a reason why you don't seem to like driving with Dario?" he asked and I immediately put on a mischievous smile.

"A reason? No," I reeled, surely looking like a lunatic with my grin, but lying had never been one of my fortes. All these secrets were already nagging at my conscience and weighing me down more and more.

"Okay, then he can take you with him right away," Enzo let the matter rest and gave me one last skeptical look before he opened the newspaper and disappeared behind it, which let me breathe again.

A little agitated about everything, I played with my fingers, imagining how experienced Enzo was. Surely everything would come out soon. That was my biggest fear and I decided to gain a big distance to Dario after today's ride. Such a big one that not even the most observant person in the world would even remotely realize there had been anything between us.

"Can we?"

Dario's voice burned into my mind and after closing my eyes very briefly and taking a deep breath, I slowly got up from the table and waited impatiently until Nicolo had finally stood up, and then turned to face Dario, who was holding his car keys in hand just stood in the doorway and looked back and forth between Nicolo and me.

I didn't answer him and just walked past him, eyes down, to focus on the surroundings once I was outside under the warm sun.

The guards were running around, the birds were chirping loudly and the salty smell of the sea was wafting around here so intensely that I took several deep breaths, which had a purely relaxing effect on me.

Unfortunately, this relaxation came to an end quickly.

"Had a nice night?", Dario spoke to me from the side and after I glanced up at him, I didn't recognize an expression in his eyes, which made me immediately unsure again and I didn't know what he meant now.

Did he just want to provoke me, or was he maybe even angry? Did he give a shit or did it bother him?

As soon as my brain rattled around him and his words again, I really tried to force myself to put it all away. I wanted these questions to stop in my mind and wished nothing more than to not care what he thought or what he felt.

But it wasn't that easy!

"Yes," I then answered without looking at him and was about to open the back door of the BMW in front of me, but Dario slammed it shut again, which gave me a brief shock.

"You sit in front."

"Why? I don't want to sit in the front," I said, irritated, but Dario ignored my resistance and opened the passenger door, which I stared at in perplexity for a moment before my gaze fell on him again.

"Like I said, I'm sitting in the back," I explained again and, with a provocative look at him, pulled the back door open again, but suddenly Nicolo appeared, sat down and looked up at me.

"Danke!"

He gave a fleeting smile and turned back to his phone until I slammed the door, rolling my eyes and turned back to Dario, who now had a genuinely amused smile on his face.

"You always get what you ask for, don't you?" I whispered, slightly irritated, taking a step towards the open passenger door where I paused again and stared at him.

"Not everything," sounded his dark voice and I ignored the chaos in me that he triggered just with his intense look in my eyes.

No matter how much I might have to fight against myself, I had made a promise to myself. I would try Gino and no matter how torn I felt now, it was the right thing to do.

I knew that, my mind knew that and Dario knew that too, only my heart seemed to doubt this decision and fought a hopeless fight that would certainly not end well..