by Serena Light
"Amsterdam had its ups and downs," Nicole informed, tangling her fingers with his. "But you not being there was definitely a down,"
"You can't tolerate 10 days away from me, how will you ever tolerate months away from me?"
"Simple, I'll come with you," She shrugged as they made their way across the airport and back to the car, the guards having picked up her bags.
"That's not how business travel works," Her husband chuckled at her as they settled into the back of the Range Rover.
Salvatore watched Nicole yawn before she rested her chin on his shoulder, looking at him as he gave her a sideways glance, chuckling at her antics as she rested her head on his shoulder, their hand intertwined on his thigh as she closed her eyes for a moment, falling asleep on the drive back.
His driver, Matteo had momentarily glanced into the rearview mirror, unable to hide the smile at seeing his Boss and wife asleep the way they were. Nicole cuddled into his side with her head on his shoulder, Salvatore's head leaning against hers and their fingers tangled together on his lap, both of them asleep.
Matteo tapped his partner's shoulder, the man looking up from his phone screen before looking over his seat when he jerked his head in the direction of the back. His partner chuckled under his breath before settling down with a shake of his head, all of them knowing how tired the two must be, despite dealing with different things they both were drained.
Once they arrived at the estate, Matteo had gently called out to his boss, letting him know they had arrived, Salvatore waking at the first call of his name as he blinked away the sleep before gently waking Nicole. His wife sitting up abruptly and looking around her, realizing they had reached home.
"Finally," She rubbed her eyes, following after Salvatore as the men took her bags up.
They both made their way up the stairs and towards the bedroom, her husband asking her if she wanted to eat anything to which she told him she had enough on the plane ride here.
Opening the bedroom door, she couldn't help but chuckle at the rose bouquet on the coffee table, the sheets of the bed having changed into purple silk and the light dimmed, a lavish fragrance wafting through the air as it gave the room a very romantic feel.
"Want me to run a bath for you?" Salvatore spoke into her ear, wrapping his arms around her waist and pulling her against his chest. "A nice and warm bubble bath?"
"I would like that," Nicole nodded when he placed a kiss on her neck.
Pulling away from her, he made his way into the bathroom, filling the tub with water followed by the essential oil and bubbles. Giving him a quick kiss on the lips, Salvatore left her to wash up as he went and got changed out of his clothes and into a pair of dark grey sweatpants, discarding the shirt the moment he settled on the bed and leaned back.
Nicole soon joined him in a loose fitted red silk tank top that had white lace across the neckline, the top exposing her stomach as it was paired with matching silk shorts that reached mid-thigh. Smiling at him, she made her way to her side of the bed, laying diagonally on the bed and folding her arms over his stomach, her head rested atop her arms.
"So tell me," Salvatore spoke first as he played with a strand of her hair. "How was Amsterdam?"
"Amsterdam was beautiful, no doubt there, reminded me a bit of Venice, but it was hectic. Throughout the 10 days of the workshop, we were at the hotel, hardly got to go out and were just dealing with team-building exercises." Nicole informed him as she swung her legs in the air, her head moving up and down with his breaths.
"Team-building exercises?"
"Yeah, it was a team-building workshop," She nodded. "And my boss thought my best to go for it, which itself poses quite a few questions,"
"Anyways, we weren't paired with the people we had come with; and instead we were separated into groups of 5, all of us virtual strangers from different lines of work and without an ounce of commonality," Nicole informed as Salvatore braided strands of her hair. "The first day, we were meant to get to know each other and by the end of it, list 10 things we learned about the other. That went relatively well, and then slowly the problems began to pose themselves, sometimes we couldn't agree on one thing, and there was always this one guy who deemed himself the leader the wanted things done his way even if it wouldn't work and the task wasn't even his forte, to begin with. There were argues and upset people and it was chaos,"
Salvatore couldn't help but chuckle as his wife shook her head at the memory.
"Team dynamics are always such," He informed her, combing his fingers through her hair. "One thinks himself the leader; the other just content being quiet and watching from the side-lines, there is always one cry baby, and one who thinks he's smarter than the rest. Nothing new there,"
"Yeah, at the end of the workshop, we were all showed a presentation on group dynamics and what sort of people you encounter and how to deal with them." Nicole nodded, turning her head to face him. "I also learned what sort of category you'd fall in,"
"This trip was so you learn more about yourself, not me," Salvatore teased as she crinkled her nose at him. "But, please, do share,"
"You'd be what they call 'The Dictator'," Nicole gave him a sly grin. "The man who wants it done his way and would not compromise no matter what,"
"Wrong," Her husband clucked at her. "I'd be what you call 'The Boss', the man who wants it done his way if it is the best option, who is willing to compromise if necessary, but not under a false pretense and one who can manage to deal with over a hundred people under his watch. And I'd most definitely be in the command group,"
Nicole simply rolled her eyes in exasperation before shaking her head.
"What about you, though?"
"I ended up being in the reference group," She sighed before getting up from his stomach, Salvatore instantly feeling the lack of her warmth and watched her kneel beside him before stretching her arms over her head, causing the tank top to ride higher than it already was. "It's not such a bad thing, I just kind of imagined myself in the interest group,"
"You always learn new things at such workshops,"
"You do," Nicole nodded in agreement.
They fell silent momentarily as she released a tired sigh, looking up at her husband.
"What did you do in the 10 days that I was gone?"
"Naught that concerns you, my lady," He smirked as he held out his hand to her, pulling her onto his lap as she rested her palm into his open one.
"You've been reading Game of Thrones, again, haven't you?" She raised an eyebrow at him.
"Guilty as charged," He shrugged, resting his hands against her waist, his fingers caressing the bare skin of her stomach.
"Ha! That's cold," She tensed with a gasp as she felt his cold fingers across her warm skin, a shiver passing through her as he chuckled.
Salvatore didn't say anything as pushed her hair off her shoulder and placed a kiss across her skin, his lips drawing closer to her neck as she squirmed on his lap, jumping when he let out a groan, biting his lip and looked at her with dark eyes.
"Don't move, sweetheart, unless you want me to do something to you," He growled in a deep husky voice that had tingles shoot through her spine, her face flushing at realizing what she had done.
"Sorry..." She murmured, biting her lip and looking down.
"Fuck, woman," He growled under his breath, ducking down and capturing her lips in his own, Nicole moving forward as he tensed beneath her, gripping her waist tighter as he gently bit her lower lip, forcing her to gasp into his mouth as he pulled her flush against him, his fingers tangling into her hair as she clutched at his back in desperation.
"Venice," Nicole gasped into their kiss, her face a deep red as she was enjoying this a lot more than she would have thought.
"What about Venice?" Salvatore gently took the skin of her neck between his teeth, his wife trying her hardest to keep her thoughts together.
"We..." She moaned at his ministrations. "You said I should give you a where and you'll decide the when. The where
is Venice,"
"We'll go to Venice then," He murmured, capturing her lips once more as he a pleasurable shiver went through him as her nails grazed the skin of his scalp.
"For the Carnevale di Venezia," She moaned when his hands trailed higher against her side, her skin coming to life where he touched her.
"And one more thing," Nicole decided to speak before her wits left her into a stuttering mess. "I want it to be a proper honeymoon, with everything,"
Almost instantly Salvatore froze. His hands lowering from her sides as he disentangled himself from her, looking at her with disheveled hair and cool eyes.
"Do you realize what that means?"
"It's been almost 9 months since we've been married," Nicole whined. "I want to consummate our marriage,"
"Nicole, I'm not the one with issue here," Salvatore chuckled humorlessly. "Are you sure about this?"
"Yes," She nodded biting her lower lip uncertainly. "Just a little nervous,"
"But not scared?"
"No,"
Nicole didn't understand when or how the fear disappeared. She just knew that the thought of it didn't scare her, it just made her anxious, but a little bit of anxiety is expected in such situations, granted it would be her first time and Salvatore's too. Well, not his first time ever, just his first time with her.
"Okay," Her husband sighed, running a hand through his hair to fix the mess it had become. "Okay, well...there are a lot of things we need to get comfortable with before we actually get to the honeymoon stage. There is you being fine with me seeing you naked, not tensing when I touch you, allowing me to explore bit by bit, you need be comfortable with me taking your clothes off, and you need to get used to me and not shy away from touching me when you want to, and we need to do all that within 2 weeks,"
"Why 2 weeks?"
"The Carnavale is from 16th February till 5th March." He informed her. "And it's already 2nd February,"
"Oh,"
"And when do you want to do this?" Salvatore looked at her with furrowed eyebrows, thinking. "When we reach Venice? A couple of days into your stay? At the end of the Carnavale? When?"
"I..." Nicole swallowed thickly. "I haven't thought of that,"
"Yeah, we need to think about that too,"
"We...will we pull through with it?" Nicole asked him in a small voice, looking at him from below her lashes, momentarily taken aback when he cupped her cheek into his hand and placed a gentle kiss on her lips.
"We'll do it if you feel comfortable enough with it," Salvatore assured her, resting his forehead against hers. "If you don't want to, we won't. If we begin and you think better of it, we'll stop."
"What if I don't want to stop?"
"Then we won't,"
Chapter XXI: Carnavale De Venicine (Part 2)
Salvatore told her that the Carnavale de Venicine attracted about 3 million visitors each year, and within 2 days’ time, she knew why.
The beautiful costumes and typical Venetian masks transformed the city in a magical way. The glamour of it all made one wish they lived in a different time period.
The San Marco square was transformed into a huge circus accompanied by the beautiful scenery of La Fenice. It is the main location for all carnival activities, such as the costume parades. Nicole had watched the local artisans creating their art in ‘la Bottega’, a workshop on the square. They watched how masks, shoes or tissues are made in a traditional way. They also visited the ‘Mercata delle Maschere e dei costumi veneziani’ on the Campo Santo Stefano to buy the merchandise.
There was also live music, DJ’s and entertainment organized in 3 pavilions at the Tese dell’Arsenale by Molocinque, an event they had attended as well.
Now the festivities were drawing to an end with magnificent and costly balls, such they would be attending.
Salvatore stood before the mirror, fumbling with his tie as he wore a three-piece black suit and a black undershirt and blood-red tie, the color of his attire meant to match that of his mask which would only hide the top half of his face.
The couple would be attending one of the most executive masquerade balls in Venice, an event which not everyone got the honor of going to unless you were invited, no matter how much money you had. Luckily for Salvatore, he was a good friend of the organizer who needed nothing more than his word for them to be given access.
“Is this alright?” He heard Nicole ask timidly as he turned to face her, his eyes widening at the sight of her.
She wore a white and gold Greek-style cape dress, the dress hugging her in all the right places before flowing down her waist, her hair twisted into a braided crown around her head with a golden leaf laurel resting snugly on top of the braids. Her makeup was exquisite and light, but it enhanced the green of her eyes and defined the curve of her lips.
“It’s too much,” She concluded at his silence, worried that she had overdone it.
“You look gorgeous,” He breathed out finally, awestruck by the goddess before him. “Aphrodite herself couldn’t be as exquisite as you,”
“Really?” Nicole asked shyly, having been on edge since a week.
“Really,”
Her mask, unlike Salvatore’s, was white with golden swirls on it, her dress matching the disguise. Leaning down, he placed a kiss on her cheek as he didn’t want to ruin the lipstick she had to artistically applied, feeling the way she clutched at his sleeves as if though she were frightened.
“Ready to go?”
Swallowing the lump in her throat, she nodded, grabbing her bag and lacing up her shoes before following her husband out of their hotel room with her arm hooked through his.
“Don’t think about later, Tesoro,” Salvatore murmured into her ear as they had fixed their masks into place and were descending the stairs into the hall of the banquet. “Just enjoy the ball,”
Nodding to his words, they stopped before the bouncer, the man taking one look and Salvatore and ushering them inside.
The scene inside was breathtaking.
The interior of the hall was nothing short of being like a castle. The ceiling painted in exquisite detail, depicting various scenes of Venetian history, the floor beneath their shoes being a polished white marble in which she could see her face. Gold columns encircled the room and held up the domed roof, staircases leading up to the more private and secluded balconies with men and women dressed in exotic gowns and dresses, their mask hiding their identities from one another as they all sipped their drinks with delicate lips and slender fingers.
An orchestra sat at the back of the hall, the music swimming through the interior as couples danced at the foot of the stairs, tables set behind the columns to provide space for the swirling skirts and laughter that rung around them.
It was beautiful.
Nicole was so lost in her awe that she never realized her feet walking in sync to Salvatore’s footsteps as they descended the marble stairs, her husband greeting the people with curt nods before finding the stairs which led up to one of the balconies.
They had been halfway up when she was brought out of her stupor, her breath catching in her throat to see everything from a different angle, watching the swirls of colors as the women spun and the men moved around them, the music enveloping her like a mother would her child and a smile forming on her lips to find herself enjoying it all.
“Salvatore!” A voice called enthusiastically as Nicole looked up, watching a fair maiden in a bright red dress make her way towards them, half her face obscured by an engraved grey and red mask. “You came!”
She hugged her husband, placing a kiss on either of his cheeks and held his forearms.
“I promised, didn’t I?” He responded with a curt smile, Nicole watching the exchange in silence.
“Oh! Gabrielle would be so happy to see you!”
“I’m quite looking forward to seeing him as well,”
“I hope you had no trouble getting in?”
“Oh, none at all, no need to worry about that, Elena,”
&nbs
p; “I’m glad,” The girl, Elena grinned, still holding his arm.
“Elena, may I introduce,” Salvatore began, reaching back for Nicole as she placed her palm into his, walking forward to be at his side. “My wife, Nicole,”
“Oh! I finally get to meet you!” The girl squealed in delight, hugging Nicole and placing a kiss on either one of her cheeks, holding her at arm’s length. “My! Quite the Greek Goddess you found yourself, eh Salvi?”
Her husband only chuckled before Elena led them down the balcony and towards the largest one that was covered in gold and vines, a dark-skinned man standing tall and proud alone on the platform, looking down at the festivities with a glass of red wine in his hand, a mask, much like Elena’s, was grey and covering one half of his face: leaving the one eye and half his lips and nose to the view of the beholder.
“Gabrielle,” Salvatore called out, the man turning in the direction of the voice and grinning at the sight of the man, pulling him into a firm hug as they both patted each other’s back. “You look well,”
“Please, I can never look as great as you,” The man cackled, his voice deep and resonating as Nicole was taken aback by the baritone. “I was almost certain you wouldn’t come,”
“And disappoint my wife?” Her husband scoffed. “Never,”
“You and I think quite alike,” The man grinned, pulling Elena into his side and placing a kiss against her red lips before pulling back. “Where is your wife anyway?”
“Here,” She found herself saying stepping forward to greet the man, taken aback when he went into a low bow and kneeled on one knee.
“My lady,” He bowed to her, Nicole looking at Salvatore in concern as he only chuckled and shook his head. “You have graced us mortals with your ethereal beauty,”
“Stop it, Gabrielle,” Elena giggled at her husband’s antics.
“Salvatore, you had told me you married,” The man stood to his towering height of 6 feet, standing 3 inches shorter than her own husband but much broader and muscular than him. “And I took your word for it, but had you told me you married Aphrodite, I would not have believed until I gazed upon her myself, and I have,”