by Theresa Papa
“Seriously? Wow, sometimes it amazes me how much history there is in Chicago that we natives take for granted. We don’t take advantage of all the great things there are to do around the city like we should. I guess since we live here, our everyday lives keep us from doing all those things. When people come for vacation, they take time away from their lives to experience it all.”
“You’re right! We’re going to make it our mission to start doing the different things around the city from now on. I will plan it and surprise you.”
Could this man get any more perfect? I could just take him home and eat him up. Forget about dinner.
The server comes with our pizza, if you could call it that. To my surprise, it is brought to the table in a bowl that it’s baked in.
“Pizza in a bowl? I’ve never had anything like it,” I say.
“It’s a first of many new and wondrous things I want to experience with you, my love,” Nico replies.
Then she flips over a bowl on each of our plates, and we have a mound of delicious oozing pizza goodness. It is so delicious. We finish the meal with their famous Italian ice cream, and afterward, I need to just roll out of the restaurant because I’m so full.
As we walk out, Nico studies something on his phone.
“What are you looking at?” I ask.
“It’s a surprise!”
“Oh really, what do you have up your sleeve now?” I grab his arm to try to peek at his phone. He puts it in his pocket and kisses my cheek.
“Come on, we have to hurry.”
A little while later, we pull up in front of Grant Park on South Michigan Avenue. Nico puts the car in park and gets out. I start to question why he thinks it’s okay to just leave his car here when Louis jumps into the driver seat. Nico opens my door, and I’m still in shock as he grabs my hand and leads me quickly out of the car. We walk into the park, and when I look back, Louis smiles and waves as he drives away. I realize that Nico is kind of pulling me, so I quicken my step and come up beside him. He lets go of my hand and puts his arm around my shoulders.
“Just assure me that you allow Louis to spend time with his family regularly.”
Nico laughs and hugs me closer to his hard body.
“Leave it to you to worry about that kind of thing. My sweet Samantha, Louis is compensated extremely well for his position, and he gets as much time off as he asks for.”
“Good, I knew you would be the perfect boss to him too,” I say, smiling.
When I look up, I see a banner with the words Chicago Summer Dance Fest flapping in the breeze overhead.
“Oh my gosh! Are we going dancing?”
Nico smiles down at me with his perfect white teeth. “Yup, you guessed it. But not just dancing, my lady, we are going to learn the Argentine tango because today is the International Tango Fest.”
No sooner did he finish his sentence than the crowd parts and we come upon a huge open-air dance floor.
“Wait here just a second. I’ll be right back.”
Nico walks up to a woman at the front and says a few words to her. She smiles and shakes his hand. Then she nods her head a few times and looks over at me. When he returns, he grabs my hand, and we head out on the floor right to where the woman now stands.
“Sam, this is Marisa, and she will be our instructor tonight.”
“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Marisa,” I greet her politely and hold out my hand.
She shakes my hand, returning the greeting. But since all her attention is on Nico, I might as well be invisible. Then she wastes no time putting her hands on him to teach us the tango. She has an excited look on her face like a cat about to swallow a canary as she moves him across the floor. I get it lady, he’s hot! Usually, I can brush off the hungry looks women send his way because I know he’s hard to resist. But when this one is obviously going to have to change her panties soon, I need to draw the line.
I begin to lose my patience until Nico pulls away from her, and says, “I can try it with Sam now.”
He very gentlemanly walks away from her, takes me into his arms, and places my hands the way she held on to him.
Then he gives her one of his signature smiles, dimples and all, and asks her, “Marisa, can you direct us if we do anything wrong please.” She nods and comes closer to stand.
I am then taken into the world that is my man. He has picked up the steps expertly just from dancing with Marisa for those several minutes while I was stewing. But now, this is so worth the wait. She directs me a few times, and I correct my footing and posture. Then after a while, we just click, and Nico and I are doing the tango together. He even dips me a few times, and it’s so sexy. Marisa left after the lesson part of the night was over, but we stay to enjoy the music and dancing afterward. When it comes time for the music to end for the night, we are still in each other’s arms.
I look up at Nico and smile, saying, “There’s no more music.”
“We don’t need music to be together like this.” He hugs me tighter to his chest. “I’m never going to let you go, Sam. You’re mine, and I will always love you.”
My heart overflows at his poignant words as he kisses me so deeply it makes my knees weak.
Chapter 47
Samantha Marconi
Back at the penthouse, we plop on the sofa, exhausted from all the dancing, when Nico’s phone rings.
“Hey Jaxson, what’s up?” Nico asks. Then he grabs the remote and turns on the news.
“Okay. Thanks, Jax.” He hangs up.
The news reporter stands on the shore of Lake Michigan with emergency vehicles and equipment all around her. Flashing lights illuminate the crowds of people gathered to witness her story. Nico turns up the sound, and the reporter reveals that a dead body has washed up on the rocks. It was found by a boat full of people.
“Those poor people just out for a good time and had to witness that horrible scene.”
Nico nods to acknowledge my comment.
The reporter continues to report that the body belongs to a thirty-four-year-old male named Marcus Dent. He has a criminal record, but the details are yet to be revealed. The police are treating it as a homicide and have not revealed the cause of death at this time.
“Does this have anything to do with Elizabeth?”
Nico gets up and points the remote to shut off the television. He takes a deep breath and reluctantly answers my question. “I’m not going to lie to you Sam. It does have something to do with my cousin. For obvious reasons, what I’m about to tell you has to stay between the two of us.”
I nod my head. “Of course.”
He begins to pace in front of the French doors as he reveals what he knows.
“I do know for sure that Marcus Dent held Elizabeth against her will in the apartment behind the club because Giselle confessed it all. When she had me restrained, she was under the influence of some kind of drug, so I used the opportunity to get information out of her. I tried to stay as long as I could stand her grubby hands all over me. It wasn’t very long, but she told me quite a bit of information. I started by asking her a question about Elizabeth. Giselle said that two days before, she and her assistant Ivan had found Marcus with his throat slit open in the apartment behind the club.”
I gasp at the picture his description creates in my mind.
“Giselle didn’t know why, but she stated that Marcus insisted that he keep only Lizzie there with him under his constant watch. Lizzie was gone when Giselle found the body. There was a mess to clean up and a body to quickly get rid of that made her very unhappy. She accused Lizzie of the murder.”
“Obviously they got rid of the body in the lake. But why not call the police? Was it because they would know she was involved in Elizabeth’s kidnapping?”
“In her inebriated state, she described the body as ‘sleeping with the fishes’ which is where she would be if her boss finds out Marcus is dead and Lizzie is gone. So she is more afraid of the boss whack
ing her than being arrested.”
I outwardly shudder before I get up and go over to him to ask my next question due to the sensitivity of it. On my tiptoes, I look up into his eyes with compassion because I know this is very personal for him.
“Do you think Lizzie killed Marcus? In self-defense, of course.”
He puts his arms around me and rests his chin on my head with a sigh before he answers. “She might not have had a choice to be able to get away from him. He held her there for days. He was probably waiting for the payoff so he could deliver her to the buyer. But as lawyers, we know that none of it will be a sure thing without evidence. I do intend to stay by her side in all this just like I did before. I wish we knew where she was. If I know Tony, he’ll leave no stone unturned in the search for her. His people will find out about the money offered for her kidnapping, and who’s behind it. We’ll put an end to it before she gets hurt or worse. She’s like a little sister to me; she’s family.”
I rest my head on Nico’s chest and breathe in his scent that gives me sustenance. When the time comes for Nico to help Elizabeth again, he has me to support him.
Chapter 48
Nico Pope
Every morning that I wake up with Samantha next to me in my bed is like a perpetual state of magical bliss. My gaze slides over her sleeping features illuminated in the filtered morning sunlight. The curve of her brows, the sweep of her long dark lashes that rest on her cheeks, the fullness, and delectable pink color of her lips. When I’m lucky enough to feel the softness of those lips on my skin, it deepens my devotion to a level I’ve never experienced before. Her kisses are an enchanted supernatural awakening that have charmed my life from the first one she graced me.
My hand instinctively strokes her long, dark waves splayed across my pillow as my other hand glides across her stomach and rests just under her breast. She breathes in deeply as her nipple peaks to tease me to taste it with my tongue. Her back arches while I administer equal attention to each rosy peak as the sheets slide farther to reveal more of her sexy body for me to devour.
As I move downward with my nibbles and kisses, I kneel between her legs and squeeze her bare bottom with both hands while lifting her. The sight and taste of her essence is the talisman that unlocks the fever inside me and drives me wild with desire. My mouth and fingers synchronize as Samantha’s body responds. The soft sounds of pleasure escape her lips as she writhes within my grasp, motivating me to give her more. This is my drug of choice; this is my high, to be able to make her experience such ecstasy that she screams my name.
A few seconds later, that’s exactly what Sam’s first words of the day are—my name repeatedly shrieked as she reaches her first high. Then I crawl back up her body to quiet her with my kisses while I simultaneously thrust into her heated core. She finally opens her eyes for the first time and looks up at me with adoration and love. What I live for, the reason I now take up space on the planet earth—that look. Then just like the puff of smoke in every big magic trick, we both explode together into an oblivion where only the two of us exist.
~~~
Walking into the law firm is something I rarely do since I left to open the salon. But today, I called a lunch meeting with my father and my brother to talk over a few things. When I arrive, Jaxson is sitting on the sofa in my dad’s office as he unwraps the takeout.
“Hi, Jax. Where’s Dad?”
“Hey, bro, he’ll be right back. He went to see Caroline for a minute. Have you heard anything about those two dating?”
“Dad and Caroline? No, when did that happen?”
“I only guessed about it recently and fucking confronted Dad about it. He said that he never asks us about our love lives, so he figured there is no reason to disclose his secrets.”
“Well, he wanted to talk to Sam on the phone the other night and insisted on meeting her for dinner this week. On Thursday, as a matter of fact. Can you be there?”
“Yeah, probably. I’ll let you know for sure tomorrow.”
Just then, my dad walks in with a smile on his face and a spring in his step. No doubt, it was put there by an admin named Caroline.
“Hello, sons! I’m so glad you suggested lunch today, Nico. I wanted to catch up on the information you have about Elizabeth.”
“Well, Dad, Elizabeth did send Tony an email. It said she knew he intended to rescue her, but she took the opportunity to escape when it presented itself two days earlier because she wanted to keep him safe.”
“They found Marcus Dent’s body. She might have killed him to escape?” Dad’s forehead is scrunched up.
I wanted to calm his worry along with my own. “We don’t know that for sure. Anything could have happened. Until we talk to Lizzie, we have to remain calm.”
Jaxson gets up from the sofa, takes his phone out of his pocket, and dials.
“But it’s probably time to give Tony a call and see what he’s found out for us. Hey Tony, it’s Jax. I’m here with my dad and Nico. You’re on speaker. What’s up with Liz?” He presses speaker so we can all hear.
Tony clears his throat and gets through the usual greetings with my father and me before he begins to articulate the details to the web of information he has uncovered.
“The website we found was created in Brazil on the Dark Web. It’s disguised as a video game and marketed to mostly customers of pornography and sites that sell items of a sexual nature. The way to win the money is to find the girl and deliver her to the king unharmed. Of course, we know that somewhere along the line, the game becomes live and Lizzie is the girl. What we don’t know is who the king is and why he has targeted her.”
“So that fucker Marcus Dent played the game to collect the money? Who else is playing the fucking game, and how do we know who ‘the king’ decides he wants to play with live?” Jaxson asks.
“One of my men has gained access to the game to see exactly how it works. They won’t be able to recognize his name or trace his computer,” Tony replies.
My dad pipes in and asks, “Tony, how much money are we talking here?”
“One million dollars, Mr. Pope.”
“Have you zeroed in on Elizabeth’s location?” I ask.
“I’m close, but every time I have her in my sights, she moves. She’s not taking any chances, which is good because all those money-hungry perverts are after her too. My schedule for the next few months has been cleared, so I can personally go and find her. She will be more likely to let her guard down if she sees it’s me,” Tony replies.
My dad looks down at the floor, shakes his head, and then boldly says, “You’ve been very patient with my niece. I know she has her hang-ups, and she has avoided your attention for a long time. But please don’t give up on her just yet. She’s a good girl whose bad father ruined her life. It’s going to take a strong man like you to get her to trust again.”
“I won’t let anything happen to Liz, Mr. Pope. Even if she still rejects the idea of a romantic relationship with me, I wouldn’t forgive myself if I didn’t do everything within my power and resources to find her and bring her home safe.”
“Thanks, Tony!”
After that, we all sit around the office and eat the sandwiches that have gone untouched while we discussed Elizabeth. When I’m finished, I mention the next order of family business that I intended to discuss when I called for this lunch.
“Well, the next subject I would like to discuss concerns my future. I would like you both to know that I plan to ask Samantha to marry me very soon.”
“Congratulations, son! I’m so happy for you. I can’t wait to meet her on Thursday.” My father comes over, shakes my hand, and hugs me. I look over at Jaxson, and he just has a small smile on his face. My father turns and looks at him too.
He looks me in the eye and says, “Well shit, she couldn’t have picked a better man. All kidding aside, you’re the best match for Sam. She deserves to be treated the way only you know how to treat her. I have come to care dee
ply for her, and I will be proud to call her my sister.” Then Jax shakes my hand and hugs me too. I still can’t help but feel that he wishes he were the one who went to the club that night. But the way that Samantha reassured me with her words and actions proves how much she loves me and takes away any insecurity. I believe that even if he had gone to the club, she still would have picked me. We are meant to be together, and someday, Jaxson will find the girl he’s meant to be with too.
“When do you plan on asking her?” My dad interrupts my thoughts.
“I’m on my way to pick out the ring when I leave here. Then I’m going to call her parents so I can drive up to Hawthorn Woods and ask her father for her hand in person. But I actually plan on popping the question on the boat. We will take it out to watch the fireworks from out on the lake over the weekend.”
“I’m proud of you, son, to be considerate and follow the Italian tradition of asking her father. He will appreciate that. And, in turn, he will respect you for it.” He pats me on the back.
“Glad I don’t have to deal with that bullshit!” Jax says.
“If that’s all we need to talk about, I gotta go. See you both on Thursday at the house,” I say.
“About that … I’m going to have a guest there as well. Just to let you know,” my dad reveals.
Jaxson smirks at me and says to my dad, “Could her name be Caroline?”
Dad answers with a huge smile, “You know it will be.”
We both walk out of Dad’s office, shaking our heads. Once out in the hallway, I decide to ask Jaxson about something that’s been on my mind.
“How about you and Jennifer? Sam told me that she is still at your house.”
“I’m really getting to know Jen very well. Her and I are a great deal alike in a lot of ways. There’s emotional baggage and some things in her past that she’s working through, and she asked if she could stay with me so she wouldn’t have to be alone. It’s stuff that Sam and her family just wouldn’t understand, but I do.”