by Blue Saffire
That explained the smooth skin. Angie and Maria were my new best friends. I twirled her ponytail with my fingers as she spoke. I couldn’t help but look at her perfect skin. All I wanted was to touch it, but I didn’t want to make her uncomfortable. She studied my face as she thought. I was trying to think of how to fix this.
“You know Angie bought a bunch of other swimsuits for herself. Maybe she can give you a better one.”
“Oh, please Lorenzo, if this is what she got me for you, she probably has strings over there for Chris,” she laughed and rolled her eyes.
“You have a point. She did pick up some string bikinis, now that I think of it.”
“Lorenzo?”
“Yes, Baby.”
“I’m sorry. I do want you to touch me. It’s just… we’ve never been that close. I mean like that… and… I don’t know. You look scared to touch me now. It’s okay if you do,” she whispered.
I kissed her nose. “Maybe I should get ready so we can go downstairs. My mom has a bunch of those wraps. We can ask her for one.”
“Okay, let me clean up in the bathroom,” she replied and stood up.
I stood up, reaching to pull her back. I wrapped my arms around her waist and pulled her close. “Is this okay?” I whispered in her ear.
“Yes,” she gasped.
“I love you,” I whispered and kissed her lips.
Victoria relaxed as her arms wrapped around my neck. Her skin felt good to my hands, but I didn’t want to ruin the moment by moving them. We stood there lost in the moment, until we heard a knock at the door. Victoria jumped and released her hold on me. I just pressed my finger to her lips and shook my head.
“Yes,” I answered the door.
“Lo, it’s me. Angie and me are finished in my room. Is Vicky ready,” Lucie called through the door.
“Yeah, Lucie, hold on a minute. She’s coming now,” I said and winked at Victoria. “Lucie, take her to mom and ask her for one of the wrap things she has.”
“What?” Lucie replied, sounding confused.
“She’ll tell you what I mean,” I called as I watched Victoria rushing to collect her things from the bathroom.
“Ok,” Lucie answered.
I took off my shirt and started for the closet to find my swim shorts. Victoria was on her way out of the bathroom, when she noticed I was shirtless. She stopped for a minute to watch me. I smirked at her and went over to peck her lips. She placed her hand on my stomach, smiling up at me.
“Go, they’re waiting. I’ll be down in a minute,” I whispered, “You can leave your things in the chair.”
“I love you,” she whispered. “Hurry please, I miss you already.”
“I miss you too,” I said as I patted at her bikinied bottom and stepped aside for her to leave.
Victoria blinked up at me in shock. After a second, she smiled and put her things down before she walked out. I rushed to take a quick shower and get dressed to return to my guests.
I was downstairs in no time. I was sure everyone would be in the pool by the time I got downstairs. To my surprise everyone was in the outdoor kitchen dining area.
Matt was on the grill and Chris was at the blender. Angie was on the other side of Chris, gabbing away. Martina was talking to my mom and Victoria, standing by the barstools. Lucie was wrapped tightly under Victoria’s arm. My dad, Uncle Mike, and Uncle Fredo were at the outdoor dining table, talking and laughing.
I could see that my mom did have something for Victoria. She now had a sheer black wrap on her waist, which helped a little. It may have been a lot of help, but I had the images of her without it burned in my brain.
I was so hungry I wasn’t sure if I wanted to go to Victoria or go straight for the grill. Just then, Lucie noticed me coming outside.
“Lo!” she called.
Victoria looked over her shoulder to see me. Her large smile told me exactly where I was going first. I walked up behind her and slid my arm between her and Lucie, to claim my place around her waist. Lucie wrapped her arms around us both. Victoria craned her neck to look up at me and I bent down to kiss her lips quickly.
“Hey, Beautiful.”
“Hey.”
“You feel better? Does this help?” I touched the fabric wrapped around her.
“Yes, thank you, Sweetheart.”
My heart danced to her words. Lucie wrinkled her nose at us. I bent over and kissed Lucie’s forehead, causing her to grin. My sister’s a sucker for affection.
I stood listening to Martina talk about college and the fact that she and Matt where going to transfer to the same school. I realized how much I paid this girl no mind. Victoria seemed to know her well enough, which made me wonder.
How many other people did we know, but had never met ourselves until now. It made me wonder if I would’ve known her if her father wasn’t keeping secrets.
Lucie went to sit with my father to eat a hot dog Matt had given her. He’d already made sure my dad and my uncles all had steaks on their plates. My stomach started to grumble, as I stood there.
Everyone looked at me. I couldn’t help but laugh. Victoria turned to face me, shooting me a dirty look.
“Lorenzo, go eat. You’ve been hungry for hours now. You’ve been with me all day and I haven’t seen you eat once.”
“I’m fine...” I started to say, but my stomach snitched again.
Victoria cut me off. “Don’t say you are fine. Come, let’s eat.” She grabbed my hand and started for the grill. “What good are you to me if you pass out?”
“It isn’t that serious, Babe,” I told her.
“Matt, please pass me a plate.”
“Sure, I saved Lorenzo a steak and I have a few turkey burgers for you, Princess,” he teased. “Lo, your mom is cool, she made sure there was something everyone would eat.”
“That’s her thing,” I shrugged.
“Oh, shut up and pass me the plate, Matt,” Victoria said, impatiently.
Matt chuckled. “Fine, I’m just trying to start some conversation. You’ve been talking to Martina all this time.” He handed her two plates. One with the steak he promised me, and another with a huge turkey burger on it.
Victoria walked over to the table where my father sat, placing her plate on the table, as she went to put more food on mine. I watched her as she piled the food on my plate, grabbing a soda from the cooler my mother put out. She came back, placing the plate in front of me and reached for a fork to place on it.
“Ora mangiare,” she ordered as she sat beside me.
I picked up the fork and did as she said. I was starving. I looked across the table to see my father watching us.
His face wore a huge grin as he watched Victoria taking care of me. She opened the drink she brought me, while watching me eat. My father gave me a nod, when he saw I noticed him. I just looked back down at my plate.
“Victoria, you and Lorenzo are looking like you have worked things out,” he called across the table.
Victoria dropped the burger she just picked up back onto the plate. “Lorenzo was never the problem.” She returned and shot him a contemptuous smile.
“That’s fine with me. Either way, I’m happy to see you two happy.”
“You know what would really make me happy,” she said through her teeth.
I reached under the table and grabbed her leg. Victoria looked at me, I shook my head for her to stop. She sighed, sitting back in her chair.
I kept my hand there to calm her. She looked like she was going to jump across the table at my father. I couldn’t blame her, but she needed to control that temper this time.
“What would really make me happy, would be if Lorenzo chooses to stay close to home. You haven’t said when we are to…,” she paused, looking around at all those who didn’t know about our prearranged marriage. “When the promise must take place. I don’t want him to go far if I can’t go with him. I still have another year in high school. I would miss him.”
Though I knew this wasn’t what
she was going to say the first time, I was happy to hear it. I was thinking about the same thing a lot.
Honestly, I would marry her now if that was the plan. She could come with me and finish her last year wherever I went or I’d stay here until she finished. As long as I am with her, that’s all that matters.
“Lorenzo knows there’s something he has to accept for the blessing on the promise to be given. Most Botticelli men aren’t as put off by the way we live, as Lo happens to be. So, this is something that is a little bit of an issue. Nothing you should be concerned with, though.
“As far as him going to school. I too don’t want him going far, but I’m hoping he feels the same way you feel about him and chooses to stay close,” my father explained.
Victoria took that in, as she stared at his face. “Mr. Botticelli, we will talk some other time, when you and I can speak as family. Then you can explain exactly what you mean. Even those things you feel shouldn’t concern me.” Victoria said with confidence and determination.
I was shocked to see my father nod in agreement, as if he meant to answer her demands. Would he really tell her what he meant about our lifestyle and me? I was curious. Did Victoria have the effect she had on me, with everyone or just the men in this family.
Victoria went back to her food and I returned to finishing mine. Chris and Angie passed out the fruit drinks they had blended up for everyone. Matt was seating at the table now, with Martina, enjoying his own plate.
My mother sat by the pool, sunbathing as usual. Lucie was at Victoria’s side again, asking her to swim with her later. It seemed as if my father ruined Victoria’s appetite.
She sat picking at the burger on her plate. I wanted to talk to her, but Lucie hogged her attention. When I was full, I got up to empty my trash.
I made my way to lounge by the pool. I needed to think about what Victoria said. She wanted to follow me if I left. I couldn’t hurt her and go too far away, that wasn’t an option.
I was sure of one thing. I wasn’t leaving her. My choice was made.
There was also the matter of what my father said. I have to accept the way of the families in order to marry Victoria. I wasn’t the important one in this arrangement. Victoria was, which meant if I didn’t accept the life, Victoria no longer belonged to me.
She would be promised to someone else in the family. That thought enraged me to no end. I could feel the steam coming off my body. As if my pain called to her, Victoria appeared.
She went to sit on the lounge chair next to mine, but I reached over, pulling her into my lap. I needed her as close as I could get her. She leaned onto my chest, placing hers against mine.
It was perfect. She rested her head on my shoulder and traced the other shoulder with her fingers. I began to trace her body with one hand, keeping the other planted on her hip.
She was mine. I wouldn’t let anyone else take my place. Victoria was too much for anyone but me. I was sure to keep the family strong just having her by my side, but was that what I wanted? To someday take my father and Venny’s places.
To have a son that would have to do the same. That was the part that was hard to deal with. I wanted her, but at what cost? Did Victoria understand what I had to give up to have her? What she someday had to sacrifice.
She would be giving up one of her sons or one of Toni’s sons, her nephew. It wouldn’t stop with us. This would continue as long as the names carried their strength.
Before meeting Victoria, I was determined to break the cycle for my children, but now I only wanted children with the mother that would doom them for generations. Victoria was all I wanted. I knew someday soon, I would accept what that meant, and all that came with it.
My body tensed with the thought. I could feel Victoria jump in response. She raised her head to look at my face, studying me with puzzled eyes. Questions were swimming in them.
I reached for her face to kiss her. I don’t care who was watching. She complied with my want.
I could feel the concern in her kiss. It made me frustrated. I wanted her kiss to make me forget my thoughts, but it just made me think about the whole thing even more. She pulled away, when I failed to hide the frustration.
“Lorenzo, please tell me what’s wrong. You’ve been lost in your thoughts all day. Please, let me fix what’s hurting you,” she whispered.
I sighed, she had noticed all that. “It’s nothing, Victoria. I’m fine,” I lied.
“Lorenzo, don’t lie to me. I don’t like it,” She narrowed her eyes at me. “You want to fix me, then you have to let me fix you.”
“Sorry,” I said. “Well, that was one of the things I was thinking about. I was trying to figure out how I can make you happy. How to make everything else disappear.”
“Lo, you make me happy. Stop trying to figure out what you already have the answer to,” she said as she touched my face. “Just be you. That’s what I want, you.”
“Okay, fine, then there’s the whole school thing. I know it bothers you that I could be leaving.”
“Yes, I do think about that, but if you really want to leave, I’ll learn to live with it,” she said with sad eyes. “I can be a woman about it. It will only be a year and then I can come to you.”
“You would do that? You would come to me?” I asked. “What about where you wanted to go?”
“I hadn’t decided where I wanted to go. Yes, I would come to you.” There was a fire burning in her eyes. My chest swelled, knowing that look was meant just for me. “I belong wherever you are.”
“See, that’s the problem. I belong where you are. I can’t leave. Only reason I wanted to go away in the first place was because of … well you know,” I explained. “Now, I wouldn’t dare leave. You don’t have to worry about that. I’ll have a school picked by tomorrow and it won’t be far at all.”
“But is that what you really want?”
“Yes.”
“Is that all that’s bothering you?”
“You don’t want me to lie to you, so no, but I’m not going to talk about the rest. It’s nothing we can fix and nothing you should worry about. It’ll be fine.”
“Are you sure? I want to try. Maybe – ”
I kissed her to stop her. “It’s fine. Thank you.”
“Lo?”
I snickered. “Lucie is rubbing off on you. Yes.” I didn’t mind her calling me Lo. It made her sound like she has been in my life forever.
“I guess she is,” she laughed and shrugged. “Your dad calls you that too I noticed. Is it okay if I do?”
“You can call me anything you want.”
“Okay. Lorenzo,” she said with a heavy accent on it. “That makes you happy and makes you mine.”
“I’m yours no matter how you say it, but yes, that does make me happy.”
“Lorenzo, promise me something.”
“Anything.”
“You’ll tell me what’s wrong if I can fix it.”
“Yes, Victoria, I will tell you what’s wrong when you can help.”
“Good.”
She stood up from my lap and pulled the wrap from her waist, tossing it to the other lounge chair. Reaching out she took my hand. I stood up, lacing my fingers in hers.
Victoria pulled me to the pool stairs and began to enter the water. I followed her in, watching her, declaring her as mine in my thoughts. I would make sure it stays that way. As we both stood in the water, I reached for her legs and pulled her onto my waist, as she wrapped her arms around my neck.
“I love you, Lorenzo.”
“I love you too.”
“You’re everything I needed. I’m glad you didn’t stay away from me.”
“Me too.”
“I’ll never let anyone hurt you again. I’ll kill them first,” she said sternly and kissed the fading bruise on my face.
“Baby, don’t worry about me. That’s my promise to make.”
“Fine, you can make it, but just remember it’s mine to keep.”
“What am I going to do
with you? You’re too much like Venny.”
“What does that mean?”
“Nothing,” I said and kissed her frown away.
chapter Nineteen
Moving Too Fast
Lorenzo
After a few hours in the pool we piled into Matt’s truck to take Lucie for ice cream. She was so excited. I could tell she thought she was cool or something being with us.
Maria had come over to visit my mom and brought Victoria and Angie more clothes to wear. It had gotten much cooler out, so it worked out great. We all had fun in the pool, especially us guys. Once we saw how crazy the girls got with their hair and makeup, we made sure they took full dives into the pool.
I regretted throwing Victoria in right after I’d done it. Not only did she pay me back, but I realized her straight hair curl up from the touch of the water. Not that her curly hair wasn’t beautiful, it’s just the straight hair gives her a look I can’t explain. It’s strange how the straight hair gives her a more exotic look.
As we stood in the ice cream shop, I watched Victoria and Angie as they talked to Lucie. Victoria had washed her hair so now her long curls were damp and hanging down her back and in her face. She changed into a pink leather jacket with a fitted white and pink t-shirt.
The white jeans she had on hugged her curves like ink to paper and the pink leather stiletto heeled boots made her look like a movie star. She’s gorgeous.
Angie had on a similar outfit, in black and white, but she looked like a sidekick next to Victoria. Which said a lot because, Angie did look very nice. If I wasn’t in love with her cousin, she may have turned my head for a moment.
Lucie is always adorable. She tried to mimic Victoria with her blue jeans, sneakers and a little pink jacket. I had to laugh to myself as I watched her.
Chris and Matt both lived close to my house, so they had gone home to change as well. I think Martina retrieved her jeans and t-shirt from her car and Matt had given her his varsity jacket.
I learned the two of them were pretty serious. They spent the whole time in the ice cream shop at a table by themselves, laughing and locked to each other. I let my girls order whatever they wanted and paid for it.