Chapter Fifty

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Unknown POV

"I'm in the house, boss, but he's here. What do you want me to do?

"Damn it. I want her alone. She has to be alone."

"Should I stay or come back and regroup?"

"Meet me at the warehouse. We need a new strategy. We're going to need to up our game if we want Charlotte."

"See you soon, boss."

Luca

"You know, I'm starting to wonder if our mothers are ever going to bring Layla back. I miss her." Charlotte smiled, digging through the plate of seafood linguini in front of her like she was looking for something specific. She looked absolutely stunning in the dim light of this restaurant, and I wasn't just saying that because I was in deep shit from last night.

The strip club was a terrible idea, but coming home to my wife smelling like other women and booze was an even worse idea. To her credit, Charlotte was taking the whole thing miraculously well. She didn't even seem that mad, which only made me feel more guilty. Nothing even happened, but I felt the need to make it up to her, so that's what I spent the entire day doing.

"She's only been gone twenty-four hours, baby. How are you going to handle two weeks away for our honeymoon?" I chuckled, admiring the love she had for our daughter. If possible, it made me love her even more.

Charlotte's eyes widened. "Honeymoon? I thought this was the honeymoon."

I let out a sharp laugh. "Call my crazy, but I don't want our family around when we go on our honeymoon. I just want you, a beach, and enough privacy that I can fuck you silly every night and no one will hear you scream."

"You know, I've never met anyone who could take something romantic and make it sound so dirty." She teased, pressing her lips to her wineglass. It was already stained with the deep red lipstick she wore.

"We all have our special talents." I smirked menacingly and shrugged.

"More wine, sir?" Our server appeared virtually out of nowhere and Charlotte blushed. I knew she was worried he had heard our conversation, but I couldn't care less. Better if he did, then he would know to keep his wandering eyes to himself. I thought Charlotte got a lot of looks when we were home in New York, but the attention she was getting here in Italy was outrageous. It was like they had never seen a woman before, and I felt even more of a need to let everyone know she was mine.

"No thanks. I'm sure my wife will, though. Why don't you leave it here and put your eyes back into your head?"

The server set the bottle down and scurried away, mortified.

Charlotte rolled her eyes. "You don't have to take things so personally."

"When he's eyeing my woman like that, it's definitely personal." I retorted. She was oblivious to the way people looked at her, watched her in admiration. She had no clue how beautiful she really was.

"Your woman?" Charlotte cringed, taking the bottle and refilling her glass. "What are you, a caveman?"

"I can be, if you're into that kind of thing." I winked at her.

She shook her head, smirking."I see you're not going as heavy as you did last night." She gestured to my still full wine glass. I hadn't had hardly a sip since we sat down.

"I think I drank enough last night to last me a few months." I chuckled sheepishly, still embarrassed that I let things get as out of hand as they did.

"That's probably a good idea." She smiled.

"You guys got home pretty late yourselves. What did you do?" I asked, turning the tables on her.

She crossed one leg over the other and pursed her lips in the way she always did when she was hiding something. "Just went to the vineyard for a while and then a street fair."

"Anything interesting happen?" I pressed, narrowing my eyes playfully at her.

She squirmed under my gaze. "Not really."

"You're hiding something from me. I can tell."

Her eyes widened, and she grabbed her glass again, trying to hide her smile behind it. "I don't know what you're talking about."

"Oh, you don't, huh?" I grinned, reaching underneath the table and grazing her knee with my fingers. Charlotte was pretty predictable. I knew I could get her to sing like a canary with just a little prying.

She jerked her knee away from me. "Luca, don't you dare."

I could tell by the crimson color in her cheeks I was already having the desired effect on her. "Tell me."

"I can't. It's nothing bad, I promise. It's just not my secret to tell."

Ignoring her words, I trailed my fingers up her thigh, beneath the hem of her dress.

"Luca..." Fuck, it drove me while when she moaned my name that way.

"What is it, Charlotte?" She was close to cracking, and I wasn't going to let her off the hook.

She was silent, a pleading expression in her eyes. I continued up her thigh until I reached the band of her panties. "You know how this is going to end, baby. You might as well just tell me."

She sighed in frustration, still not saying anything.

"Suit yourself." I smirked, rubbing her clit through the thin fabric of her panties.

"Lily is pregnant!" She blurted out, squirming away from me and covering her face with her hands. "Damn it, Luca."

I arched an eyebrow at her. Lily and Gabe were pregnant? That was awesome. After what they had been through a few years ago, they deserved to be happy. "Thats great news!"

"Don't you dare say a word to anyone. I wasn't supposed to tell you." She glared. "You don't fight fair, you know. I'll never be able to keep anything from you."

"Just the way I like it." I grinned, leaning back in my chair. "So a baby, huh? That get you thinking at all?"

"Thinking about what? A baby?" Her mouth curved into a smile. "I don't know. Maybe, what do you think?"

I shrugged nonchalantly. Inside I was screaming that, of course, I wanted another baby. I wanted five more babies. I wanted to hold Charlotte's hair back when she had morning sickness and run out in the middle of the night to get her pickles and M&M's because she was craving it. I wanted to watch as she grew with my child in her stomach, listen to her complain about nothing fitting and then telling her she had never looked more beautiful. I wanted to search through hundreds of names together, crossing them off one by one until we found one we both liked. I wanted to decorate a nursery and baby proof everything and wait on pins and needles for the call, to be holding her hand while she squeezed it, feeding her ice chips and wiping the sweat off of her forehead. I wanted to hold a son in my arms and then lay him on his mother's chest, to see Layla as a big sister. Fuck, I even wanted to let Charlotte rest and get up with him when he was crying in the middle of the night. I wanted it all.

"I'm sure Layla would like that. Then she might stop treating Ralph like her personal baby doll." She joked, softly tapping my shin with her high heel.

"We could sure have fun trying." I winked again, fighting every urge in my body to drag her out of her and make love to her in the back seat of my car.

She smiled and stared off into the distance, and I could tell her mind was wondering.

"What's on your mind, baby?" I asked.

She smiled softly. "I was just thinking about when I was younger, I just to stay up late at night and plan out what my life was going to be like." She let out a sharp laugh. "Boy, was I wrong."

"Did you always want to live in New York?"

She nodded. "I had this idea in my mind of a house on the shore. White with big, blue wooden shutters. A wrap-around porch with a swing, and a great big backyard for the kids to play in. And trees. Great big shade trees that I could read under, or have a picnic." She glanced at me. "I told you it was stupid."

"I don't think it's stupid at all." I assured her. "How many kids?"

"Two?" She shrugged. "Maybe three?"

"You know, when I was young, marriage wasn't even on my radar, let alone kids."

"What changed?" She asked.

"I met you."

She rolled her eyes. "Sometimes you're too cheesy for your own good."

I smirked, throwing my napkin on the table. "Are you ready to get home? I don't know how much longer I can stand to look at you in that dress without ripping it off."

"You might have to wait a little longer. I have a surprise for you." She said, standing up and grabbing her clutch.

I followed suit, and we walked out to the car. "What might that be?"

"If I told you, it wouldn't be a surprise." She winked. I felt her hand slip into the front pocket of my jeans and pull the car keys out. "I'm driving."

"Like hell you are." I snorted. I wasn't about to let her drive. I had about as much confidence in her driving skills as I did in her gun skills.

She arched an eyebrow, tapping her chin with her finger. "Let's see, which one of us got the last speeding ticket?"

My eyes widened. How the fuck did she find out about that? It had to be Layla throwing me under the bus. "Layla told you?"

"Of course, she told me. She tells me everything." She giggled, sliding into the driver's seat. It hurt my heart a little to give up control. Driving in Italy was nothing like driving in New York. She was going to get eaten alive.

I chuckled, giving in and climbing in to the passenger's side. "I'll never be able to keep anything from you with that little weasel running around."

"Just the way I like it." She winked, mimicking what I had said earlier. All of a sudden, the engine roared up as she pressed the gas, sending gravel flying up in the parking lot behind us. I fastened my seatbelt as fast as I possibly could. God help us all.

Charlotte

As Luca and I walked through town, I was so excited I was jittery. I had been planning this surprise for the last few days, ever since Luca told me that he and his father used to watch soccer together. I knew being in Italy brought a whole slew of emotions, and not all of them were good. Luca hardly ever brought up his father, and when he did, it wasn't necessarily good. Soccer seemed like the one silver lining in their relationship, and I wanted to help Luca remember that while we were here.

Hate was a tough thing to hold on to, I knew from experience, and that was how Luca felt about his dad. I remembered the fury in his eyes when I compared them, but I hoped if I could remind him of their good times together, it would help. That somehow Luca wouldn't feel as much pressure to be better than him. That he would realize he wasn't all bad. I had to come to terms with that with my own dad, and I felt so relieved after I did. Maybe Luca could too.

After our conversation, I had looked up tickets and found the game just a few nights later. I just knew Luca was going to be ecstatic. We didn't get to do things like this in New York and in a few short days, our life was going to get busy again. I wanted to enjoy it while we could.

"Where are you taking me?" Luca groaned, trudging up the steps. We had been walking for a while and I could tell he was losing his patience.

"Just right this way. I promise you're going to love it." I smiled, reaching up and kissing his cheek.

When we got up to the top of the steps, we were right in front of the stadium. I turned around to face Luca and held up a pair of tickets. "Surprise!" I smiled.

Luca's eyes widened as he processed where we were. I waited for him to break into a smile or to hug me to how some kind of sign he was happy about this, but nothing happened. Instead, his face hardened.

"Charlotte, what is this?" His tone was flat.

"I got us tickets to the game. I know you said it was something you liked to do with your dad and I..." He cut me off sharply.

"We need to go home." He grabbed my hand and started back down the stairs without any kind of explanation.

"Luca, wait. What are you talking about? We have tickets for the game tonight. Don't you want to go in?" I frowned, confused. I had no idea why he was reacting this way.

"No. I don't," He snapped, his stare icy. "I hate soccer. All I want is to go back to the villa."

I jerked my wrist out of his grasp and stopped walking. "What is going on? The other night you said you and..."

"I know what I said, but I lied. The one and only soccer game I have ever been to ended with my drunk father being dragged out in handcuffs for pulling a gun on someone." His tone was icy and I hardly recognized the look in his eye. It reminded me of months ago when he was so angry and harsh to me.

I felt all the air leave my lungs. No wonder he was reacting this way. I had no idea, and I felt like a complete idiot. I never would have brought him here if I knew. I thought I was doing something good for him. "Then why did you tell me that?" My voice was almost a whisper.

"Because you wouldn't get off my fucking back and I knew if I didn't tell you something, you'd keep at it all night." He hissed, snatching the keys out of my hand and stalking away from me.

My feet felt like they were cemented into the ground. I knew I should follow him, but I just felt sick. I knew his relationship with his dad wasn't good, but that was why I wanted to remind him of this bright spot. I had no idea it was the exact opposite. No matter how hard I tried, Luca wouldn't open up to me about him. All of my dirty laundry was out in the open and we dealt with it together. That was all I wanted for him too.

Somehow, I had managed to make it even worse.


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