My lips curve upward as I slide down, untying her shoes and pulling them off, followed by her socks. She sighs out like it was a relief. Her relief made me smile, pulling off her shorts as I see the lace of her hipster thong all blood red on her tan skin and making me want to bite into her.

Ilaria always wore some shade of red under her clothes and I loved the way it looked on her. Loved the contrast of her skin with the color.

“Dante, lay down.” She mutters out, as if she knew I was losing my mind looking at her. But there was a smile on her face as I shifted, pulling her to sit up despite her pretty whine.

My hands skim underneath her tee shirt, pulling it and throwing it off as her head comes forward, resting on my shoulder as another long yawn escapes from her lips.

So tired as she nuzzles into me.

My fingers come around her, unhooking her bra as she let me pull it off of her.

Shivering softly, Ilaria gives me an amused smirk at me, Ilaria nuzzling against me like a cuddly kitten.

“It’s cold in here, Demon. Not all of us have the hell flames keeping us warm.”

But I was lying her back down as I stand up, tugging off my jeans and tugging off my shirt, getting into bed and pulling Ilaria into my arms once again. I cant stop myself from pressing kisses against her as she made a soft whine of protest.

“Oh fuck.”

She pulls out of my arms sitting up so suddenly she almost knocks me off the bed at her jerky movements, as she swung out of our bed.

“FUCK. FUCK. FUCK!”

“Ilaria?” She was pulling luggage out as she looked at me with this frantic expression that scared me more than I realized. “What’s wrong?

“I forgot to pack. Our flight to Vegas is at 8AM and I haven’t packed a thing.”

She was grabbing bags she had bought and tossing them into her luggage as I frowned trying to remember the plan for Vegas.

I had thought Francesco had told me we were flying out at 3pm. We were supposed to fly with the girls because we needed to keep an eye on them. Especially with everything we still needed to find out about Becca.

Grabbing my phone, I double checked the confirmation of the 3PM flight, looking at Ilaria confused as she rushes around the room. She is currently in the bathroom shoving things into a makeup bag as she moves around like she is afraid of forgetting something.

Shooting a quick text to Francesco to confirm that he had made the plans for our Jack and Jill party and confirming everything that is planned for the time we’re there.

I follow after Ilaria, watching the way she manically moved around our shared space, needing to figure out what is happening. How could I be this confused?

“Do you have an itinerary?”

I was trying to keep calm as she brushes past me, dumping her things in her suitcase as I make my way over, organizing them for her as she picks up her phone. Her thumb scrolling along the screen before I received a text from her with the plans for everything.

She looks around, like she was forgetting something before sighing out and zipping her suitcase, seeming to come down from the high she was on and falling into bed as I just start to process everything I am seeing

“Everyday is themed?” She made a sound of confirmation as she looks at me, a soft blush on her face as if she was embarrassed.

My sweet girl.

“I love getting dressed up so the girls tried to come up with different things that I liked.” She explains and then seems to realize what I am saying to her, “Shit, Francesco got the itinerary to give to you, right? Did you need help packing?”

No, Francesco did not send me an itinerary because he wanted to be murdered.

Ilaria sent me a text with everything she was doing for her themed nights, maybe in hopes that I could pull off a miracle and match her. Which I would because after today keeping her happy was all I wanted to do.

She is reaching for me from where she is naked and looking exhausted in bed. Her eyes were already drooping as she reaches for me as I tuck her in, getting warm lips against mine as she hums out, content.

“I’m glad we’re going together.” She murmurs in a half asleep voice, eyes closing as she lets out another yawn.

And we would be going together, after I packed for all of these themes her friends had planned, ordering things to the hotel we were sharing when I couldn’t find something in my closet.

Sending Francesco another text in warning I was sure that I was going to kill him for not having everything ironed out. He had been tasked with watching Becca and should have known about all of this.

I want this to be perfect.

To make sure that Ilaria not only had the best time for her party but because it was her birthday and I had plans for her day to make her feel special.

Being in an arranged marriage there had been nor proposal so I had planned something so I could give Ilaria that memory.

Even if our relationship hasn’t started off as conventional. I was getting feelings for my fiancée. Faster than I had anticipated. And I wasn’t quite sure how to deal with them.

30ILARIA

Dante had come to bed a couple hours after me. Most likely having to pack with all the themes that he was just learning about.

I had woken up when he crawled into bed, his arm wrapping around my waist as he pulled my back to his chest.

Who knew mafia bosses were such cuddlers?

Kissing my cheek as I pretended to stay asleep as he wrapped himself around me like I was Dante’s teddy bear and he couldn’t fall asleep without a snuggle.

It made me feel bad about planning to leave earlier for the bachelorette party but this was a girls crisis and we needed time without the men to solve it

Dante thought he was slick putting Francesco on Becca and acting like he was trying to protect my friends. He had given each of them a guard but with the way Francesco was valued it was clear that something had leaked back to him.

And since it was Becca that had the attention it made us realize that the Cartel was onto us.

We always figured it would be Becca that was recognized first because of Logan, her boyfriend who had died in the car accident a few years earlier.

Logan who had been the love of her life. Logan who had been in a car accident that was really a retaliation from the Cartel for refusing to get involved deeper, not that he should have been involved at all.

It was because of Logan’s death that we always made sure to hit up card games that the Cartel owned, hitting them where it hurt with their finances and trying to keep a low profile.

But apparently being a card shark and a mafia boss’s wife wasn’t going to be the low profile.

I waited for Dante to fall asleep before slipping out of bed, tapping my phone and seeing it was almost 4AM.

“Please forgive me for this.” I mutter, unplugging his phone that was only on 2%.