Sold to Mr. Giordano

Arielle

Antonio’s penthouse is bigger than my families. Ours is decorated in dark tones and has dark brown wooden floors, but this penthouse feels too clean and pure with white walls, tan wood flooring, and white furniture accented with light blue pillows. It feels too bright of a place owned by too dark of a man. The appliances in the kitchen are chrome and not a speck of dust to be seen. Either he’s a clean-freak or his housekeeper comes every day to make things spotless. I wonder what the master bedroom and bathroom looks like. If the guest room looks clean and white with porcelain fixtures, I can’t imagine how grand his is.

I wake up this morning to find myself alone, not even a note to let me know what time Antonio would be coming home.

Carmelo is already awake and enjoying a bowl of cereal. Instead of joining him downstairs, I decide to explore the upstairs in search for Antonio’s room.

His room is found at the end of the hallway and is the only one with wooden double doors. I open the doors and immediately get a whiff of his intoxicating cologne, I inhale deeply and sigh. I step down three steps and enter his spacious room, there’s an open area off to the side with cushioned chairs surrounding the stone fireplace. On the other side is a glass door that leads out to a balcony and overlooks the city. An even more gorgeous view than the one in my family’s penthouse. Straight ahead from the door is the king sized bed, the headboard is tall and has a white canopy to enclose the bed. It’s tall, so tall I’d need a step-stool to get in. The plush comforter is a plain white color with blue silk sheets underneath. His bed has so many pillows and when I push a hand on one of them, I realize they’re thick and cloudlike. I press my nose to his pillow and smell Old Spice, I close my eyes and bring the pillow closer to my body finding a type of comfort in the scent.

I snoop at his bedside table opening the single drawer. Inside I see a box of Trojan condoms and lube, the box is open and half of the lube has been used. Once again, I find myself jealous of who he has used the stuff on. I imagine her writhing in pleasure on his comfortable, heavenly bed.

Holy moly, I couldn’t be reading this right-XL condoms?

Hung like a horse.

The words echo in my head and I try to snap myself out of my fantasizing about just how extra-large is XL? I’ve never even seen a man’s nether regions, my father had certain websites blocked and at an all-girls catholic school the nuns didn’t teach us Sex Ed or any type of male anatomy.

“What are you doing?” A deep voice calls from behind me. “Snooping?”

I turn around to see Rocco leaning against the threshold with his arms crossed over his chest.

“What are you doing here?” I shove the condoms and lube back in his drawer and slam it shut.

“I was looking for you and I saw my brother’s door open. Here you are trying to hide the fact that you just had a box of condoms and lube in your hand.”

My entire face turns crimson with embarrassment.

Rocco lets out a hearty laugh. “What did you expect to find in here, little one?”

“I-I don’t know. I just wanted to see what my soon to be room was going to look like.”

“And does it please you?”

“It’s beautiful, it’s so white and clean.”

“He let our mother decorate for him. She always loved light colors and blue is Antonio’s favorite color,” he walks down the steps and strides closer to me. “You know, Tony never really liked the way she designed it, he always thought it looked too clean and pure for him, but when mother died… he couldn’t bring himself to change anything about the place.”

“He must’ve really loved your mother.”

Rocco shrugged. “She was our mother.”

It’s almost as if he can’t admit that either of them loved their own mother.

“Love is weakness, Arielle. You start admitting you care or love things and they will be killed. You never know who is listening,” his voice trails.

“I know, I’ve heard it many times. You must forget that just like you, I am also a child of a Capo.”

“Let’s get out of here before Antonio gets back.”

“Why would he come home so early, I thought he’d be gone all day?”

“The day was cut short. He wants to take you out to dinner. He asked me to stop by to get you ready.”

“I don’t need help getting ready.”

Rocco puts his hand on the small of my back and leads me out of the room. “Arabella and I will be joining. We would all like to get to know you better.”

“Why?”

“Because you’re family. Now stop trying to push us away.”

A part of me wishes I was marrying Rocco, he’s much more easy-going than Antonio. Antonio is all business with dry straight to the point conversations. He leads me straight to my room and my nerves get the best of me. My hands shake and goosebumps begin to rise on my skin. Being alone with him feels… taboo. I’ve never been alone with another male who wasn’t my father or one of my brothers. Sure, I’ve been alone with Antonio briefly, but he’s my fiancé-this is his brother.

“This one,” Rocco pulled out a blue dress that Arabella had picked out when we went shopping. It was a very revealing cocktail dress. “This is his favorite color, he’ll love it.”

“What are you going to do next, my hair and makeup?” I snort snatching the dress away from him.

“No,” he growls. “I’m a man, I know a sexy dress when I see it, but when it comes to makeup, I don’t know shit.”

“And hair?”

“Just leave it long, it looks better that way,” he waves his hand dismissively.

Ignoring Rocco’s request, I put my wavy blonde hair back into a ponytail to show off gold hoop earrings. I decide that Rocco was right about dress, the blue cocktail dress matches the color of my eyes. It’s low neckline showed enough cleavage to make any man drool, not that I needed Antonio to see anymore of me after he had already peaked in my room and saw more of my chest than he should’ve. I wear brown strappy heels which gave my outfit a little more of a casual look. The shoes provide me with at least three more inches. My legs are skinny, but even in heels they still look stubby. I wish I could be one of those five-foot-nine-inch models who when they wear heels their legs go up for days.

Applying mascara and light pink lipstick was the topping to my look. I’m startled when I see Rocco standing directly outside my door. He’s already ready wearing a burgundy suit which definitely wasn’t business casual, but with his near black hair, long enough so that it curls at his ears, makes him look irresistible in that color.

“Good choice,” he looks me over impressed.

“I’m just wearing what you told me,” I shrug nonchalantly.

“No. The hair. It makes your neck look delicious.”

I gulp and blush.

“My brother is waiting,” he checks the watch on his right hand.

“He’s already there?”

“Yes. He went straight to the restaurant after work. No use in coming home only to go back out.”