Sniping Her Mafia King

Arwen watched as Addy pulled a chair from her vanity and straddled it at the end of the bed. She was sitting in the middle of the bed wearing a t-shirt and a pair of cotton shorts. "What's wrong with the bed you need to sit so far away?" she questioned him curiously.

"We have lots to discuss and I can't be thinking of all the things I want to do in the bed while we discuss these matters." His tone was matter of fact

"You've been gone five days and barely spoke to me in all this time. I presume this is where you tell me you've rethought, your decision to move in and you're ending things?" Arwen ripped the proverbial bandage off with a flourish He blinked in surprise at her question, "what?"

"You came here Monday expecting I would refuse your demands and it would give you the out you needed. When I didn't, you stayed away and didn't talk to me all week because you were setting the tone for when you came back to end things. I'm a big girl, Addy. No need to sugar coat anything."

"Dare I ask how you came to this conclusion?" his brown eyes were focused intently on her

"I had coffee with the girls. Jesse -"

He gave a bark of laughter, "you're taking relationship advice from my cousin? Jessamine Chavez? The woman who never actually dated anyone before shacking up with Torben?"

"She dated!" Arwen defended her friend.

"Um, no she didn't. She hooked up. Sometimes she hooked up with the same guy more than once, but it was just hook-ups."

"That's not true. Hot dog vendor guy."

"Never went anywhere with him other than his bed from which she ran as soon as she was done using him."

"How do you know? Arwen eyed him suspiciously.

"We got wasted one night the week of my grandfather's funeral. She told me and Dylan she didn't know what the hell she was doing with Torben. She admitted she used to use Dylan as an excuse to bail on hook-ups. She would tell the guy she had a brother who was at home with mental health problems, so she had to leave. Dylan was furious."

Arwen was dumbfounded. His smirk told her he wasn't making it up.

"| thought she'd had tons of boyfriends she just kicked to the curb when she was bored."

"Nope. So do me a favor and try not to use her as a reference for our relationship. She's inexperienced at best. I feel bad for Torben."

"Oh."

"Arwen, did you really believe I was looking for an out?"

"Yes." She didn't try to deny it.

"Why Arwen?"

"That right there!" she felt silly pointing it out

"What?"

"Calling me by my name. You rarely use my name,"

"Ah, I see." He nodded reflectively.

"What do you see?" she didn't like feeling he was laughing at her yet somehow it felt very much he was ready to give into laughter at her expense.

"When you were in the warehouse and Deidre was on the floor and I was tied to a chair, how did you maintain focus?"

"Compartmentalize," she shrugged. "Part of training. You put emotions away unless they're useful."

"It never occurred to you I may need to do the same thing on occasion?"

"Well yes but we were home."

He pointed a finger, "no. You were home. I still very much needed to go do my job as head of la Famiglia. I needed to round up my guys. I needed to deal with family matters. I needed to transport a fallen man and his parents back home. To do the things I want to do I must keep my focus. Allowing myself to relax and just be with you and Deidre, disrupts the flow of my energy. My energy needs to be attuned to the role I need to play."

She looked away from him, her voice almost a whisper, "you spent more time talking to Dee this week than with me. I felt like an afterthought."

"Arwen, you are never an afterthought. You are the first thought. I struggle more in putting you aside than I do anyone else. I can talk to Deidre and know she has you and whoever else I have assigned to her to keep her safe. You," he scratched the side of his temple, "you tend to be harder for me to put away. It's nearly impossible."

"It is?"

"Why do you disbelieve my words so easily but when Jesse says I'm trying to give you an out you believe her. I believe our relationship is far more intimate than the one you have with her."

She balled her fists on the bed and sighed, "I don't know. I guess I'm scared all I'm feeling is one-sided and when push comes to shove, I'm the one who will be hurt."

"But why must push come to shove? Why must you be so laser focused on the ending."

"I'm not trying to be," she mumbled.

"Arwen, I didn't call you and talk for hours this week because it was difficult for me to stay away. Each time I called I wanted to board the jet and come back. I wanted to be here. I wanted to be here helping you with Deidre while she goes through the heartache of losing Miley. I wanted to be with you at her funeral. I wanted to be with you when you wanted to try to cheer her up and make her forget her pain just for a while. Yet, I was in Sicily, where I was finishing the investigation and the takeover. I buried the boy. I relocated his family back home. However, each time I called the desire and the need to say screw it and walk from all I have worked so hard to accomplish was indescribable. I only wanted to come home, to you."

"You're saying you kept it because talking to me was too hard on your ability to stay focused on your job."

"Yes." At her expression of disbelief, he changed topic noting she wasn't ready yet for what he needed to say. "Why tranquilize me?"

"Orders."

"No s**t. Why though? End goal?"

She looked away sheepishly. "It was out of an abundance of caution."

"Caution? Did you think I was a risk?"

"Hey, I didn't give the order. Artemis did. I just do as I'm told. Why didn't you ask her?"

"Because I'm asking you." He didn't look away from her stony countenance.

"We've never had a male asset before, but we all know what you're like. You act tough and macho even when you're hurting. We knew you would never agree to a physical. You took several punches to the head and face. We knew your nose was broke. You took a block of wood to the neck which means there could have been a risk of a c-spine injury. These were all injuries sustained during an attempt to get Deidre. She's one of ours. We knocked you out so we could perform your physical exam without protest." "I feel violated."

"You probably should. I understand Artemis monitored your examination herself." She grinned suddenly, "though she insists everything was done with clinical protocols. I wasn't there so I can't vouch for her."

"Did you microchip me?"

She laughed, "we didn't tag you like a dog."

"You sure? I know Jesse had a tracking device."

"Which she implanted herself. My watch has tracking if I activate it, but it also contains a small injection pen I can use to put a beacon into my bloodstream that dissipates after a short period. None of us are permanently chipped."

"Good to know," he said seriously

It was her turn to laugh now. "It's too funny."

"All I know is you knocked me out and I woke up in a change of clothes, my nose reset, and on a good dose of painkillers. Considering I know how crazy you all get and the money backing you, I'm not taking anything for granted." He looked up suddenly, "speaking of financial backing, what's with you and a Maserati?"

"The funeral was hard. Hard isn't even close to the right word for it. Deidre also found out about Warrick. She was pretty down. Since she'd had debrief, I let her in on my armory location. Her dad loved cars, so she freaked when she saw them. It was a great distraction for her."

"You truly have so many cars?"

"Not that I get to drive them much but yes."

"How? Why?"

She gave a sassy laugh, "Bellona has a bunch of chop shops We steal from the richer of the jerks we deal with, like Robin Hood. Our IT team recreates everything down to the VIN and voila we have new cars." She shifted on the bed, so she was sitting cross legged. "I took a big rig once. We set up a woman with her own company using the truck and now she has an entire fleet."

"Like Robin Hood?"

"We take from the rich and perverse and give to the less fortunate. Sometimes we keep a cut. We can't be good all the time."

"I want to see your armory." At the reluctant expression which crossed her face he waved at her. "I'll show you mine if you show me yours."

"What do you have?"

"It's a surprise. You need to come to Tuscany with me."

"You want me to go to Tuscany?" a memory of Jesse telling her he had said this Fabiana filtered through.

"Very much so."

She looked away from him then unsure what she was supposed to say to him. She studied her fingernails for several minutes during which she could feel the heat of his gaze on her. She knew he was waiting for her to say something, anything but she didn't know what to say. It felt to her the universe had shifted somehow and she was helpless to stop the changes coming. She considered she didn't want to stop them.

"What are you thinking, Arwen?"

"Would you believe me if I said nothing?"

"You overthink grocery lists so I'm going to say no."

She shot him a pouty glare.

"Would you like to know what I'm thinking instead? It might help clear your clouded mind."

She heard the softness in his tone and saw the way his face was relaxed and gently smiling in her direction. He was reading her nerves so well it was uncanny. Anyone would think he had known her for years.

"I want to take you to my mother's birthplace. I feel she and my grandparents would have loved you. I want you to see where I ran through the vineyards as a child. The only place I was allowed to be a boy. Then I would like to take you to my house in Sicily. Jesse's mother often says the walls weep blood from the death they have witnessed but I want you to help me breathe life and love into the old house. I want you to help me turn it back into the home my grandparents had made it before their children destroyed it with their greed, abuse, and hate."

"I would like that," she finally spoke in a quiet voice.

"Not going to ask why?"

"Why?" she humored him.

"My mother Arwen was a deeply religious woman. She was devoted to God and even though she was dealt what most would agree was a brutal life she felt strongly she lived her life according to His will." He folded his arms over the back of the chair he was straddling. "She always said she had a vision for me once while in church. Could it have been too much vino from the goblet? Perhaps. She claimed I would meet my other half, the one God created just for me. Now I always thought it was bullshit." She couldn't look away from him with his dark eyes staring at her daring her to believe the words he was telling.

"I thought it was bullshit until a gorgeous sassy blonde walked into fight club and knocked me on my a*s."

Her heart was racing so fast she was sure he could see her pulse thrumming at her neckline.

"I told Santino my mother had sent me an angel with wings as dark and soiled as mine."

"Addy," his name was a broken cry in the quiet surrounding them, but he continued as if she hadn't spoken.

"I knew from the moment I caught you checking me out you were meant for me. Mine. Mine to care for. Mine to protect. Mine to love. The problem I ran into was how damn stubborn you are." His chuckle was deep and throaty as if recalling a funny joke. "The best thing to ever happen to me was for you to get sick. Unlike my saintly mother I rarely pray but I admit I said a few prayers of gratitude that day."

"You said you were only here for Dee," she reminded him with a twist of her lips.

"I was not looking a gift horse in the mouth. I am not convinced we wouldn't still be verbally sparring if you hadn't gotten so ill."

She couldn't help but respond to his smile.

"I knew Arwen from the first moment you shot your mouth off it would be me and you." He motioned to his suitcase at the entrance to the closet. "I'm not leaving. I'm not looking for an out. I'm not trying to make you be the bad guy. I know you love me." When her eyes flicked away from his he called her name softly, "Arwen, do you not think I recognize the way you look at me? Do you think I cannot see the way you feel?"

Using the back of her hand she wiped a single tear off her cheek, "so my secrets out?"

"It was a poorly kept secret," he mocked her. He stood up from the chair and walked around the bed until he was standing right next to her before sitting down beside her. He put his hands upon her shoulders to turn her to face him. "Arwen. I'm not a good man. I'm not a patient man. I'm abrupt and blunt and I know I have a thing about respect which makes us butt heads. I am terrible with words and am more of a man of action. But, mi amore, I love you. I love you so much you plague my thoughts. It makes my skin itch when we're apart too long. Enrique is pissed because I smoked an entire pack of cigarettes just from not being near you. You calm me better than nicotine. You soothe me better than s*x. The way you smile at me with those dimples, amore, those dimples do me in every time. I hope when we have bambinos, they have your dimples."

"Wait, bambinos mean kids."

"Yes. I want a farm full."

"Addy, I'm an assassin."

"And I'm the mafia king. We can make anything work. I will change nappies and do bottles while you're killing perverts and you will take over when I'm sorting through business." He was cupping her cheek his thumb rubbing her aforementioned dimple. "Tell me you haven't fantasized about how cute our babies would be."

She gave a nervous laugh, "Addy, we haven't even lived together one day. You may find you hate me after a month."

"But my bag is right there. Also, we need to reconfigure your closet. I have far more clothes than you."

She pursed her lips, "Jesse called it. She said you'd take over my closet if you stayed."

"I'm staying." His face was inches from hers, "unless you tell me right now you don't want this. Tell me you're not feeling all the same things and wanting the same things. Tell me it's all one-sided and I will take my bag and go."

She made a face of mockery, "really? You'd just go?"

"No. I'd come back. I know you love me. I'm the King. I'm irresistible."

"You're an egomaniac." She corrected and then gave a yelp when he tackled her on the bed and tickled her sides. "Okay! Stop. I love you too. I want brown haired babies with blue eyes and blonde-haired babies with brown eyes." He was stock still hovering over her, "but not for a couple of years and not without a ring on it. I don't need my daddy rising from the grave to haunt my dreams."

He grabbed her left hand and bit her knuckle, "I will put a ring on it so big it will have its own zip code."

"How about tasteful and elegant and not gaudy."

"How about my grandmother's ring?" he reached into his jeans pocket and pulled out a perfect sapphire surrounded by diamonds."

"Addy," Arwen was certain her heart was no longer beating. Air seemed trapped and she couldn't breathe as he slipped the ring on her shaking finger. "Fits perfect like I knew it would."

"I love you Addy," Arwen whispered as she looked backs and forth from his eyes to the ring.

"And I love you too mi amore," he kissed her sweetly on the lips.

She looked at the ring and grinned, "did you do this to cover up how your lawyer called me your fiancée in document s you had submitted against the FBI?"

"How did you know about that?" he rolled into the bed pulling her atop him.

"I had a legal team serving a cease and desist. O'Malley tried to put a tracker on my car."

"Son of a b***h!" Addy swore

"Don't worry. I started legal proceedings, but he was given two weeks leave. He's going to visit his family and will meet an unfortunate end during his trip."

"Then, mi amore, there is only one thing left to do."

Arwen noted the steely glint in his eye. "And what is that?"

"We need to celebrate our engagement." He hopped off the bed and moved to the closet. "I believe Deidre has a date with a hockey player so she will be otherwise engaged. I brought something for you back from Sicily."

Arwen was kneeling at attention on the bed at his words. "What is it?" she listened attentively to the way he was rifling through another bag in the closet and giggled at his excited yelp when he found it. Whatever it was something he'd been wanting to use on her for some time.

He came out of the closet carrying an ice blue silk nightgown and a small bag. "Get into this."

"What is in the bag?" she was already tearing her t-shirt off. The way silk moved against her tender flesh had been in her mind since their very first night. She watched curiously as he dumped the contents on the bed.

"Is that a coffee cup warmer?" she was absolutely confused by the electric gadget she only recognized because Norah kept one on the desk at work.

"Yes. I figured out in my office this week it keeps honey at the perfect temperature for drizzling."

"Honey?"

"Yes, from the bees on the vineyard. Once I have your skin showing all of my attention," he held up the wooden paddle from her room, "I'm going to drizzle hot honey all over your body."

"This sounds far more sensual than our usual activities. I'm not complaining but I expected something a bit more," she kicked her shorts clear of the bed after shimmying into the dress. It felt like heaven on her skin, "violent."

He held up something he pulled off the bed, "I can't tell you everything up front now, can I? Well, I mean I'll ask for consent before we do anything, but I left something on the other room. I don't want you to see it all. This is for round one." Arwen decided he was the perfect man.