Alessio

"You're being irrational."

"I am not!" She protested raising her voice, when I turned back around to face her with a frown I noted her cheeks were slightly tinged pink and her arms crossed over her chest.

Great.

Rather than answer her I rubbed the towel back and forth through my hair and turned back to the mirror. I had showered and Katherine, apparently, had stewed.

"You called me Kate." She pouted and at this I stopped. I caught her eye in the mirror and raised an eyebrow. I did no such thing. "When you introduced us. You said Kate, Aria, Aria, Kate. You called me Kate Alessio."

"You are really going to lose your marbles over my introducing you by the name you prefer to go by?" I replied dully and she appeared to deflate a little.

"You always call me Katherine. And you didn't introduce me as your fiancé either. Just Kate. Like gum under your shoe Kate."

"You're hungry. You shouldn't have skipped lunch."

"If you tell me I get irrational when I'm hungry I will hit you over the head with a lamp." She warned sounding completely serious.

"I have faster reflexes than you, it's not likely you would succeed."

"Then I'll smother you in your sleep!"

"All I'm saying is you might be a little less disagreeable had you had something to eat. I can make a trip down to the kitchen and get you-"

"All I'm saying is that if someone had jumped me like that you would have curb stomped them."

"What a barbaric accusation."

"Fine, then you would have shot them in the face or something."

True. "I like to believe I have a little more self-restraint than that Katherine, really now."

"I should have broken the bitches legs...see her wrap them around anything after that..." She grumbled to herself her eyes turning towards the ground.

I tried to pull her back to me, speaking her name only, something that usually bought me her attention at the very least but she seemed uninterested.

"Been awhile since I cooked with Gia." She mimicked in a poor Ari impression. "Like I can't cook or something!"

"You can't cook." I reminded to her and she looked up abruptly. Her expression told me she had probably done something undeniably stupid.

"I can cook." She stared at me for a moment and then repeated herself more passionately. "I can cook!"

"What did you do?"

"Well, I'm making dinner tonight."

"You can't cook."

"I jumped the gun a little! I didn't want her to cook so...I volunteered."

"Katherine, you can't cook." I said slightly more firm as she didn't seem to be grasping this. After a few moments I shook my head. "We'll order in, it'll be fine, I'll take care of it."

"No. I'm making dinner." She insisted. "I'm not incapable Alessio. Why is it that Ari is allowed to make dinner with your mother but you can't trust me to make dinner myself?"

We would definitely be ordering in tonight, but I let the subject hang for now. "Stop worrying about her."

"Worried? Oh what's there to worry about? I mean she's just gorgeous and bubbly and did you see her pores? Oh, of course you did she was literally on top of you, so small!"

"Let's go find your uncle, we're already late." I suggested but she seemed too far gone.

"What would have happened if I wasn't there? She would have just stayed there on top of you all day?"

"Yes, because that's exactly what I wanted, someone to hand onto my chest while I try to go about my day to day tasks."

"Next time I'll grab her by her beautiful shiny hair and tear her off...God I bet it's so soft."

"Attractive as you get when you turn into a common day thug, Samuel is waiting for us."

She didn't look up.

"Katherine."

Still nothing.

"You do trust me?"

Finally she looked up and I could tell undoubtedly that she did. Katherine had an immeasurable amount of misplaced trust in me from some years ago and no matter what I had put her through, or her me, it wouldn't falter. "Well, you did have my father shot once." She mumbled.

I pulled on a dress shirt and began buttoning it. "That was my men, not me, and he was raiding my casino."

"And Nash."

"Well that was a complete joy and I'd have no qualms with doing so again."

She didn't look amused. "There was also the time in the club you were going to cheat on me."

"But did not." I reminded her and began tucking the shirt into my slacks. "She's no one Katherine. Certainly not a threat to you...she's family."

She didn't look the least bit relaxed.

"Go. See your uncle. I've a surprise for you once there." She didn't move. I put my hands on her cheeks and brought her forward, kissing her lightly she relaxed under my touch. "Go. Ask your uncle. I will be down when I'm finished dressing."

"Okay." She muttered before kissing me again.

I watched her walk away before picking up my watching, noting the time and wiping it off carefully before putting it on. I made slow work of straightening my tie and smoothing down my hair. Longer than necessary, but timing was everything. After an adequate number of minutes I made a call. "Send her in." I instructed without waiting for hello or confirmation on the other end of the line I hung up.

I sat down and casually polished my shoes. Timing.

When I was finished, I put on the suit jacket and made my way down. The three of them were as expected. Talking over each other, crying, hugging. I leaned against the door way and watched Katherine's uncle cup his daughters face in complete and utter awe.

Katherine noticed me and came over to me breathlessly. "How did you-"

"Let's just say Paulo owed me a favor or two for the help provided in his legal affairs."

Paulo had wisely been absent for the little rat's planned attack had still had himself a humongous mess to clean up. His men retained their silence, those that waivered even slightly were taken care of. And my men, every single one unscathed, had provided him with rock hard alibies and protection in the coming days as his forces were paper thin while the mess was sorted out. By a favor or two, I essentially meant he owed me everything I could ask of.

Even tracking down Katherine's drug addicted run away cousin she hadn't seen in eons. Finding her had taken more time than I would have liked, getting her sober had taken even longer, but convincing her that her father, Katherine's uncle, would have given his right nut to see her again had surprisingly been the hardest part.

One would have thought being plucked off the streets and saved from an abusive pimp she would have been thrilled when offered sanctuary with the family she'd left. These women were alas, impossible to understand and she resisted.

Her sobriety was not something presented to her as an option, but coming here was a different story. I couldn't very well bring her here against her will, have her present some sort of scene, and break my Katherine's heart. No, this she had to want to do lest she only serve to open up long since scarred wounds.

"Alessio I-" Katherine stammered and turned back to look at her uncle and his daughter, reunited, he had his hands on her cheeks and while crying kept repeating my girl, my girl, oh my God my girl. She turned back to me. "I don't - I can't - I don't even know how to-" I waited patiently, allowing her to gather herself. Timing. She shook her head. "We didn't even know she was alive." She tried explaining through tears and shallow breaths.

Well that would be why I didn't tell her I was looking for her, should I get her hopes up only to find a corpse. "Go. See your cousin." I said calmly putting my hand to her cheek and wiping away tears only to have it recoated immediately.

"I love you." She breathed.

"And I you." I said and kissed her lightly.

"I'm sorry, about over reacting early I...I'm speechless." She turned and we watched her uncle silently for a few moments. They were both a mess, both crying, both apologizing so much they probably didn't even remember what they were apologizing for anymore. "We should let them have some time alone." She finally muttered. "He hasn't seen her in years...he has to...to tell her about Nicolo...they should have their privacy."

I squeezed her shoulder. "Fair enough." We backed out of the room. "Perhaps we could head down to the florist."

She sniffled. "Can we just go back to the bedroom? I need to clean myself up now before we can go anywhere."

I was expecting that. "Of course."

We made our way back to the bedroom, Katherine occasionally wiping snot off on her sleeve or wiping away at her eyes. I opened the door for her and shut it behind me.

She jumped me, much like Ari had hours before, legs around my waist and her mouth was on mine.

This, I wasn't expecting so much.

Without breaking the kiss she was pushing my suit jacket off my shoulders. I brought her to the bed, not really caring to question her antics and forced her off of me so that I could undo my tie and buttons before she popped the bloody things off.

She sat up to pull her dress off hastily and undo my belt as I did this and before I could say otherwise was pulling me back down on her.

There are certain things a man does not need instructions to, even when taken by surprise, finding my way between Katherine's legs was almost as natural, and as necessary, to me as breathing.

I pulled her to the edge of the bed and she mewed I love you when I entered her, her legs wrapped around my waist, the heels of her feet pressing into my back. From this position I could watch her breasts bounce with each trust, could watch her head arching as far back into the bed as possible through bliss, and watch her open her eyes to meet my own and chew her lip when I brought a hand to her breast and teased the nípple.

She was like a broken record, grunting out that she loved me as though she couldn't physically stop. When I moved my hand to her clìt her words seemed to fail her and just air came out.

Her legs unraveled and when I knew she was just on the edge of climax I stopped moving circles over her bud and put her legs over my shoulders. Unable to reach my back, she clawed at my arms as she went over the edge and I made sure to follow soon after.

"I'm sorry." She managed through pants when I moved her legs down. "For being so crazy. I should trust you."

"That's just the sex talking." I assured her before kissing her and helping her to sit up.

"Probably. But Alessio, my cousin...I can't express to you, through a million sexual encounters and orgasms, what this has meant to me and my family. I just...I can't believe she's even alive...how you managed this..." She shook her head.

"It shouldn't surprise you the lengths I am willing to go to ensure your happiness Katherine, my rose."

She gave me a genuine smile and I glanced to my watch.

"Got a date?" She joked and pulled her dress back on.

"With Pietro, yes."

"Oh? Best man stuff?"

I nodded and she brought her knees to her chest. I watched her for a few moments, she wore her sex face. She was glowing, uncontrollable smile across her face as she often wore after sex. I stood beside the bed and ran my hands through her messy hair, next time I would have to be sure to get a good hold of it while she took me in her mouth. As for right now though? "If you need me to call in a favor for dinner, don't hesitate, call me. Got it?"

"I can handle dinner Alessio. I'm not totally useless."

----------------------------------------------------

To be honest, majority of this chapter has been prepared for weeks now, but I couldn't get the sex scene right and I felt like if i faded into darkness and just cut it out you guy would have destroyed me because I so rarely give them to you as it is. So it's the shortest and crappiest raunchy scene ever but it's there lol. The next chapter is actually one I enjoy, it's a little bit of fun and it should be out a lottt quicker than this one was!

Some things to answer, for any confusion as to this chapter it was said very early in book one that Kate had a cousin who had run off with some boy, she would be Uncle Sammy's daughter and Nicolo's sister, Alessio tracked her down and reunited the family. Yay Alessio!

Ari. A lot of you guys are asking who she is and plenty of you are stating who she is. It has yet to actually be said. There were I think three times Aria was mentioned in the prior books. Never said whether she was a cousin, sister, girlfriend, best friend, enemy, etc. That's all fun to still be found out though there was a minor implication. I think I saw a few people mentioning an Arianna and asking if she was the same person, I don't think I've ever written an Arianna lol. Her name is Aria, referred to as Ari more often, not Arianna. She never faked her death or was mentioned as dead but not going to say that it wasn't possibly implied either. The reason so many of you are upset because you can't remember who she is is because this is the first she's actually been an active member in the book before.

Any chapter in which Ari would have been mentioned would have been a bonus chapters.

If there were any other questions or statements about her in the comments that I missed I'm sorry lol. Basics about her though are we don't know diddly squat about her!

Don't forget to vote and comment!