Kate



Alessio came into the bedroom with a sigh and began undoing his tie. "That was a lovely dinner wasn't it?"

He glanced over his shoulder to me as I sat on the bed fiddling nervously with the black bag on my lap. 'Katherine?"

"Yes, yes, lovely. I'll be right back." I darted from the bed to the walk in closet with the bag and left Alessio in the room scratching his head.

When Mia had said we were going to make sure I was plenty defiled, she wasn't kidding. I hadn't picked out a wedding dress today, but Mia and Stacey had picked me out a lingerie set, thigh highs and garter to boot along with some, I suppose toys, I had never even known existed.

I came out of the closet in a red and black lingerie set with a whip, and feeling extremely stupid. At this point Alessio had tossed his shirt and shoes to the side and was in only his pants.

"Well. This brings back memories." He muttered looking me up and down and taking a few steps towards me. "And what might I ask-" he paused and gingerly played with the frayed strings of the whip. "-are you planning on doing with this?"

I opened my mouth intending to play along completely, say something sexy, maybe show him instead of telling, but suddenly I found myself crying.

I don't know which of us were more surprised. He tried to shush me, promise me that he wouldn't have hit me that hard with it, suggest I take deep breathes but I couldn't stop.

"Sh, sh, sh." He urged me and cupped my cheeks. "Con calma." He muttered.

"I can't Alessio. I can't take this anymore. I can't! Everyone, all the time. I feel like I'm down under again only worse. I have to dress a certain way, talk a certain way, there's so much expected of me and it's in my face constantly. We left to get away from all of this, the Mafia, the danger, the people. And it's right in my face all the time! I swear if your mother looks done her nose at me one more time or say's she'll set the table so it's done right once more, I'm, I'm, I'm just going to lose it!"

"Baby this is you losing it." He cooed gently.

I started ranting at the speed of light about his mother, and dinner, and the family, how long our house would take to build, how overwhelmed I was and the five pounds I had gained.

"Sei incredibile." He said and pulled my face forward to kiss me. "Sei bellissima." He muttered before kissing me again. "Sei la mia vita." Again he kissed me.

(You ae incredible) (you are beautiful) (You are my life)

"Perche?" I sniffled and noted the corners of his lips raise. "Sono un relitto."

(I'm a wreck)

"Sono pazza di te." He assured me and finally pulled back. "What exactly were you going for with the whip?"

(I'm crazy about you.)

I sniffled again. "Your mom said I shouldn't get a white dress. Because I'm not a virgin." Sniffle.

"She shouldn't have said that." Alessio said in a low tone obviously unhappy with his mother as I handed him the black bag he opened it and his brows shot up.

"Mia said-" Sniffle. "Something about making sure I was-" Sniff "-good and defiled."

He cleared his throat. "She certainly wasn't exaggerating...is that a spider gag?"

I threw my hands up in the air and let them slap back down on my legs. "Fȕck if I know!"

"Well this will be an interesting charge to explain to my accountant." He closed the bag and slowly set it on the edge of the bed. "Get dressed."

"I was trying to let you defile me." I argued and he laughed.

"Katherine you've done plenty, put up with plenty. I believe you are really about to lose your mind. You don't like it here, do you?"

"I do, it's beautiful in Italy, everyone is so attentive and caring and-"

"You hate it."

"So fȕcking much." I admitted and started crying again. I felt guilty for not enjoying living with his family. I knew how important family was to Alessio and I just told him I hated living with his. I was such a shitty fiancé.

He chuckled again. "It's alright baby, it's alright. I know. This has been hard on you. My mother and father they are a bit...cold."

"Ya think?"

"I understand this has been a lot, with my incident, and your father, all the wedding planning, and my family well, they aren't exactly helping the situation."

I shook my head. "It's fine, really. It'll get better I'm just overwhelmed, I just-"

"Get dressed." He repeated himself and slid his hands into his pockets. "I've a surprise for you."

"What?"

"I was going to wait until after the wedding, but I think you need it now more than ever. Get dressed."

"Alessio, this is so not the time to pop something or someone random out of the wall because I am so close to losing my mind-"

As I ranted he helped me into his shirt. Nodding and throwing in the occasional mhm as he buttoned it for me. I couldn't stop, talking about how overwhelmed I was, how much pressure was put on this wedding and how quickly it had all come about. How I was excited to see everyone but now I was stressing out, how I felt like there were too many people I couldn't show them all adequate attention and what a shitty friend, slash niece, slash future in law I was to everyone because there simply wasn't enough time to devote to everyone, before I knew it he was holding my hand and leading me through the hallway.

"Alessio!" I hissed. "I'm not wearing any pants!"

"I know."

"You're dragging me through your parent's house, and I'm not wearing any pants!"

"Yes, I'm aware."

"You don't see anything wrong with that?"

"Con calma."

I rolled my eyes and followed him out of the house, he paused at the car to open the door for me. "Honestly Alessio it's like 9 o'clock at night where are we-" He raised a brow and I sighed and got into the car.

I was quiet for several minutes as we drove away from the house. The further we got the less tight my chest felt, the less concerned I was with wedding toppers and polishing silver. Finally I turned back to him, I soaked in this image. Alessio sitting shirtless in the driver's seat, one hand just leisurely relaxing on the steering wheel and the other on my thigh. "Where are you taking me?" I finally asked.

"You're freaking out."

"Well sorry." I huffed and crossed my arms over my chest. He squeezed my thigh and I relaxed beneath his touch. "I'm sorry. I'm just overwhelmed. Planning a wedding in such short time, trying to learn Italian and dealing with your mother." And father. And Sergio. I sighed heavily.

"My mother likes you Katherine. She does. She is just worried about me."

"She's worried about you when you decide to marry me but not when you're out running around playing Russian roulette every single day with your life?"

He didn't respond and I groaned at myself.

"I'm sorry. I'm sorry. She just acts like I can't take care of you all the time."

"I'm a grown man Katherine. I don't need taken care of."

"Sure didn't seem that way when you let her tuck your napkin into the collar of your shirt at dinner the other night."

"It was saucy and she knew I had a meeting later." He tried defending himself and I raised a brow.

"A meeting?"

"Wedding planning."

"Oh...without me?"

He chuckled. "The groom has matters to handle too sweetheart. Besides you've been so stressed out lately I thought it would be helpful if I took a few thing from your plate."

"I guess." I muttered and glanced to his hand on my thigh. I put my hand on top of his and looked at the engagement ring. I had a nagging feeling in the pit of my stomach that something was off, but then again, I felt like everything was off. I pushed the thought away as best I could and focused on the car ride.

I hadn't even noticed we'd pulled off the road and to back roads where the houses were few and far between. "If you changed your mind about marrying me would you hit me over the head with a shovel and bury me out here or..."

He chuckled. "You don't like living with my family, do you Katherine?"

I tucked my lips together. Somehow I felt like telling him I would rather take a hot iron and brand myself "Hell fucking no" one letter at a time than spend two whole years with his family as the plan was would only serve to upset him.

He smirked lightly at my reaction and leaned forward to press a kiss to my cheek. "I know the land was picked out and paid for and you were quite fond of the location but there has been a snag in our plans."

"Oh?" I said forcing myself to sound calm. If he was going to say this was going to take even longer...

He watched me for a moment, motionless, and then held up his tie. "Over your eyes."

"Alessio!" This was not the time for a hook up.

"Put it over your eyes."

"What?"

"Your eyes Katherine."

"You can't be serious." The look on his face assured me he was. "B-but-"

"Please." He sighed as if the simple act of asking for anything was torture. For him, it probably was.

Reluctantly I took the tie from him and wrapped it around my eyes. I was putty in his hands when he was all asking and polite and stuff. I could still see a crack of world when I looked down. "How long will I have to keep this on?" I asked feeling as though the world was suddenly huge around me.

"Just a few moments." He said and I felt the car jerk forward, immediately I grabbed the center console as if I was going to go flying out of the car when clearly, we were crawling down the gravel road and I still had my seatbelt on. "Relax." He said amusement clear in his voice.

"It's late, it's dark, I'm practically naked and I'm a control freak! You can't blind fold me and then tell me to relax."

He put his hand on top of mine and squeezed it. "It's just down this road."

"This creepy beaten down behind civilization road."

He laughed and immediately I relaxed. "Don't you trust me?"

"Of course I do."

"Then relax...keep the blindfold on."

"The tie you mean."

"Don't back mouth me or so help me God I will tie you down and have my way with you all night."

"How is that a threat?"

"I'll keep you blindfolded."

"Cold man. Cold."

He chuckled and I heard the car door open. I twiddled my thumbs impatiently until my door opened and he took my hands.

"Careful. The ground isn't very flat."

"Great." I said and couldn't help but smile. He squeezed my hands and we started walking. "Where are we?" He didn't answer. "Alessio?"

"Relax baby."

I'd love to. Love to relax, to go with the flow, to be the easy going person everyone around me seemed to be but I couldn't. Not when I had no pants on. Not when my wedding dress hadn't been picked out and alterations would likely be needed, not when Nash still hadn't arrived and I was starting to wonder if something had happened to him as he wasn't taking my calls, not when I knew we would go home for and for breakfast his mother would again make some snide comment about Alessio not eating right while he was away. Not when I had this nagging feeling in the pit of my stomach telling me he was lying. I couldn't, couldn't relax, couldn't see, I kept stumbling and every bump on the ground began pissing me off more than the last.

"We're going up stairs now." Alessio warned me, just seconds after I had kicked the first step and begun cursing a bit obsessively. He ignored my curses and helped me up the stairs "Hold on." He said and let go of my hand.

I heard the sound of a door creaking open, loudly, the sound of it scraping across the floor in short, forced spurts signaling that the door was warped and too large to open without getting stuck on the floor.

Alessio took my hand again and thankfully warned me of the lip on the floor before I kicked it. "You okay?" I nodded and he let go of my hand again. "Just...keep an open mind." He said and I felt him behind me undoing the tie.

I closed my eyes as he pulled the tie off completely and then opened them slowly.

He was at my side almost immediately handing me a lantern and lighting one of his own. We were in a house, an old house. It was difficult to see in the dark, I could make out a big, open room, high ceilings, the floor and all the wood work so covered with dust and dirt I couldn't make out what color it may have been underneath. I wandered a little further into the room, thoroughly confused. "I don't understand." I muttered and eyed the stair way, so muddled over with cob webs it looked to be a Halloween decoration or something.

"There's a second stair way in the kitchen, I was thinking we could tear it down to open up the kitchen more." He said shoving his hands in his pockets.

I nearly slid whenever I took a few steps forward from all the dust. I could see underneath the layer of ugly browning wall paper was another layer of ugly wallpaper.

"Of course it'll need some cleaning up. We'll have to see what the floors look like under all the dirt. It would be nice if we could just sand it down and polish it. History says there was a roof leak, might be some warping and water damage though...can't be sure the full damage till we start working on the place."

I turned around to face him, my eyes zooming past him and to the door we had come in, it was still hanging open, the door itself had seen better days, looking flimsy and tired but the stain glass window was an immediate appeal. "What're you-" I asked even though I knew what he was getting at.

His gaze was firm as he watched me, not saying anything else for several seconds I turned around and started through the house.

The house was big, by my standards, but much smaller than what we had been used to. There were only four rooms downstairs, the kitchen, dining room, and two living rooms, upstairs there were only three bedrooms and a small sort of bonus room, and the attic had an additional three bedrooms. The rooms were I would say only fair sized, not huge, not small, it was almost modest. Or, it could be anyway if the walls were bulging out from the water leaked into them, the floors weren't so dirty I left footprints as I disrupted the dust, and there wasn't just general debris left everywhere. The floor creaked on nearly every step taken and the mirrors above the sink and on the mantle had large black blobs on them that I doubted would ever go away.

Finally, after we had looped through the whole house, after I had peeled several pieces of hanging wallpaper back to look at the hideous display under it, after I had drug my finger along several window sills to wipe the dust away, after he had warned me not to look in the basement at all, we stopped back in the main room.

"So." He said finally his hands still in pocket, tie tossed over his shoulder but not priority enough to be tied.

"This is..."

"I was thinking we could knock the wall out between the back two rooms and the spare room, connect the three as a master suite and turn that little rinky dink room into a second bathroom. Perhaps an add on downstairs along the eastern wall if you think it's too small-"

"It's ours?" I asked even though I already knew the answer.

"If you want it." He nodded.

"I-I-I don't know what to say." I said and started crying.

"Well I didn't think you'd hate it this much." He sighed and crossed the distance in the room to embrace me. "Shh, Katherine, it's okay, we can torch it. Set the whole thing ablaze. It may be rejuvenating."

I pushed him away. "Hate it? I love it!"

"You do?" He asked seeming honestly surprised.

"I mean, I can't believe you bought an entire house without talking to me about it first but Alessio its so perfect. I mean, it will be. It just needs a little love." I said rising to my toes to push away cobwebs as high as I could reach on the staircase. "It's...small compared to what you're used to." I turned around to face him skeptically. "Will you be okay?"

"We can add on if you want to." He offered.

"I love it, I love it exactly as it is. I mean, dust and dirt aside. The wallpaper has got to go, but I love it Alessio. It's big, plenty big enough for me, bigger than where I grew up. I'm just worried, you're so used to...Christ, big doesn't even serve what you're used to justice. It's a little intimidating honestly. This is, this is just perfect. I'm just worried it'll be too small. For you."

"Well." He said and stuffed his hands back in his pockets seeming uncertain. "I needed big before. With the family always staying-" He stopped and then slowly back tracked. "This would be for just. Us."

"Oh Alessio." I said and continued to cry.

"Now this is a breakdown." He said coming forward again to cup my face in his hands. "I love you Katherine. If you want a big house I will build you a bloody castle, but if this is what you want I will be so fucking happy here just to be here with you."

"And it won't take two years to fix?" I asked through near sobs.

"No baby."

"God I love you." I wailed and dove into him.

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Third update because, A, it's been so long, B, it was ready and I'm the author and I say so (; and C, I didn't feel like a lot really happened in the last two lol.

So vote, and comment, and hopefully I can get inspired again! (: I'm NOT giving up on this story, I'm burnt out, but not done. It will get finished, I promise you that, but I haven't a clue how long it will take.



Important thing to note, Kate threw out a bit of Italian. LONG AWAITED. She's finally starting to learn lol. Secondly, because it's been so long you may have forgotten, this book WILL have multiple POV's. So far everything has been in Kate's view, but it will jump around. Possibly a lot, we'll see. I will put the Character's name at the top of every chapter but I will NOT be reminding you at every chapter that it will change around. So PAY ATTENTION to the name at the top of each chapter. It will exceed possibly past Kate and Alessio so pay. attention.

(: