His Wicked Ways

Chapter One

Chapter One

Spencer

I was running late and freaking out that I could not find my work bag. “ Heather!” I shouted hoping my roommate had decided to wake up this morning, “have you seen my work bag? I’m running late and I have got to go!” Hoping the urgency in my voice would hurry her up or wake her up.

Heather came around the corner from where her room sits in our apartment. She lazily pointed at the kitchen island and yawned. “It’s on the island,” she said looking me over. “You really are nervous aren’t you?” She asked. Asking her way to the kitchen to grab coffee.

I walked over to my bag and tripped a little on my heels. My face going bright red, “what makes you think that?” I let out in a small laugh. “This is the biggest project I’ve worked on and it’s a multimillion dollar project,” I paused, “who even has that kind of money?” I looked myself over in our floor length mirror hoping I could somehow will myself to be feel more confident in the black curve hugging dress I was wearing. I was fair skinned and having extremely blonde hair didn’t help how fair I looked. “Maybe I should change?” I asked but knew Heather would protest.

Heather came out of the kitchen and into the hallway, “no you need to go,” she said and ushering me out the door. Heather was the complete opposite of me. She never felt nervous in clothes, she had dark skin, hazel colored eyes, and short curly black hair. You would never know we’ve been best friends since birth and moved to the city together.

I made my way out of the apartment and onto the busy city streets, hailing a cab immediately. Once I had given the driver the hotel destination I began looking over my notes from the emails I had exchanged with the owner, Lorenzo Salvatore. From what I had researched he was in his early sixties and he was extremely rich. His family owned several hotels and businesses throughout the city, but this one was different from the others as he was naming it after his late wife. The whole design project as he told me in our emails would be based on her love of the Italian countryside where she grew up.

As my cab slowed in front of the hotel I let out a deep breathe. Working in New York City hadn’t gotten any easier over the last eight months. I was often looked at like I’m crazy when she talked because of her southern accent, and I knew today would be difficult seeing as my new client is Italian. I got out of the cab in one smooth motion hoping that my confidence would begin to build up as I walked into the large building.

“Hello,” I was greeted by an olive skinned small man as I walked to the front desk. He was smiling and wearing a deep green button up with black dress pants. “You must be Ms. Connelly, my uncle is expecting you,” he said as he began to type something on his phone. “I’m letting him know you’re here, if you’d like to take a seat,” he said lifting his phone and motioning to some chairs with his other hand.

Family run wasn’t a lie, if his nephew is at the front desk I wonder who all he employs. From what I read on the internet he had one son with his wife, but he lives in Italy and there weren’t many photos of him.

“Ms. Connelly, it’s nice to meet you,” a short olive skinned woman said as she entered the lobby from an interior door. “I’m Alyssa we’ve been corresponding through email,” she smiled and took my hand to shake it. “My cousin

Lorenzo is excited to get this project moving,” she smiled and opened another door off of the lobby. “He’ll be in shortly. Would you like anything to drink?” She asked motioning towards the coffee bar and small fridge.

I smiled, “oh no thank you,” I said looking around the immaculate meeting space. The table housed twelve chairs and was a true deep chestnut color and the molding on it was a copper. The chairs were red velvet lined, I cringed a little as I took the seat she had pulled out for me, I detest velvet. “I hadn’t known I was corresponding with you in the emails?” I asked trying to get more information.

She laughed, “Oh my, I realized I had been sending them through Lorenzo’s email. My cousin is not good with technology.” She said and walked around to the other side of the table and sat with her coffee. “He’s very old school and so I’ve been sending all the info to him for you, or this project would be a slow start.”

I smiled at her. She had to be in her late forties which meant she was a younger cousin. Her short brown hair was pulled back around her face and her brown eyes shined. She was dressed in a navy power suit and suddenly I felt strangely out of place. I usually never wore dresses to client meetings but Heather had insisted I wear one, she told me it looked more professional than my usual ankle pants and blouse.

I heard him before I saw him as my back was to the oak door. He was laughing as he walked in and I stood up to greet him. When I turned around I saw two tall olive skinned men. One was clearly Lorenzo as he was aged around the eyes and a little smaller than the man who stood next to him. As my light grey blue eyes floated from Lorenzo to the man standing next to him my throat suddenly felt like the Sahara and my chest felt like it was going to explode. The man had to be at least six foot four standing a good 5/inches taller than Lorenzo. His dark brown hair was styled and his brown eyes flickered over me. He was well dressed in a pair of black dress pants, a deep grey button up that was slightly pushed up past his wrists exposing a few tattoos on both arms, and expensive dress shoes. He had to be one of the most attractive men I’d ever seen and my body let me know.

“Ms. Connelly it’s nice to meet you,” the man I was assuming is Lorenzo said as he reached out his hand. My gaze flicked from the Adonis standing next to him back to him, I smiled and extended my hand. “I am Lorenzo Salvatore and this is my son, Nicholas Salvatore,” he said motioning to the man standing next to him once he had dropped my hand.

My throat still felt like all the air had been sucked from it as I looked to his son and back to him. “It’s a pleasure to meet you both,” I somehow got it out without dying on the spot. Lorenzo motioned for us all to sit down. Alyssa who I had forgotten was in the room moved next to me but before she sat she grabbed me a bottle of water. Oh god was I that obvious? The thought let itself go as I took a sip of the water as Lorenzo and Nicholas sat down across the table. Nicholas sat directly in front of me and it took everything in me to not let my focus rest on him.

“I know Alyssa has filled you in on the project, and my wants.” Lorenzo said looking directly at me. His eyes were darker in color than his sons and I wondered if his mother had lighter eyes. “This hotel is to honor my beautiful late wife, and I want to make sure it is done correctly,” he paused and smiled. “I found some of your work when I was reaching out to your firm, they said you do wonderful work.”

I smiled for some reason I began to feel even more uneasy as I realized Nicholas is staring at me. “Thank you, I have done many projects since beginning with the firm,” I shifted in my seat hoping to get his stare off of me. I took out my portfolio and the mock up drawings I had created. “This is my portfolio so that you can see my past work a little more closely, it includes projects since being with the firm as well as projects from when I was in Georgia,” I smiled and passed Lorenzo the portfolio, “and this is a few mock ups I created based on what Alyssa had told me about the project.”

Nicholas took those from across the table. He clenched and unclenches his jaw as he looked them all over. That was when I realized he had light stubble on his perfectly chiseled face. “How familiar are you with the Italian countryside?” He asked looking at the drawings. His voice was smooth and deep and suddenly I felt a heat rush through my whole body racing between my legs. “My father picked you solely based on nothing other than recommendations not on actual knowledge.” He was curt with his tone and suddenly I felt my cheeks heat and go bright red.

His father looked at him and shook his head muttering Italian under his breathe. I tried to shake off my embarrassment from the question. “I have a masters in Interior Design and a minor in History,” I said smiling, “I also interned in Italy during undergrad.” I said with as much confidence as I could. “While this project will require outside referencing and research I do feel confident that I am perfect for this job,” I said knowing now that I should’ve kept that last part in. I’m definitely going to be fired if I lose this project.

“You’ll have to excuse Nicholas, he just found out he is inheriting this hotel upon completion of the project,” Lorenzo said looking at his son then to me, “I chose you because of what I assume is hard work and dedication to your projects, I have no doubt you will be perfect for this.” He said and I took a deep breathe in. The meeting continued without another word of me not being qualified andNicholas didn’t speak the rest of the meeting.

Nicholas

My father had truly lost his mind. The woman he had chosen for this project wasn’t Italian or even from the city. As the meeting I was forced to sit in on for the hotel design project finally came to an end, I unclenched my jaw. I feared that if I had spoken again during the meeting my father would pull a gun on me.

I got up from my chair and shook the woman’s hand who my father had officially hired for the project and watched as she packed her black bag and turned to leave. I watched her taking her in one last time determined to never be in another meeting with her again. She was tall in her black heels, with long light blonde hair reaching right to the middle of her back, and without care I looked at her ass as she walked away. She had sparked something inside of me the moment I saw her turn around in the meeting room. She was curvy in an athletic way and I could not help but notice the affect I had on her as well. My d**k had immediately gone hard as soon as I saw her ass but I almost had to stop myself from grabbing her on the spot when she turned around and I saw her icy blue eyes and smile. She was absolutely a heartbreaker, but she also was annoying once I heard her ooze false confidence.

The fact is my father had chosen her thinking her family may have been Italian, I don’t blame him with her last name you would think so. He was extremely wrong, the woman he chose was from Georgia and by looking at her features she was as far from Italian as she could get. She probably had no idea she was now employed by a Don in the mafia. Poor girl looked like she would run for the hills if she ever knew. She was under the impression that we are just a family run business.

My father looked at me once both Spencer Connelly and Alyssa had left the room. “You foolish boy,” he said looking at me. I knew he was angry with me before the meeting but now he was filled with rage. My father rarely took well to outsiders, he is as old school as they come, but for some reason little miss blonde and from Georgia made him suddenly acceptive of outsiders. “You scared the damn girl. She is good for the project, someone who knows nothing of this life and will stay out of the way,” he said his voice filled with anger. “Ms. Connelly is just naive enough to actually take on this job and give it her all.”

My father had chosen her simply based on her not being from the city and having no idea who he was. That was suddenly clear. He knew her boss would say nothing about how our family makes our money if he shoved enough money at him. He was on my fathers payroll as far as I knew. “Fine but I will no longer be meeting with her,” I said knowing he would say no. My father had already made it clear I was taking over all aspects of the family business and this would be part of it, having to deal with the woman who gave me a hard on before I got a good look at all of her.

“You will do as your told boy,” my father yelled as I walked to the door, “take care of what we talked about earlier.” He said and that was all I heard before I closed the door behind me. I walked through the lobby of the old hotel and to the front door. I knew what I had to do which meant going to the family club tonight. My father rarely involved himself in matters anymore hands on. I knew it’s because his age is finally catching up to him, it was the reason I had been summoned home from Italy.

I saw long blonde hair flying in the wind, and watched her as she talked on her phone. I assumed it was her boss since she sounded so formal. She caught me watching her and her cheeks went red. Damnit I was instantly hard again. A f*****g woman blushing suddenly had the strangest affect on me. I made women blush all the time but something about Spencer Connelly blushing made me go hard. This was going to be an awful project to work on, and I planned on never meeting with her face to face again.