Chapter 23 COO.
\~~~RAINA.
“W… wait, what?!”
I burst out unconsciously, slamming my hands on the desk between us.
Luciano didn’t even flinch. He just sits there, relaxed as ever, watching me with that annoying calmness as his arms fold slowly across his chest.
“I mean…” I exhale, forcing my hands open in a helpless gesture.
“I am not saying it is a bad offer,” I add, swallowing the sudden lump in my throat. “It is just…”
I return to sit down, and I swear I can feel the way my heart is hammering so bad in my chest.
It is going to fall off, God.
COO? Is this sick man kidding me?
Chief operating officer?
Hahaha!
“You must feel so happy? You are blushing,” Luciano smiles.
“Happy?! Yes, I am fucking elated! I am! Fuck!” I burst into laughter, clapping my hands frantically.
“Right. You seem too happy, Talia.”
My heart drops, and the laughter on my face drops even lower.
For the first time since this hell began, I love these pet names this man has been calling me.
Butterfly.
Sunshine.
Solnishko.
Baby girl.
At least, he doesn’t call me Talia. At least, he doesn’t call me a name that doesn’t belong to me.
I would rather have him call me those pet names that sound so disgusting coming from him.
“COO? What is with the sudden decision?”
“What do you mean by sudden?” he asks me, picking up the file from the table.
“Is it not?”
“We have been married for over a month, trust me there is nothing sudden about this.”
“Then, I believe I have a say in this also. I’d like to turn down your offer.”
“It is not a fucking offer, Talia. I am not offering you shit. You will assume the position of Chief Operating Officer here at the Company headquarters
Many would kill for this.”
“Well, I am not them. If you wish for people to run your companies for you, then, do so,” I shrug my shoulders off.
“Talia,” he calls the name with that infuriating calm of his and I almost shiver.
God, this man is not kidding me.
“Listen to me,” I point my index finger at him.
“No, you listen to me,” he hisses, a frown spreading across his face. “You will report to the CEO, my sister, of course… but I expect you to handle the operations with competence. I sill be watching you, Talia, and I believe you would not…”
“Wait, your sister?!”
I shout again, banging the table again.
“Yes, Alessia Moretti, my immediate younger sister. She handles the clean side of the group as the CEO, and you will report directly under her from Monday.”
“You must be shitting me,” the word leaves my mouth faster than I plan.
But I didn't show it, nor did I stop talking.
“You have a sister and as if that is not enough, you are going to make me work under her, and deal with whatever oppression she’s going to throw my way.”
“I don’t remember seeing in your medical chart that you have amnesia, Talia,” Luciano raises a brow.
“Excuse me?”
“We talked about this on our first date together, didn't we? And then, I told you about Alessia.”
“You…”
Fuck.
I palm my mouth.
I just shot myself in the leg.
He and Talia have talked about this before?
At this point, I wish Talia had given me a handover file.
One that contains everything she knows about this man and every little thing they have talked about.
What the hell?!
“And,” he resumes, leaning forward.
“If you want me to make you CEO, all you have to do is say the word, and I will.”
“I don’t care about titles.”
“Good, then this conversation is over,” he says, standing up.
I stand up too as he walks away from the desk, and then rush to him, almost bumping into him.
“This can’t happen, Luciano, I can’t…”
Luciano raises his hand, and then gently points his index finger at my forehead, before he pushes me to the side.
“This conversation is over.”
“What do you expect me to do as a fucking chief operating officer?!” I cry out, running after him.
“What did you do while you were the vice president at your father’s company?” he asks me, not stopping.
What is he saying?
I have never set foot in my father’s company.
I refused to take even the lowest-ranking position at his company.
My father froze my cards for two weeks to punish me for defying him.
He seized my car and even placed me on house arrest at some point.
Still, I refused to walk in the same footsteps as Talia.
I don’t like the business world.
The office politics are even the worst, and just like that, he is going to push me into one.
“Do you not need a secretary in the mafia world?”
I ask as we descend the stairs and he stops abruptly.
I lose my balance and nearly fall, but Luciano is faster.
Moving swiftly, he grabs me by my waist, and then pulls me to himself, my chest pressing against his.
“You were saying?”
My throat tightens, and I shiver as I stare at the man whose face and I only have about a few inches of space in between.
His head is leaning down and I am seeing him from up close for the first time, I guess.
Yeah, I have never been this close to this man.
“You… you a… are a mafia,” I hiccup. “Mafia don, sorry.”
“And?” he asks.
Oh, man, can you please let me go first, so that I may breathe?!
“You must be in need of… someone to keep records during your meetings.”
“So, you’d rather do the dirty business than be the COO?”
“Not like dirty… dirty…”
God, he smells nice.
How can a man smell so good… and eatable?
“I could tell you to kill a person,” he said bluntly.
I gasp, still in his arms, “That is part of a secretary’s work?”
“In the underworld, definitely. Even the cleaners are mafia.”
“The offer for chief operating officer still stands, right?”
Luciano covers the remaining space between us, leaving just an inch. Our noses are almost touching now.
“Certainly, my wife. Certainly.”
“G… good. I will… be… the… chief operating… officer.”
Fuck.