Chapter 113: Cloud Nine

**Althaia**

The sky was starting to brighten as we were still lying outside. I pulled the blanket up closer to my chest while I rested my head on Damiano’s chest, his hand caressing my back while I admired the ring on my finger.

Our bodies were starting to cool down from our latest hot and wet love-making. I had no idea how many times I ended up switching positions but I could feel the soreness was starting to make an appearance. I was also sure the whole village knew what we were doing as I couldn’t hold back my moans but I couldn’t care less now.

I felt like I was on cloud nine.

I looked up at Damiano, seeing he was already looking at me smile while he was playing with my hair.

“I was just thinking when did you get to place such a unique order.” I said as I held up my hand to show the gigantic oval-shaped diamond ring. I could just imagine how long you would have to wait to get your ring handcrafted.

“While you were visiting your father, I placed the order. I went to retrieve it when you were still sleeping.”

“You can get it done that fast?!” I gasped in surprise. I thought he would at least have to wait a few weeks for it.

“You can say I’m kind of well-known around here. It has its perks and things get done faster that way.” He gave a cheeky wink, making me laugh.

“Riight, being the biggest fearing mafia don makes you only ‘kind of well-known’.” I rolled my eyes at him with a smile. “People hear the name Bellavia and almost shit themselves.”

“Something like that.” He smirked. “Soon, it will be your name too.”

“Althaia Bellavia.” Tingles erupted in my stomach as soon as I said that. His name with mine, I loved it so much. I sighed dreamily the more I thought of it as I trailed my fingers over the tattoo of my name on his chest

“It suits you. Better than the name you have right now.” He said smugly, making me stick out my tongue at him.

“I thought it was Celano most of my life. I still find it weird to introduce myself as Volante. Now that I think of it, it’s quite funny actually. My father told me the reason they changed my name was to protect me from people like you. That was also the reason why he faked my death. Guess that didn’t work out too well as I’m now engaged to you” I let out a light chuckle.

“At least, that’s what he said. And I understood what he meant when you suddenly grabbed me at the engagement party and pulled out a gun.” I reminded him.

“I did it for a reason.” He half-shrugged as if it was no big deal.

“And what’s that?”

“Just to see if you were a spy or an assassin playing innocent.” He smirked as he moved me to lay on top of him.

“What if I am and played my part well.” I wiggled my brows at him and he scoffed, making me drop my jaw.

“I so could be a secret spy!”

“No, you couldn’t. Why do you think I showed up in your hotel room? It was to see who you really were and how you reacted to potential threats. You falling on your face was already enough for me, and then you were too focused on your food and actually forgot I was in the room with you. So no, you couldn’t be a spy. You’re too clumsy and too unaware.”

“You sure know how to kill one’s ego…” I said grimly. I wanted to say something to convince him otherwise but he was right. I ran for my life to the bathroom and then once I saw the food, he was completely forgotten.

“You shouldn’t be surprised. I am a very skilled killer.” He looked at me teasingly while he placed his arms behind his head. My eyes lingered on his huge biceps, admiring them for a little before I looked at him.

“True… Just entirely out of curiosity, have you ever stabbed someone with a fork?” Damiano raised a brow at me and I gave him an innocent smile as I rested my head on my hand.

“I have. Right in the eye and smashed his head down on a table with the fork still attached.” I grimaced as I imagined the horrific scene but gave an impressive nod nonetheless.

“Shit, poor guy… What did he do?”

“He annoyed me.”

“You’re kidding!” I burst out in laughter while he shook his head at me with a smile.

“And something else, but mostly because he was an annoying piece of shit.”

“Fair enough.” I chuckled.

“Trying to get inspiration on how to stab my father?” He raised his brow at me.

“No!… Well, actually, if he brings bitches for you, I will stab him and them.” I said in all seriousness.

“Hot.” Damiano winked at me and I rolled my eyes at him.

“Speaking of your father… He didn’t seem too thrilled about me being a Volante. Or half greek for that matter. I know you don’t care about that part since you got my name tattooed in greek. Though I can’t help but think about if it’s going to be a problem…” It did piss me off what he had said to me, but I was mostly pissed about him saying my heritage was a problem for him.

“Don’t listen to him. He has his way of annoying and offending people to get a reaction from them. You have to hit them where it hurts. That’s when they show their true colors.” Damiano explained.

“You knew he would test me?”

“I had a feeling he would eventually as he did the same thing to Cara when Lorenzo took her for a visit. Besides, he liked your answers and found it amusing you wanted to stab him with a fork when he mentioned other women.” He chuckled. Cara did tell me when I came back from the safe-house that Lorenzo took her to Italy but she definitely forgot to mention their father decided to test her. I made a mental note of asking her what he said to her to piss her off.

“He did get under my skin by mentioning he had stupid bitches for you.” I muttered out with a scowl.

“My freaky, jealous woman.” I felt a sharp slap on my ass, making me yelp as he took me by surprise.

“It’s not about being jealous! It’s about property rights!”

“I’m your property now?” He said as I felt his body shake from laughing.

“Damn right you are.” I placed my hands on his cheeks as I leaned as close as I could to his face. “You may have my name tattooed on your chest, but I will tattoo my name on your forehead, your ass, and even on your dick to let bitches know you’re mine, and all of that belongs to me.” I said sternly to him.

“You’re really turning into a psychopath.” Damiano looked amused by my reaction.

“Only for you, my love.” I wiggled my brows at him, leaning back as we laughed.

We talked some more, joked, and teased each other to no end before deciding it was time to get back to the mansion. The sky was brighter now and I was sure people had already heard us fucking but I didn’t need anyone to find us naked at the top of the hill. I didn’t feel like putting my clothes back on and just wrapped a blanket around my body.

“My legs are sore…” I groaned as I took a couple of steps.

“It will get better once you’ve gotten used to running.” Damiano said as I watched him pull up his pants and gave him a displeased look.

“Do I really have to run?”

“I told you it’s not avoidable.” He closed the distance between us and swooped me in his arms.

“You don’t have to carry me.” I chuckled but didn’t fight him on it as I liked being carried in his arms.

“You will need your rest before today’s training.” My smile got wiped away and got replaced with a frown. “Don’t worry, we will focus more on your fighting skills than running today.”

“I can live with that.” He shook his head in amusement when I found my smile back. It was a quiet, beautiful morning with the sunrise shining over the landscape as he walked down the hill with me in his arms. It was one incredible view and I thought of coming here one morning to draw this magnificent place.

I looked down at my hand, seeing the beautiful diamond ring and having me smile big. It still felt surreal that this was happening and the burning desire to marry him grew even more. I wrapped my arms around his neck as I gazed lovingly at him and my heart fluttered.

“How soon can we get married?”

“Whenever you’re ready.”

“Can we get married tomorrow?” Damiano stopped in his tracks and looked at me surprised.

“You want to elope?”

“I want to marry you as soon as possible.” I said softly to him and a smile appeared on his lips.

“We can do that.” My heart started to beat fast with excitement as he gave a nod. “My mother and Nonna are going to give me hell for it.” He chuckled as he started to walk again. My brows went up as I had completely forgotten about his family would most likely want to see him getting married.

“We can keep us getting married a secret and then have a wedding ceremony one day?” I suggested. As much as I would love to get married to him as soon as possible, I also wanted to respect his family. For Italians, weddings were a huge deal and especially if you were the first born. I could only imagine how thrilled his family was going to be and how they were going to make a huge deal out of it. Not only because he was the first born child, but also because he was Damiano.

“I do want to see you in a wedding dress.”

“Really?”

“Yes. I want to take the dress off of you. I want to unwrap you like the gift you are and see that beautiful body of yours.” I saw the swirl of emotions in his eyes as Damiano spoke quietly to me, having my cheeks heated up by his words.

“You have already seen my body a million times.” I chuckled a little, suddenly feeling shy under his gaze.

“And I get starstruck every single time, my love.” By now, I was helplessly blushing as he placed a kiss on my lips, tingles erupted in my stomach as he just knew what to say to get such a reaction out of me. I never thought he could be this romantic and I was loving every single moment of it.

***

Later on the day, I got dressed in a pair of shorts and a t-shirt as we had to get straight out to the field after breakfast. It was another hot day and I was enjoying the sun shining on me as we drove because I knew it was going to be one hell of a training session.

We came to a stop and made our way to the field where I saw Luca and Giovanni were already present, ready and in training clothes.

“Hey, guys!” I said in a joyful tone with a big smile as we came closer to them.

“Someone’s a little too happy about getting her ass kicked today.” Giovanni commented with a smirk as he crossed his arms.

“I came prepared today. Better watch out or I might just accidentally cut your face.”

“With what? Your nails?” He teased with a smug grin.

“No, with this.” I grinned as I held my hand out for them to see my engagement ring. Luca whistled in impressment as he looked at it.

“It will definitely be a clean cut.” He chuckled and went to me, hugging me. “Congratulations!”

“Thank you!” I could barely contain my excitement as I hugged him back.

“Congrats, boss.” Luca turned to Damiano and did that half-hug thing I found funny as they slapped each other's backs.

“And when can I expect you to propose to my cousin?” Damiano asked him with his arms crossed and gave a scrutinizing look.

“I’m working on it.” Luca replied as he scratched the back of his head. I couldn’t help but quietly laugh at Luca’s reaction.

“Shit, that’s huge.” Giovanni’s voice had me turn to him. He looked impressed, nodding slightly as he looked at my ring. He then looked at me and I noticed a smile was slowly starting to appear on his lips.

“Congratulations, I’m happy for you.” He took me by surprise with his words and even more so when he hugged me.

“Awh, you do care about me!”

“Whatever.” I rolled my eyes at him still trying to deny it as I watched him congratulate Damiano as well. He might not be admitting it by words but his actions showed otherwise.

”Are you ready?” Damiano asked and I gave a nod, taking my ring off to give it to him as I didn’t want to risk breaking it.

Damiano refreshed my memory from yesterday’s training and then continued to teach me a few more skills and explain what do to. Once I was confident with it, I was now in the middle of the field, facing Giovanni, who was moving his neck from side to side.

”I’m not going easy on you.” He smirked.

”I don’t expect you to. Better watch out I don’t scratch your stupid face.” I snickered.

I was ready but I had no idea what awaited me. One moment I was standing up, but then he moved so fast. He grabbed me and roughly slammed me down on the ground, knocking all the air out of me.

I slowly rolled to my side, coughing and gasping for air.

”Fuck you, Gio. That was personal.” I croaked out.

”Payback is a bitch.” I saw his smug grin and I flipped him off.

___

Hello, Lovelies. Unfortunately, I have caught Covid :( I will be taking time off to recover and I don't know when the next update will be as my health comes first. Please, refrain from asking when's the next update as I recover.

Thank you <3