Seduced: My Mafioso Boyfriend, Part 1

Seduced: My Mafioso Boyfriend, Part 1

by
Eliza Stout

Publis
hed by Eliza Stout

Copyright 2013 Eliza Stout. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. This book contains material protected under International and Federal Copyright Laws and Treaties. Any unauthorized reprint or use of this material is prohibited. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system without express written permission from the author.

This is a work of fiction. The characters, incidents, and dialogues in this book are of the author’s imagination and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events or persons, living or dead, is completely coincidental.

Seduced: My Mafioso Boyfriend, Part 1

I was stuck in bumper to bumper morning traffic on my way to work, fumbling with the radio dial and trying to pin my hair up in between the rare moments here and there when the mile long length of vehicles would lurch forward a couple feet. I sighed, switching from some boring talk show on the NPR station to classic country to bland pop and back again, but to be honest I didn't really feel like listening to any of it. There was just too much on my mind. Just a week earlier, my boyfriend Jason and I had broken up, and now it seemed that the only thing filling my life was this crappy office job that I couldn't stand but was currently headed towards nonetheless. If I ever made it there, that was. Someone began laying into their horn a few car lengths back, as if that would magically cause the sea of jammed up cars to part and let them through. Like wolves howling in response to one another in the middle of the night, another horn called out an answer to the first, and soon a third joined in. All I could do was shake my head.

My cell phone began ringing and I reached down into the middle console to grab for it. I glanced down at the screen quickly before answering it to see who it was. It was Lacie, a friend of mine from the office. I tapped the large green answer button at the bottom of the screen and held the phone up to my face.

“Hello?"

"Tara. It's Lacie."

"Yeah. What's up?"

"Where are you? Work started half an hour ago."

"Yeah, I know. Traffic is at a complete standstill right now and unfortunately I'm right in the middle of it."

"Oh, that sucks. Look, Stanton hasn't
peaked his head out of his office yet so you're still in the clear, but you might want to hurry. I was getting worried about you."

"Nothing I can do about that. I'll be there
wh.... oh, it's moving."

The cars in front of me began to move forward, creating a large gap due to the fact that I hadn't noticed right off the bat. Not wanting to further piss off the people behind me I pushed the gas pedal down and accelerated quickly to close the gap. Unfortunately, the traffic in front of me had only the appearance of beginning to move. No sooner than they had lurched forward a little ways they came to an abrupt stop once again. By the time I saw the red glow of the brake lights in front of me it was too late. I slammed my foot down on the brakes, the tires began to screech, and then the front of my car collided with the backend of the car ahead of me with a loud clunk.

"Shit, Lacie, I've got to go." I threw my phone down onto the passenger seat.

The car I had hit was an expensive looking black Mercedes, polished to an impressive sheen. It looked as new as the day it was driven off the lot... except for the rear bumper that was now slightly collapsed in on
itself. The door whipped open and a man in an expensive looking suit slid himself out and shut the door calmly behind him. He had a sharp angular jaw, a gorgeous head of shiny black hair, and deep brown eyes that sat under brows furrowing in anticipation of what he was about to see. As he walked to the back of his car to assess the damage he peeled a black leather driving glove from a large hand and stuffed it into his suit pocket.

I sat there in the driver's seat just gawking at this beautiful man for what must have been a few minutes as he went through the usual post-accident steps, before I realized that I should be digging through my glove compartment for insurance information or getting out
to apologize or something. I shook my head quickly to bring myself back to reality and then shoved my car door open and stumbled out awkwardly.

"I'm so sorry!" I blurted out. "I should have been paying more attention!"

He looked up from the tangled bumpers and waved his hand in dismissal. "Don't worry about it. It's just money. Besides, you got insurance, right?"

"I do."

"No big deal, then. Let's just exchange information and get on with it. Doesn't look like anything major."

The entire time he was speaking he never really looked at me. He was still examining both of the cars closely to be certain that no serious damage had been done. I slipped back to my car to get my automobile insurance information out of the glove compartment, and while I was hidden behind the open driver's side door I quickly stretched and flattened out the rumpled outfit I had thrown on for work that morning in my depressed stupor. I combed my hand through my hair a couple times until I realized that it wasn't doing much, checked my teeth in the rear view mirror and then reappeared with my insurance card in hand. This time he looked up at me.

His eyes met mine head on and I froze in place. They were a dreamy dark caramel color, and seemed to be infinitely deep, like dark brown pools that would not come to an end no matter how long you stared into them. I could feel the tiny blonde hairs on my arm prickle up.

And then he smiled.

"I'm Anthony, by the way," he said, extending his thick hand to me.

"T... Tara," I managed to spit out as I reached out to take his hand. His grip was strong and firm, but just gentle enough to clearly be in full control while not imposing on or hurting me. "H... here's my info," I stuttered.

He raised an eyebrow at me, still smiling with those straight white teeth. "Are you alright?"

I managed to regain my composure again. "Yes, yes. Sorry. I'm just a little shaken up from the accident."

"I see. You aren't hurt are you?"

"No, no. I feel fine.
Just startled is all."

"Alright, well look.
Here's my number." He produced a small business card from the inside pocket of his jacket. "You give me a call if you need anything, but this seems like a pretty straightforward one. The insurance companies should be able to figure it out."

I took the card and glanced at it for a moment before slipping it into my pocket. It read 'Anthony DiSorrento' and said that he was Vice President of Capitol Waste Disposal Services.

"Shouldn't we call the police?" I asked.

He furrowed his brow when I said this. "No. There's no need. You seem like an honest girl.
Right?"

I laughed. "You can trust me. Oh... here. Let me get you my number too just in case." I ran back to the car and fumbled around in my purse for a pen and quickly scribbled my cell phone number and name onto a blank sheet torn out of my address book. When he had received this from me, he looked down at it for a second, nodded, and then smiled and looked back up at me.
"Alright then, Miss Tara." He looked around. "Traffic's starting to clear up. At least this gave us something to do while we waited for that to happen, yeah?"

I laughed and nodded my head in agreement as he turned and disappeared back inside of his newly spoiled Mercedes.

*

Later that day, I was sitting at my desk spinning a pen around in my fingers. I had just eaten a rather large lunch at the Mexican restaurant across the street that I was just beginning to feel guilty about. The salad I had packed with me still sat in the break room refrigerator, lonely and untouched. I fumbled the pen between my fingers and it clattered onto the desk, coming to rest on top of the business card that I had received earlier from Anthony. I left the pen where it lay and pick up the card, studying it and thinking about the handsome man that had given it to me.

Just then my cell phone began to ring.

"Hello?" I asked as I held it up to my face.

"Is this Tara?"

"Yes, it is."

"This is Anthony DiSorrento. You ran into my car this morning. You might not remember."

I laughed. "You'll have to refresh my memory."

"Tall. Handsome. Great hair. Frighteningly sharp sense of humor."

"Ah, that one.
How can I help you, Mr. DiSorrento?"

"Please, call me Tony. Forgive me if this is a bit forward, but I wanted to ask you out to dinner tonight."

"Me?" I accidentally blurted out.

I heard his laughter come through the phone's speaker.
"Who else?"

"Sorry. I would like that very much, actually."

"Good. I'll come pick you up tonight at around 7."

I gave him the address to my small apartment and wrapped up the phone call. When he had hung up I tossed my phone back down onto the desk and immediately leapt from my chair, dancing around my cubicle. I shook my hair wildly in excitement and bumped the back of the chair with my behind, causing it to roll across the floor a couple feet where it was stopped by running into a pair of high heels standing in the entrance. I looked up and Lacie was standing there with a confused but obviously amused look on her face. I wondered how long she had been there. Embarrassed, I quickly straightened up my outfit but I couldn't contain the huge smile that was spread across my face.

"Are you okay?" she said playfully.

"Remember the accident I was in earlier this morning?" I asked her.

"Yeah."

"Well, the guy I hit just called and asked me out to dinner."

"Really?"

"Really.
He's handsome and smart and funny... has a real nice car too."

"He had a nice car, anyway.
Before you got a hold of it."

I made a face at her comment. "Oh, and apparently he's successful also.
A vice president." I snatched his business card off of my desk and handed it to her.

"Anthony
DiSorrento," she read out loud as she flipped the business card over in her fingers. "Capitol Waste Disposal Services. Hm. Why does that sound familiar?"

I shrugged.

"Wait. I think I know!" she exclaimed. "Stay here. I'll be right back."

She rushed away and down the hall, to her own cubicle, and then came back shortly with a copy of newspaper in her hands, the pages all creased, mismatched, and out of order like a thoroughly used newspaper tends to get. She awkwardly searched through the pages until she found what she was looking for. "Here. Is this him?"

I studied the pixilated newspaper quality photograph for a moment. It was him. He was wearing an expensive looking suit, like he had that morning, and the picture was apparently snapped of him as he was leaving some expensive restaurant downtown.

"Tara..."
Lacie said, looking quite serious now. "He's in the mafia."

"No. He can't be. I don't believe that. Let me see it."

I snatched the paper from her hands to read the article more carefully. It was definitely him. The paper mentioned that he was currently under a high profile investigation for alleged racketeering and organized criminal activities.

"This doesn't say anything," I said wishfully.
"Alleged. That's all it says. Alleged. Under investigation. He hasn't been charged with anything."

"What are you going to do now?"

"I mean... I guess I'm going to have dinner with him."

"What? You can't do that! He could be dangerous!"

"He's not. He seemed sweet. Trust me."

"Trust you? He's handsome, I'll give you that... but Tara, come on. He's a criminal."

"I don't know... this just has to be some kind of mistake. I should at least give him the benefit of the doubt. I owe him that much for being so kind."

Lacie
just shook her head and I could tell that she was disappointed in me. Still, there was nothing she could say that was going to change my mind at this point. She just didn't know. I had met him in person. I had spoken with him. She hadn't and because of that she was forming opinions of him based on the only resource she had available to her... some hit piece in the newspaper. She didn't know anything about his charm or his wit... or that gorgeous smile. If she had she would be agreeing with me.

*

That evening I had gone out of my way to look as hot as possible. I spent twice as long as usual on my hair and makeup to make sure that everything was perfect. I picked out a special little blue dress that was shorter than I was used to wearing, but just long enough to put me well out of skank territory while still being sexy. I had been saving it for an occasion like this one. I was in the bathroom, leaned over the sink and up close to the mirror putting the finishing touches on my lipstick when I heard the car horn blow outside down in the street. I slid the lipstick back into its tube, tossed it inside of my purse, took a deep breath and headed towards the door. My fat little orange tabby was curled up into a furry little ball on the edge of the couch and I patted him gently on the head as I passed him.