Married To The Mafia...?

Rain washed along every window, it poured and flooded every inch of ground as far as the eye could see. I squinted harshly from the passenger seat, trying to make sense of the outside world through the wind shield. Blurry shapes sped by and I caught quick glimpses of the blanket black sky each time the wiper blades flicked water from the glass. Ethan's finger tips played losely with my own, his attention focused heavely on our destination.

The black car eased slowly to a gentle hault and I felt the cold wind whisper against my bare legs as the valet opened my door and helped me climb out. Quickly Ethan found his place by my side and wrapped his fingers with mine as we walked slowly up grand marbel stairs. Camera bulbs flashed every now and again but I made no point to pay too much attention

I wove in and out of crowded groups lingering in the foyer of La Fe Julianna a delicately painted hotel owned by one of Antonio's oldest friends Robert Nicholls. The carpets were a deep ocean blue with a strange yet intricate pattern woven into the wool, the walls a calm cream. Heavy blue drapes hung from ceiling high windows and tables blotted around the wooden ballroom floor.

"Amelia and Ethaniel Radev." Robert's smile was warm and touch his eyes, his hair was growing thin and drew back slightly. "Congratulations on the wedding."

I smiled a forced grin and Ethan shook the aging man's hand before he changed the conversation to a topic that interested me even less. Instead I moved my gaze around the room, watching as women gossiped in the shadows of their leading men. I stared over the sea of faces until I caught the eye of one figure in particular. Her stare was sharp and burned right through me, it held the look of hatred and had the potential to kill me where I stood.

Ethan's finger wrapped around my hand softly bringing my attention to his sea green eyes, he gazed down curiously, one brow raised questionably. I smiled shortly in reassurance and as much as I knew he didn't buy it, I was thankful when he dropped the silent conversation. He turned his head toward a new face and immediately picked up topic while my focus went back to the woman in a black dress. Only now she had disappeared.

Charity events were common among the enterprises over Vegas and it was expected that everyone who held a name withing head lights attended, smiled and donated generous amounts of cash. I smiled warmly as Ethan signed small cheques and paper slips with donations to a multitude of charities. I spoke timidly to elderly women and answered their interrogations with slight confidence. It had been easier to tell people I was simply engaged, back then I hadn't taken sacred oathes or made the ultimate in commitments.

"You don't look very much in love..."

The comment had played over and over in my head from the very second a woman no older than fourty had huffed with a suspiscious roll of her eyes. Was our disguise so terrible? Were we failing to keep up our appearance?

I felt Ehan's lips kiss my temple as his arm wrapped around me. "You seem quiet?" he wasn't asking a rhetorical question, he was making an observation and demanding an answer all in one.

"It... it's nothing." I sighed and shook my head slowly forcing a smile over my pale pink lips.

"Don't listen to them." He murmured his words whilst his lips were still beside my head, his eyes looking over my hair at the crowds of people. "They don't know a thing."

"I know, I just-"

"Thought things would be different?" It was as if he was reading my mind and I numbly nodded in response. "Life isn't a fairy tale, not everything goes according to plan..." His voice drifted off leaving me to contemplate his words while his fingers laced with mine and dragged me to my feet.

Ethan spun me slowly toward the ballroom floor where elderly couples danced elegantly in silks and satins. I raised a single brow in Ethan's direction and laughed lighter when he shrugged and offered me his hand.

Quickly our bodies collided, my hand fell to his shoulder and his to my waist our free ones connecting together. We twirled and laughed across the dance floor and for a moment I didn't care what a single person thought. I didn't care if people suspected us of playing pretend I couldn't care less if they thought we were young, dumb and in love.

The floor quickly filled and I smiled lazily up at my husband as his hand let go of mine and fell to my hip, my own finding comfort in the lapel of his jdark shirt. I could feel the stares on my back, I could practically taste the gossip in the air and Ethan immediately sensed my paranoia. "They don't matter." His voice was a husk whisper.

"They're staring." My hand grasped at his lapel.

"Then let them..." his voice vanished toward the end of his sentence and I fell the warmth of breath against my lips, Ethan's eyes danced across mine and his smile was completely contagious. His dark head of hair bent slightly and his perfect, flawless face inched ever so closer to mine, his lips capturing mine in a sweet not-at-all subtle kiss in the centre of the dancefloor.

For a moment I felt as if I weren't playing pretend, as if right at that moment I was married, I was a wife who's husband completely adored her. For a moment I was living a fairy tale.