Chapter 8

Dante’s pov:

It has been three weeks since the engagement party, three weeks since I last talked to her, My sister on the other hand has spent hours talking to her over the phone, Both of them seems to get along so much, They hit it off the minute they met, In such a short period, they developed a strong bond, Anastasia even asked my sister to be her bridesmaid since she doesn’t have any other girl friend, My sister was so thrilled when she heard of the offer, Of course, she accepted without hesitation,

Pretty sure they will be a torture for the rest of my life, Not to mention Novio who is my main annoyer, He is now standing right next to me in the end of isle at the venue where is held the wedding, I told him to wear a fucking black suit to meet my dark blue suit but he ignored me and went for a beige one, Facing him at the other side of the isle is my Antoinette, She looks as beautiful as ever in her light pink dress, Her hair lifted up in a ponytail and having in her hands a bouquet of flowers, Novio compliments her in Italian and she blushes, I have been assuming that there is something going on between the two of them for quiet some time now, Actually, I would be happy for them, I would never trust my sister with anyone better than Nevio, I know that she will be safe and sound with him, From the way he looks at her, like she is the most beautiful woman that he has ever seen, I am sure that he will treat her right and make her happy, I will pull him apart later and ask him about his relationship status with my sister,

I scan the area, All the guests have already showed up and are waiting for the ceremony to begin, Half of the seats are occupied by the spanish mob family, They flew all the way here from Spanish to assist at the ceremonies, The other half of the seats are occupied by members of my family, Apart from my uncles and my cousins, I don’t recognise the other attendees, I didn’t even know they existed before today, Antoinette took care of the invitations as I didn’t give a shit of them, They are present here just for public eye,

I notice that many of the guest are admiring the exceptional architecture of venu, The venu dates to the eighteenth century, It is located in the centre of Sicilly, For over than one hundred years all the Russo’s weddings have been held here, And, of course, I followed the steps of my insectors and honored our tradition,

Few minutes later, music fills the atmosphere, The ceremony begins announcing the arrival of the bride, Sooner Anastasia comes to sight accompanied by her father and she starts walking down the aisle,

Fucking hell, To say she looked amazing in that white bridal dress was an understatement, She is breathtaking, She looks like a goddess, I knew by now that red is her colour, but she looks so gorgeous in white that it is impossible for me to take my eyes off her, Her brown hair is left down, cascading over her shoulders, covered by a veil that reaches the floor,

They approach me little by little, With each step they make, I can see her face features more clearly, She is wearing a pink lipstick, For a moment, I wonder what it would feel like if I ruin it,

The exceptional red stone of her ring flushes under the lights of venue, making it visible from metres away, She holds in her hand a bouquet of light rose flowers identical to the ones on Antoinette’s bouquet,

Once they reaches me, Antonio hands her over to me, Suddenly, her perfume fills all the air around us, I inhale deeply filling my lungs with her scent,

Holding each others hands, we face each other,

The officiant says: ” Dear friends and family, we are gathered here today to witness and celebrate the union of Anastasia Perez and Dante Russo, Both of them are ready to spend the rest of their lives together as husband and wife.”,

He looks at Anastasia and he says:”Anastasia Perez, do you take Dante Russo to be your legal wedded husband, to have and to hold from this day forward?”, She says :”I do.”,

Then, he adresses the same words to me:”Dante Russo do you take Anastasia to be your legal wedded wife, to have and to hold from this day forward?”,

I say:”I do.”,

Now, it is the time to say our vows and exchange the rings, I take the lead and say:” I give you this ring as a symbol of my commitment and devotion, I take you for my lawful wife until death do us part, I will honor you all the days of my life.”, I slide the ring on her finger,

I didn’t produce these words myself, I searched on google for the shortest and simplest vow and I memorised it on my way here, I didn’t mean a single word I said,

Anastasia repeats my exact words, Then, the officant says:” I know pronounce you husband and wife, Dante may kiss your bride.”,

Anastasia and I exchange a look, We need to put a show for our precious guests and give them what they all want, I am sure they have been waiting for this moment since the beginning of the ceremony, I make a step in her direction, I place one hand around her waist and the other one cups her cheeks, I take another look at her, At this moment, she looks so angelic, She is far from the woman I met previously,

I lean on and I capture her mouth in a simple kiss just to satisfy our audience who went wild, I can hear them cheering and clapping, Then, I break our lips apart,

“Is that all you got?”, She teases me, “I thought you ha-“, Before she could finish her sentence, I bring our lips together again, Her hands slid into my hair while mine found her waist like they belonged there,

The outside world fades in the background, In this moment, it is just me and her, The others just don’t exist anymore, This second kiss is nothing like the first one we shared, It is more fierce, more possessive, screaming : she is mine,

I take my time to taste her, She tastes so sweet, For a split second, I feel like I am lost in her, like I will never get enough of her,

Fuck, She is my enemy, I am not supposed to think about her that way, Focus Dante and collect yourself, It takes me a lot of self control to break our kiss this time, I look at her, Her lips are swollen and her cheeks are red,

I lean over brushing my mouth over her ear and I murmur: “Hope that the kiss meets your standards, Mrs Russo.”,

By the time, all the guest congratulate us, I feel like I got my daily dose of socialising, It was just too much for me, I grab a scotch from the bar and head to the balcony, I need to fill my lungs with some air and have few moments alone,

I stare at the sky as I hear foot steps, Nice, Someone decided to join me during my little escape, I turn my head to see Matteo,

After I saw him standing next to Anastasia at our engagement party, I did a deep research on him and checked very well his background, Everything seemed okay, The most important thing about him and the annoying is that he is the friend of Anastasia,

“I guess I need to have a talk with you.”,

“What kind of talk.”, I ask and I have another sip from my scotch,

“The kind of talk in which I tell you that I will make you pay if anything happens to Anastasia.”, He threatens, How thoughtful of him?,

“I think I have a better one, Contact her or stand as close to her as you did at the engagement party, you will find yourself six feet’s under the ground, Now, I have to get my wife.”, Not waiting for his reponse, I walk past him,

My words echo in my head, My wife, It was the first time I say it out loud and It was so fluent on my tongue,

As expected, I found her with Antoinette, My sister made sure to introduce her to all our girl cousins,

As I come closer to them, I hear Maria, my cousin, saying:”We will be waiting for your in our next party.”,

“Of course, I will come, Count me in.”, Anastasia says excitement visible in her voice,

Maria looks at me surprised:”Dante, we didn’t notice your presence.”,

“I came to get my wife.”,

“She is all yours.”, She says,

“Time to go dearest husband.”, Everyone thought we were saying sweet things to each other, But, I am the only one who heard the sarcasm in the word ‘husband’, We are just playing the role of the perfect couple in front of everyone,

Once we get away from them and they can’t hear us, I say:” Husband huh.”, I tease her,

“Shut up, Or I won’t care about the other people and I will punch you Dante.”,

“That’s the Anastasia I was looking for, I thought she got lost.”, She sends me a glare,

She says her goodbyes to her father and we leave the venu, The driver is already waiting for us in front of the main entrance, Each one of us goes for a side of the car, I don’t bother opening her door for her, As I said on our first meeting, I am not a gentleman, Then, we hit the road,

On our way, I take my phone out of my pocket in order to answer some important emails,

“Where are we going?”, She questions,

Without taking my eyes of the screen of my phone, I say:” The airport.”,

“What an important information, I didn’t know, Elaborate more.”,

“We are going to Sicily, Is that a good answer?”, She doesn’t say anything, I know this wasn’t the answer she was looking for, I am sticking to my plan to ignore her, The less I talked to her, the better,

For the rest of the drive we remain silent,

Once we reach the airport, the driver opens the door for her and helps her to get out of the SUV, The plane is there and the crue is waiting for our arrival to take off,

We take our seats, She sits facing me, Secondes later, the flight attendant come to welcome us,

“What can I offer you Mr Russo?”, She asks,

“Scotch.”, I say,

“Same here.”, Anastasia says offering her a simple smile, Seems we have similarities at least,

I ditch my jacket, roll the sleeves of my shirt and open one of its top bottons, I open my laptop to catch up on work, She on the side stares out of the window,

We don’t talk during the whole flight thankfully, I wasn’t in the mood the argue with her or handle her comments,

Once we land, we found my chauffer waiting for us, We reach the mansion by three in the morning,

Greta is probably asleep by the time, So, I show Anastasia her room,

We are not going to share the same room, This is not a real marriage after all,

As she closes the door of her room, I retire to mine which across the hall from hers, I am so tired after the busy day I went through,