Mafia Kings: Adriano: Dark Mafia Romance Series #2

The rest of the evening was wonderful, too, as we danced and ate under a beautiful Tuscan sky.

At one point, Roberto approached me while Adriano was talking to someone else.

Though Roberto and Niccolo were fraternal twins, they looked almost exactly alike – although Roberto always wore his hair slicked back like a banker, while Niccolo wore his hair loose.

“I understand you want to be a fashion designer,” Roberto said.

“Well, that was my original plan, but… we’ll have to see how it goes.”

To be honest, I had temporarily set aside my dreams in that department. With the insanity of everything that had happened, I could only concentrate on one thing at a time – and for right now, that meant getting married.

So I’d dropped out of fashion school… but I definitely wanted to continue my studies one day.

“I’ve talked to every woman at the wedding,” Roberto told me, “to get an unbiased opinion. Not just from my brothers, or Alessandra, or your parents. And every single one of them said your dress is astounding. ‘Better than Vera Wang,’ as one of them put it. And all of them said that if they had the money, they would absolutely buy something you designed.”

A flush of pride filled my chest. “Thank you. Although, to be honest, when you and your brothers paid that much money for the best seamstresses in Italy – ”

Roberto waved my objections aside. “Don’t be modest. They were working off your designs. The real reason I wanted to talk to you was… would you consider opening a boutique in Florence?”

I stared at him in astonishment, unable to speak.

“You see, we’re always looking to diversify,” he explained. “You already know we want to be 100% legitimate within two years. I figure this could be an excellent investment for the family. I ran the numbers and I think it’s a no-brainer to start off small, then expand if there’s sufficient demand.”

“Did… did Adriano ask you to do this?” I asked, astounded.

Roberto frowned like that was ridiculous. “Good God, no. No offense to my brother, but he doesn’t know the first thing about business.”

“So this… isn’t something he put you up to?”

“No, of course not.”

“You’re not just doing this to be nice to me?”

Roberto snorted. “This is about making money. If I wanted to be ‘nice’ to you, I would have bought you a blender.”

“And… the others are okay with it?”

“Well, I make all the business decisions for the family, but I already cleared it with Dario. After seeing the finished product,” Roberto said as he gestured at my dress, “he thinks it’s an excellent idea.”

“He does?!”

Roberto looked at me like I was a little odd, but he laughed. “Yes, he does.”

My mouth gaped open like a fish. “Are you… are you sure?”

“Absolutely. Profit margins are excellent in the luxury end of the fashion industry. Wedding dresses, women’s fashion – whatever you’d like to do. With your talent and us backing you, I think it could be huge.”

“I… I…”

“You can take some time to think about it,” he said gently.

He was probably under the impression that my being tongue-tied was hesitance when it was actually just disbelief.

“No, I mean – yes – yes, I’d love to!”

“Good. We’ll talk more when you get back from your honeymoon.”

“This is – thank you!” I cried out as I hugged him. “This is the best wedding gift you could have ever given me!”

He laughed and patted my back. “It’s not a gift, Bianca – it’s a partnership. You deserve it. If it works out the way I hope, we’ll be extremely lucky to have gotten in with you on the ground floor.”

And with that, Roberto won me over as my favorite brother-in-law… even over some extremely tough competition.