ISMERALDA 
It was another beautiful and boring day of doing nothing. When she woke up, she went for a run, took her bath, had breakfast and then read books.  
If she didn’t have her books, she didn’t know how she would survive. Her books were her life and she could read a single book over ten times. It felt so good to live in another reality and escape her own.  
Sometimes, she would imagine that Adriano was like the guys in the books she read; they were sweet and always treated girls with respect, they always had time for their wives or girlfriends and they were always open about their feelings.  
She knew that deep inside Adriano there was a heartless and brutal man but she wanted to believe that he could become better.  
She had seen softness in his eyes sometimes especially when he spoke to his brother. His brother and his mother were the only two people that Ismeralda had ever seen him be gentle with. He was always so cold and harsh with his father. It was as though he had zero tolerance for the man.  
Ismeralda wondered why Adriano felt the need to be the way he was. It was as though being cold and distant was his shield, an obstacle so no one got close and so no one could know what he was thinking or feeling. She didn’t know how she would ever break that barrier that he had up if he wouldn’t even let her close enough to him.  
He was hardly ever home and when he eventually got home from work, she would probably already be asleep or he would always be too tired to do anything.  
She was sick and tired of doing nothing the whole day. She had breakfast alone because he was always out of the house before she woke up and she ate lunch and dinner alone because he always came back home late.  
Her patience was running thin and she didn’t know how long it would take before she had a big blow-out of anger.  
It was getting late and Adriano still wasn’t home, not like that was a surprise. She got up from the chair on the balcony that she had been sitting on and walked into the living room.  
She sat on the couch that she sat on every time she waited for Adriano to get back home. She pulled out her phone and began to go through her social media pages.  
An hour later, she had fallen asleep as she always did.  
~*~*~*~ 
ADRIANO 
He was so frustrated that he picked up his files from his office desk and threw it across his office.  
The Sangue Nero had attacked one of the Lato Oscuro casinos and they had taken down three of his men.  
The Sangue Nero were a very powerful mafia organization and the were the biggest rivals that the L.O had.  
For years the two mafia organizations had fought to take over the whole of south America.  
The rivalry had caused many bloodshed and it had also cost the L.O a lot of money.  
Adriano was really angry because they had barged into his territory and that was the worst thing they would have done.  
They had control of Nevada, North and South Carolina, Indianapolis while the Lato Oscuro had control of New York, California, Texas, Colorado and Michigan. But the two crime organizations wanted South America too.  
The two mafia organizations had lived in peace with each other for some time but then Adriano’s great, great, great, great, great grandfather had wanted the South and unknown to him the Capo of the Sangue Nero at that time had also tried to take over the South and that was when the war between the two had started.  
Adriano had to think of a very strategic way to get back at the Sangue Nero. He had broken the greatest rule ever and that was that they had invaded Lato Oscuro territory. He was out for blood now.  
~*~*~*~ 
ISMERALDA 
The sound of the door closing loudly startled her away. She was still in the living room and she hadn’t been asleep for very long.  
Adriano walked into the living room slowly. He looked like a mess. His shirt was flying instead of being in his usual neat tuck-in, his hair was disheveled and messy instead of being in a neat side part like it always was and she noticed the anger burning in his eyes the moment she caught them.  
“Adriano, what’s wrong?” She asked with concern heavily laced in her voice.  
He didn’t say anything, he just stood looking at her with an intense look on her face.  
She got up from where she was sitting down and walked over to him slowly. When she got to the spot that he was standing, she placed her hand on his chest and she could feel his heart beating rapidly. He was really angry but she knew that he would never tell her why.  
So, she did the only thing that she could think to do in that moment. She stood on her tip toe and placed a kiss on his lips.  
At first, he had been taken my surprise and he didn’t react but soon after he kissed her back.  
This kiss was nothing they had shared on the altar. They had started with playing each other’s lips slowly but then he slipped his tongue into her mouth and they started to kiss more thoroughly.  
His mouth devoured hers and she surrendered willingly. She pressed her body against his and then he tightened his arms around her waist.  
He carried her and placed her the double sitter. He climbed on top of her and took control of her mouth again.  
She had expected him to do more than just kiss her, not like she was ready for it, but she was still surprised when he pulled away from her.  
He stared at her again but this time, he didn’t have anger in his eyes. His eyes were back to being cold and hollow and that made Ismeralda die inside.  
“We should probably got to bed. I have a lot of matters to take care of tomorrow.” he said and got off her and stood.  
As usual, his work came before her and now she felt a level of anger that she had been burying.  
Without saying a word, she stormed out of the living room and ran up the stairs to their room.  
No matter what, she would not sleep in the guest room, she had vowed that to herself and she wasn’t going to go back on her words no matter how sad she was.