The Twelve Tables Ch. 04

They walked into the Villa together, and Peri was overwhelmed by the opulence. Carefully selected antique furniture and artwork decorated the interior which was enhanced with delicate objects in porcelain and marble. Her agile mind constantly working, she was sure she could name several of the artists represented in this room when a squeal of delight brought her back to the present and a smiling rotund woman ran and grabbed Josh pulling him down to her height to kiss him loudly on both cheeks.

"You must be his girl," the woman beamed, hugging her fiercely and kissing Peri's cheeks. "Aren't you just adorable! Come, come. I have everything all ready, Andreas has been complaining that his stomach thinks his throat has been cut for hours." Linking her arm with Peri's, she guided her through the villa to the enclosed terrace. Marisol smiled at Peri's gasp at the view they commanded of the vineyards and dams of their farm. The table was dressed as if for a formal dinner party, and Peri looked over her shoulder at Josh, reassuring herself that he was close by.

"Zia!" Josh laughed. "Slow down, Peri this is my Aunt Marisol, and she is not as crazy as she seems, most of the time."

The little woman hit Josh playfully and carried on toward the table giving Peri a seat facing the view. "She will call me Zia, of course, I will be her Aunty too, so when will you marry?" she asked Peri. "Oh I love weddings. You could have the reception here if you like, but I don't think Josh's father would like that..."

Peri was stunned and looked at Josh for help understanding what the woman was talking about as she prattled on barely stopping to take a breath. Josh continued to laugh as he shrugged at Peri and rolled his eyes.

"Do you expect an answer to any of those questions or are you going to talk her to death before we've even have had a bite to eat?" Andreas barked, putting his hand down heavily on the table top and turning to his wife with a slightly raised voice.

"Well of course I want answers silly. I wouldn't ask them otherwise, would I?" Marisol seemed contrite.

"Then how about you let the girl answer, you haven't even let her say hello yet," Andreas murmured but his tone was reprimanding.

"Oh, I am sorry dear, it's just that Josh has never brought anyone here to meet us before today. Though he has stayed at the cottage once or twice with a friend, he is usually on his own when he visits." Marisol reached out and patted her hand. "Let's start with how you met our Josh?"

Marisol kept up a constant barrage of questions and reminiscence during the lunch, barely letting the others talk at all. It turned out that Andreas and Marisol had no children of their own and that Josh was the favourite nephew as he was also their God-child. They had built the cottage for him so that he would visit more often and take an interest in their small winery and farm. While the woman spoke, two demure women served the lunch and cleared away plates after each course, and by the end of the long, three course meal Peri had questions of her own, about the farm and the people that worked there.

Her curiosity about his family had reached a high point by the time they finished dessert, but she held her tongue thinking that she would pose her carefully-worded questions to Josh in the car on the way home. To her surprise, at the end of the meal Josh left her sitting with his Aunt and went to speak with Andreas in his study. For the second time when meeting his family, Peri was left with the women of the party and it struck her as odd.

"I realise you have help here, but can I assist them in clearing up the lunch things?" Peri offered helpfully, breaking into Marisol's chatter about men and their secret business.

"Oh don't be silly, darling girl. Aren't you so sweet? No, that's what the girl's are here for, to look after our every whim," Marisol smiled. "Why don't we go have a look at some of my treasures? You're an art history major, you said? You will enjoy some of the objects I have managed to collect over the years."

Once again Marisol asked questions she didn't really want answers to but it seemed to be the way she spoke. It was as if she was giving the person choices, while leading them down an extremely narrow path with no option but to follow her. She stood guiding Peri from the table back into the cool dim light of the house. In truth as each favourite piece was pointed out Peri was more in awe of the woman's collector's eye and the stories of how she had come across such exquisite pieces.

"Good grief woman! Are you boring our guest with your collections?" Andreas exclaimed loudly. Peri was examining an oversized Capidimonte music box when Josh and Andreas finally found them.

"Oh Gosh! No!" Peri said, appalled by his statement. "You know, I studied art history at university, but I never thought I would get to hold an original Capidimonte in my hands like this. I feel as if I should be wearing gloves or something." She laughed and placed the musical carousel shaped box back in its original position.

"If you don't marry this girl soon I might just adopt her myself," Marisol smiled widely at Josh, showing her genuine affection for the new girl in his life while teasing her Godson. "Don't look so worried, I would keep her safe from Zio." Marisol gave her husband a hard look.

"You could try," Andreas muttered under his breath at the hard look he received. Josh stepped forward and wrapped his arms around Peri and smiled at their bickering. This house was a second home to him, and he adored the two people who looked at him with smiles lighting their faces.

"I think I should take you home before these two spoil you so much you think about taking that offer seriously," Josh laughed, but it was getting late and he had a long drive before him. Peri laughed with him but said nothing else as they all walked toward the front of the house again. After much hugging and kissing they finally drove off in the darkening afternoon to return to their real lives.

"The weekend is almost over," Peri said, realising she hadn't taken off the necklace, but neither had Josh asked for it, and one of her hands fluttered to her neck.

"The necklace is yours. It was only a prop, and a mighty impressive one at that," he smirked at her. "If you were ever to wear a collar like the girl's in relationships like those you have read about in your research recently, trust me you would know it was a collar," he said enigmatically.

"Those girls who served us lunch wore collars," she said quietly.

"Yes," Josh said simply offering no explanation. She knew in her mind that it meant what she thought it meant, it was the road Josh was leading her down, an understanding of this world, but she wondered if all of his family had this type of interest or inclination and how the women dealt with it, though Marisol had not seemed to mind very much.

Josh could see her mind working at her acceptance of his Uncle's submissives and her Aunts obvious acceptance of them. He purposely hadn't explained the situation to her, wanting her to reason it out within her own acquiescence of his family's belief in a type of caste system. As Patrician, he and his family could court and even marry Plebeians, but there would always be a slave class who would serve the elders of their community in the ways they wanted and needed. Though a few of the younger men and women of the family network had strayed from this way of life, for Josh, what he wanted most was an equal. He wanted someone to share his world and enrich it by sharing his goals and interests.

"They seemed happy to be there," Peri said tentatively, her mind working around the social taboo's that came with the idea of slavery and sexual submission.

"No one is forced into a life they do not wish. Indeed a lot of the girls who have become part of the family landscape seek it out voluntarily. They are always paid, however, room, board, food and an agreed upon amount into their bank accounts each week for their service as a maid or whatever they were hired for, in addition to their other duties." He hadn't meant to say so much, but he reassured himself that she needed all of the pieces to the puzzle.

The trip home was punctuated by small generic questions about his family and the book, gently touching on the lifestyle they led in between. As they talked she thought about what she had learned about him today.

"Come stay with me tonight? We can drop by your place and pick up what you need for work tomorrow," Josh said quietly, but the tone in his voice was commanding even though he posed the statement as a type of question.

"Sure," Peri smiled not wanting to end their intimate weekend yet either.

They drove in comfortable silence. Josh's hand often rested on her thigh as he drove with her hand over his. She was happy, the life she had been living, in the constant shadow of other brighter, smarter, more beautiful people seemed to be a distant memory. She considered how, since Josh had come into her life on that fateful day in the research office, every facet of her world had seemed to change for the better: her job, her mother, and best of all she was in love with someone who loved her in return. She even felt better about her looks and considered if all the extra-curricular activity she had lately had perhaps helped her to shift a little of the weight from her curvy figure.

It didn't matter really, she felt happy, and she found herself actually looking forward to checking on Andie as they pulled up beside the small home she and Andie shared. They walked in to find her sitting at the kitchen table surrounded by books and catalogues and what appeared to be small mountains of paperwork.

"Oh baby, your home already!" Andie appeared to notice the time and looked horrified. "I totally lost track of the time. Do you want something to eat? Was it a long drive? Give me a minute and I will clean this off."

"No need to clean it off, I only came home to pick up some stuff for work tomorrow," Peri walked over and hugged her mother who appeared to relax. "What's all this?" Peri waved her hand at the paperwork on the table.

"Well, that personal shopper idea that you gave me on Friday when I was talking with that bitch Sabrina," Andie paused and quickly looked up at Josh and the look of distress that appeared on Peri's face. "I'm sorry Josh, but your PA is a bitch. Anyway the guy I've been seeing thought it was a terrific idea and said he would back me if I wanted to cut down work to part-time and trial it for a few months to see if I could make it work. The catch is I have to come up with a business plan on my own." Andie looked at the clutter on the table. "I know it looks like a mess, but it makes sense to me."

Peri had pretty much already told Josh about Sabrina's remarks yesterday without naming her specifically, so she wasn't as concerned as she might otherwise have been and Andie seemed so eager about her project that Peri couldn't help but be caught up in her enthusiasm.

"Tell me about your plan so far," Josh said, stepping forward, interested in what she was saying, "What sort of shopping would you offer?"

"It would be mostly fashion tips and the like. Matching body types with styles and colouring, maybe branch into make-up eventually," Andie continued to talk Josh through what she was thinking and how she might go about marketing herself and getting a few high-end clients.

"I have an idea where you could make some real money and contacts with high -nd clients," Josh said thoughtfully. Peri watched on as Josh explained that executives often left shopping for their wives to their PA's who more often than not had no idea about the woman concerned and no taste of their own. Birthdays, Valentine's Day, Christmas: they were all nightmare times for them. "I think if you marketed towards them, wrapped and packaged the personalised gift with a small card introducing yourself as a personal shopping consultant, their wives might just be curious enough about the woman who selected such a fabulous gift in the first place to seek out your services."

"A quick phone call is all they would have to make to give me some small clue as to the client I would be buying for, and I could do it. Oh, Josh what a fabulous idea!" Andie all but leapt at Josh in her excitement.

Peri watched Josh disentangle himself from Andie and smile up at her. She was no longer concerned about Andie's predatory habits where Josh was concerned, but she smiled widely as he did his best to keep some small distance between himself and Andie.

"Go get your things together, my love," Josh continued to smile at Peri. "I'll just give Andie some names of the PA's and exec's at work that I think would love the idea."

"Andie," Peri called as she came from the bedroom. "If I put a load of washing on could you hang it out on the indoor rack for me in about an hour?"

"Sure, baby," Andie replied distractedly.

Peri rolled her eyes and went to put on a load of washing, when she came back they were still deep in discussion, so she began making a snack for them all. In truth, she was still full from lunch, but Andie would need to eat, so she made a platter of cold meats and cheeses, fruits and salad and warm, crusty rolls and placed it on the table for everyone to help themselves.

Andie and Josh were talking about limits on regions she would need to cover and the better places to shop with clients being different to places she may shop when bargain hunting. Peri pulled out scrap-paper and began doodling, letting their enthusiasm run its course. In a way she was glad that she could ensure the laundry was done the way she liked it, and she was happy enough listening to them bounce ideas off each other.

"All done then," Josh said as he stood up seeing Peri return from hanging out the laundry.

"Thank you so much, I have a real plan now and the most amazing logo," she held up the doodle, Peri had been working on.

"That was just a doodle," Peri smiled indulgently at her mother, looking at the silhouette she had drawn holding shopping bags that said "I'll run around" on one and on another, " So you don't have to."

"It perfectly fits what we were talking about as her marketing strategy," Josh grinned.

Andie nodded enthusiastically and hugged her daughter tightly to her, "Thanks."

"Good luck writing it all into a coherent plan. We need to go now that the laundry here is done. I have some of my own Peri might like to do as well," he laughed only half-jokingly.

Andie walked them to the door her arm still around Peri's waist. She kissed her daughter's cheek and whispered, "I am so happy you've found someone who loves you so much. Have a fabulous day at work tomorrow." She said the last louder and smiled at Josh as he bent to place a chaste kiss on her cheek.

"Thanks Andie," Peri farewelled her mother, not picking up on the subtle hint that work would be enjoyable the next day.

They drove in comfortable silence both happy to be heading home together. For Peri everything about this relationship seemed to be so right and so real that it felt like they had been together so much longer than the month or so since their first date. Perhaps it was the intensity and depth of feeling he professed for her and in her own way she for him. Though she had calmed down from her partying and promiscuous lifestyle, Andie had more than enough baggage and quirky behaviours to more than match Josh's unusual family, and she smiled looking up at him.

"Thanks for being so generous to Andie tonight. She seemed a bit overwhelmed by the task when we first arrived, and I have no head for business. You were terrific with all your idea's. I think she has a real shot at making it work now," Peri squeezed his hand, which lay on her thigh.

"All the idea's were there she just needed to structure it better, have a clear starting point, after that the sky is the limit if she does it right," Josh said thoughtfully. "It's a brilliant idea. I could get her to shop for you when all those holidays come around. You know when I am too busy being a business tycoon," he said, teasing her.

They pulled into the parking garage below his building, and he leaned over to kiss her deeply before getting out of the car and grabbing the toy chest and the two small overnight bags from the boot. Coming around the car she saw that the box that held the family book was still in the boot, and she reached for it to help him, but he stopped her.

"Leave it. You can take it into work tomorrow and have a proper look. We are sort of on a deadline for that, and I don't want anyone else to handle it," he said, giving her a half smile. She understood that he may not want anyone else knowing of his unusual family history. So she left it where it was not questioning his decision or when she would have time between her other work.

Refusing to let her take the bags, so he was not carrying everything, they went up to the apartment side by side and so unused to his not having a hand on her somewhere she reached out to link her arm with his. His answering smile made her feel warm and loved.

He walked and put their bags and the chest into the bedroom neatly stacking the bags inside a wardrobe and placing the chest on a side table. Peri laughed quietly, and when he looked up at her explained, "the chaos that Andie and I live in must just about kill you when you are there."

"Not at all, it's just like home. There are so many of us, there is always stuff everywhere. I think that is why I like my place to be so well ordered. My father's study is well ordered, and that is his space, he gave up on the rest of the house when all of the children came along, and though we always had several maids to keep it clean, keeping it ordered just didn't happen."

"I can't imagine having that many siblings, did you all get along?" Peri was genuinely curious.

"Yeah most of the time, normal fights and stuff but the older ones generally stepped in when the younger ones were fighting," Josh shrugged.

"Who are the older ones?" She couldn't quite place who was the oldest of them from her meeting with his siblings over lunch.

"Angelo, Ben, Carlo, Dante, Emilio; A B C D E," Josh chuckled, "It's easy to remember them. I don't think Mama realised what she had done naming them until someone pointed out that Isabella should have been Fiona." He continued to laugh as he went on, "then Lucia, Romeo and Jules, the Valentine brothers, Me and Nik and Maryanne."

"Nik is short for Veronica right?" Peri said.

"Yeah, but don't ever call her that, she hates it." He seemed to consider what he was about to say. "She hates a lot of things." He stopped short of admitting that included most of the women he had ever dated. By the time he had finished talking, he had begun undressing her and smothered any further questions with his kisses. "I don't want to talk about them anymore," he murmured. His fingers traced the bruises his vicious love bites had left on the soft white skin on the underside of her generous breasts.

Peri stroked his hair as he teased her nipples with his mouth and teeth feeling her breath quicken and her body respond to his almost immediately. Flipping open the chest lid he withdrew wrist restraints and speedily secured her hands above her head leaving her dangling from a partially hidden hook in the ceiling. His fingers pinched and twisted her nipples eliciting a squeal of pain from her before pulling them out from her body to make her breasts form large pointed peaks and her body bow towards him.

With the high-pointed nipples, they were perfect in Josh's mind, and he once again went to the chest withdrawing a soft nylon rope. He took his time binding them tightly, his cock hard and pressing against the fabric of his jeans aching to be free of the constricting fabric. He listened to her panting whimpers as he finally tied the soft rope off and stood back to admire her.