The Twelve Zenati Pt. 22

Genesis's musings were cut short as he heard the soft knock at the door. He looked down at Olivia's serene face and bent down to kiss her lips. He let his tongue trace her lips until her mouth opened in a plea for more. He knew she was awake now, so he rolled from the bed and stood straightening his clothes as she rolled towards him, blinking her eyes.

Olivia's eyes opened, and she smiled as she stretched her marked limbs like a sated cat, a look of love for him shining in her eyes. She kept expecting this to be one incredible dream and that he would be gone when she woke up. He was still here, looking down at her and his eyes telling her that he loved her as much as she loved him. She pouted that he had left her alone in the bed.

"No pouting. We have a visitor. Take your time to dress and then come out to the living room," Genesis said softly, as he leaned down and wove his fingers into her hair, pulling her face up to his so that he could kiss her. When he finally broke the kiss, she was looking at him intensely, and he could see her craving for more. "More later, first our guest," he admonished, wanting nothing more than to sink into her and make her cry out in pleasure again, himself.

"Yes. Please, more and so much more." Olivia's whole face lit up in a mischievous grin.

"I think you are becoming spoiled, little one," Genesis chuckled. He loved her playful manner, and he knew how long it had taken her to get to the point where she could be comfortable enough to play with him, rather than blindly obey. "There's a time and place for everything and, as much as I want to play with my girl right now, I am going to protect her reputation with the help of our guest."

"Yes, Genesis." Olivia's playful look faded and was replaced by one of complete and total obedience. Her eyes lowered as if he had given her a rebuke and she crawled from the bed, intent on padding into the bathroom, but he caught her hand and pulled her back into his arms.

Their lips merged in a deep, loving and soulful kiss that affirmed everything both of them were feeling. The kiss could've gone on forever, except that the soft knocking on the door sounded again. Genesis broke the kiss and patted her ass, sending her to the bathroom, and he went to answer the door.

"Izzy, come in," Genesis said, with a broad smile. The man entered and embraced Genesis as only old friends could, with much back-slapping and hearty chuckles.

"It's been too long, my friend," Isidore greeted his old friend. "So, where is Olivia?" he asked, looking around.

"Cleaning up. She'll be out soon," Genesis said, not hiding the happiness in his voice as he spoke of Olivia.

"I thought that you'd be the last of us to give up bachelorhood," Isidore teased.

"When you know she's the one, you know," Genesis shrugged, not making excuses for the fact that he had handed over his confirmed bachelor card.

"Does Xavier know you're here yet?" Genesis asked.

"Yeah, Oscar is meeting him and Dominic. I'll meet up with them for dinner later. I told them that I wanted to come and catch up with you and my little cousin first," Isidore chuckled again. "Seriously, you're sure about this? Kissing goodbye to the globetrotting investigative reporting to toe the family line and have a family of your own?"

"Stranger things have happened. Besides, I had to give all you second-stringers a turn in the spotlight," he teased in return. "So, tell me what's happening? Did Nathanael find anything other than what we already know?" Genesis prodded.

"Nathanael is still recovering, whether he likes to admit it or not. So, I've been the one doing some digging, while he spoke to his fathers and Oscar," Isidore admitted.

"And..." Genesis prompted.

"It's a shit show, that's for sure." Isidore let out a long breath and sat back onto a couch. "Got a beer handy?" he smirked, not wanting to be the one who was here talking to his old friend about what a fuck-up his family had made of protecting the three sisters from not only an ogre of a father but his evil brother as well.

"Sure," Genesis went to the small, hidden bar and grabbed two beers, not wanting his friend to drink alone.

"Okay, so the girl's paternal grandmother left a will decreeing that all her assets be sold, and the money be divided equally amongst her three granddaughters as a dowry, to make them good matches and ensure they would be looked after. The old woman was shrewd. She and her late husband had invested cleverly, and she left quite a fortune, that her two sons assumed would go to them upon her death," Isidore began his story.

"So, this is about money?" Genesis asked, in confusion.

"The root of all evil, my friend," Isidore confirmed. "The eldest, Jessa, had been groomed to fill her mother's shoes when her father went too far with his discipline of his wife. They hadn't expected her to find love within a Table family, and her father had no choice but to give her and her part of the inheritance to the Farnese family, although we are still confirming that the dowry went with Jessa. The brothers hadn't planned on her ever being married, so we assume that they divided up her dowry years before, as a way to finance their annual fees to the clubs they enjoyed and pay for their mistresses."

"And Marcella? Why did they make her suffer so much?" Genesis asked.

"There's a clause in the will about wayward behaviour. Sending her to the Battaglia was key to that. You can imagine the rest. You have seen the records from the Battaglia yourself." He shook his head in disgust. "Unfortunately for Olivia, Jessa's marriage meant a huge financial loss to her father and Uncle, and we believe, with the damage done to Marcella's reputation, that Olivia was next to be sabotaged. Only Marcella somehow got Olivia to leave before any real harm could befall her. We understand that she was spending a lot of time out on the bay, sailing with her father and that he had gifted her a small boat and encouraged her to go out sailing alone or with one of the young guys from the boatyard her father worked in. A Kevin Brady..." A gasp from behind him stopped his words, and he turned to see the petite young woman that he assumed must be Olivia Gambaro.

"Come and sit, little one." Genesis rose and strode toward her, pulling her into his arms. "You know this story. You told me yourself that Marcella helped you to leave. She said she wanted you to sail to Jessa in Adelaide. This is my friend and your cousin, a few times removed, Isidore," he introduced Olivia to his friend.

"I can see now why Gen is so keen to hang up his travelling boots," Isidore chuckled, as he came to his feet and kissed Olivia's cheek. "You're adorable. I may have to find out exactly how far we are removed from each other on our family tree," he winked and chuckled, while Genesis bristled.

"It's nice to meet you," Olivia said, and couldn't help but smile as she took a seat beside Genesis.

"It's wonderful to meet you too. You look very much alive for a dead girl," he commented. "Luckily for you, I believe that the records are about to show your miraculous resurrection, especially as I have now been to see you and can say, with complete honesty, that you are indeed Olivia Gambaro and that you were not lost at sea over a year ago. I'm afraid that your Uncle and Father are about to have a terrible time of it, explaining the misappropriation of your inheritance. Especially if I also discover Marcella hiding up here among the Zenati," he grinned easily, taking the sting out of his words by keeping his tone light and cheerful.

Olivia opened her mouth as if to say something, but she shut it again and looked up at Genesis before lowering her eyes to where her hands twisted in her lap.

"What were you going to say, little one?" Isidore used the endearment Genesis had, hoping to make her see that he, too, was a trustworthy Master. "You don't have to be afraid to say anything to me. No harm will come to you from my family or me. Your family," he corrected himself.

"Marcella is gone, and she won't come back, especially not now," Olivia said, in a small but confident voice.

"Where did she go?" he inquired gently, glancing at Genesis, who gave an imperceptible nod.

"Noah has found her and is staying with her. I'm sure they will return soon," Genesis explained. He realised that the look of surprise on his friend's face was because they had not told any of the Gambaros that Marcella had fled when she heard some of the Battaglia were in town.

"You don't believe that she will return?" Isidore turned his attention back to Olivia. "Why did she leave? Surely it wasn't something so bad that she was frightened or too embarrassed to return?" he probed, keeping the same light tone in his voice, despite not being happy only just to be finding out this information.

"The Battaglia came for her again when she was in the hospital. She won't trust the Zenatis again," Olivia said as if the Battaglia were just like the boogiemen who prayed on the weak and helpless.

"Noah will explain that they were here for Apollo, not for her," Genesis reassured Olivia again.

"Why was she in the hospital?" Isidore frowned, realising a lot of information had been withheld from him.

"Apollo pushed her in front of a car, and she hurt her head," Olivia answered simply.

"Apollo Martino," Genesis clarified at the look of shock Isidore couldn't hide. "We spoke to Oscar and Nathanael about his visit here, and his claims to being Marcella's fiancé. She denied the claim, by the way," Genesis filled in the gaps for him. "Xavier and Dominic will be able to give you a fuller explanation when you meet with them tonight," he suggested, wanting to stop this informal meeting from becoming an interrogation.

"Or you and your pretty little one can give me your version of events now. From the moment you discovered Olivia had been brought in to the hospital after her shotgun wedding, pun intentional," he gave a soft chuckle. "Actually, I'd very much like to hear your version of events, Olivia, if you are up to telling me the story. I promise not to interrupt with too many questions."

To Isidore's surprise, Genesis sat back and let her speak. It was apparent that he had not protected her from the events going on around her but rather shared them with her. Isidore listened with rapt attention as Olivia told her story from the time Marcella had convinced her to leave on her boat with Kevin. She didn't gloss over her time with Remington Royce or what she endured. As she detailed her time with Genesis, he could see the love and devotion shining in her eyes, as they often strayed to him, and his touch comforted her, as he stroked her back during some of the more difficult moments.

"That's pretty much all of it. I haven't kept anything from Olivia," Genesis said. "Aside from the fact that Marcella fled and it took us around twelve hours to locate her and ensure her safety, we have told Nathanael and Oscar all of it."

"If it helps, I believe that Marcella was trying to save your life by sending you away at the beginning of that story," Isidore said softly, at the end of her tale. "She couldn't have known that you wouldn't go to Jessa like she asked you to."

"I know," Olivia said. "It's what she does. I used to hate for that, being the good sister who tried to save everyone even when we didn't need it. At least I thought I didn't need it at the time. She's still trying to save me from the Suebi, the AFP and in some ways from Genesis. That's why she hasn't left the city yet, even though everyone is looking for her."

"You could be right," Isidore agreed. "Okay, so let's just leave our family names at the door for a minute, and talk to each other like colleagues. I know there's more, or you wouldn't have been so pushy asking me to come and see you first if there wasn't. Tell me what you've got and I'll see what I can do to help you get answers," Isidore said.

"You've already given me some of the answers that I was looking for, but I still have a gut feeling that there was some deal with Martino and Marcella's family that allowed her to be sent there twice for questionable reasons. That and the engagement that everybody except Marcella seemed to know about as well. It just doesn't sit right, even in the already fucked-up story that Olivia and her sisters lived through," Genesis said thoughtfully, leaning forward to rest his arms on his knees and join his hands, as if deep in thought. "There's something there. I just can't put my finger on it yet. Maybe it's the money. Apollo Martino's mother was Savoy and his father, Battaglia. That doesn't give him a lot of options to continue enjoying the lifestyle he had become accustomed to."

"Worth looking into," Isidore agreed. "I'll be here for a few days. I'll see if my contacts have anything on him that we don't."

*****

Noah inhaled deeply, savouring the scent of sand and sea. His eyes absorbed the breathtaking coastline of the place he called home. For as far as he could see, the magnificent countryside stretched, bursting with life. He was overlooking an area considered to be one of the most beautiful, nestled between the cold, blue waters of the Timor Sea and the warmer expanse of the Beagle Gulf.

"Wow," Marcella said softly, brushing a windswept curl of dark hair from her face. Noah smiled and turned towards her. She looked amazing this afternoon. There was a sexiness that seemed to radiate from her green eyes and emanate from every pore of her small, lithe body since she has woken from her nap. "It's stunning. Why don't they put sights like this in the tourist brochures?" she asked.

"It's mostly private land along this stretch of coastline," he explained, letting his dark gaze rove over her again.

Marcella smiled, unsure of this new dynamic that had evolved between them over the course of the day. She half-wished that she hadn't given in to temptation now, with the way he looked at her. Noah reached out an arm and pulled her close to him at the rail. His hard body pressed close to hers. His clean, masculine smell, mingled with the faint scent of after-shave, teased her senses and caused her heart to race.

"Did you shave again?" she asked, and reached up and touched his smooth cheek. From her first glimpse of him, Marcella had been attracted to Noah. The fact that he had rejected her, and then acted like an arrogant arsehole whenever the chance arose, had dampened that attraction. She needed to remember that and not let the sweet, confident, sexy Noah get any further under her skin. It was his sexy distinguished look, tall and athletic, with midnight dark hair and the confident way he moved, that had caught her attention initially and still made her watch him appreciatively. She gave herself a mental slap and pushed away from where he had held her against him, using her question to turn her body so that she could look up into his face.

"Yeah, I showered in the suite next door while you cleaned up after..." he paused for a moment, "You let me get to third base." He gave her a genuine smile of happiness, but the smile dimmed as she took another step away from him.

"We all make mistakes sometimes," Marcella said flippantly, dismissing the fact that he had just brought her to an explosive orgasm. She didn't want him thinking that this was any more than what it was.

Noah grimaced. Each time he battered down part of the wall that she held around her heart and emotions, she would rebuild it just as quickly. How could she say that what had just happened between them was a mistake? She had cum hard, and they had shared a moment of closeness after. She was making him lose his mind. Trying to hide the hurt he felt at her flippant words, he turned his attention back to the beautifully rugged coastline.

As a man who loved the outdoors, the wind on his face and lots of wide-open spaces, the claustrophobia of the last months, being stuck in unending meetings of the family business, had been getting to him. His endurance was stretched. Usually, he managed his work and family commitments in balance with his need to enjoy the great outdoors and the adventure businesses that he was heavily invested in, easily. Then, with the attack on the mothers, and the discovery of Olivia, he hadn't had a chance to do anything but move from one crisis to the next. He was enjoying his time alone with Marcella, he felt relaxed, and he had been sure that if he showed her just what was available to her here, that maybe she would reconsider her plan to leave, or at least reconsider her opinion of him. He held back a sigh of defeat as he realised that she was going to happily pretend that third base hadn't been as enjoyable as he knew it had been for her.

Marcella saw the energy drain out of Noah, as he turned to once again gaze at the shoreline, and regretted her flippant words. It had been... different. Good but different. Everyone had an agenda, though, when it came to sex. She'd been trained and used by enough so-called dominant men to know that there was always an end game. She just had to work out what Noah's plan was. Maybe she should just call it a day and get back to StarCity. She had slept most of the afternoon away, anyway. He can't possibly have anything else too exciting planned when it was already so late. Her eyes dropped, and she saw his hands gripping the rails and narrowed her eyes. He definitely had a plan, and she would play along with his little game a while longer, to find out what it was.

"I'll go find out our time of arrival," Noah said, and turned away from the view and Marcella, making his way up to the bridge of the yacht. He needed to go for a jog, let off some steam. He'd tried today, pulled out all the show stoppers that he could and, just when he thought he'd made progress... he shook his head. His chest hurt, and he felt ill. He considered feigning illness and calling off the final events that he didn't cancel when she had slept so long. He would continue to stay with her and keep her safe. That was a given, but if she considered what they had just done as a mistake then he wasn't sure that he could ever break through all of the scars that created the wall around her heart, and he needed to shield himself from the pain that situation caused him.

Marcella watched him go. She knew precisely what those broad shoulders that his shirt hung off looked like without it. She could see his muscled back in her mind's eye, but this time she also felt the change in atmosphere from her words. She'd expected an equally-flippant retort as occurred with all their banter. Instead, she had watched him visibly shut down. She shouldn't care. She didn't know why she was letting his moodiness affect her. They were playing a game - he had his plan, and she wasn't going to give in to it just because he was sulking. She regretted the remark. She wished that she had chosen different words, but she wasn't about to apologise or take them back, just because he didn't like the word 'mistake'.

She walked to the prow and settled into a lounger, resisting the urge to stand against the front rail and extend her arms, like that overused scene from Titanic. She'd never seen the movie, but even she knew that scene. She sighed audibly and gazed unseeing at the vast expanse of water ahead of them. Her mind wandered over all she had done and seen that day and realised that it was exactly what she had said she wanted to do, but never had the time between her family and career commitments.

He'd listened to her. He hadn't belaboured rules or safety instructions like she was stupid but had treated her as if she had enough brainpower not to take silly risks. She couldn't even blame her mistake in trying to take a second breath at the waterfall on him. He had warned her to count on the way down, and she hadn't. She hadn't, because of the way he had eyed her so appreciatively, as if he was surprised that she had acquiesced to stripping down to her underwear, instead of calling a foul ball on his plans.