The Don and His Russian Bride

XVIII

Luciano reached for the lights as he ushered me inside. The fluorescent bulbs illuminated the work space below them, filling in the areas the light coming from the high windows couldn't reach.

I hesitated by the doorway until he pulled the door closed behind us.

Luciano held out his hand and motioned me forward. "Don't be shy. Come in here."

In the still air, even my small footsteps thudded against the wooden floors. The scent of sawdust triggered chills to run down my spine.

"De ja vu?"

"Or ptsd."

Luciano moved his hands up as if hoping to physically grasp the right words. His fingers tensed like he wanted to caress me, but was held back by an invisible force.

"I'm sorry, Katerina. I wish I could go back to that day and change my actions. Since I can't do that, I will do everything within my power to make up for it. I should have been more in control of myself then, and you have my word that from now on I won't touch you without your permission. It may not be much, but can you trust me?"

I nodded. His plea for my trust was genuine. He had given up the power in the relationship, passing it off to me, when recognizing his wrongdoings. To build our trust in each other, we would have to start small. I wanted to give him this chance to teach me more about him.

"Things went terribly wrong here last time. That's not why I brought you here. If you want to learn more about who I am, then this is the best place to do it. It's where I feel the most like myself."

"I can tell this place is important to you. What are we going to do here?"

"We're going to make a birdhouse together."

I chuckled. "The big bad mafia boss is going to teach me how to build a birdhouse?"

His face fell for a second before he recovered, leaving his features soft. He moved close enough to me for his lips to be next to my ear. "That man has always been a front. He may have become a bigger part of me than I will ever care to admit, and you know that better than anyone because you've witnessed it, but let me show you there is more to me than my title. Please?"

As he spoke to me, my nerves wound themselves together in tightly drawn coils. It wasn't until he took a step back that they all unraveled. My feet were rooted to the ground as my legs trembled. Trying to move them would surely cause them to collapse from under me.

I cleared my throat. "Since you used your manners, we can make a birdhouse."

Luciano led me over to the table saw. "I'm going to cut the pieces first. Then we can start putting it together."

He held out to me a pair of protective glasses and waited until I put them on before he began cutting the wood into smaller pieces. His face tightened in concentration under his own protective glasses. While I was certain the glasses would have us both looking dorky, Luciano remained as attractive as ever wearing them. It may have helped that his short sleeved shirt revealed his well toned arms. With the table saw, Luciano had complete control. His biceps flexed as he maneuvered the wooden planks straight through the saw blade. 

"How do you know where to cut the wood? Shouldn't you have measured everything first?"

"There's measurements on the table that help me. I've made enough birdhouses to know the dimensions that work best."

"Oh."

When he had all of the pieces at the correct size, he led me to the table where he started talking again. "Since I'm showing you something that I'm passionate about, why don't you tell me about something you love to do."