A Mob Boss's Heirs (Book 3 of New York Mafia Trilogy)

31. Family Moments

Tristan woke up to the sound of his alarm clock. He opened his eyes and looked at the rays of sunshine coming through the windows of his bedroom. He sat up and grabbed his trousers off the floor.

As Tristan was putting on his trousers he was smiling at the thought of Vienna and memory of his encounters with her yesterday. Seeing Vienna was indeed the brightest part of his day every day but yesterday, there were some breakthroughs that brought a smile to his face.

At the auditions she had managed to let him hold her hand and didn't pull away. They also had a long talk which was filling him with a sense of relief. It counted as improvement how she was willing to have a conversation with him without trying to avoid him yesterday at the auditions.

When he looked back he could say with certainty that it came so natural to him to sit next to her and hold her hand. It came natural to him to pour his heart out to her. It came as natural as breathing. She had confided in her and so had she. She had slowly given her some details of her life as he had pushed on while they were sitting at the auditions. There was nothing else to do but talk or listen to each other since they were the first to audition and they had hours ahead of them.

Tristan just wished he could find a way to get her to warm up to him faster and to find a way to stop her from avoiding him and running away from him. She was shy. But also she was scared of him and she had proved it by her reaction to the slap scene at the audition. The thought of it made his blood boil. She had actually thought he would have hit her at that audition.

Tristan cursed Edward Blake and Azurine in his mind for writing such lousy script. Her reaction had really thrown him off. It confirmed to him she was intimidated by him but why? He had never hurt her. He had never talked to her threateningly. Why was she in the mindset that she actually thought he would raise his hand on her? He would have never done that even for a school play as part of an act. Even if it was acting he couldn't pretend to hurt her that way and would not have accepted such role.

Tristan sighed in frustration. Was it so hard for her to understand that he intended to love her and protect her for the rest of his life and always? Was it?

Tristan had many fantasies about her. He had the urge to want to hold her in his arms and kiss her sense less as he protected her. He had to wait and it was worth it. He couldn't wait for the day to come when she was ready for him to touch his lips to hers and hold her waist in his arms in a firm grip not letting her go. He had fantasised about such intimate contact with her alot recently.

Tristan thought back to his childhood. He always felt protective of Vienna but he had fallen for her when he was 12. When his father had found out he loved Vienna no thanks to Trent telling on him, he had been advised him to keep his feelings to himself for as long as he could and he had. Now three years had passed and he had reached his limit. The instant his brother had delivered the news that Edward Blake was moving onto her, he had thrown all his father's advice out of the window. He couldn't risk it. He couldn't let her fall in love with anyone else before he even had the chance to tell her how he felt. Of course she was not ready to go out with him yet but he wasn't surprised. She was an innocent girl.

Tristan looked at his desk and smiled at the only sign of her that he had in his room. He had no picture of her but he had some portraits she had drawn inside a book. He had once come across her drawing book in a bin at the Rosario mansion. It was Vincenzo's doing throwing away her portraits but at that occasion he hadn't tried to give it back or confront Vincenzo. He had taken it since no one was looking. He had the portraits now and her drawings were quite exceptional. He loved them and couldn't understand why Vincenzo hated her drawings so much. Drawing was Vienna's hobby according to her that helped her distract herself from whatever was going on around her. She had honestly admitted that him at the auditions.