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  • The Twelve Zenati Pt. 06

The Twelve Zenati Pt. 06

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Authors note: Hello everyone. Welcome to the new Twelve Tables series and the new family I have for you all to meet. I hope you come to know and like them as much as the families from the past series. Thank you once again to David and Kate for being my second set of eyes. Enjoy! ~ellie.

*****

Noah looked at the display on the dashboard of his car before answering the call that had interrupted the fun banter he was having with Marcella.

"Hey, what's up?" Noah said casually, wondering whether he should mention that he was with Marcella, just in case Gideon said something she shouldn't hear.

"You're driving?" Gideon asked, hearing the echo of the hands-free.

"Yeah. Taking Marcella over to my office to go over some territory law," Noah nodded and smiled in relief that his big brother was not the moron he acted most of the time.

"You sure know how to show a girl a good time," Gideon chuckled. "Fortunately for you, I have a table booked at Peewee's on the Point, so you and Marcella can double date with us."

"She's looking dubious bro. I think you're going to have to make the offer more appealing. She doesn't seem to be as won over by the Zenati charm as most women," he chuckled.

"Marcella," Gideon said. "Take pity on the big nerd, please. Despite having the Zenati charm and looks, Noah struggles on the dating scene. You'd be doing him and me a favour by coming to dinner with us," he chuckled.

"Well, when you put it that way, how could I refuse?" Marcella giggled.

"I knew you were a kind and compassionate woman. See you there at seven," Gideon chuckled again and ended the call before Noah could come up with another excuse not to join them.

"So, it looks like we have our first real date. I'll take you home so that you can change if you like," Noah offered.

"Do you think I need to?" Marcella asked, checking her watch.

"I think you look great, but I happen to know what Vivienne is wearing, and I don't want you to feel... too casual." He gave her a quick smile before focusing back on the road.

"How would you know what she is wearing?" Marcella asked and frowned. "I saw her at the clinic this morning, and she looked like her regular self, and you have been with me since then."

"They were back at the clinic a little while ago, and Gen sent me a pic. He said he had barely recognised her. Apparently, she had been to meet my Madrina, my godmother," he said once he had pulled up at a light and fumbled with his phone to bring up the photo to show her.

"I know what a Madrina is," she shook her head when she looked at the photo. "That's not Vivienne," she said and expanded the picture to get a better look at the woman's face.

"Look closer," he chuckled.

"Wow! Yes, I probably should go home and change before we meet them." Marcella looked down at the tailored and stylish, if plain, dress that she wore. "I don't have anything to rival that, though," she admitted.

"Me too, I have no idea what I'm going to wear," he teased. "How do you feel about powder blue safari suits?" He laughed as she turned a horrified look on him. "I'll take that as a no, then."

"What other options do we have?" she asked, joining his laughter. "A white suit so we can get our disco on after dinner?"

"Only if you are wearing a skin-tight jumpsuit with bell bottoms, otherwise it just doesn't work," he shook his head. "Besides, you might find me too irresistible with the open shirt and thick gold chains and decide there were better things to do than eat dinner with my brother and his girlfriend."

"True, it's so hard to restrain myself when I see a walking cliché like that. Better to go the safe road and stick with a dark suit," Marcella suggested.

"Never say that I don't do you any favours," he grinned. "And that is yet another one you owe me."

"I am sure that you will send me the bill eventually," she said and shook her head. Marcella truly liked the man sitting beside her. No matter what they were doing or talking about, he made her feel comfortable and relaxed enough to be herself. She loved the way he could joke at his own expense, and even when he was teasing her, he did it in such a light-hearted way that she never took offence.

"Trust me, I fully intend to collect on all these favours that I keep doing for you," he grinned widely.

*****

"You invited your brother and Marcella to dinner with us?" Vivienne asked, unsure if she was happy about that. She had some things that she wanted to say to him tonight. Her talk with Olivia had inspired her to be honest with him and tell him of her worries and fears where he was concerned, but now it would have to wait.

"Problem?" he asked.

"No, not at all. I was just curious about why," she said. She liked both Noah and Marcella and would like to get to know them outside of the context of Olivia's hospital room. She really didn't have a problem with the people, or socialising with them. It was just the timing that bothered her.

"Well, chances are that we are going to argue again tonight and they will act as a buffer, so you don't throw another tantrum in front of the whole restaurant," he said and shrugged.

"I didn't..." Vivienne began but snapped her mouth shut and blushed. What else could she call her angry outburst the first night they had dinner together? "I don't have tantrums. I am not a child, Gideon," she said, failing to tamp down her anger at his assessment of her actions that night. "I was angry and frustrated with you, and your brother, the other night."

"Okay, what would you call shouting at me, using some quite colourful language and then storming from the restaurant because you didn't get your own way?" he asked. "Hysteria? A conniption? I imagine you like those descriptions even less."

"It was a simple outburst, nothing more." She tried to play it down, but knew she had significantly damaged her professional credibility that night. How was she supposed to help others regulate their emotions and impulses if she couldn't control her own?

"All right, outburst." He conceded the point and pulled into the car park of Peewee's.

"We're very early. Your brother won't be here for close to an hour," she said, looking up at the strange façade of the place. It was as if they had pulled up at the back door even though they had driven in from the main road to the car park where a sign depicting the little black and white birds denoted the restaurant's name and details.

"True, but the sunset is fabulous from here, so I thought we would come early and have a drink out on the front lawn," he explained and stood from the car, hurrying around to her side. He didn't want to get into an argument with her until he was sure that she was settled and relaxed and he knew that she had someone to lean on. While Marcella wasn't a close friend, she was better than no one, and Noah was a good shoulder to cry on if she didn't feel comfortable with Marcella. Neither was ideal, but it was the best he could do on short notice, and Noah, with his easy-going way, would act as a good buffer between them.

Gideon placed an arm around her waist and drew her into a kiss as she stepped out of the car. Things had been going so well today. He hated that he had to ruin it by pointing out that she had fucked up again by not listening to Genesis and trusting that he had a reason for what he was doing. A reason that even Gideon could see without being told outright.

"Genesis is mad at me, isn't he?" Vivienne said quietly after taking a seat beside Gideon on a luxurious love seat facing the bay and the setting sun.

"I expect so, though he hasn't said anything. I assume he is dealing with the fallout of your little conversation with the Pixie," Gideon answered her honestly. "For such a brilliant woman, how do you continue to not see why Gen pushes some agendas and not others with her?" He said without rancour, although there was an edge of frustration in his voice.

"I thought that I was helping. I was trying to get Olivia to meet Genesis halfway, because she wasn't going to give in and neither was he, and it was hurting them both," she tried to explain.

"All you did was give her another name to hide behind. One more disguise for Genesis to peel away before she would stop hiding and face the truth of who she is and accept that people will still love her, despite how unhappy she must have been to bury Olivia so completely. The real Olivia, not Serena, the robotic, perfect woman Remington created, or the helpless, damaged girl that you have now given yet another false name to hide behind." Gideon had been thinking about how to approach this subject since they left the clinic. He hadn't explained himself well that first night when they had argued, but now he wanted her to understand why she shouldn't have given Olivia a way to get around Genesis' demands.

"But Liv is Olivia, just like Gen is Genesis," Vivienne said, not understanding the distinction he was making. "It's not a whole different persona like Serena was."

"It's not real; it's a nickname. If I suddenly decided to start calling myself Deon, the name wouldn't carry the same weight or connotations as Gideon because I have spent a lifetime building my reputation for being honest and fair in my dealings with others. As Deon, I would have to prove myself all over again because people would wonder what I was hiding. It automatically makes people suspect that I am not the same person they have dealt with in the past. If people who know and love me use it as a nickname, fine, but if I insist on being called Deon and hide behind that name, refusing to acknowledge my family connections and past friends, how does that look?" he challenged her. "Would you trust me?"

"That's completely different," Vivienne spluttered. "Olivia's not a wealthy and powerful businesswoman. She's not trying to hurt anyone."

"Are you saying that the women of the Tables don't hold their own power and wealth? That women haven't been targeted by those with grudges or vendettas against the Tables. We all know the risks and rewards that come with being part of our Families. The latest attack by the Suebi was aimed solely at women with immense wealth and power, and it was instigated by another woman who hid her secrets and lies and pretended to be someone she wasn't."

"That's completely different!" Vivienne argued again, becoming frustrated.

"Is it? Secrets and lies never lead to happiness. Especially when you lie to yourself. Olivia is not dead. She is sitting in that clinic with a man who adores her and is trying his best to reach her and bring her back to herself so she can deal properly with everything that has happened in her life. Not just with Remington but the arsehole boyfriend and an overly-strict father, who possibly did more damage to her than anything else. Genesis doesn't want to fight her or force her or frighten her, but he will, because he wants to be able to love her for who she truly is, and all you did tonight was give her another place to hide and keep her secrets," Gideon said sadly. "You make his job infinitely harder when you don't talk to him about your brilliant ideas. Yet you still expect him to talk to you about his plans and ideas for her and take your advice."

"I read the background information. She had a happy childhood, good schools, loving parents and siblings who maintained connections to the Table. Sure, her boyfriend was an arsehole, but it was Remington that hurt her, messed with her head and made her like this." Vivienne had taken on her professional persona as she briefly summarised the information she had on Olivia's background.

"I see, and if I read your background bio would it show anything different? Grew up in a loving home as the daughter of the recently deceased chair of the Papillo. Spoilt and treated like a princess, as all girls of the tables are. Studied and graduated with honours and travelled extensively, gaining experience at some of the country's best facilities, as well as a growing reputation for her work in her chosen field," he said, showing that he had read a similar sort of bio on her.

"You did a background check on me?" she asked incredulously, her anger starting to get the better of her.

"What it doesn't tell me is that you aren't a typical princess of the first Family. You think and act independently and do not work well as part of a team, ever. Including Team Olivia," he paused for a second as her eyes flashed at him. "That you are closer to Leighton than anyone else in your family and shared an apartment with him before he got married. That you bury yourself in work to hide from the world, where you never quite feel at ease, because your heart is bigger than you let on and it gets hurt far too often by thoughtless people," he summed up what he knew of her so far.

"I can't believe you had me investigated!" her voice began to rise, but he merely took her hand and kept talking.

"Olivia and Marcella did not have happy childhoods, thanks to their father, and there was more to the arsehole boyfriend and the way he treated Olivia than was covered in her bio. When Remy found her, she was already conditioned enough to be manipulated and used. Particularly if he kept her drugged and sedated in the beginning. I doubt that she fought him at all, but rather let him hide her in a new life, gratefully," Gideon voiced his own opinion and one that was the most likely scenario according to Genesis. "There is more to Olivia than facts on a page, and there is more to you too. I want to know everything about you, but you have to be prepared to give a little and stop keeping me at a distance and retreating behind the doctor's coat."

"Unhappy childhoods?" she questioned with a frown, "But the background check said..."

"And your background check said you were a spoilt princess prone to tantrums," he chuckled. "Sorry, outbursts."

"I see," she sighed. "And you think that what I did tonight didn't help her and made things harder for Genesis," she said sadly.

"What you did tonight didn't help Genesis the way you wanted, but I think she liked being spoken to as a friend instead of a doctor. I think that seeing you two giggle over being sisters one day, with rhyming nicknames, helped me immensely and gave Genesis hope that Olivia wanted that scenario," he chuckled. "But it was telling her that it was okay not to like or want to be Olivia and giving her an alternative to that, rather than just a nickname others can use occasionally. That was the mistake. We can't make it easy for her to hide anymore. If she is going to recover then she needs to face her past and her fears."

Vivienne could see that he could be right, now that he had explained it to her. She could understand better why Genesis was unbending in his demand that she acknowledge the name. The idea was at the base of her profession. You had to deal with the past to be able to move on to the future. Otherwise, you would be forever trapped in a self-destructive cycle. But Olivia had been through so much, and there was time to make her face what she couldn't right now. She couldn't understand why Genesis was in such a rush to force Olivia to face the things that she feared the most. They sat in silence for a while, sipping their drinks and watching the sunset.

Gideon squeezed her hand. Somehow, he had headed off the angry outburst that he heard in her voice once or twice, and she still held his hand. He'd said what he needed to and gave her food for thought. Now he just needed Noah and Marcella to arrive and take the edge off that conversation, so he and Vivienne could concentrate on each other again, which was all he had been thinking about for days now.

*****

Genesis turned back toward the bed. He felt the now familiar tightening of his heart and twisting of his gut and gave in to the urge to rub his palm into the middle of his chest. While never as bad as the first time he had seen her, the now-muted pain returned with the knowledge that he could lose her at any time if she continued to defy him. He wouldn't be like Remington; he couldn't be like that. He was determined to be better than that, despite the desire that drove him toward her bed and the knowledge that he would never cause her undue harm with his demands on her body. He may enjoy similar pursuits to Remington, and admit to being a sadist with the right woman, but he would never scar her or injure her to the point that it would take weeks to recover.

That wasn't to say that he wouldn't enforce his rules if they were for her benefit. He was determined to make her take back her name. He wanted no lies and secrets between them, and he wouldn't start their relationship by letting her lie to anyone else, especially herself. She was Olivia Gambaro, and he would belong to her as much as he kept reminding her that she belonged to him. His eyes raked over her, noting her shallow breathing and the way it made her breasts rise and fall. The brace also enhanced those pert mounds, and he felt his cock begin to harden, knowing it was finally time to claim her body as well as her mind.

Genesis turned to ensure that he had locked the door to the room, such was the clutter of his mind right then that he couldn't remember. Then he took a breath and walked purposefully back toward the bed. He was still annoyed at Vivienne's attempt to manipulate the situation again by calling her Liv and giving her a way out of accepting his command that she take back her name. He was not going to negotiate and let her take it back with conditions attached, and if she or Vivienne had thought she could use that to manipulate the situation, manipulate him, she was sadly mistaken. He was stronger than that, and a corner of his brain hoped that Gideon would be strong enough to resist Vivienne's manipulations too, despite his love for the woman.

Picking up her limbs one by one, he checked that the cuffs fitted snugly after he had rushed to replace them so that he could talk to Hector without worrying that she would touch herself before he was ready for her to. He adjusted them to fit so that they were not so tight that he would need to constantly check her circulation once he began to play with her body properly, but also not loose enough that she could wiggle her limbs from the restraints.

He knew he must do this, needed to do this, if he was ever going to bind her to him in the way he wanted, but something inside him revelled in just the act of restraining such a beautiful woman for his pleasure alone, and that something had nothing to do with her healing and more to do with his desire. Of course, he would ensure that she had pleasure too, eventually, but only after she had given him what he wanted, and he wanted nothing less than her complete submission to him at that moment. He looked up at her face then and saw her passively watching him, letting him restrain her without fighting the loss of power and control, which he took gladly, as he bound her to the bed the way he wished to bind her to himself.

She had great legs, and he smiled as he pulled the sheet completely away from her body. He had explored her body as he had bathed her each day in the hospital and here in the clinic. He felt that he knew every freckle and mark on her pale skin. It was unusual for women, or men for that matter, in the Families of the Twelve Tables to be as fair as she was, but it only made her that much more attractive to him. He trailed his fingers up her legs as he watched her carefully. Her body almost pulsed with her need as the ache low in her belly grew with his titillating touch.

He moved his legs up to kneel on the end of the bed between her restrained feet and leaned over her so that their bodies were close but not touching, one of his hands resting near her head, taking his weight. The other hand trailed fingers up over her hip and the brace on her undamaged side and up further, to her breast. His fingers barely touched her skin, and he allowed himself a small smile as her breath caught and then quickened further. The heated look in her sea green eyes stirred him, and he knew that he had been right. They both needed this. She needed to be claimed fully, just as he needed to claim her.

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