Mafia Kings: Adriano: Chapter 72

I was expecting to get a dress for that evening.

What I didn’t expect was where I got it from.

“Who’s your favorite designer?” he asked, apropos of nothing, as we were getting close to Florence. “Oscar de la Renta?”

“Huh?”

“You mentioned him the other night.”

“Oh, right – The Devil Wears Prada. He’s incredible, but I wouldn’t say he’s my favorite.”

“Who’s your favorite, then?”

“What – now, or all-time?”

“They’re different?”

“Yeah. I mean, Alexander McQueen is amazing – but I like him more for the idea of what he did than how his clothes look, if that makes any sense. His dresses really were art you could wear.

“I love Givenchy for how he dressed Audrey Hepburn. She’s one of THE great style icons of all time.

“I love Vivienne Westwood for her punk sensibility. I love Tom Ford’s work at Gucci – ”

“You seem to love everybody,” Adriano said drily, “so let’s narrow it down. If you had to choose one dress from one designer, who would it be?”

“Mmmm… Valentino, I think.”

“NOT my brother,” Adriano said with one raised eyebrow.

“No,” I laughed, “definitely not him. Valentino Garavani. He did amazing things with the color red, and that’s my favorite color.”

“Valentino it is, then,” he said as he plugged the name into the car’s dashboard navigation.

I stared at him. “Adriano – we’re not going to buy a Valentino dress.”

“Yes, we are.”

“That’s crazy – it’s too expensive!”

“Number one, no, it’s not. And number two, let me worry about that.”

“No – ”

He turned to look at me and spoke in that voice he used when he absolutely would not tolerate dissent:

“YES.”

I’d only heard him use it with his brothers before.

Hearing him use it on me…

About buying me a dress from my favorite designer…

It kind of turned me on.

“…okay, then,” I said with a smile.

“Okay, then,” he said, and suppressed a smile of his own.