Chapter 3 

Emily grinned at him, “See, I’m smiling already, let’s go!” She bounced lightly 
on the bed. This was going to be great. Go on a motorcycle ride with a hot guy 
and forget all her troubles. 

Mario crossed over to his closet and pulled out a T-shirt and his leather 
jacket, which he tossed over to the bed. “Pretty anxious to get home, are you?” 

Emily nibbled the bottom of her lip. “Not really. I’m anxious to go anywhere but 
there.” 

Mario came back to the bed. “Why? Things bad at home?” 

Emily shrugged and lay back on the bed. “When are things never? My family, 
they’re… they’re strange people. It’s like they’re the happiest when they’re all 
fighting with each other. It can be like a madhouse at times.” 

“How do you handle it?” He asked quietly. Emily didn’t seem like a girl who 
would enjoy fighting. 

“I used to try and make them stop but after realizing that it doesn’t work I 
came up with a new plan. I don’t stay there. I stay out with my friends until I 
*have* to come home and when I do I just make myself invisible. I’ve perfected 
my technique over the past year or so. Just stay in my room and listen to music 
and they don’t know I’m there.” 

“That’s a horrible way to live.” Mario frowned. 

Emily sat up. “Oh, no, it’s not like that all the time.” She protested. “That’s 
only when things are really bad. There are times when you think we’re a normal 
family like any other.” 

Mario rubbed the side of her face. “Baby girl, you don’t have to defend your 
family from me.” 

“It’s just that…” Emily trailed off. She didn’t want to go into the long tirade 
Edward had instilled into her about family loyalty. The family stands as a unit 
to the public at all times, even when the family is tearing itself apart from 
the inside, blah, blah, blah. 

“Hey, we don’t have to talk about them if you don’t want to.” 

Emily smiled at him. “I want to thank you for letting me barge in on you like 
this and… You are such a nice man.” 

Mario had to laugh at that as he reached down for his shoes. “‘Nice man.’ You 
don’t know that. I could be a rapist or a serial killer or God knows what. Do 
you know how much of a chance you took by coming to my room tonight?” 

Emily sat back. “I trust you. And I trust Jason’s judgement. He wouldn’t have 
hired you to work for him if you were… like that.”

Mario gave her a disbelieving look. “You do know what your brother does for a 
living don’t you?” 

Emily rolled her eyes. “I wasn’t talking about *that*. I was talking about 
working at the garage.” 

Mario sighed. “If you trusted your brother’s judgement you wouldn’t be here. 
Didn’t he tell you to stay away from me?” 

“How did you know that?” Emily narrowed her eyes. 

“Because he told me the same thing. And I should have listened to him.” Mario 
stood up and looked down at Emily. 

He didn’t want to hurt her like this but he could tell that things were already 
getting too deep. They just met that morning and already she was sneaking out of 
her window in the middle of the night to come to see him. She was spilling out 
secrets that he shouldn’t know. She was just a kid, 16 years old and he was a 
grown man. He had to stop this now. 

“Why? You work for Jason and that’s all. He’s not in control of your personal 
life and he’s not in control of mine.” Emily shrugged. “I do what I want when I 
want and I’ll hang out with anyone I want to. Is it because you’re older? 
Nikolas and Katherine didn’t let age stop them, why should I let it stop me?” 

Why was Mario acting like this? She didn’t know him; maybe he was like this all 
the time. But that couldn’t be. He was so cheerful earlier in the day and so 
sensitive and…She wondered what had changed. 

Mario closed his eyes. “Emily, you’re not listening to me.” 

Emily slid off the bed and stood behind Mario. She placed her hands on his 
shoulders and leaned into his back. “What happened to ‘baby girl’? I like it 
when you call me that.” 

“Baby girl…” Mario sighed. 

“That’s much better.” Emily leaned her head on his shoulder. “When we go riding, 
could I wear your jacket? I forgot mine and it’s awfully chilly out. And your 
jacket will no doubt keep me warm, it’s so big and roomy…” 

Emily rubbed Mario’s shoulders. “God, your shoulders are broad. I didn’t notice 
that before but now… Mmm, very nice…” 

“Why are you acting like this? Why don’t you be yourself?” Mario asked quietly. 
He stepped away from her.

“Maybe I am being myself. You only just met me this morning and you think you 
know me? You don’t know anything about me!” Emily shouted. 

“Baby girl, I know all about you.” Mario started ticking off a list on his 
fingers. “You’re a sweet girl, who’s obviously seen too much and done too much 
but some how you still manage to be naïve about real life…”

“I am not naïve!” Emily sputtered. 

“You’re in a strange man’s room, late at night, flirting.” Mario arched an 
eyebrow. “Okay? As I was saying, you’re a sweet girl, a little naïve, but at the 
same time a little world weary, if you ask me. You’re protective of a family 
that by all rights you should wash your hands off. You love your brother to 
pieces and the one time you should follow his advice you don’t. You’re a good 
friend, you proved that by worrying about this guy, who you obviously have or 
had a thing for, even if he doesn’t give a damn if you do or don’t.” 

Emily crossed her arms and tapped her foot impatiently. “Are you done?” 

Mario spread his hands out in front of him. “The floor’s all yours.” 

“Good. Because you are wrong! Dead wrong! I don’t have a ‘thing’ for Nikolas! I 
never did.” She lied. 

“So why did you come here to talk about him tonight?” Mario could tell she was 
lying. He didn’t know why he was pursuing this but he couldn’t stop himself. 

Why was Mario bringing up Nikolas? She didn’t come to him tonight because of 
Nikolas. She came because she wanted a little bit of understanding, she wanted a 
little escape from all the things going on in her head. That’s how she looked at 
Mario, as an escape. 

“I didn’t come here to talk about Nikolas, *you* made me. I just wanted a little 
fun that’s all. A ride on a motorcycle late at night…” 

“You came here for fun?” He wasn’t about to be some spoiled rich girl’s 
rebellion. 

Emily threw her hands up in the air. “I don’t why I came here anymore! I am so 
confused! You think you know me, but you were wrong because I thought I knew 
you. I thought when I met you that you were this really nice guy, who was a 
great listener and who would actually stand up to my brother and possibly my 
family. You told me to my face that you would never hurt me! You told me and I 
believed you!” 

Mario walked up to Emily and cupped her face in his palms. She backed away. 
“Don’t touch me! I’m acting completely out of character and I don’t why. This is 
all your fault!” 

He dropped his arms to his side. “Emily… baby girl… I’m sorry, I…” 

“You’re sorry? You’re sorry? About what? Calling me immature? Thinking I’m just 
a little girl? What’s next are you going to call me you’re ‘little sister’? 
That’s a good one. ‘Little sister’, it hurts but hell it makes you feel better 
about the situation, doesn’t it? Right!” 

“Damn it, Emily! I don’t know what you want or why you’re here. You want a 
little fun? You want to take a walk on the wild side? Thumb your nose at your 
family? What is it?” He shouted back. 

There was a loud banging at the door. Lucky’s voice came through. “Mario, man! 
Could you please be a little more…” 

Mario yanked opened the door. “What it is?” He snapped. He wasn’t in the mood. 

Lucky stood in the halfway dressed in a T-shirt and his boxers. His hair stuck 
up in odd angles. He ran a hand through his hair and said, “I’m trying to sleep, 
man, and you and your guest…”

Lucky’s eyes widened with shock as Emily stepped from behind Mario. “Hey Lucky.” 
She said cheerfully and waggled her fingers at him. 

Mario gave her a look. What was she up to? Just a second ago she was giving him 
hell and now she’s all sweetness and light. Did she have something going with 
this Lucky kid? Mario could have sworn he had a girlfriend. Mario leaned against 
the door jab and waited to see how this would play out. 

“Em? What are you doing here?” Lucky demanded to know. How did Emily end up in 
Mario’s apartment? 

Emily shrugged. “Visiting Mario. Actually I was on my way home though. See you 
tomorrow at school? I have another test. Don’t you?” 

Lucky looked from Mario’s bored expression to Emily’s look of complete 
innocence. He took in the fact that Mario was only wearing a pair of jeans, 
barely zipped and unbuttoned at the top. “How do you… when did you two…?” 

Emily leaned against Mario’s side. “How do I know Mario? Everybody knows Mario. 
He works for Jason.”

“I know that.” Lucky said. 

“Well, that proves my point. Everybody knows Mario.” Emily grinned. Mario had to 
smile to himself despite the situation. “So, what was the problem again? The 
noise? Don’t worry about that, we were just having a little… disagreement. 
Everything’s… fine now and I’m on my way out so…” 

Lucky shot another look at Mario before grabbing Emily by the elbow and pulling 
her out into the hall with him. “Hey, hey, hey!” She cried. 

Mario took a threatening step towards Lucky. “Let her go.” 

Lucky ignored him and glared at Emily. “What the hell are you doing here this 
late?” He asked, his hand still holding Emily in place. 

Emily glanced over at Mario and didn’t like the look on his face. This was the 
first she’d ever saw Mario angry and it scared her a little. “Lucky,” she 
whispered, “I think you better let me go.” 

“Emily, I…” Whatever Lucky was going to say was cut-off by Mario’s hand clamping 
down on his shoulder. Mario squeezed hard. “I said to let her go, kid. I like 
you, I work with you, I don’t want to have to hurt you.” 

Lucky tried to shrug off his hand and look mean, which was hard to do 
considering that fact that he was standing in the hall barefoot and wearing red 
striped boxers. “I’m not letting her stay here with you.” 

“Lucky… please.” Emily’s eyes pleaded with Lucky. She turned to Mario. “He’s not 
hurting me. Lucky wouldn’t hurt anyone.” 

“Hurt you? What?” Lucky just realized that he was still holding Emily. He 
immediately let go. “I wasn’t going to hurt her!” 

Emily went over to Mario. “He wasn’t. He just got…” Emily looked over at Lucky. 
“Lucky, we’ll talk tomorrow okay? Mario didn’t mean it. He just got a little 
overprotective…” 

“Overprotective, right.” Lucky snorted. 

“Hey, Jason knows I’m here so that means I’m fine, okay?” Emily lied. “Jason 
wouldn’t let me be here if he didn’t trust Mario.” 

“I will definitely talk to you tomorrow.” Lucky warned. 

“Jeez, now, *you* sound like my grandfather.” Emily pointed out. Lucky frowned. 

Mario wondered how bad Emily’s grandfather actually was. Anytime she compared 
him to someone that person got insulted. “Look are you done? Because I have to 
take her home now.” 

Lucky nodded. “I’ll see you tomorrow.” Neither was sure of which one he was 
talking to. He stalked over to his room and angrily closed the door behind him. 

Emily turned to Mario and started wringing her hands. “Mario, I am so sorry 
about what just happened.” 

Mario dragged on his T-shirt and tossed Emily his leather jacket. “Here. Let’s 
go.” 

Emily caught the jacket. “What are you never going to speak to me again? I fly 
off the handle and get a little freaked out, which is something I never do and 
no one but you have ever witness before. I…”

“Baby girl, let’s just get you home and maybe we’ll talk about this some other 
time.” Mario suggested. It had been a long night and what he really wanted to do 
was sleep. 

“Okay, sure, what ever you want.” Emily smiled brightly. He’d called her baby 
girl, after all. 

Mario cocked his head to the side. Her mood swings were confusing the hell out 
of him. He wondered what was going on in her head. 

~*~*~ 

Emily leaned into Mario’s body as they took another sharp turn. She stifled the 
laughter that bubbled up inside of her. Mario probably thought he was scaring 
the crap out of her with the speed and the level of danger he drove at but Emily 
was enjoying it. Jason never drove like this when he gave her rides. Well, he 
didn’t give her rides anymore but when he did he was always very cautious about 
it. It was like riding a bicycle with Grandfather, slow and boring. 

But with Mario… it was exhilarating. She never felt so alive in her life or so 
carefree. There were no more worries. There was no Nurses Ball to prepare for, 
no Lucy Coe driving her nuts with her demands, no Grandfather demanding she live 
up to the responsibilities that came with the name “Quartermaine” and most 
importantly there was no Nikolas. Emily just wanted to ride on the back of 
Mario’s motorcycle for the rest of her life. She wondered if she asked him to 
let her, if he would? 

They arrived at the gate and Emily was worried that Mario was going to let her 
off there. She quickly whipped off the helmet that he’d given her. “I’ll just 
punch in the numbers.” She said brightly. She leaned over and quickly put in the 
security code. 

Mario said nothing, he just nodded. She wondered what he was thinking. After the 
Lucky incident he’d said not a word to her other than to ask for directions to 
the Quartermaine mansion. If she could only figure out what was going on in his 
head. 

Mario took a deep breath and tried not to react to the wide smile she’d given 
him. It was hard to do since he was reacting to everything she did. She had 
hopped on the motorcycle like she was born on it and she knew exactly where to 
put her feet. That had made him smile. He hated when girls acted like they knew 
what they were doing but in the end he had to show what’s what. Girls, he 
thought, was the important word here. Emily’s a girl, just a girl. 

But God, she didn’t feel like a girl when she plastered herself against his back 
and her strong thighs clung to his. Mario swallowed hard. Little girl, he 
repeated to himself, Jason’s sweet little sister. Like you give a damn about 
Jason, he told himself. But she’s still a little girl… a little girl who has her 
hands all over your chest… a little girl who’s hand is going a little too fair. 
He let go of the handlebar and removed her hand. He imagined he heard her sigh 
before replacing her hand above his stomach. 

Emily sighed as he moved her hand. Party pooper, she thought. She playfully 
squeezed his middle and tried to scoot even closer to Mario. Emily knew it was 
impossible but it didn’t stop her. She wished she wasn’t wearing this bulky 
helmet, Emily was tempted to just close her eyes, press her cheek to his back 
and hang on for dear life. But she knew that the ride was over. 

Mario pulled up in front of the large mansion and tried not to gape at the size 
of it. He knew that she came from money, he just didn’t realize how much money. 
He instead concentrated on the fact that Emily hadn’t moved yet. She was still 
snuggled up against his back. He turned off the motorcycle and waited for Emily 
to realize that they were here. 

Emily knew they had arrived, she just didn’t want to let go just yet. But she 
guessed that Mario was feeling it was time to go home. She swung her leg over 
and hopped down. She took off the helmet and shook out her hair. She smiled at 
him as she ran her hands through her hair. 

“Well, thanks for the ride. It was fantastic!” Emily chirped. “We have to do it 
again.” 

Mario frowned quickly. “I don’t know about that…” 

“Oh, come on!” Emily squeezed his arm. “You have to! You still owe me a meal.” 

“I…” Mario hesitated. He would like to see her again but after what went down in 
his apartment he didn’t know if he was up to that sort of thing. 

“Please?” Emily pleaded. She pouted and batted her eyelashes at him. This look 
always seemed to work on Grandfather and Ned. 

Mario laughed softly. He reached out and gently stroked the side of her face. 
“Ah, baby girl, you’re more trouble than you’re worth.” 

Emily smiled. “So does that mean yes?” 

Mario looked down at the ground for a minute and Emily began to think that he 
was going to say no. “I know I’m going to regret this but… sure why not.” 

Emily resisted the urge to clap her hands like a little girl instead she just 
grinned. “Great. You will not regret this, I promise. Uh, about what happened at 
your place…” 

Mario held a finger against her lips. “We don’t have to talk about that.” 

Emily moved his finger away. “I want to say I’m sorry. I don’t know what came 
over me, or what came over Lucky. He’s usually not like that.” 

“He was just worried about you.” Mario said wearily. He used to like that kid 
Lucky but he knew that as soon as he gets back to the apartment he would be all 
up in his face. 

“Yeah but,” This time it was Emily’s turn to look down. “I don’t usual act the 
way I acted tonight.” 

“I know.” Mario said. 

“No, you don’t…” Emily stopped herself from going down that road again. “See, 
there I go again. The thing is, I just get tired of being the doormat. The one 
everyone turns to. It’s like there’s the sign on my forehead that says ‘Do 
whatever you want to little Emily and she won’t care. She’ll just keep smiling 
and supporting you, no matter what.’ But I’m tired of all that. I want to just… 
I don’t know.” Emily crossed her arms and hugged herself. 

“I think I understand.” Mario was going to say more when the front door was 
flung open and Edward’s bellow could be heard. 

“Emily? Emily is that you? What the devil are you doing out so late and who the 
devil is that with you? Is that Jason? Tell him to get off of my property!” 

Emily cringed. Edward’s yelling was about to wake up the whole house. “It’s not 
Jason, I’ll be right there, Grandfather!” 

“You’ll be right here, right now!” Edward said indignantly. He pointed sharply 
at the space in front of him as if he expected her to run right over. 

Emily placed her hands onto her waist and said with steely determination. “I 
said, I’ll be right there… Grandfather.” Emily wasn’t about to let Edward cut 
short her time with Mario. 

“Well, I… you just hurry on up!” Edward babbled. “I’m not going anywhere until 
you come into this house.” 

Mario touched Emily lightly on the arm. “Maybe you should just go on in. Don’t 
upset your grandfather.” 

“Hey, you… you hoodlum, get your hands off my granddaughter.” Edward blustered 
from the hall. 

Emily rolled her eyes. “Grandfather’s always like this. Doesn’t mean a thing. 
He’s just a big old softie.” 

“A big old softie.’” Mario repeated. He glanced over at Edward. The man was 
standing there in his pajamas and a robe with what looked liked fire coming out 
of his eyes and Emily was telling him he was a ‘softie’? “Right.” He snorted. 

“Don’t worry about me.” Emily said softly. “I’ll see you tomorrow, huh?” 

“Tomorrow?” Mario said blankly. 

“The ride? The meal?” Emily prompted. 

“Yeah, about that…” 

“You promised me!” Emily shouted. 

“Emily, get a move on! Don’t make me come out there.” Edward threatened. 

Mario ignored him. “I’m not going back on my promise. Let’s just not do it 
tomorrow. I have a lot to do at the garage and…” 

Emily chewed her cheek as she waited for him to finish with his excuses. “Right, 
okay. Well, that’s a good thing because I have another rehearsal anyway and I 
have to help Lucy, that’s my boss, with her fittings, so…” 

“Hey, hey, hey.” Mario said softly. “I’m not trying to push you off. If I didn’t 
want to do it, why would I agree in the first place? But I do have a lot of work 
to do, so I was just thinking we could push it back a few days. That’s all.” 

“Oh.” Emily breathed a quick sigh of relief. “That’s… that’s great. Okay, so 
I’ll call you, or you can call me.” 

“Emily!” She could tell that Edward was at the end of his patience. 

“I think I better go in now. He’s getting antsy.” 

“You be careful in there.” Mario said with concern. 

“He’ll just yell a bit and I’ll just tune him out. It usually works.” Emily 
smiled. She handed Mario his helmet and on sheer impulse, gave a quick kiss on 
the cheek. She stood back, smiling, obviously pleased with herself. 
Unfortunately, Edward wasn’t. 

“Young lady, you get in this house right this minute!” 

“See you.” Emily waved as Mario put on the helmet and started up the motorcycle. 
She waited until he was halfway down the drive before turning to Edward. “What 
are you doing up so late, Grandfather?” 

“That’s doesn’t matter, what matter is what were you doing out at this time of 
the night, young lady? You have a lot of explaining to do!” Edward said. 

“Keep your voice down or your going to wake everyone up.” Emily whispered. 

“Stop avoiding my question. What were you doing? And who was that?” 

“I was out with Mario.” Emily said simply. She stifled a yawn as she waited for 
the lecture on responsibility to begin. 

“Who is this Mario person? What were you doing kissing him? How old is he? Does 
the family know him? Do you know what time it is? Your parents would be very 
disappointed if they knew that you were sneaking around at all hours of the 
night…” 

Emily tuned out Edward as she planned her day for tomorrow. She had that big 
test tomorrow, the last of them, thank God. Then she would have to talk to 
Lucky, no way in getting around that. She then had another rehearsal with Lark, 
Liz, and Sly. Then she had to go with Lucy and help her with her fittings. Emily 
sighed. She did have a busy day after all. But she would gladly chuck it all for 
another ride on Mario’s bike. 

Emily snuggled into Mario’s jacket. She forgot to give it back to him and he 
forgot to ask for it. Well, that just meant she had to add a stop at the garage 
to her never-ending list of duties for tomorrow. 

“And by God, I swear I’ll chop down that damn tree myself!” Edward’s voice 
interrupted her thoughts. 

“What?” Emily laughed. What on earth was he talking about? 

Edward narrowed his eyes. “You weren’t listening to me, were you?” 

“Of course, I was listening to you, Grandfather.” Emily lied quickly. “You 
basically said that I was wrong to go out tonight and that I shouldn’t see Mario 
again.” She was taking a chance, she knew but… 

Edward nodded. She had listened after all. “Now don’t you forget what I said.” 

“I won’t Grandfather, thank you for worrying about me, it was very sweet.” Emily 
reached up and gave him a kiss. 

“Sweet? There’s nothing sweet about me.” Edward muttered. 

“You’re absolutely right.” Emily laughed as she headed for the stairs. 
“Goodnight, Grandfather, I’m going to bed.” 

“You better stay there this time!” Edward warned. Emily’s laughter rang out and 
Edward shook his head. Kids today, he thought.