Breathless & Bloodstained (The Chicago War #4) (44 page)

They were still
them.

“A queen always
makes people wait, doesn’t she?”

“Not when the king
is hungry, Ella.”

“Spoiled man.”

Tommas grinned.
“You made me this way.”

She had.

“Oh, you’ve got to
be kidding me,” Damian grumbled.

“Sorry, man,”
Tommas said, dangling his wiggling daughter on his hip. “Babysitter flaked.
Abriella couldn’t find anyone else at the last minute.”

Damian cringed as
something toppled and crashed in the other room. “Dammit.”

Abriella cocked a
brow in Lily’s direction. “That was one of your kids.”

“Probably,” Lily
said, entirely unashamed. “Tommaso is too proper to cause trouble.”

“He just follows
the rules,” Tommas argued.

Damian shrugged.
“Better he does.”

“It’s a little
strange for a boy of his age, though, isn’t it?” Lily asked. “I mean, he never
does anything wrong.”

“Clearly you’ve
never seen him on the soccer field,” Abriella replied. “Because he’s brutal out
there.”

“That’s my boy.”
Tommas chuckled as he dodged a wet slap from his daughter. “No, Sara, that’s
gross. You had your whole hand in your mouth and it doesn’t belong inside mine,
too.”

“Back to the issue
at hand,” Damian said. “Theo and Eve will be here in twenty minutes. I have the
goddamn—”

“Damian,
language,” Lily snapped.

Damian winced. “Sorry.
I’ve got the tickets for the show. They’re non-refundable. You promised a
babysitter. Get one, Tommas.”

“Watch it.”

“Sorry, boss.”

Tommas scowled,
and passed Sara to Abriella. “Give me a few minutes.”

“Twenty. I’ll give
you twenty because that’s when Theo and Eve will get here and want to leave. If
you’re not ready to go, without the kids, you’re staying behind to watch them.
Abriella can come with us.”

“Sounds like a
plan to me,” Abriella chimed in.

Lily giggled.

Tommas didn’t look
at all pleased with the turn of events. He stalked off, shouting into the
living room for the kids to quiet down and pick up the mess as he passed by.

Shaking her head,
Abriella put her hands on her hips and asked, “Anyone want coffee while we wait
for Tommas to work his magic?”

“Can’t,” Lily
said.

Damian passed his
wife a look. “One won’t hurt you.”

“Caffeine is bad,
Damian.”

“Bad for what?”
Abriella asked.

Lily bit the
inside of her cheek, grinning. “Well …”

Abriella didn’t
even need her friend to finish. Lily was pregnant with her third child.
“Again?”

“Yeah, again.”

Damian barely
moved out of the way when Abriella rushed Lily into a bear hug.

“Congrats!”

“Two boys,” Lily
said, laughing. “It’s time for a girl for me. God, she better be a girl.”

“Decaf, then?”

Damian chuckled.
“Yeah, she’ll tolerate that garbage.”

“Great,” Abriella
said, still hugging her friend. “You can make them, Damian.”

No one refused
Tommas Rossi’s wife in her home.

Not even Ghost.

Fifteen minutes
later, the doorbell to the Trentini mansion rang loudly throughout the wing.
Curious, she tossed her husband a questioning look. Tommas gave her no answer
in response, simply tipped what was left of his coffee down the drain and
pushed away from the sink.

“Are we ready to
go?” he asked.

“Theo and Eve
aren’t here yet,” Damian said.

“Theo just
messaged me. He’s waiting at the end of the driveway. We’re already running
late.”

“There’s no
babysitter,” Abriella said.

Tommas smirked.
“I’d be willing to bet that he just arrived.”

Confused as hell,
Abriella followed her guests and husband to the front of the house. Joseph,
Cory, and Tommaso had set up the entertainment system in the living room and
were thoroughly engrossed in some war game. Sara had been put down for bed
earlier. Mostly, the house was quiet.

On the front
entrance steps, Adriano Conti waited until the door was opened. The Capo’s gaze
widened at the sight of Abriella, Tommas, Lily, and Damian dressed up to the
nines and walking out of the house.

“Hey,” Adriano
said as the four walked down the steps.

“You’re
babysitting,” Tommas called without turning back.

“What?”

“Babysitting. I
didn’t stutter, Adriano.”

“But—”

“You owe Damian a
favor, from what I remember,” Tommas interrupted. “Isn’t that right? Something
about him catching you dry fucking Alessa against a wall during his wedding
reception all those years ago. You owe him. I’m cashing in on it. I don’t think
my cousin minds.”

Abriella caught
the sight of Adriano’s furrowed brow as an understanding dawned in the man’s
eyes. “You’re fucking kidding me! That was over a decade ago!”

“Pay up, man,”
Damian said, laughing. “I can’t help that you forgot about it.”

“I didn’t forget,”
Adriano grumbled. “I just thought that it would be for something different.”

Abriella let
Tommas kiss her on the cheek when he opened the passenger door to their
Mercedes. She slid into the passenger seat, ready for a break from life and the
chance to have some fun. Sometimes, fun was never a part of the equation.

“Four kids
inside,” Tommas informed. “Sara is sleeping, she’s out for the night. Give us a
call if there’s blood or broken bones.”

Adriano scowled.
“I’m never answering your call again, boss.”

“Yes, you will,”
Tommas said simply.

He wasn’t wrong.

Abriella jerked
the moment her husband’s hand came in contact with her bare thigh under her
dress. She barely refrained from smacking him away when his fingertips trailed
a little higher. Four people sat in ruby-colored leather chairs in front of
them, only feet away. They were thoroughly engrossed in the opera playing out
below their balcony, but it was too close for comfort.

“Tommy, stop,”
Abriella warned.

Her husband chuckled,
squeezed her thigh tightly, but didn’t remove his hand. In fact, he moved it
higher until he was stroking her pussy over the silk panties she wore. Again
and again, harder and harder until her legs were shaking and her fingers were
digging into his arm to keep from grabbing the back of the chair in front of
her.

Then, his fingers
were slipping under her panties to find her wet sex. Abriella bit her lip while
Tommas played with her pussy. His light touches and teasing strokes made her
want to whine for more.

Why did he do this
to her?

Make her so
goddamn crazy?

A single finger
slid into her clenching pussy, testing her body and playing with her
constraint. Tommas didn’t relent in his little game until Abriella was
swallowing hard, her eyes were rolling, and she’d shoved her knuckles between
her teeth to hide her sigh as she shook through an orgasm that felt as bad as
it did good.

Their best friends
chatted quietly ahead of them, discussing the show and what they had seen so
far. It had been decent enough, if not a little tiring after a while.

Removing his hand
from between her legs, Tommas winked as he cleaned his finger with his mouth.
If she’d had told him to stop, he would have. But she didn’t want him to.
Abriella couldn’t believe her husband, but then again, she didn’t know him to
be any different.

He loved using her
like this.

She needed him to
do it.

“Wonderful,”
Tommas said.

Abriella sighed.
“Thank you.”

“Always, Ella. I
like this.”

“Hmm, what?”

“This,” he
repeated. “Being here with them. It makes us feel closer. I think so, anyway.”

Abriella
understood what he meant. Tommas was close to his underboss and his front boss.
Damian and Theo held the highest seats in the Outfit next to Tommas. Their
daily business and control over the family walked hand in hand.

However, unlike
the others who had come before them, the people who had simply faked
friendships for the sake of the show, they actually had real trust and devotion
to one another in ways people couldn’t possibly understand.

No one but them
had to see it.

Tommas reached
over and stroked Abriella’s cheek gently. “You’re bored. I could see it in your
eyes. That’s why I woke you up with a little game, hmm.”

It wasn’t even a
question.

“A little.”

“And missing the
kids?”

Abriella smiled
softly. “Yeah.”

“It’s almost over.
Do you want to go get a drink at the bar? By the time we’re done, this will be
over, too.”

“As long as it’s
something strong. My ears are ringing from listening to this nonsense for the
last two hours.”

“Not rum,” he
said.

Abriella rolled
her eyes. “Fun sucker.”

“So be it.”

Tommas leaned
forward in his seat to tap Damian on the shoulder. Damian turned his head
slightly as Tommas murmured something Abriella couldn’t hear. Then, Tommas was
standing from his chair and helping Abriella from hers.

Once they were
outside the private balcony and walking down a quiet, red carpeted hallway,
Abriella asked, “What did you tell him?”

“That we would
meet them tomorrow for dinner at their house.”

“But you said we
would see them after the show.”

“I lied,” Tommas
said with a wicked smile.

Abriella stared at
her husband, confused. “What?”

“Remember what I
told you that I wanted yesterday morning?”

It only took
Abriella a couple of seconds to recall the conversation during their early
morning sexcapade.