La Sposa (32 page)

“
I had it done the day after I
buried my mother.”

“
It’s beautiful,” she said. She
didn’t know her mother, other than the stories people told her. But
she knew his pain. No child, no matter the age, could get over the
death or abandonment of a parent. Mira rose and he reached for her.
“Just a second, baby,” she said.

She went to get a few things she’d packed in
her trousseau for the night. On her way back in, she passed a
platter of fruit and cheese. She hooked her silk bag on her arm and
picked up the tray. Giovanni lay on the mattress pad. He had his
arms folded behind his head. She placed the tray next to him and
set down her goodie bag. The first thing she removed was a
blindfold. Catalina tried hard to find handcuffs but they couldn’t
locate any in time. The blindfold was the best she could do. When
she brought it close to his face, she saw a light of interest spark
in his eyes at the sight of it.

“
Now you’re going to be a good boy
for me. Right?”

He nodded and she leaned forward to tie the
blindfold and cover his eyes. He cupped her breasts in his hands as
she did so. He plucked her nipples playfully. Mira giggled. “Stop
distracting me.” She secured the tie to the back of his
head.

“
Cara mia, ti voglio
bene.”

“
I love you too, sweetheart,” she
smiled down at him. She laid out over his long hard body. Her
tongue licked at his lips, dipped in his mouth, flicked at his
chin. “I have a question. I want you to answer it truthfully,” she
said, parting her legs a fraction so his erection pressed nicely
against her sex. “What’s your favorite?”

“
Favorite what?” Giovanni
asked.

“
Exactly,” Mira laughed.

“
I don’t understand.”

Mira smiled and eased down his chest with
kisses and licks. His thighs parted and she slipped between. Now,
face to face with his cock, she gave it a sweet kiss.

“
Yes. This is one of my favorites,”
he groaned.

“
I thought so, sweetheart,” she
said, and then licked the length of his cock from base to
tip.

“
Goddess, what you do to me,” he
groaned.

Mira held his cock and swallowed two inches of
him. She wrapped her lips around her teeth and took him deeper into
her mouth, sucking, pulling, and swallowing. It was good to him.
She could hear the grunts of his torture escape him in short bursts
between deep intakes of breaths. Looking up at him, while her head
bobbed up and down as she swallowed then released more and more of
him, she became mesmerized with how his massive muscular chest rose
and fell with his staggering breathing. She could feel his penis
swell in her mouth and knew he neared release. She prepared herself
to take all of him but he refused her the pleasure. He sat upright
and ripped off the blindfold. In a swift move he drew her off his
dick, to force her to her back.

“
I want you,” he said, his voice
grave and desperate.

“
Take me, any way you want. I’m
yours,”

She turned on her hands and knees. He eased
her under him, making her lie flat on the padded mat. The candles
twinkled, making the marble floors and water surface glisten. He
rubbed his hand over her left buttock and then the other. Mira
squeezed her eyes shut when his tongue swiped between the two and
licked her intimately. Giovanni tilted her ass up to him by a firm
hold to her hips and eased in her pussy first with measured
intensity, until she pushed back against the invasion with her
knees to give him greater access. He fucked her sweetly at first,
massaging her clit to make the pleasure evenly felt. He used
smaller circles of his hips, keeping their connection. And it
worked. She felt as if someone had poured warm honey into her
pussy, his glide was so smooth and hotly satisfying. And when he
changed his strokes,
mercy!
She nearly cried out. He
withdrew. She was flipped to her back and immediately she tossed up
her legs to lock her ankles around his neck. With him raised on his
knees it became a very easy task. He held her hips and pumped hard
and fast into her. “Take it, baby, take all of it,” he grunted. She
did, refusing to give into the crushing pressure inside her pelvis
to release. Her endurance spurred him on, to push her harder;
further, she could see the hunger in his eyes for full
dominance.

While fucking her, he looked over to her bag
of treats. Mira noticed his distraction. However, there was too
much intensely driven pleasure between her legs to comment. Her
eyes fluttered shut. Her legs were now straight and her ankles
rested on his shoulders. He slipped out and she nearly screamed in
disappointment. It was when she heard him squeeze gel into his palm
that she understood why. “Be mine, Bella, all mine, relax for
me.”

Her legs spread wider into a V and he pulled
her forward so each leg could drop over the bend of his arms. She
felt the push of pressure on her anus and arched her back forcing
her ass down instead of up. It was instinct and fear of the foreign
act. Fabiana loved to do it. She didn’t understand why any woman
would. He gently guided her back into position. Mira squeezed her
eyes tightly shut, biting down so hard on her lip she feared she’d
draw blood.

“
Relax,” he said under a soft rasp.
Her eyes opened, and she could see his chest rise and fall with
deep breaths. He was trying hard to reel himself in. His face was
flushed and his chest and arms seemed to bulk. He wanted this
desperately. She could see it. He wanted all of her. Mira nodded
and forced herself to relax.

The first plunge ripped into her. Shocked by
the force she cried out, despite her vow not to. And then
surprisingly, the tightness below melted. He did not proceed with
aggression. Soon he was entering her, and escaping in ways that
stimulated and rocked her perceptions of passion to the core.
Giovanni’s head dropped back and the veins in his neck protruded.
Whatever she felt, he felt tenfold. He released a strained breath
and his thrusting became demanding. Mira cried out and he showed
tenderness, releasing his seed deeply into her. Immediately, her
body pushed him out. He dropped on her panting. She lay there,
stunned by what they achieved. His staggered breaths grew shallow
and he gathered his composure. Rising and lifting her. She ached
badly, but he carried her to the now cooler jets of the Jacuzzi
tub. The moment she submerged, she felt her body cool down. Mira
drifted with him, holding her to his lap. He brought her up to his
arms and kissed her. She clung to him, waiting for the ability to
breathe again.

*****

Marietta slowly opened her door. She’d
forgotten Lorenzo’s comment about keeping a man to watch over her,
posted outside of her door. She nearly closed it when she found him
there—waiting. The black silk robe she wore barely reached
mid-thigh. Their eyes met. Quickly, she hurried out of her room to
Lorenzo’s before the impropriety made her abandon her bravery. She
didn’t bother to look back. She knew the man was staring. Fuck him.
When she opened the door to Lorenzo’s room, she found darkness
inside. The bitter stench of his cigar greeted her. She hated
smokers. This, among other things, made her question the attraction
she couldn’t deny between them. Marietta crept inside his room,
expecting to find him asleep. He laid in the middle of his king
size bed with his arms folded behind his head. A smile teased the
right side of his mouth.

“
What took you so long?” he
said.

The question stopped her. The plan to slip
into his bed foiled. Did he know her better than she knew herself?
Hell no! The man was an arrogant jerk. A sexy, arrogant, jerk and
her attraction to him was like a drug. She couldn’t get
enough.

“
I, ah, I came to ask a
question.”

Lorenzo’s brow arched. “Really?” A smug snort
of laughter escaped him, and it made her want to gut punch him. But
she maintained her composure.

“
Yes, really.”

“
Then ask me beautiful, and then
come join me.” He sat up, extending his hand.

She rolled her eyes. “You spent your birthday
with me.” She crossed her arms in front of her. “I want to know
why. Why don’t you celebrate your birthday?”

The smile dimmed on his lips. Finally,
something real broke the wall of indifference that was his force
field. She expected him to reject her, and her request for truth
and honesty. She was prepared for him to talk her out of this
stupid attraction they shared so she could keep it strictly
business between them. He was as predictable as he was dangerous,
she supposed.

She was wrong.

Lorenzo held her gaze for a moment, then
spoke. “I used to love my birthday as a kid. It was the last day of
the year. That’s a huge day in my culture. Big parties, so much
celebrating, all of it made me feel special. Different. My mother
constantly reminded me that I wasn’t. I was her son, and cursed to
be second in life to anything I ever wanted. And then it all
changed when I was about sixteen.”

“
What happened?” Marietta
pressed.

“
My mother was diagnosed with
breast cancer. She was quite bitter about it. Wait. No. She was
pissed about it. Isabella Battaglia was a bitter woman, pissed
about many things.”

“
Isabella?”

“
I told you, sweetheart, it’s a
common name. My mother’s name.” He waved off the connection but
Marietta wasn’t quite convinced they should dismiss it. A woman
with the name of his mother was after them both? She half-listened,
more confused than before.

“
When the doctors told her that she
would lose her breasts, she refused to believe it. Refused the
operation. Refused the treatment. Went to the church for a healing.
Shook her fist at God and dared him to try to come for her. And the
sickness progressed rapidly. Then fear for Isabella settled in. And
to have her afraid wasn’t very pleasant for me.”

“
It must have been hard on you?”
Marietta asked.

Lorenzo chuckled. “Not in the way you think.
My mother, dear sweet ma-ma, took her life on my birthday. I found
her. She said in her note she didn’t want to see a new year with
her illness, but I knew differently. She didn’t want me to have a
new year without remembering her suffering. No more
birthdays.”

“
What? Are you serious?”

“
Very. She was a complicated woman.
She wanted to be sure she remained remembered by me.
Always.”

“
I’m sorry.”

He stared at her with such a cold resolve she
didn’t see the man she’d been battling with, but the boy of
sixteen.

“
That’s awful, Lorenzo. I’m so
sorry.”

“
I’m really hurting about it. Come
over and make it better.” He teased.

“
Don’t do that. Don’t make jokes.
What you said, well it’s serious.”

“
It’s life. I decided not to dwell
on it years ago. My family thinks it matters. I don’t give a shit.
It’s why I don’t celebrate the day. I was happy you gave me a
reason to. Usually takes several bottles of
vino
to do
so.”

Marietta smiled. “Well we were kind of busy,
hard for you to focus, huh?”

He lifted his hand again for her to accept.
Marietta began to untie her robe. She stood in his moonlit room,
letting the robe slip off her shoulders and down her arms. The
negligee was black, crotchless, and something she sometimes wore
under her dresses when she wanted to be rebellious or naughty. It
served a better purpose tonight. He seemed pleased at what she’d
chosen. She approached the bed and he drew back the
sheet.

She climbed over and next to him. He rolled
her underneath him. “Going forward, no more bullshit. You follow my
lead. Agreed?”

Marietta reached to kiss him.

“
Say it. Agreed?”

“
Agreed,” she said
softly.

He moved between her thighs. He would remain
there until her back blew out, or his, for the remainder of the
night.

Chapter Eight

La Dolce Vita
– The Good Life

Morning wasn’t supposed to arrive so soon.
Mira opened her eyes, and light, sounds, and shapes came into
focus. The sweet melody of her baby’s happiness drew her attention
to the right. Eve sat on her father’s chest. She dropped forward on
her chubby hands and repeated a word he taught her in Italian. They
were so adorable, she wished she had brought in the camera she
packed in her trousseau to capture the moment. Fatigue had such a
hold on her, she couldn’t summon the strength to speak. Giovanni,
however, noticed she was awake first. “Morning, Mommy.”

Eve immediately went for her. Mira was
unprepared for her daughter’s lunge and was crushed by Eve’s belly
flop on her head. Smiling, she eased up on the pillows and gave her
toddler a morning hug. Last night, at some point, they made it to
bed. And as he promised, she was sleeping the minute her head
touched the pillow, wiped out. “We have breakfast.” His gaze lifted
to the ceiling, indicating it waited for them on the third floor.
“Are you hungry?”

“
Mmm, I’m really tired baby. Do you
mind taking Eve and starting without me? I need another hour or
two.”