Ti Amo (20 page)

A lump congealed in his throat. It was late. He had let his anger subside and now he felt hurt and disappointed by her actions. Giovanni entered their bedroom. The darkness was only spared where the lamplight reached the side of the bed. Mira. His beautiful, sweet Mirabella slept with their daughter in her arms. Giovanni loved his girls. Which is why it hurt him deeply when she phoned her ex-lover.
Did she think he was an idiot?
She lied to his face.

Eve rolled out of her mother’s arms and flipped to her back. Arms and legs flung wide, she wore a yellow and white nightdress hiked up to her diaper. He brushed two fingers across her cherubic cheek. Eve sucked her pacifier in her sleep. The two of them never parted. Giovanni chuckled softly to himself and the last of his prideful indignation abated. He lifted his
bambina
with both palms. Mira didn’t stir. Silently he carried Eve from the room to the adjoining one and placed her in the crib. Eve rolled over, and he tucked her in her blankets. Her eyes popped open. Giovanni offered her pacifier that had fell away into her mouth, and she settled back into sleep. He smiled. His heart beat for her now.

Returning to his room, he toed out of his shoes and pulled his dark crewneck shirt over his head and tossed it aside. He unbuckled his belt and tossed it to the floor as well. After he turned off the lamp next to the bed, shed his boxers, pulled off his socks, he then eased under the blankets with her, nude. Mira turned over and Giovanni kissed her fully. He loved the taste of her. Her perfumed skin was soft to the touch as well. He kissed her cheek then her neck and she moaned. His face lifted, and he waited for her to respond in a more meaningful way. She blinked sleepily at him and her hand touched his forearm. She was his.

When he thrust his tongue at her once more she accepted his kiss and her hold on his arm fell away. Soon after her fingers combed through his hair. He reluctantly broke the kiss to lick and suck his way down her neck to her lovely breasts covered in her nightshirt. Giovanni paused, after having dampened the front of her shirt from sucking on her nipples.

“Take it off,” he grunted.

He moved aside so she could pull the nightshirt off. As she did he pulled on the band of her panties and yanked them down her heart shaped hips and rolled them off her thighs and lower legs. Giovanni was in no mood to talk, argue, and debate the issues between them. He just wanted to be close to her. He tugged her panties off her ankles, going lower on her body, disappearing under the sheets. She parted her thighs and guided them around his neck so the backs of her thighs rested on his shoulders. Apparently his woman had the same idea in mind. His tongue delved between the folds of her slit and then swirled over her clitoris drawing it into his mouth. He covered the swollen nub with his mouth and her body bucked and arched upward. A sweet gasp of pleasure escaped that luscious full pair of lips. The tightened tips of her breasts pointed upward temptingly. Giovanni forced his eyes closed to keep from abandoning the pleasure he gave her between her thighs. Instead he buried his nose into the soft downy hairs covering her mound as he sucked slow and lovingly. He held her steady by her jerking hips and let his tongue tease her into a frenzied state. Her slender hands unconsciously twisted and gripped the sheets, ripping them off the corners of the bed.

Aroused even more by her sweet cries of surrender Giovanni endured the tightness in his groin. He would resist. For the moment he intended to apologize to her slow and sweet. And Mira gasped louder and louder. She grabbed the top of his head and shot upright, while pressing his face against her gyrating center. He pierced her cunt with his tongue as she hissed then shook through her first climax of the night.

“Stop. Stop. Stop. I’m done.” She panted and fell back to the bed. Giovanni’s gaze lifted, and his tongue continued with its figure eight swirls. Her gorgeous breasts heaved and fell with each staggered breath. He was pleased by the bliss on her face. Giovanni eased up on her, covering her body with his as he sucked on one nipple then the other.

“Baby, please let me catch my breath,” she protested, pushing at his shoulders. She looked up at him with such love he regretted being cross with her after dinner. Whatever her reasons were for lying to him he’d forgiven them. He accepted that he wasn’t an easy man to love or trust. He accepted that there were rules in their life he’d have to teach her and not expect her to know. She was after all his and soon she’d be his wife.

“Turn over to your side, Bella. For me.”

He lifted. Mira did as he requested. Giovanni parted her thighs and entered her once more while he drew her snug into his chest. He kissed her shoulder enjoying the warmth from being inside of her. Mira exhaled deeply, her pussy walls constricted drawing him deeper. She rotated her hips to match his rhythm as he moved in and out of her slowly.

“
Ti amo, Bella
,” he rasped against her ear. “Don’t come. Not yet. Just control yourself and let me have you. My way.”

She nodded her compliance. Her knee bent to allow further access. She reached behind her, touching his face. He grabbed her hip instructing her on the ways that pleased him the most. Soon his passionate demands of her body caused him to roll her over to her belly. She buried her face in her pillow stifling the passionate cries that she held in her throat.  Parting her legs wider with his knees he pumped away grunting into her ear as his powerful frame pressed her deeply into the mattress. He grabbed her wrists holding them above her head as he eased in and out of her. The strokes were tender yet forceful ones, and she finally lifted her head sighing with pleasure from the way he loved her.

Putting the side of his face to hers as he thrust into her from behind with maddening frequency, he pummeled her hot wet center with his jerking cock. She dropped her head in submission and he lifted on his knees pulling her hips upward so he could take her fully. Holding on to her hips he went in and out with meticulous precision causing her inner walls to clench and seize him tightly. “Not yet, Bella. Hold on!” he grunted.

“I-I-I can’t,” she stammered.

“You can!”

They both struggled to keep some sense of control because of Eve. The baby could possibly hear them with the door to their connected room open. Lifting her hands to the headboard, she gripped it to silence it from banging against the wall.

Mira was holding on to control by a fraying string. His thick hardness rocked in and out of her to the point she thought her pelvic bone would crack. None of it was about pain, just glorious motion that had her emotions reeling. Her inner muscles squeezed his shaft and she heard him groan and grunt, but the rhythmic motion of in-and-out never ceased.

“I can’t,” she gasped. Ready to unleash she vibrated all over with tension. He spanked her on the left cheek and the sting rippled through her vaginal walls making her clitoris quiver.

“You don’t give orders, Bella. I do.” He chuckled going still, then moving again.
Was he punishing her?
He was. God help her it was the best torture of her life. Mira could barely breathe or think past the pleasuring strikes of his ramming cock.

The spanking stopped and his hot, damp, hard body dropped on her back. He kept moving, rolling his pelvis against her ass with his cock buried deep into her.

“Are you mine?” he groaned against her ear.

“Yes,” she breathed.

“
Il tuo piacere é il mio
,” he breathed. Your pleasure is my pleasure is what he whispered to her. “
Apri le gambe
,” he rasped. Spread your legs, he said to her. Mira parted her legs and he lay on her, thrusting in and out. His grunts announced his rapid descent into the earth shattering orgasm that was pent up like a raging storm inside of them both. “Now Bella, now…” he panted. And she gripped tighter to the headboard concentrating on the swirl of delicious currents rippling through her pussy. When neither could stand it any longer, they climaxed in unison. Giovanni eased out of her, and she rolled over.

Sweating, she turned over and he again positioned himself on top of her, his flaccid cock pressed between them, their chests heaving and releasing breaths in unison. He moved her hair from her face. She smiled up at him. “I thought you were mad at me?” she said, sucking down deep breaths.

“No. Never. I was disappointed.”

“Because I lied?”

“Don’t lie to me. No matter what it is, I want the truth between us. Only the truth.”

“I’m sorry sweetheart.” She touched the side of his face. “I called Kei because I needed to tell him about us. I owe him my life, Giovanni. Do you understand? He’s my friend. We can trust him.”

“He’s your ex-lover. There is no place in our lives for him. Do you understand?”

“But?”

“Do you understand?” Giovanni said, his gaze hard, and his tone insistent.

“Yes.”

He lowered his face to her chest. She stroked the top of his head and ran her other hand down his back. “You’re right. Lies are not who we are. Whether small or big they can destroy us. I swear to you I won’t lie to you again.”

“
Ti amo
,” he said sleepily.

“
Ti amo
,” she said stroking his hair.

Chapter Nine

Mira expected to find her at the breakfast table, but Catalina never arrived. Franco joined them and said it was a woman issue. Mira doubted it. In fact something about Franco’s smug grin at that table set Mira’s teeth on edge. She couldn’t quite determine the reason. After seeing Giovanni off to his meetings, she and Eve went in search of Catalina. Mira waited patiently for an answer. Several minutes passed before she knocked again.

Her hand rose to repeat the action and the door opened a crack. “Yes?”

“Are you okay? You didn’t come down for breakfast.”

Catalina opened the door and walked away. Eve, at her mother’s side, pushed the door all the way open. Mira hesitated but entered and closed the door. Catalina wore a thick pale green robe with her hair finger combed into a messy braid. Balled up wads of tissue were littered over the bed covers and dresser. It was evident she’d been crying.

“I saw Franco leave for work after breakfast,” Mira said. She could see little of Catalina’s face because of her refusal to make eye contact. Eve hurried over to Catalina and held her arms up. When Catalina reached for her she tossed the loose tendrils of hair from her cheek and Mira got a good look at the bruising near her left eye.
Was Franco insane?

“He came in late last night and left early, which is just fine with me.” Catalina said dryly. She bounced Eve on her knee and then hugged her. Mira was at a loss as to what to say. She knew Giovanni wouldn’t tolerate his sister being abused. Laying a hand on Catalina was an act of suicide.

“How long has this been going on?”

Catalina kissed the top of Eve’s head. Her niece rested the side of her face against her chest, snuggling comfortably in her lap. Without looking up she answered. “Yesterday, before dinner. First and last time the bastard will ever put a hand on me.”

Mira moved closer. “Giovanni finds out about this, and he’s a dead man.”

Catalina ran her hand over Eve’s soft locks that were pulled back by a flowery headband. “Giovanni, Domi, Lorenzo, Nico, hell even Carlo would go crazy. No one can know,” she said without looking up. “Thank you for covering for me yesterday.”

“I wasn’t sure what you were hiding, I prayed it wasn’t this.”

“I mean it, Mira. You can’t tell anyone.”

“I can’t keep this from him. I won’t do it. That asshole needs to be out of here tonight. I’ll talk to Giovanni and make him understand. Every problem in this family does not have to be dealt with by violence.”

Catalina wept. Eve reached for her face touching her cheeks. “Nippy?” Eve said.

Mira immediately went to her side to comfort her. “Sweetie we can’t keep this from them. The man attacked you and that’s never acceptable.”

“You don’t understand.”

“Then help me.” Mira said.

Reaching for the box of tissues she gave Catalina a few. She wiped at her tears and collected herself. “I’m stronger than this. Franco said things. I can’t. I just can’t talk about.”

When Franco came to bed in the middle of the night, he had the nerve to demand sex from her. It was awkward, and he couldn’t finish. She only complied to keep the peace until she could think of what to do to get out of this mess and not put Dominic in danger. She believed Franco’s threat. He’d tell Giovanni about her affair, and her life would be ruined. Franco was right. She was like her mother. A whore. She never wanted her brother to see her as one. “He knows about me and Domi, Mira.” Catalina confessed. Father Michael told her confession was good for the soul the last time she went to mass. Why did her confession make her feel ten times worse?

“Knows? How is that possible? You ended it before the wedding.” Mira took hold of her chin and Catalina was forced to look her in the eye. “You and Domi did end it right?”

“We’ve been sleeping together, even after the wedding.” Catalina said softly. “But we agreed it had to stop. It doesn’t matter anyway. Franco said he was defrauded because I wasn’t a virgin when we married. He’s right, I brought this on myself.”