Ti Amo (33 page)

Rocco and Dominic were toward the front of the family room fussing over the tangled lights. Rocco kept plugging them in as Dominic tried to unwind the string. Dominic would get exasperated with the old man and give up, only to have Rocco claim he was just testing them and unplug them again. The tug of war was continual. Maybe Dominic welcomed the distraction. It made him feel included in some way.

The song skipped over to the next. Stevie Wonder’s Ave Maria began to play. Mira had only disappeared after dinner to change into a dress and fix her hair. Giovanni hadn’t touched her for several days. Part of her resented everything that had him so distracted. But he’d kept his promise, and he was there now.

She’d chosen a red wrap around dress that reached just below the knees. Her hair was curled and pinned up by a red and green-jeweled barrette. She hoped Giovanni liked it. When she entered the room Eve and Zia noticed her first. Giovanni had his back to her now pulling on the oversized tree.

“Ma-ma!” Eve went straight for her. Mira knelt and picked her up. Everyone else turned their gazes her way. She blushed.

“Merry Christmas everybody.” Mira smiled.

No one spoke. All seem a bit taken with her glamorous appearance. She set Eve down and straightened her back. Tossing her chin up, she walked over to Giovanni. He hadn’t bothered to even glance her way. She tapped his shoulder, and he released the tree, standing tall. His eyes registered approval after he swept her appearance. “Dance with me,” she said. Mira lifted on her toes and kissed him, wrapping her arms around his neck.

“Here? Now?” he said with an amused smile. “What is this you’re wearing?” He tried to separate to get another good look at her, but Mira wouldn’t allow the separation.

“I’ve missed you Giovanni,” she whispered up at him. “So much.”

He paused for a moment and his gaze became soft as his smile faded. “Forgive me Bella. I’ve missed you so much too.”

“Show me.” She pressed into him and began to sway.

A week ago an assassin had tried to take his life. He’d done everything in his power to keep the threat from Mira, even avoided their bed. But tonight was hers, and he intended to make sure she and his
bambina
welcomed Christmas Eve in a very special way. The music that drifted around them in melodic waves made him warm over with love for this holiday. He swayed with Mira, and his arms circled her waist. They didn’t hear Dominic arguing with Rocco about plugging in the lights once more. Neither of them noticed Catalina walking over with ornaments telling Lorenzo he needed to pull the tree from being so close to the wall. Instead they danced together. His head bowed so his brow rested on hers. They continued to move lightly with each other’s rhythm. He kept reminding himself of their audience and only stroked her back but not lower. Oh how he wanted to touch her lower. Eve stood by them sucking her pacifier staring up at her parents curiously. Giovanni looked down at her and winked. His daughter exploded in giggles.

He inhaled his soon to be wife’s charming scent and felt closer to heaven than he’d been in a long time. She was soft in all the right places. And she was his. From this day forward every holiday, birthday, any day he’d have Mira Ellison at his side. Love filled him to the point of him shouting it to the roof. He had half a mind to take her upstairs and unwrap his Christmas present early. Then his daughter decided she would join them, and she wrapped her arms around her parents, joining them in the dance.

“
Lucciola
,” he said.

Mira let go of him, and he reached down and picked her up and held her with one arm. Together they danced near the tree. The family continued to bicker and decorate. Giovanni could hear nothing, feel nothing, outside of the love he had in his arms. The song ended, and Mira let go. Giovanni lowered Eve. The Jackson Five entertained them next. Eve showed her daddy her dance moves. She shook her hips and clapped with the song. Zia let go a warm gust of laughter. Giovanni frowned at his daughter, watching her perform. He couldn’t make up his mind if he appreciated the innocent dance or should ban it from their home.

Mira approached Catalina and Lorenzo. “You two ready to decorate this baby?”

“It’s crooked.” Catalina said frowning.

“
Christo
! You are just like your brother. It’s a damn tree and that’s how they lean!” Lorenzo snapped.

Catalina glared at him. “Trees don’t lean you bully. They stand straight. Whoever heard of a crooked Christmas tree?”

“The tree’s fine. I really like it.”

Domi came over with the lights and Zio Rocco in tow. “Let’s string it from the top down.”

Rocco frowned shaking his head. “No!
Dobbiamo verificare ancora le luci
.” He told them they needed to test the lights again.

“Rocco what is it with you and the damn lights? You’ve tested them at least six times while I was trying to untangle the stack!” Dominic groaned.

Mira touched Rocco’s shoulder. “Go ahead, test the lights again, we can do it one more time can’t we Domi?”

Dominic swallowed his smile. His bruises on his face and throat had nearly faded away. Mira was happy to see him working with them. Before Rocco was assigned to lights, they had a bit of a moment. Giovanni had discovered that Rocco had taken off the back panel from a floor model flat screen television. The wires and internal circuit boards had been removed. Giovanni almost went into cardiac arrest at the sight of it. Rocco explained he wanted to see how it worked, but the hell raising silenced his excuses. Mira was able to calm everyone. She prayed Rocco would keep his tool belt off the rest of the night.

Under the watchful eye of Dominic, Rocco plugged them in and the multi colored tiny bulbs illuminated red, blue, green and yellow once again. Eve stopped entertaining her daddy and Zia to run straight for the tree. Lorenzo caught her before she got too close, scooping her up in his arms. Giovanni and Zia joined as they watched Dominic and Rocco string the lights on the tree. When it was done, Catalina along with Mira and Zia retrieved the ornaments and began to hang them.

“Where did this music come from Bella?” Giovanni asked, dropping his arm across her shoulders.

Mira passed Lorenzo an ornament so he could help Eve hang it on a branch. “You don’t know Stevie Wonder, the Jackson Five, Diana Ross, Smokey Robinson?”

He laughed. “Yes, I know of them but those songs aren’t quite how I remember American Christmas carols.”

“It’s a Christmas CD with a soul. Something you have plenty of even though you don’t realize it.” She winked.

“Oh really?” His brow arched. Giovanni accepted his daughter whose arms were now outstretched for him. He heaved her higher and Eve reached for a branch, taking a swipe at it to make the ornaments bounce. Mira stretched upward to kiss his jaw. Eve pushed her mother’s face away with her little hand then rested her head on his shoulder. “Exactly how do you think we got you missy?” she chuckled shaking her daughter’s foot. Eve kissed her daddy on the cheek, and Giovanni laughed.

“
Grazie mia lucciola,
” he said kissing her forehead. Opening his arm to Mira he pulled her close. “And thank you too, Bella.”

Mira leaned over and kissed Eve’s cheek and then kissed her man. “I’m here as the reminder. It’s all about family.”

****

“We haven’t had this kind of family time since Papa Tomosino died.” Lorenzo drank a long swallow of Spumante. He faced the fire staring at the flickering flames. Giovanni sat next to him on the same sofa. The decorating and family time ended too soon. Eve began to cry and cling to her mother. Mira said she probably needed her bath and bed. One by one the family filed out leaving him to his thoughts. Everyone but Lorenzo and Dominic obliged him of course. “It feels like we’ve taken many things for granted cousin.” Lorenzo said.

“
É la vita
, that’s life,” he replied.

Dominic stirred the ice in the bottom of his glass and cleared his throat. Giovanni’s gaze slipped over to him. He was seated on the sofa chair to his right. Giovanni had to admit that he would miss Dominic once exiled. He was the strongest counsel he’s had since his father died. Flavio just wanted to control him, but Dominic seemed to understand him. Giovanni sighed. “Don’t you boys have business tomorrow?”

Dominic glanced up. He nodded. Lorenzo smirked and nodded. Normally he wouldn’t conduct business of this nature on Christmas Eve but the task he’d assigned to them required immediate attention. With Bonaduce’s son dead and the assassin caught, they needed to control every aspect of this before those in the
Polizia di Stato
decide to sniff into his business again. The old man had the nerve to say that Giovanni set him up. Now any peace between the Cammora and Ndrangheta
was done.

Giovanni chuckled at the irony. Where had that man gone who wanted peace? How could he find his way back there again? And with Lorenzo at his side was it even possible?

“Che será será,”
he said. “I want no drama for the next two days.”

“And your plans to marry? How are they coming along?” Lorenzo asked in a nonchalant manner that seemed a bit forced. Giovanni rose without answering. He and Mira hadn’t worked out their nuptials. His Bella was quite gun-shy when it came to revealing that she lived, when the world believed her dead. He sure as hell wouldn’t discuss his plans for her with Lorenzo. He’d given Dominic the order to leak the news to the press after the holidays. It would be a way to force her hand. Now he felt like an ass for trying to manipulate things. He’d talk to her and work it out. They’d agree mutually before anything was done.

“Good night.”

Exhausted, Mira barely made it to her room. The celebration would begin as soon as everyone rose from their beds. Her little girl and Zia had retired two hours earlier for little Eve’s bath and then sleep. Mira debated on where she slept, but Zia insisted Eve sleep with her. Rocco agreed to take another guestroom. Mira relented but vowed to keep her with her on Christmas Eve. She wanted to wake with her on Christmas morning.

Hearing the door close behind her she turned. “Merry Christmas,” she said smiling.

“
Buon Natale
,” he winked. “Is it Christmas already?” he asked.

“It’s after midnight so that makes it Christmas Eve.”

“Can I have my gift now?” he reached for the sash to her dress, pulling on it gently. The knot unwound and the belt fell free to her hips as her dress unfolded revealing her semi nude body underneath. Mira looked down at herself and then lifted her eyes to meet his lust filled stare. “This isn’t your Christmas gift.”

“Sure it is,” he said running his finger over the swell of her breasts, circling her nipple. “It’s all I want for Christmas.”

“It’s all you want period.” She shrugged the dress off her shoulders so that it fell free of her arms. Giovanni moved her hair from her shoulders, revealing the contour of her neck. She put a hand flat to his chest. “No love bites okay? The family will be here, and I don’t want to be around them with hickies on my neck.”

He chuckled. “I will restrain myself.” He kissed her neck.

“Good.” She rubbed the sides of his chest.

“You know I still don’t know much about your life in America.”

She smiled at him. “Of course you do.”

“I know what happened to your mother, but you never told me what happened to you. Why did you choose to move to New York? How did you meet Fabiana? Hell I want to know it all down to your very first kiss.” He massaged the side of her neck with his fingers. Her eyes fluttered shut, and she tilted her head back deciding on giving him the watered down version of her history.

“I graduated high school and a friend I knew—.” Her voice trailed off. His hand slid into her panties. “Don’t stop,” he said against her ear before he slid his tongue inside.

“A friend helped me. I was accepted into Parsons School of Design in New York.” A sharp sting pierced her clit. He stroked her with light rubs of his finger to soothe her after. She sucked in a tight breath, and shuddered hard. He moved on to the hooks of her bra. The action aroused her even more.

“Where did you meet Fabiana?” His lips brushed her closed eyelids.

“School,” she said weakly before he slid his tongue inside her mouth. Mira lifted her arms to his broad shoulders and returned his passion. The kiss sent the pit of her stomach into a wild swirl. Giovanni walked her back to the bed. Tasting him, feeling him, being with him, it was so addictive, and she never tired of the adrenaline rush she received both before and after he claimed her body. Raising his mouth from hers he gazed into her eyes. Mira lowered slowly to the bed and scooted back toward the stack of pillows up against the headboard. Giovanni reached for her ankle and pulled her shoe off then removed the other, massaging her foot. He placed a soft kiss to her ankle. A single kiss, such as this one, made her blood fiery hot in her veins. She desperately wanted him.

“Tell me more, Bella. I’m listening.”

“The first boy I ever kissed was named George Hinkle, and we were in the third grade,” she teased. Her giddy response caused him to lift a curious brow.

“Isn’t that a little young for a kiss?” he said pulling her down on the bed so that she was forced to her back as her hair fanned out around her.