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Sono tutto tuo... Se sei tutta mia
I'm all yours... If you're all mine
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Nightfall...
MIRABELLA USED THE loofah sponge to scrub in the sudsy bathwater across her skin. And once done she dropped the sponge into the tepid water and relaxed. Soon her pregnancy would prevent her from taking baths. After the day she had she couldn’t survive another moment without it. She slid down the sunken curve of the tub and her toes wiggled up from the other end. Her eyes closed.
Submerged in bathwater with only the tops of her breasts and her rounding tummy revealed Giovanni could not resist her beauty. A better husband would have given her some space. But he needed her desperately. He had to join her. Mirabella had taken the time to pin her hair up in a messy bun at the center of her head, leaving wisps of hair around her temples, ears and some fine hairs on her neck. His Bella’s pure heart and love was his salvation. Nothing had really changed between them. Not that he could tell.
She looked up as if she was just sensing his presence. He began to undress. The tub was long and wide enough for the two of them. He eased into the cool water with her and wished for more heat. But he didn’t complain. This was her bath and he was intruding.
“We have a visitor,” he said.
“We do? Who is it?”
“A boy, his name is Auturo Santoro. He’s the grandson of Don Santoro.”
“Don Santoro? Don Santoro... why does he sound familiar? Is he the one from Puglia, the Camorra south of us? Isn’t he our enemy?”
“He’s working to prove to me that he isn’t.”
“Why is his grandson here—”
“He was going to stay with Arielle for a few days. The child became distressed, so I decided to bring him here.”
She narrowed her pretty eyes on him. He had promised that he would not see Arielle again. He had to break that promise more than once. In fact, instead of coming home to her he had spent half the day at Arielle’s with his men plotting their next move. Arielle was part of his life, his business life. It wasn’t personal.
“Why are you seeing her, Gio?” Mirabella asked.
“This has nothing to do with me and her. There was never a me and her.”
“You told me you were done with her.”
Giovanni frowned. “Done with her? She’s no threat to us. I never had anything with her.”
“Oh God, the hypocrisy. What’s good for the goose is never good for the gander. Is it Gio?”
“Be reasonable. This is business.”
“To hell with your business, this is our marriage!” she tried to get out of the tub, but he grabbed her arm. Water splashed over the edge of the tub.
“Aspetta un attimo—wait a minute. Our marriage? She’s business. An employee. Not my fucking whore. She deals in children. That’s it.”
“Children? Do you know how that sounds?”
“That’s not what I meant Bella...” he sighed.
“Tacchini was business. Just business! And you killed him for it.”
He let go of her arm and stared at her. She would dare throw Piero Tacchini’s name in his face. Mirabella didn’t break her stare. “Even the thought of a friendship with me and another man drives you into a rage, but I ask you to stay away from a woman you have a past with and you dismiss it. What does that say about us, about me for putting up with it!”
“Arielle, is a gem. And I use gems—”
“I don’t care! You killed Tacchini in front of me. You made me... you made me go through that and I said I was over it, but damn it Giovanni how can I be? Ever?”
“Are you still having the nightmares?”
“Don’t change the subject!”
Mirabella sank back in the tub across from him. She wiped at her tears. He didn’t know what to say. He couldn’t speak because he was still filled with resentment over her connection to Tacchini. He couldn’t even summon enough sympathy for what he’d put her through to apologize.
“Tacchini is our enemy, he was our enemy. I did what we do to enemies.”
“Let’s just drop it.”
“I don’t traffic children. It goes against everything I am as a man, as Padrino. Arielle’s home is a safe place for children. Auturo is with me for a reason I won’t explain but he is a guest not a prisoner. When I saw the child didn’t take well to her I brought him here to make sure he was comfortable. That is all Bella. On my life that is all it ever is.”
“You kidnapped Santoro’s child? Say it.”
“Grandchild.”
“You kidnapped him?” she insisted.
Giovanni rolled his eyes.
“Just say it Gio.”
He nodded. “I took him. Does it make it easier to accept? Hearing me say it?”
“How long will he be with us?”
“Until the party.”
“Party? What party?”
He smiled.
“What party, Gio?”
He stroked her foot under the water. “You will need to throw one for me. Invitations have been sent.”
She shook her head. “You really are something.”
“That’s why you love me,” he teased. It was her turn to roll her eyes.
“Will you make sure the child’s comfortable?”
“He’s a baby. Of course, I will.”
Giovanni picked up her foot by the ankle. She relaxed for him while he gave her a needed massage. “I hear that Belinda is staying and Minnie has left.”
“She’ll do some apprentice work with Kyra,” Mirabella sighed. “That feels good.”
“Did you know she had an accident?”
“Huh?”
“Jumped out of a car or fell out of it. While Leo was driving.”
“Wait, what? No. That didn’t happen.”
“It did.”
“Who told you that?”
“Doesn’t matter. I keep my eyes on my girls. Is she going to be a problem, Bella?”
“No. I’ll find out what happened, but she won’t be a problem.”
“How about you?” Giovanni glanced up from her toes.
“What kind of problem can I be?”
“My little working woman,” he said and lowered her foot then picked up the other.
“Aaah, so you want to know if I plan to return to work?” she asked. He was now massaging the middle of her foot. He could feel the tension coil and release under his command.
“Are you?”
“Can I?” she countered.
“If I said no?” he wiggled her toe, “Will you be mad at me?”
Mirabella chuckled. “I won’t be mad. All you had to do is ask me before making a decision.”
“I’m asking,” he countered.
“Then my answer is simple. I’m not ready. I’ve bowed out of the Milan show. We have Christmas coming. Then comes our anniversary, and Eve’s birthday is shortly after that. Oh! And let’s not forget the baby. The doctors want me to be careful about the baby. Not too much stress.”
“Work used to bring you joy not stress.”
Mirabella laughed. “You don’t pay close enough attention, Gio. I’m always stressed before a new season or fashion line.”
He lifted her foot and kissed it, then sucked her middle toe into his mouth. The smile she gave him was very slight, almost untraceable. But he caught it. When he was done he let go her foot and reached for the other. “I’m sorry about our disagreements, Bella. I want to respect your feelings. Can we compromise?”
She didn’t answer.
“I won’t see Arielle anymore. If you do.”
“Me? I don’t understand.”
“I’ll bring the problem to you, and you speak with her and make arrangements.”
“You anticipate kidnapping more kids?”
He chuckled to keep from being insulted. “No. But there are families, payments and arrangements she manages for me. Delicate matters. Like Auturo. If you don’t trust me—.”
“It’s not that I don’t trust you.”
“You want consideration. I get it. I have never taken another woman to bed since the day you became my wife.”
“And before that?”
“Nothing matters before that.”
“Are you serious—?”
“You know what I mean. My vow is to you. Only you. So, if this business with Arielle is disrespectful, I submit.” Giovanni smirked.
“Until you decide otherwise.”
“The gems are yours. I shouldn’t be handling affairs with the women in our world. You should. You are a business woman, no?”
He pressed on her foot and she sighed. He could see her shoulders relaxing.
“I don’t like her... that’s all.”
“It’s enough. And I’ve apologized before, but I’ll do it again... all night if you want.”
Her gaze lifted under her long lashes.
“Prove it,” she said.
“Vieni qui,” he replied.
Mirabella grabbed the edge of the tub to lift herself up and then came over to him. Her breasts heaved out of the sudsy water with rivulets dripping from her nipples. Giovanni closed his thighs so she could straddle him. He bracketed her hips with his hands and her palms went flat to his chest to keep her seated. She eased down on his erection and then she rode him nice and steady. His jaw flexed as if his teeth were clenched. His hips shot up too soon between strokes. Water splashed. She gasped in surprise. Giovanni chuckled. He didn’t give her time to catch her breath. He was her beast. Turned on by her submission, turned on by her defiance. No matter her reaction, he was turned on.
“Mia Bella,” he groaned.
She cupped his face in her hands. His eyes were closed, and his facial expression kept switching from bliss to torment. “I missed you, today,” she said as she moved on him.
“Anche tu mi sei mancata, piccola—I missed you too, baby,” he panted between deep tongue kisses. The warm, tight sensation of her pussy walls squeezing down on his length began to push her toward her own orgasmic cataclysm. No woman moved like she did for him. She knew this. He was hers, the bad and the good. And she wanted him to be hers always. Just the way he was.
Mirabella was all hips and ass in motion when loving him. High on pleasure, his head went back against the tub. She kissed his eyelids, and then his nose. She rode his dick faster and faster. Splish. Splash. She was taking him to oblivion!
“My Gio,” she exhaled through her passion and he lost his control. What man wouldn’t? He gripped her ass cheeks and squeezed, while his pelvic thrusts released the last of his strength and his seed. Giovanni groaned through his climax. All of him was lost soon after.
When he opened his eyes, she had already moved off him and back to her side of the tub. She watched him. Either they had fucked away the suds or everything in the water had dissolved like his erection from her loving.
“The baby?” he panted.
She slid her hand into the water over her small formed belly. “I told you the doctors say the baby is fine.”
“When will we know what we are having?”
“Do you want to know?” she asked.
“No more sons,” he said in a breathless voice. “I can’t raise any more into men.”
“You haven’t raised them yet.”
He laughed. “Touché.”
However, it was no laughing matter. The things he’s had to do most of his life as a Don were now the burdens of his sons. The inheritance he would leave behind when an assassin’s bullet or a prison cell stopped him for good didn’t fill him with pride. He had to get back to the plan. The one she inspired in him. A legitimate path to secure his children’s future.
“I think having another girl will balance our family. Two boys and two girls, are a perfect mix.”
“Me too. But I don’t care if it’s a girl or a boy. I just want a healthy baby. The doctors say they only know what they know now. I guess we will never learn of what the effects of that poison has done to me long term.”
“That’s because you are healed. No more tremors or night sweats. No more fevers or delusions. You’re healed.”
“If you say so,” she mumbled.
“I have news on Catalina,” he said.
She looked up grateful for the change in subject. She nodded that she wanted to know.
“She’s still in Spain with Lorenzo. But my sources tell me that she’s been in and out of the hospital more than once.”
“Hospital? Why?”
“I don’t know Bella.”
“How long do we have to wait this out? Can’t we do something?” she asked.
“I am doing something. As soon as I can bring her back I will. I swear it to you.”
Mirabella nodded. “I know, sweetheart.”
She stood first in the tub and then Giovanni followed her out. They went to the shower to rinse off the residue from the bath and clean each other. He dried her, and she dried him. They were too exhausted to do much more, so he let her lead him to bed. Once they were under the covers and she was in his arms he truly found the ability to relax. He caressed her ass and closed his eyes.
“I think we made our daughter in America.”
“Or Chianti. Remember when we made love in the rain in the back of the wagon?”
He smiled. “I remember. Yes, I remember. But that’s not where it happened. We made her in America. In that motel room when you told me the truth. Told me everything about your past. When you finally let me in and I fell even deeper in love with you.”
“Either way we made her or him the same way we made all of our children, with love.”
“Mmm,” she agreed. “Will you ever truly forgive me for Tacchini, Giovanni? Tell me the truth?”
“I’m to, Bella. I swear it.”
“Thank you for being honest.”
“Thank you for your forgiveness, I want to deserve it,” he said.
She yawned. “I guess we’ll work on that together.”