Amore (84 page)

Villa Mare Blue

The Lagoon

Marietta swam under the clear blue waters. Below her the sand had a crystalized sparkle from the sunrays, and above the waters rippled as she swam to the surface. She emerged at the mouth of the cave. Lorenzo waited for her. He had taken off his speedos and lay on his back, nude. His body was beautifully tanned a dark olive brown from sailing.

“Hi!” Marietta said.

“Hello, beautiful,” he said.

“Shae and Carlo will be back soon. I should start dinner,” she smiled. “You need to cover up, sweetie.”

“Not yet. Stay longer.” Lorenzo groaned. He closed his eyes. Marietta pulled herself up out of the water. She picked up a towel and dried herself. This was supposed to be her second honeymoon. Lorenzo had been gone. She had him all to herself for two beautiful weeks since the funeral, and every night she contemplated the right time to share the news. And every night her courage failed her. Marietta dropped her towel. She looked down at her small belly. The yellow bikini put the swell on display. Lorenzo lifted on his elbow and turned on his side. He smiled at her.

“You’re getting fat, Marie. I like it,” he chuckled.

She should have been insulted, but the way he stared at her hips she couldn’t help but laugh. She shook her head. She had worked out the perfect way to reveal her pregnancy tonight. On the beach after dinner, but she’d waited long enough. After talking to Mirabella earlier that day she decided it was best to just say it.

“Come here,” he said staring now at her tits. They were tender. The most painful part of sex was the way he handled her breasts.

“Lo, there’s something I need to tell you—” she began.

“Lorenzo! Marietta!” Shae called out to them. Marietta looked out toward the canal that led into the lagoon. Carlo and Shae sped toward them in a small white boat. Lorenzo grabbed a towel and covered himself before they got closer. Shae waved and smiled. Marietta smiled and put on her cover-up as well. Her friend was in a strawberry pink bikini. The girl had killer curves on display. When she waved, her large breasts bounced, and the diamond bracelets on her wrists sparkled in the sun.

“What time were you two thinking of coming in?” Shae asked when they coasted in closer.

“Another hour or so. We’ll walk back,” Marietta answered.

Carlo stared at Marietta. They barely spoke to each other now. And though she was happy for him she missed their friendly banter. Either way it didn’t matter. Her and Carlo would never dance so close to disaster again.

“They have several grottos,” Shae said. “Carlo showed them to me. It’s so beautiful out here!”

“I know. See you soon!” Marietta waved. Lorenzo waved. Carlo turned the speedboat in the lagoon and sped them back out toward the sea. She glanced to her husband who stood and tossed his towel. He stroked his dick with that smile of his that she knew meant trouble.

“Do you still want to be a father?” she asked.

He stopped in mid-stroke. He frowned at her. Marietta shed her cover-up. Her bellybutton piercing was a bit protruded. She ran her hand over her tummy. It drew his eyes to her stomach. She walked over.

“See anything different about me?” she asked.

“What are you telling me, Marie?” he asked.

“I’ve been trying to think of a way to tell you. I’m pregnant, Lo,” she said.

“You’re pregnant?” he asked with wide-eyed wonder.

She nodded slowly. “I am, you jerk. So I’m not fat!” she laughed.

“You’re pregnant!” he went to her and touched her belly. “We’re going to have
bambini?”

“No, a b
ambino
or a
bambina
, not
bambini,
” she frowned.

“Twins!” he exclaimed.

“Lo? No! It’s one baby!”

He swept her up in his arms and she squealed in fright. She held on to him. He kissed her deeply. Marietta laughed and kissed him back. “A baby, a son, our first. We made one the night you came home from jail, and we swore to start over again. Our baby.”

“Our baby!” he laughed. “I love you, Marie!”

“I love you so much, Lo! So much!” she giggled and hugged his neck.

**

The door opened. Mirabella looked up from the floor. Giovanni walked inside and paused. “What is it, Bella? Are you not feeling well?”

Mirabella swore she wouldn’t cry. She swore it. But one look at him and the urge to break down in tears overwhelmed her. She almost couldn’t find her voice. “We need to talk,” she managed to say.

He closed the door. “Talk? What is it? A headache? Another fever?”

“No damn it! No!” she stood and the tears did fall. She pointed at the tape. Giovanni looked at it confused at first. He then recognized it.

“What was on the tape?” she asked.

“Where did you get that?” he answered.

“What was on it, Gio!” she shouted.

“A threat, Bella. Kei sent me a threat.” Giovanni stepped toward her.

“You’re lying to me. Why? Because you don’t want to tell me that he sent you a tape of him raping me?” she asked.

Giovanni stopped. He froze and the word rape forged a wall of emotion between them. Mirabella put her hands to her hair. “We never talk about it. Never! But it doesn’t mean it didn’t happen. When you found me, that night I almost escaped.”

“Bella, don’t be upset, let’s talk about it later. First you need to calm—”

“I WANT TO TALK ABOUT IT NOW!” she screamed at him. She shook with heartache. “Now, Gio. Now!”

“Okay, okay
cara,
now,” he said. “If you want to talk let’s talk.”

“I almost escaped. His brother set a trap for me. A man was to help me get out on a boat. But he pulled a gun on me. Kei got there. He killed the man, he killed his brother.” Mirabella paced. The old pain in her ankle that was supposed to be healed surfaced, and she slipped into the memory. She began to limp, submerged in fear and anxiety. “He hit me. He dragged me back inside. He said he was going to make me want him. He injected me with the same stuff he injected me with when he made that tape. I didn’t know if he raped me. He said he didn’t. But I didn’t know! I didn’t know! I didn’t know!”

“Bella, please don’t do this,” Giovanni stepped closer. She stepped back.

“What did he send you, Gio? Tell me!” she broke down in tears.

“He had a message for me. The video then showed you in bed. He kissed you. And then the tape ended. I swear on the lives of our children there was no rape. Just him threatening us.” He told her.

“And when you found me? Did he rape me? Was I naked? Do you think he did?” she asked.

“No. No, Bella. You were clothed. You were not naked. I got there before anything happened. I stopped him, sweetheart. He didn’t. Please, sweetheart. Believe me. You’re okay.”

“You’re lying!” she said trembling. “Aren’t you?”

“Look at me, Bella. Listen to me. I saved you. He didn’t do it. He’d already injected you, but we got there in time.”

“Then why, Gio?” she asked through her tears.

“Why what, Bella?”

“Why is it you can’t touch me? Why is it you don’t even try to kiss me? If Kei didn’t rape me why is it you don’t look at me like you used to?” she cried. “Why?”

He walked over to her. He pulled her into his arms and held her. She hugged him and cried against his chest. She loved him so much. Nothing for her had changed. She loved and wanted her husband today as much as she did the day before Kei brought the nightmare into their life. But did he still want her?

He lifted her chin. “I was afraid to push you. You had been through so much. Do you think I’m so selfish I would do anything to hurt you?”

“Making love to me is never hurting me. I need to feel loved by you. It’s our way. I want to be your wife again. Don’t you miss me?”

He kissed her tears away. His mouth brushed her quivering lips as an answer. Mirabella was so scared. The kiss was sweet, but awkward. She felt it. Was it her or him? She ran her hands over his chest. Flashes of Kei touching her and forcing her into sloppy kisses seared her brain. But she fought against the nightmare. She had to. She wouldn’t let him win. Her tongue slipped into Giovanni’s mouth and she rose on her toes. She trembled when his hands glided down her back to cup her backside. He squeezed her. He pulled her shirt out of her jeans. And when she dared to touch his dick, she found his erection coiled thickly behind his zipper. Her touch affected him. His kiss became swift and hard, but she didn’t mind. He ripped her shirt open and the buttons popped and fell off. Mirabella chuckled through her tears. He smiled at her when their lips parted. He snatched the shirt down off her arms.

And then he went for it. Mirabella’s mouth stretched and she deepened their kiss. Together they went to the bed, clawing at each other’s clothes, wanting to feel their naked bodies pressed against each other. Giovanni unbuttoned her jeans. He snatched them off her legs. She helped by kicking them off. He took his time removing her panties and uncovering her sex. She kept her pubic hair mowed to a landing strip just the way he liked. He removed what was left of his clothes and joined her. She parted her thighs, and Giovanni placed them both on his shoulders.

The lips of her vagina spread for him. He slid his tongue deep between the folds. He used his fingers to fondle her the way she craved. And like his woman, she responded to his touch. He licked her again, teased her, before he dove from her clit to her pussy hole for a taste of her salty cream. Mirabella arched up off the bed. She gasped as her thighs fell off his shoulder to drop and spread wide for him. He put a hand on her stomach to press down, because she gyrated up against his mouth at an increasing speed.

He sucked her clit once more, and inserted two fingers. Her bottom lifted off the mattress. The taste of her, smell of her, all of her was pure heaven to him. She came for him. He made sure she did so in his mouth before pulling himself up over her. She was right. He had held back, laid in bed at night with blue balls and a clenched gut to keep from holding her as he wanted to. But he owed her peace. He wanted her well. He’d prove to her that nothing and no one could ever change his feelings for her.

Giovanni palmed both cheeks of her ass before he eased inside of her. She drew her legs up and bent her knees to hook them around his waist. He pushed deep and came down on top of her. The feel of her hands on his back, and her soft thighs pressed against his sides, was all he needed. He thrust into her with slow mounting eagerness. Their breathing was evenly matched. All he felt was wet pussy drawing him deeper and deeper. Nearly mindless, he thrust into her with full throttle. He missed her. He needed her. He worshiped her. He thrust harder and faster until the pressure of not having his wife for close to two months exploded in his balls and he released. Long after coming he continued to stroke in and out of her pussy with his face buried in her neck.

Dazed and confused he needed several long minutes to recover. Mirabella clung to him. When he lifted his face he found her crying. But she wasn’t in pain as he first suspected. She looked up at him. “Don’t ever leave me, Gio. Ever. You’re everything to me.”

“I’ll never let you go, Bella. They’ll never get to you again,” he promised.

**

Santo tossed the remote to his television aside. He rubbed his eyes. Day after day it was the same bullshit. He would go crazy soon, he feared. He glanced to the door. For weeks the
polizia
questioned him. And the moment he was well enough to be moved they took him into protective custody. He hadn’t given them shit. But the fucking inspector wanted
la Camorra
to think he did. It was a mind-fuck and Santo was the bait.

After weeks of isolation he was moved again, under guard, in a small villa in a remote are of Napoli. No matter what the police offered, he would not live or die with the scornful tag of
pentito
by testifying against his clan. Giovanni would never appreciate his final act of loyalty. But his silence guaranteed his sons and ex-wife would not be sacrificed.

He needed to stretch his legs. He stood and bent his back. He walked out to the front of the villa. Two officers were seated in front, one sat by the door in a sofa chair with an Uzi propped up to the left of him. The other stretched out on the sofa. They were on constant rotation. After midnight another two arrived.

Santo went to the kitchen and then the fridge. He reached in and found a beer. He glanced to the television show and then looked away. Shaking his head he walked back inside the room and slammed the door. He sat on the edge of his bed. His gaze was fixed outside of the window. What man waited for death? He couldn’t last much longer.

After a deep swallow Santo stood and walked over to the window. For the first time in days he saw a vehicle other than the one owned by the officers. It was parked on the street. He stared at the empty car and a plan began to form. He stared at it and waited to see if someone would come for it.

“I don’t understand, Domi? Why don’t we just go inside and kill him?” Umberto asked.

Dominic sat in the car with the young enforcer. He tapped his fingers on the side of the windowsill. He waited. “We don’t go in because those two officers will have to be put down to get to him. And Giovanni wants this done clean. No attention can be cast toward our family now.”