Giovanni (22 page)

“You said a few things.”

“No, I only said one thing that was completely honest even if I didn’t realize it at the time. One thing that said maybe a part of me was listening and picking up those cues from inside. Tell me you remember what I told you when you were on top of me, watching me while I was watching you. It was the only thing that really mattered.”

Kim glanced at the wall behind Gio, avoiding his stare. A wetness lined her bottom lashes. She didn’t wipe the tears away. When she blinked, they fell down her cheeks, leaving tracks behind.

“You said I was perfect,” she whispered.

“What else?”

Kim’s gaze flicked back to meet Gio’s. “That I should be told it every day.”

“Please let me be the one to tell you how perfect you are. I want it to be the first thing that comes out of my mouth when you wake up beside me every morning for the rest of my life. Marry me, Kim.”

“What if it’s only for one morning?”

Gio smiled. It wouldn’t be only one, but even so ... “Then I’ll know for once in my life, I did everything right, regardless of the rest.”

Chapter Eighteen

Kim blinked awake. The first thing to catch her eye was white gold and diamonds. Twisted by multiple infinity symbols with glittering jewels all the way around the band, her newest accessory definitely garnered a look. The ring was a perfect fit. It didn’t feel new if that made sense. It almost felt like it was meant to be there.

It still didn’t stop her from having a minor panic attack when she thought about the fact that she was now married. Kim didn’t regret the choice at all. She loved Giovanni. Loved that he could make her heart pound or ache all in the same sentence. Loved that she felt his kiss long after he was gone. Loved that his passion was a lot like a fever crawling over her skin, constantly burning hotter, but never quite reaching its pitch to sizzle out.

She loved how he loved her. Unconditionally. Fearlessly. Indefinitely.

It was not a scary thing to be married to Giovanni Marcello. It was, however, a shock to wake up and be married at all.

Kim clenched her hand into a fist against the pillow, watching all the diamonds along the band catch the morning light. It’d been by chance they found the ring. Kim needed things to take to New York with her and Giovanni took care of the issue
.
After leaving a shop, the ring in another window caught Giovanni’s eye as they were returning to his rental car.

Kim couldn’t really argue about the ring or the cost of the piece. It was beautiful. The jeweler had a selection of men’s rings as well that complimented the one Giovanni noticed in the window. Her wedding band matched his, in a way. Giovanni’s ring was a brushed, white gold with a lone infinity symbol carved into the thick band. A single, small diamond rested where the paths of the loops met.

A warm palm slid over Kim’s naked side. Giovanni’s hand skimmed over her hip and came to rest on her public bone. Heat bloomed from the innocent touch, spreading over her skin like a wildfire and waking what was left of her in seconds.

Giovanni’s hand flattened against her body, making Kim’s backside press to his groin. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing.”

His hand from the arm she was resting on brush away strands of her hair. Then, full lips touched down to her neck, making the air in her lungs catch on the exhale. Tingles and shivers ran their course as Giovanni continued his sweet assault with his mouth, all the while his hand grasped tightly to her hip again. Kim turned to her back under his urging.

“Let’s not start this out with lies,
Tesoro
. It wouldn’t be a good indicator of our future. I was awake long before you were. I heard your breaths turn fast when you woke up. Tell me what was wrong.”

Kim couldn’t meet his gaze as she waved her hand to show the band on her finger. “Just freaked out for a moment, that’s all.”

Giovanni frowned. “You regret it.”

“No!”

“Then, what?”

Kim all but melted into the bed as strong, deft fingers danced across her midsection. Giovanni’s thumb circled her navel piercing, tugging the curved barbell gently before traveling up her body further. He explored the undersides of her breasts with grazes, his eyes locked on hers all the while.

“Have you ever thought about getting ink done?” Giovanni asked gruffly.

“Not really. Why?”

“Good. Not that I’d stop you, but I like your skin the way it is. Unmarked and beautiful.”

“You have at least a half of a dozen,” Kim pointed out.

The tips of his fingers traced the circles of her areolas, making Kim’s nipples pebble instantly. Fuck, the effect he had on her body was astounding. Giovanni was doing almost nothing at all and already every nerve inside was on fire … wanting more of him.

“I don’t remember having most of them done,” Giovanni confessed. “I like them all, though. I still prefer you natural.”

“I’ll keep that in mind.”

“Tell me what bothered you earlier, Kim.”

“You should stop touching me, then,” she replied, breathless. “It’s very distracting and leads to the same thing every time you do it.”

“Can’t.”

“Why not?”

Giovanni smiled, the sight blinding. “Because you’re perfect,
Tesoro
.”

Kim’s heart stopped. “Every morning?”

“I promise this won’t be the only one,” he said quietly. “Why the freak out?’

“I don’t know what to expect, Gio.”

“Everything will be fine,” Giovanni assured, his hand spreading wide to the spot above her heart as if to soothe the racing beats. “The ticket is waiting to be claimed. We can leave in a little while, maybe grab something to eat while we wait for your flight. I’ll be right behind you once I finish what I need to here. There’s nothing to worry about.”

Kim nodded, chewing on the inside of her cheek nervously. “Sure, but that’s not what I meant.”

“I’m listening.”

“I knew what Franco wanted. For a wife, I mean. I knew exactly what he expected from me—how to act, appear, and be. A housewife, a mother when he decided to have children, and so on. He made it perfectly clear the kind of woman he wanted. I have no idea what you want from me, Gio. None.”

Giovanni cleared his throat, pulling away from Kim until he was sitting up in bed with his back turned to her. “Is that what you think I would expect from you?”

“I don’t know.”

“I don’t want any of that. I don’t need you to be perfectly coiffed and acting like the docile little housewife. You should be happy, not playing pretend. I can’t begin to understand why you would even think for a second I was anything like Franco.”

“I don’t think you’re like him at all. I know you’re not,” Kim said. “But marriage puts two people together, and I don’t have a clue what you want from this or me.”

“Exactly,” Giovanni said, turning to regard her with a heated stare. “It’s a partnership, yeah? That’s all I’m asking for. I want an equal—a partner.”

“I don’t want to be someone’s housewife, Gio.”

“I just said—”

“And I want to continue college, do my own thing when I need to, and know you’re going to respect that I’m a pretty independent girl in my own right.”

“Good,” Giovanni responded frankly. “Because I have a busy fucking life, Kim. I’m a capo first, and I always will be. I would like to think my wife could have her own life that didn’t just revolve around pleasing me. I want to be sure she’s independent enough to take care of herself if I’m not there. Not to mention, she wouldn’t be blowing up my phone with her insecurities.”

Giovanni stood from the bed, making a move to grab the jeans he’d tossed over the chair the night before. Kim stopped him by tugging on his wrist. “Gio, stop for a minute.”

“No, you need to listen and hear this.”

Giovanni turned on her, his arms crossing over his broad chest. “Let’s clear this up. You’re intelligent, so don’t waste it. You’re sarcastic and quick, so challenge me. Argue with me. Love me. A strong woman doesn’t frighten me into wanting to diminish that part of her. It reassures me I won’t ever have to teach her to stand on her own two feet. Just know I don’t expect you to be anyone other than who you already are. There isn’t a thing about you I want to change. Pretty fucking simple.”

Yeah, Kim guessed it was.

“Okay,” she said, sitting up and taking the sheet with her to cover her body.

“Just okay?”

“Yes, just okay.”

Giovanni relaxed in his stance. “I don’t want to put you on that flight this morning.”

Kim’s hand tightened to the sheet. “I thought you said it was safer?”

“It is. I said that wrong. I
shouldn’t
have to put you on the flight. We just got married. You shouldn’t have to leave me or this bed for hours. It’s not fair to you. We shouldn’t start out like this, that’s all.”

“We didn’t,” Kim said, needing him to know she understood. “We started out long before this, Giovanni.”

Giovanni graced Kim with another one of his sinful smiles. The simple expression caused something deliciously warm to coil in her stomach and shoot straight down to the spot between her thighs.

“It’s only a little after seven,” he told her.

Kim’s bottom lip caught between her teeth. “Is it?”

“
Mmhmm
. We have some time before we should go, and I know exactly how I would like to spend it.”

“Oh, how’s that?”

Giovanni’s sexy, dark chuckles rocked Kim from the inside out. It was but a flash of movement before she found her wrists in his strong grasp, pulling her up from the middle of the bed to her knees. He urged her to the very edge of the bed to meet him, the sheet forgotten with nothing to hold it in place. It left her entire body on display for him to see.

Kim didn’t feel the least bit uncomfortable under Giovanni’s heady stare. A thick sound rumbled from his chest as his gaze raked down her figure in a slow path, taking in all her contours and curves. It was almost as if he were committing the sight to memory.

Strands of Kim’s waist-length blonde hair fell over her shoulders, covering her breasts. Giovanni didn’t brush the waves back. Instead, he just took in another look of her, his fingers tightening slightly to her wrists.

“Fucking beautiful,” Giovanni whispered. “It’s crazy you’re mine,
Tesoro
.”

“Well, I don’t want anyone else,” Kim replied. “So it’s not that crazy.”

“It is. A bad man shouldn’t be rewarded with something so perfect.”

“Maybe a bad man is the only one who can keep it.”

Giovanni swallowed thickly. “Is that a challenge?”

“Only if you want it to be, Gio.”

Giovanni released Kim’s wrists without another word. At the same time, he lowered himself slowly, taking his time to kiss a path between the valley of her breasts and down to her stomach where his teeth caught the navel piercing. Teasingly, he nipped on the silver jewelry with a smirk before letting it go and continuing his warm and wet exploration downwards.

The slight stubble on Giovanni’s jaw tickled her sensitive skin. The harder he kissed her body, the more hyper-aware her senses became to his presence. Kim felt almost high by the sensation. Over and over his mouth loved her, tasting the tops of her thighs and the smooth patch of skin above her sex.

All the while, his green eyes were zoned in on her face, watching so carefully for the reactions she gave in response to his touch. The tremble in Kim’s thighs at just his kisses coming closer to her pussy increased like the shake in her lungs as she breathed. Giovanni’s hands grabbed tight to her hips, his fingers digging in with just the right amount of pressure to keep her sitting upright.

A heated, unvoiced promise flashed in Giovanni’s eyes. “What do you want?”

Kim forced the whine beginning to form in the back of her throat down. “Fuck me.”

Another kiss was laid to the fleshy spot above her clit. Giovanni’s lips encased just enough of her most sensitive spot that his tongue ghosted along the hood of her sex before his kiss disappeared again. “With my mouth?”

“God …
yes
. Now.”

Instead of doing what she asked, Giovanni turned his face and nuzzled his nose along the inside of her thigh. Teeth bit into her skin, sending a shock of pain straight to her sex that twisted and faded into pleasure when his tongue lapped at the same spot.

“You taste like fucking sin here,” Giovanni said, kissing her thigh again.

“
Please
, Gio.”

Kim was not above begging him to get what she wanted. After all, he did it so incredibly well.

“And here …” The words trailed off as Giovanni’s lips opened, his tongue sweeping to the spot above her pussy once more. “Still like sin.”

A tightness built in Kim’s chest, turning her breaths shallow. Giovanni hadn’t even really started and already she was desperate and wanting him. She needed to find some sense of purchase inside the dizzying effect taking over her mind. One of Kim’s hands tangled into Giovanni’s hair while the other held onto his shoulder. Muscles jumped under her touch.

“And there?” Kim asked, staring down to watch his mouth hover over her pussy. Hot breath pulsed to her skin. She was already soaked, the juices from her sex slicking up her folds. Seeing Giovanni totally entranced and focused on her only made Kim wetter. “What do I taste like there?”

“Heaven,” Giovanni murmured. “Here, you taste like heaven.”

What little bit of air Kim had left was gone the moment Giovanni’s mouth encased her pussy. The way he fucked with his mouth was a lot like how he fucked with his cock. Fast, hard, and so blindingly good. Quick strikes of his tongue hit lightning fast to her swollen nub, coaxing it between his lips so he could suck with enough force to make her scream. He did so with a purpose behind his gaze and a knowing smirking edging at the corners of his mouth. His tongue tunneled into her entrance, taking in all her body gave while his teeth scraped along fleshy folds.

Coherent thoughts flew from her mind faster than a blink. Colors blended and swirled in front of her eyes. A numbness swept over her fingers that were digging harder into his shoulder and hair to keep her steady.