Harmony (24 page)

He stroked Harmony’s back focusing on the shifting clouds moving in and blocking the sun. “Annie couldn’t look at me after what we’d done. She couldn’t stand the sight of me. Mabel tried to convince her that we belonged together but that drove a wedge between their relationship too. I cost Mabel so much, her son and daughter.”

“
She still works for you?”

“
Calls me Mr. Romano when appropriate and Vinnie when she wants to remind me of who’s really in control.” He chuckled. “She’s like a mother to me and Antonio. I’ve done everything to try to make it up to her but she won’t leave, won’t take off the apron, won’t stop pretending that Annie and Teek are gone forever. And I don’t want her anywhere alone. I’ve given her money, bought her a nice place, but she’s stayed.”

Harmony’s head lifted from his chest. She rested her chin on the back of her hand and gazed at him. “What do you want from me Vinnie? I’m not your Annie.”

“
And I’m not your Lewis, Songbird.”

“
True.”

He touched her face. “I guess we can’t deny what we miss in them both.”

“
Guess not.”

“
Just as we can’t deny what we found in each other. Can we?”

“
I suppose not,” she said.

“
The truth is I want you, Songbird. It has nothing to do with Annie, though I will give her credit. It’s because of her I know what I want. It’s why I’ve not been able to look away since the first day I saw you.”

“
It’s strange, you talk beautifully at times. Like a poet. Like your sculptures.”

“
Does it scare you? My lion’s heart,” he asked.

“
No. It makes me want… makes me feel warm inside. You could have any girl you wanted. You chose me.”

He chuckled. “Trust me Doll you chose me. I would have never been brave enough to approach you. You had no idea how surprised I was when you walked over and sat down at my table.”

She snuggled him closer.

“
I don’t think of our being together as just a matter of choice. Something else is at work here Doll. I wasn’t looking for you, and you were looking for help for your bother, now here we are. Thing is, I’m pretty sure I can’t let you go. It is what it is.”

She nodded, as if his answer made sense.

“
Does my answer surprise you?”

“
No. Men are like that. They want what they want and don’t give thought to the reason.” She half-joked. “I doubt you would ever care to explore the reason why a little black girl with a blue ribbon in her hair fascinated you, or why a jazz singer in your arms makes you happy now. Got that lion’s stubborn streak in ya.”

A deep laugh escaped him. Harmony rose. She crawled over him. Placing her hands on either side of his face she straddled his chest and leaned in almost to the point of their noses touching. “Don’t matter anymore why we do what we do. All that matters is that you know you’re mine now too.”

Romano shook his head, fighting off a smile. He felt like a grinning idiot. “You test me woman.” Up close she was even more beautiful. With skin the color of autumn with a sea of swaying emerald green grass around them, she blended with nature encompassing the beauty of Eve.

The tease of a smile on her rose colored lips turned sensuous and a surge of pride swelled in his chest over his proclaiming her as his own. Inside he burned with the need to run his tongue over her succulent pair of lips and draw her bottom lip into his mouth.

At the base of his throat a pulse beat and swelled as though his heart had risen from it’s unusual place and lodged there. No words passed between them.

When he could stand it no longer he flipped her underneath him and pinned her down to the blanket.
Oh, she feels so good, so good
. She released a soft giggle and spread her legs so he could fit nicely. A slow aching throb pumped raw desire between his legs turning his groin into granite. Her gaze remained locked on his, daring him to go the distance, as she had the night she stepped to him and they struck a bargain. Beneath her soft breasts he felt the erratic beating of her heart pressed up against his chest.

The needful yearning to touch her upset his balance, and made him fumble over where to begin. Romano’s hand began to undo the top buttons of her dress. The tiny pearls pushed through the small slits of fabric and more of her beauty was uncovered. The buttons trailed down to her waist. She lay perfectly still with her knees parted and the hem of her dress gathered around her copper brown thighs. When the front of her dress opened and her bra was revealed he searched her face for a reaction. Her pupils dilated, her breath hitched, but she didn’t say a word. He eased her bra up slowly and released perfection.

Twin dark peaks hardened instantly and the swell of her areolas made his mouth water. Romano felt his temperature rise and swallowed hard to suppress his emotion. Her little fable of the lion with the fragile heart had made a believer of him. He failed with Annie and he understood why. He’d do things different with Harmony, if she gave him the chance. Even now with all his gentle words and kisses she only released a bit of a sigh under his touch. Another cool breeze blew in from the forest making him want to cover and protect her.

“
I have something to confess,” he began. “I wanted to say it to you last night when we… after you and I talked and you told me about your man, and how he died. I didn’t. Guess I’m not as brave as that lion.” He traced his index finger around her nipple and she visibly shivered and heaved an affronted sigh. Her gaze lowered under a veil of dark lashes and she stared down the line of her body at him. “He didn’t deserve you. No man deserves a treasure this fine. Always had a thing for you, Doll. Not just the singing, though it’s part of you. It’s how beautiful you are inside too.”

He pressed the side of his face to her breast, against her heart. There beneath warm soft as silk skin, was the slow melodic vibration of her heartbeat. Romano could be lulled into just about anything listening to the sweet harmony of her breathing. Her small slender hand ran over the top of his head with such love. Romano closed his eyes and tried to focus on what he needed to say. “I’m sure he was a good man. Didn’t mean to say he wasn’t, Doll. I only mean a woman like you deserves the best. Annie helped me get over my anger about
mi madre
and
mi sorella
, some of it. I have many regrets. We are not one of them.”

The images of his exploits through the slums of the Bronx and lower Manhattan flooded him with dread. As the leader of the Black Hand his gang was the biggest rival to the Five Points Gang. The death of Teek had been a set up. The Five Points gang knew a race war would divide his heart. And by the time Teek lie in a street drowning in his own blood he’d lost everything. That suited him fine. The hell he raised garnered such a reputation that doors usually closed to a poor immigrant cast out of Sicily were kicked open. He even had the Irish under his payroll. And it hadn’t stopped. Mickey Collins stealing from him helped his focus return. He had his men back. His
famiglia
. He took the sacred vows of the Mafioso, and no one could question him. He could marry her if he chose to. No one would dare question him.

Romano was no fool, and not completely blinded by his weakness. To ask her to become part of his world would mean great risk to her life and her brother’s. Just as it had been for Annie. But he had to ask, just as her man Lewis had to pluck her before she was ripe, and so soon after her grandmother had died. Neither of them deserved her. Romano eased his arm around her waist to hold tightly to her.
Yes he had it bad for his Songbird.

“
Vinnie?”

“
Mmm.”

“
Do you still love her?”

Romano opened his eyes. His answer was no, he didn’t still love Annie. He’d already told her as much, but Harmony needed more. This he understood. He needed to hear her say she’d be his. Permanently.

“
Vinnie? Do you still love her?”

Slowly his head lifted. The appeal in her voice and eyes made his throat itch to shout the word; no. That would prove him weak. He had to keep control over their affair, on all fronts. He reached and pressed his hand to the side of her face. It was her turn dammit. “What do you feel for me, Songbird?”

“
I don’t know,” she answered softly. “I don’t understand how I feel, what I feel.” She sucked in a tight breath and closed her eyes. “The idea of you loving another woman does turn my stomach with jealousy. I’m growing a bit dependent on your affections I suppose.”

“
We have time. After all of this is over, can you give us more?”

“
How much time Vinnie? What about my job, my place, my friends?”

“
I’ll take care of it all. I need a chance here Doll, for us both to figure these feelings out. Which means you need a chance too. Stay with me.”

A sensual light of understanding softened her gaze and she nodded that she’d grant his wish.

“
Grazie
.” He said his voice low and even. No longer able to deny himself the privileges of being her lover, he rolled his tongue over one plump nipple then the other. He stole a glance up at her before he swallowed the peak of her left breast and caught the pleased emotion softening her features and causing her lids to flutter shut. Romano eased back on top of her and she parted her thighs to accommodate him, her hot core pressed now into his abdomen.

“
I—I—I can’t catch my br-breath when you do that,” she gasped, pushing down on his shoulders. He sucked her breast harder and her nipple swelled against his tongue. Her staggered breathing made the most primal of urges rise in him. Her insistence drove him down. The fabric of her dress gathered in his hands and he pushed it up to her waist. His eyes widened with delight to find she wore no panties.

“
I forgot to put them on.” She said with a sexy smirk.

He shook his head, smiling as satisfaction filled him to have her so open and exposed beneath him. It had all happened so fast. One minute he was totally focused on growing his business, controlling his brother, building a
famiglia
amongst the men he called brothers. The next he had found himself considering the love of a woman. This woman. How did he get here?

With a slow steady hand he cupped her moist pussy. Holding her gaze he eased two fingers into her tight warm channel. She dug her nails into his shoulders and her sweet round ass bounced up and down off the blanket, her clit scraping his zipper. He thought his cock would burst through over the teasing brush. Her breaths shortened when he slowly inserted, withdrew, and inserted his fingers.

“
Jesus!” She cried out then bit down on her bottom lip holding to his shoulder. He kept moving his fingers in and out of her silken walls, getting her ready for him.

“
You like that, Songbird?”

“
Mmm, yes.” She rolled her hips. He lifted a bit, balancing on his left elbow to watch his fingers slip in and out between her dark folds, knuckle deep. He glanced back up to her dark berry nipples and they shimmied with her staggered breathing. She was enjoying it. He couldn’t decide if he wanted to taste her or fuck her. He figured he’d do both and more before he let her go.

“
Kiss me, there, Vinnie please.”

He removed his fingers and her sex released him with a soft suction noise as she rolled her hips. His gaze fell upon the sweet lips of her pussy as his head lowered between her parted thighs. His tongue flicked, rolled, loved.

She gave a shaky laugh. “I can’t believe how bold I am with you.”

“
You were always brave, Doll. You never fooled me.”

Harmony swallowed hard when he pushed the backs of her thighs up and apart then stuck out his tongue into her tight channel and licked her there. Her eyes flew open and then quickly fluttered shut. The teasing little flickers of his tongue sent darts of electric pleasure zinging her womb. “Yes! Yes!”

Without provocation he latched his wicked lips around her clit and began to suck so slowly she was thrashing and bucking beneath him. The release was swift, and so was the plunge of his tongue into her pulsating channel. Repeated tongue thrusts and licks had her crying out so loud he could hear the rapid flaps of bird wings as many took flight, fleeing from the surrounding trees.

The moist suction sounds of her cunt were almost obscene in the quiet serenity of the forest. But her cries of passion surpassed it. “Yes Vinnie! Oh yes! I’m almost there! Don’t stop, no, no, don’t stop, I’m almost there.” She reached between her parted thighs and grabbed the back of his head, grinding her pelvis up into his face. Her body came apart as an all-consuming orgasm split her down to her core.