La Sposa (21 page)

Marietta’s legs cinched tighter around him,
and her body went rigid with her release. It was the final straw.
He broke. Hot waves of passion shot off a stream of his essence
from his pistoning cock and he shattered. He nearly spoke words of
love. Their union felt that close to heaven. He grunted with
disillusionment, and a frown settled between his eyebrows. His head
lifted from her shoulder, and he looked at her again. He wanted
her, all of her, more of her, but why her? Withdrawing from her
tightness, she moaned and tried to roll away, as she shuddered
through the aftershocks of her climax. Lorenzo gave her no relief.
He stood and pulled her by the arms, forcing her to half
rise.

She blinked up at him, confused. And he heaved
her up into his arms and then lifted her by the waist and tossed
her over his shoulder. She didn’t fight him. He stepped out of his
pants that were trapped at his ankles and carried her through the
sunken living room, to the door he believed to be the
bedroom.

“
Wha-what are you doing?” she
wheezed.

“
We aren’t done,
Cara
. Not
even close.”

Once inside the bedroom, he kicked the door
shut behind him.

*****

“
Happy New Year!” Mira shouted over
the fireworks. The first kiss given was from her to the man of her
heart. Giovanni heaved a crying Eve in his left arm, and pulled
Mira closer with his right. They looked up at the sky as it
exploded in lights of blue, yellow, red, green and white. Each
blast left a fiery ring formation against the black sky. The
Battaglias, along with friends of the family, cheered. Children of
all ages ran around, chasing each other with sparkling sticks
flaring and burning bright. From every window of the estate, glass
and pottery, plates and cups were thrown.

It would have been an awesome display of
family and unity if it weren’t for the misery of their daughter.
Mira knew she was sleepy, but Giovanni kept her up, insisting that
she be with them to the bitter end. Now she had to put her mommy
foot down. Mira tried to soothe Eve with her touch. Her daughter
only screamed louder. Giovanni tried to calm her with kisses, and
held her up for everyone to cheer at the precious
bambina
in
their lives. The attention infuriated Eve more.

“
Giovanni, let me put her to bed.
Give her to me.”

Eve fought off Mira’s touch and clung to her
father’s neck. She then went into a full blown tantrum and bucked
against him.

“
Take her inside.” Mira shoved
Giovanni, who now had a bottle of wine in his hand, and was
shouting something to the other men who were grabbing their women
and spinning them around or dancing. He finally did move, but
others constantly jumped in and out of his face. Even kids who he
was godfather to. “That’s it! We’re done for the night!” Mira
announced.

To her relief, he nodded in agreement. His
hand clasped hers tightly, and he forced her to walk with him away
from the celebrating. Mira spoke to a few people following them,
wanting more of Giovanni’s attention. She bid them goodnight in
Italian and kissed many cheeks before they finally got the hint,
and fell away. At the bottom step to the elegant marble stairwell,
Catalina rushed towards them. Her dark hair flowed behind her, and
her eyes were weepy with fresh tears. Dominic followed her, but not
in the same hurried fashion as Catalina. He looked
nonplused.

“
Gio! Mira! Wait. Have either of
you seen Lorenzo?”

Mira took the bottle from Giovanni’s hand,
recognizing he’d had too much to drink. She set it on the plant
table near the stairs. If he noticed, he didn’t seem to mind. He
bounced Eve in his arms, trying to calm her. Their daughter sobbed
miserably, with her face buried in his neck.

“
No I haven’t. Have you?” Mira
asked.

“
He’s in Milan.” Giovanni
answered.

“
I know, Domi said so! He should
have been home by now,” she whined.

Dominic walked over to join the conversation,
or from the look on his face, to manage Catalina’s meltdown. Mira
couldn’t decide which. Catalina looked as if she were on the verge
of hysteria, which made no sense. Where Lorenzo chose to spend New
Year’s Eve was his choice.

“
You two sent him to Milan on
purpose!” Catalina hurled the accusation at Giovanni, and then
Dominic. “How could you make him work today, of all
days?”

Mira didn’t understand her reaction and the
guilt on Giovanni’s face. Dominic put a hand to Catalina’s back and
explained the issue with hushed whispers to her ear.
Was the
whispering for her benefit? What was she missing from
this?

“
It was his choice to leave. He
gets depressed on his birthday, he went to Milan for the night and
will be back in the morning.” Giovanni sighed.

“
Birthday?” Mira said under her
breath. She searched Giovanni’s face for an answer. He continued to
comfort Eve who now slept in his arms.

“
Why didn’t you say something?”
Mira asked.

“
Me? Typically, the women take care
of him.” Giovanni glared at Catalina and then Mira. “I thought you
would handle it.”

Ignoring the nasty tone he used with her, Mira
reached for Catalina’s hand. “We’ll do something after the wedding
tomorrow. Don’t be upset. He isn’t here by choice. He probably went
out to celebrate.”

The men exchanged a look that Mira didn’t
understand. Lorenzo wasn’t Mira’s favorite of the family, but she
knew he’d had a pretty lonely existence since Fabiana died. In
fact, he just seemed like a difficult, lonely kind of guy. Which is
why she worried so much when Fabiana gave her heart so freely to
him. Catalina cursed under her breath and walked away. Dominic
waited a beat. When Giovanni refused to acknowledge him, he turned
on his heel and went after her.

Mira touched Giovanni on the back and they
started up the stairs.

“
Is something going on with Lorenzo
I should know about?”

“
We don’t discuss Lorenzo’s problem
with his birthday. If he wants to share the story he’ll tell you.”
Giovanni said dryly. Surprised by his abrupt manner, she dropped
the matter.

“
I wanted to ask about the locked
rooms on the third level, the ones next to my sewing room. Is there
a reason the staff hasn’t given me a key?”

“
There is. Those rooms are to
remain locked. They belonged to my mother.”

“
Oh. Okay.”

Once they reached the top of the stairs and
walked through the hall, he passed Eve to Mira, and she proceeded
into her daughter’s room. She would need to be careful as she
undressed her for bed, to make sure she didn’t wake. She could hear
him in the other room. Mira was quick about it.

Giovanni stared out of the open French doors
of his balcony to the night beyond. He wiped his hand down his face
and stretched his eyes to sober up. From the start of the evening,
he’d drank his belly full, but remained standing. It was a skill he
inherited from his father. Though he couldn’t see the fireworks
from his room, he could hear the celebrating; and even with the
wedding in a few hours, he knew everyone would party until
sunrise.

Lorenzo’s absence was to be expected. After
Fabiana’s death, he retreated again from the family on this day. It
was thanks to Lorenzo’s mother’s curse. What she did to him, how
she tortured him, it was one of the reasons Giovanni offered
forgiveness to Lorenzo for his failings. His cousin was as fucked
up in the head as he was.

He turned and walked over to the room that
joined theirs with their daughter’s. Mira removed Eve’s diaper and
put on another. She did so with such skill, his
bambina
slept undisturbed, with her arms flung wide. All the while, she
sucked on her cherry red pacifier. The scene made his heart yearn
for more family time. Business affairs were now being managed to
the point he could take a few weeks and dedicate the days and
nights to his girls. After two long years of bathing his hands in
the muck and blood of his business, he was due a
vacation.

Tonight Mira was the perfect hostess, and his
people were beginning to love and respect her. He could see it.
Giovanni leaned in the door, admiring Mira’s beauty. Once done, she
picked up Eve’s diaper and disposed of it. When she turned, she
didn’t seem surprised to see him staring. She put up her open palms
to him. “I have to wash my hands sweetheart, give me a
minute.”

“
Come here,” he said, extending his
hand. She approached him with a lovely smile that always melted his
heart, and sparked flames of desire through his groin. He lifted
her by her hips and moved her from the open doorway to the wall.
Mira gasped over his show of strength.

“
Not right here, put me down.
You’ll wake Eve,” she giggled.

Pressing his weight against her he pushed her
up the wall so he could kiss between her breasts.

“
I’ve waited to have you all to
myself.”

“
Mmm,” she moaned. “I know you want
this. I do too. But I have a request,” she said, and he barely
heard her. He was too busy trying to get her thong down her
hips.

Mira grabbed his face. “I’m talking about how
special today is, and how good it will be if we waited for our
wedding night.”

Giovanni frowned. “Technically it is our
wedding day, and it’s still dark outside, almost night. You are
already my wife in my heart. We got it covered.”

“
But, Gio—”

He looked her in the eye and she silenced.
“Relax, Bella. Let me take control.” He released her to ease down
the wall, and then with her hand in his, he led her to the bed.
Before she could climb on top, he swept her in his arms. Mira
kicked her legs, laughing softly; and he dropped her on the bed,
crashing there with her. Grabbing his shoulders she locked her legs
around his hips, and playfully wrestled with him. But he pinned her
down easily.

“
Today is my wedding day,” she
panted in a voice that wrapped around his heart warm and soft. “I
used to say I didn’t want to get married. I used to survive off so
little… now I can’t, I can’t live without you.”

“
You don’t have to, baby.” He
kissed her brow.

Mira smiled. “Fabiana wanted marriage and
kids… she wanted many things.”

“
She was a wise woman.” He kissed
her nose.

Mira nodded. “She was my sister. It hurts that
she won’t be part of this. When I tell the world I love you.” She
touched the side of his face.

“
Have I ever told you why I call
you Bella?”

She smiled up at him.

“
It’s the only word that comes to
mind when I think of my life with you in it.”

Mira sat up. Her legs fell off his waist.
“That is so romantic. I’m surprised.”

“
That I can be
romantic?”

“
No. Sometimes I look at you and
this world you live in and I get afraid, Gio.” She touched his
face. “Afraid for you, how it can change us. But I think Zia is
right. You are who you are, and this man right here, is who you are
to me.”

Mira reached down and began to untie the belt
to her wraparound dress. Giovanni sat back on his knees watching
her. She never took her eyes off his.

“
I may lose control tonight, I
haven’t had you in what feels like an eternity,” he said with a
smile.

“
I can handle it.” She unfolded the
soft layers of her dress. He’d already removed her thong, so the
unveiling only uncovered a low cut white lace bra. She shouldered
off the dress, and then unfastened her bra, shrugging off the
straps. Mira gathered both and tossed them to the side of the bed.
She reclined back into the pillows and parted her legs. On her feet
remained the thin-heeled copper shoes that sparkled under the
bedroom light. “I’m ready for you, baby,” she said, touching
herself.

It took everything in him not to launch
himself at her. When she parted the lips of her sex and started to
rub a finger inside her dewy pink center.
So sweet
, he
thought before thrusting his finger into her. She moaned her
pleasure to him and gyrated her sex up at him. Reluctantly, he
withdrew his hand and reached behind his neck to draw over his
sweater. Once off, he tossed it aside. He backed off the bed and
unbuckled his belt. The sweetest, sinful thoughts entered his head
when her finger dipped inside, and her pelvis lifted as she
continued to pleasure herself.
Bella
became the most potent
word throbbing in his skull.

Every idea she had about how the night should
end dissolved. Mira closed her eyes, riding the wave of
tantalization, until her thighs and inner sanctum quaked and she
released. Breathing through her nose, she slowly opened her eyes to
see him watching as the tight coil of pleasure in her pelvis slowly
began to unwind. The unwavering stare he gave her made her shudder
with anticipation. She’d felt so exhausted and out of sorts lately,
she forgot how wonderful it was to be loved by him. She looked
forward to being reminded.

“
May I?” he asked with a raised
brow.