Chapter 19
The heat of the soft, crackling fire caressed me. I wrapped the throw blanket from the couch back around me, trapping the warmth. I was unable to sleep, and it was becoming a common occurrence; whether it was due to the pregnancy or my racing mind was unclear.
Today, Dominic assigned the task of handling the business and its affairs to Dino and sent Anthony and Angelo into town on errands, one of them to the grocery store. Bianca and Katrina spent most of the day hanging out with me in the living room, and it was welcome company. When Bianca dozed off in the chair, Katrina covered her with the throw blanket. It was such a beautiful moment.
I looked up at the urns, focusing on Hector’s. It was a black, marble design with red trim. He sheltered us from Fabio and Vincent and was, in general, a fairly private man, even with those who were closest to him. Was there more about Vincent we had to figure out? How did Nico survive? And why on Earth was I in his sights?
“What are you hiding from us?” I muttered under my breath to Hector’s urn.
Payback for killing Vincent could’ve very well been Nico’s motive. We killed someone important to him, and now, he wanted to avenge the same. We handled the Pucinnis and the DiSantis, and I knew we could handle Nico and his merry band of bitches, but was it only those five guys? Well, Nico had a boss, but how big or small was this spider web? Did it end with Nico’s boss or spread farther and wider from there? This was the shit that was preventing me from comfortably closing my eyes for more than five minutes at a time.
I sighed, beginning to choke up. I looked down at my belly, rubbing it with both hands. People just needed to leave us the fuck alone. In all reality, I had enough sense to understand that was a pipe dream, but I held hope. Specks of it, but hope, nonetheless. Was I really ready to raise my son in such an uncertain life? I closed my eyes, letting a few tears fall.
A provocative blend of aged cigarette smoke, cedarwood, and a touch of lavender infiltrated my nostrils. I turned to see Dominic joining me in the living room. Barefoot and shirtless, the waistband of his sweatpants sat low on his hips, teasing his V-line. I clenched my thighs, turning my back to him and stepping a few paces away from the fireplace. I held it together seeing him in that suit this afternoon; I was a frayed thread short from completely unraveling and taking him where he stood. Not that he would have objected.
“Why are you crying?”
I dabbed at my eyes with my fingertips and the backs of my knuckles, saying, “You caught that, huh?”
“Mhmm.”
I stood by the entertainment stand, my back still turned.
“I just want peace, Dominic.” I let out a breath that screamed I was done with the worrying and anxiety and constantly having to look over my shoulder. “I wish we didn’t have to raise our son in such an uncertain and precarious life.”
“I wish that every day, but this is the life we live, and I swear to do my best to be home every night.”
It hit me fast—extreme sadness. I pinched the bridge of my nose, fighting yet failing to keep my tears at bay. The thought of waking up without Dominic absolutely fucking crushed me. I refused to think about it. I couldn't think about it.
“Lilith,” Dominic said benevolently.
“Why does this keep happening? Why can’t people just leave us alone? I’m so damn tired of having to look over my fucking shoulder.”
Dominic’s scent hung closer.
“It’s so exhausting, worrying all the time. I just want to relax and have no worries.”
His hands slid slowly down my arms, gently taking me in his and pressing me into him. He trailed light kisses down along the side of my neck to near the front of my throat. I leaned my head back on his shoulder, inviting his affection. He palmed my belly with his right hand and held my upper arm with his left to keep me still. I parted my lips, a breathy moan escaping me.
“You need to relax?” The way he asked, I knew exactly what he had in mind to relax me. The throaty huskiness of his voice went straight down between my legs, making my clit ache that much more.
“I do,” I murmured. “Why me? What did I do?”
Dominic pulled the throw blanket back and past my shoulders, kissing them. He removed the blanket, setting it down next to us on the floor.
“I hurt him; now, he wants to hurt me.”
He brought his hand to my front, bringing it up between my breasts, up along my chest, and to my throat, spreading his fingers out on my skin, curling them around my throat. He squeezed just enough to apply pressure but not anywhere near tight enough to hurt me. I slightly tilted my head back, and he drew a line with the tip of his tongue from behind the shell of my ear, down and around it, and up along my cheek. He released the pressure on my throat and turned my head for a better angle, pressing his mouth to mine, drinking in my moan, savoring my taste.
“Another bitch… Like the rest.”
His dark chuckle reverberated in his chest. I arched into him, brushing my ass up against the tent he pitched in his sweats, nearly losing it right then and there. He switched hands, sending his right hand from my throat, snaking it down my body, and slipping his fingers inside my underwear. I parted my lips, breathing harder, needier, at the feel of his fingers.
“Always so damn wet for me, Bellissima .”
I rolled my hips against his hand, gasping as he slid his finger inside of me. I ground against his hand, weak-kneed. With the angle of his hand, it caused my clit to rub up against the heel of his palm, driving me closer and closer to that edge of ecstasy and pleasure. I arched into him even more, rocking faster and harder into his hand, desperate for relief from this hungry ache that had me in its jaws, amplifying and soaring me higher and higher into that familiar, satiating explosion of euphoric bliss.
“Please,” I rasped, almost there. I closed my eyes, moaning. Moments from cresting over the edge.
“Please what?”
He knew what I wanted. Tease.
“Please…” I licked my lips, parting them, my throat and mouth drier. “I need to come. I’m going to…” My words got lost as I was losing control of everything else.
He slipped a second finger inside me, throwing me closer to the point of no return.
“I can’t,” I panted. “I’m… Oh, fuck…”
Dominic more firmly pressed the heel of his palm against my clit, moving it faster, sinking his fingers as deep in me as he could.
He forced our mouths together, his words washing over my tongue like rich, fine wine. “Come, Bellissima .”
Opening my eyes, I gasped, moaning loud, my walls squeezing his fingers as I soared over that crest. I caught my breath as I got my footing, riding out the incredible orgasm. He took away his fingers, my come coating them.
He licked and sucked my come from his fingers, leaving some on his thumb. He brought his thumb to my mouth, pressing it against my lips for me to take it into my mouth. Hesitant at first at the idea of tasting myself, I closed my lips around his thumb, meekly sucking on it.
A seductive, hungry, and dark growl rumbled in Dominic’s chest as he pulled his thumb out of my mouth, and then, he let me go. I became lost in that moment without his touch, spinning on my heels to see him spreading the blanket on the floor by the fireplace. He stepped out of his sweatpants and then his boxer briefs. Fisting his still-hard cock, he beckoned me over with a single finger before slowly sinking to his knees on the blanket.
I pulled my nightgown above my head and tossed it aside. Dominic gripped my hips when I grasped his shoulders, helping me kneel on the blanket. Once I was straddling him, he laid on his back, his fingertips sliding around to cup my ass before massaging the soft flesh. Fuck, it felt good. I gently grinded against him, pressing my hands against his chest as I leaned into it for balance.
Flecks of red popped into his irises. I loved when they changed color, reflecting the predator living within. My desirable, charismatic predator.
I pushed back onto my legs, stroking his cock with both hands. Closing his eyes, Dominic pressed his sprawled fingertips into the flesh of my thighs, his moan tearing up through his chest.
“What are we gonna do?” I asked, referring to Nico and his bullshit.
Slipping his tongue out between his lips, Dominic opened his eyes, more red trickling into them. His stare was piercing. Focused.
“Kill.”
One word. One simple instruction.
I raised my brows. “All of them?”
“Every. Single. One of them.” He squeezed his eyes shut, pulling his lip into his mouth, his breath hitched.
He rocked his hips and fucked my hands, eliciting a squeal from my throat when he suddenly stopped and reached out, grabbed my ass and forced me forward, making me let go of his cock and lean into his chest again for support and balance.
He shook his head, growling out, “No.” He then lifted me and lined up his cock with my entrance, impaling me. The way I stretched around his cock, it was kind of painful, sinfully good pleasure I would’ve paid for with my soul if there was a way to capture that sensation in a bottle to bathe in forever.
We as humans never knew when our time in this universe was up. I relished in Dominic’s touch, taste, scent, and affections every waking chance I got.
The fire hissed, just as Dominic did after I sat up on my legs once more, the new angle driving his cock in deeper. Gripping his wrists, my head fell back on my shoulders. We found our rhythm, our shadows dancing together with us.
“Dominic,” I moaned breathily.
“Lilith,” he ground out, his tone painting an image of an animal in the wild shielding itself in the thicket, anxious to sink its teeth in its taunting meal.
Maybe he would’ve sunk his teeth into me. With a lot of the vampires nowadays, it was part of mating. Biting the flesh of their lover, almost always in the throes of an orgasm, brought them closer with their mate, the taste of their blood like an aphrodisiac. I secretly yearned for such a moment during sex, but I was too afraid of the risk of him accidentally releasing venom in the height of his pleasure. He didn’t want to chance that either. Still, I dreamed of a day where we would set aside our reservations and just do it.
“Touch yourself,” Dominic ordered.
I wasn’t yet the most comfortable getting myself off in front of Dominic, but I happily obliged. In this moment, it was right, and as I rubbed my clit, all my worries and anxiety melted away. I wanted to get one hundred percent past my shyness masturbating for the man I loved. I closed my eyes and found my own satisfying rhythm amongst the rhythm we shared.
A low, sultry growl rumbled in his chest. “That’s it, Bellissima .”
His thrusts became faster. Hungrier. His grunts and groans told me he, like me, was waltzing toward that dangerously delicious point of nirvana.
My head fell back even more, my mouth slightly open. Recognizable warmth enveloped me. My stiff nipples ached against my cotton bra, the material making them sensitive. The head of Dominic’s cock kept repeatedly sweeping against my sweet spot in the perfect way. I arched my back some, breathing the words, “ Amore mio .” My nails dug into his skin as I sank my teeth into my bottom lip. The warmth overtaking me was climbing, as was this feeling of floating on a cloud. I rubbed my clit faster. Pressed harder. Moaned louder.
My hips moved faster, like I was shifting into some weird, feral, starved being. He drove into me unforgivingly, holding me almost painfully tighter. Our skin slapped together, our bodies slick with sweat and our arousal.
Dominic murmured words in Italian. It could’ve been sweet Italian nothings for all I knew. Whatever he was saying, it soared me into the throes of release. I fucked myself as fast as I physically could, riding Dominic wildly.
Moans.
Groans.
All pushing their peaks.
“Fuck,” Dominic rasped. “I’m close.”
I writhed. I cried out. Arching further, stars danced across my vision, and a scream tore from my throat as I tensed, my inner walls squeezing around Dominic’s cock in a chokehold.
He drove into me again.
Again.
One final drive into me and Dominic unraveled underneath me, grunting, filling me with his own explosive release.
I slowly straightened, both of our breaths labored. Red bursting brightly in his eyes and his fangs showing, Dominic pulled himself out of his own moment of bliss and looked at me lazily. He rubbed his hands up and down my sides, trailing one hand around and in between us, collecting our mix of juices on his fingers. He brought his fingers up to his mouth, licking them.
“ Così delizioso .”
“Yeah, I don’t remember what that one means.”
Dominic burst into laughter, and it was the perfect musical crescendo for such a moment. He gingerly lifted me off him and eased me down so part of me laid on the blanket and the rest of me against him. He grabbed hold of my butt cheek and playfully squeezed.
“I wanna go again but not that soon,” I bantered.
Kissing my head, Dominic moved his hand up to the small of my back. His other hand banded around my belly. Looking over at him, I caught him staring at my belly, awe in his blues as our baby boy kicked and stirred. The wonderment in his smile reached his eyes.
I thought of the threat to our family. I replayed the moment I learned the DiSantis weren’t fully erased. Those who ignored the past were doomed to repeat it, and something in my gut told me Hector still had plenty of skeletons in his past. Skeletons crazier than Fabio. Slicker and more resourceful than Vincent.
We weren’t done combing through history that had been left hidden. Not even close.
“We can’t lose you, Dominic.” My throat tightened as I choked on the words, suppressing any sign of the fresh tears racing toward my eyes. “There has to be something we’re not seeing. Something else Hector kept hidden.” I swallowed, waiting a beat. “I feel it.”
Dominic lifted his head, holding a confident stare, the amazement in his features gone and replaced with the features of a man ready and willing to burn the world to ash for his family. He settled his fingers under my chin, grazing the pad of his thumb in a pattern along the skin of my jaw. I captured his wrist in my hand, rubbing it and part of his hand.
“We’ll bring it all together, and then, we’ll bring it all down.”