Chapter 20 Alessandro
ALESSANDRO
For the first time and as long as I can remember, Christmas morning feels special.
I wake up with a smile, Giulia still sleeping in my arms. She’s warm and soft, and her head is heavy on my chest. It’s a welcome weight.
The shooting is still too fresh, too raw for me to ask myself how things could have turned out differently.
I could have lost her. I could’ve lost this before we ever really started.
After two weeks in the hospital, Isabella put her foot down.
“You will stay with us. You’re not recuperating alone, and we can take better care of you than any hired nurse.
” I don’t think she’ll ever stop trying to repay me for saving her little girl, and I’m grateful for the generosity, even if there are times I still want to pinch myself.
This morning is one of those times as I lie in bed and watch the first beams of sunlight paint the trees, bare except for a dusting of snow that fell overnight.
Not enough to call it a white Christmas, but it’s idyllic as hell.
“Hey, you,” I whisper, stroking Giulia’s bare back.
I know she wouldn’t want to miss this. “It’s Christmas morning. You should look out the window.”
She yawns, stretching, before slowly lifting her head from where it has rested for hours. “Good morning.” Her sleepy smile never fails to light my soul. This is, without a doubt, my favorite part of the day.
She rolls away far enough that she can look over her shoulder, out her bedroom window.
“Oh, wow,” she breathes out with all the childlike wonder she still possesses.
That’s her gift to me, whether she knows it or not.
Every day, I reconnect a little more with what matters.
The kind of shit I used to roll my eyes at before I understood there’s more to life than power and vengeance.
Her dark eyes are glowing when she turns back to me. “It’s perfect.”
I was thinking the same thing about her. “I wonder if Santa came,” I murmur, tucking hair behind her ears. “Have you been a good girl this year?”
I swear, this woman was made for me. All of the sweet innocence shining in her eyes seconds ago is a memory replaced now by a wicked gleam. “It depends on who you ask. I’ve done some naughty things, but they made you feel pretty nice, didn’t they?”
“Believe me.” Familiar hunger starts to build on cue. It only grows as I admire her naked body, still draped over mine. “You are on the permanent nice list as far as I’m concerned.”
“Then maybe you had better stuff my stocking.” She barely gets the words out before she has to cover her mouth, giggling until she snorts. “I had to!” She laughs, and I have to laugh with her.
At the same time, there’s a specific part of my anatomy that took her joke very seriously. “I don’t know,” I muse, looking down at where I’m starting to swell under the sheets. “I was hoping for a little stocking stuffing this morning, now that you mention it.”
“And wouldn’t you know it…” She pushes herself up on her palms before straddling me, then leaning down until her nipples brush my chest and her thick curls hang down around my face in a dark curtain. “This is exactly what I asked Santa for.”
The second her lips touch mine, all joking is over.
In some ways, it feels like we’ve been together forever, that she has always been part of my life.
But the thrill is still fresh, like a fire leaping to life.
It takes nothing to make me burn for her, and soon, she’s whimpering, thanks to the way I stroke her lower back before cupping her ass cheeks and pulling her tight against my cock.
She comes up for air with a gasp, and my hungry mouth continues kissing, nipping her neck, tracing her collarbone.
When she pushes herself up on her hands, I take her tits in mine, guiding her nipples to my mouth.
My tongue moves back and forth, forcing one soft sigh after another from between her parted lips.
“You’re so good to me.” She sighs, and I can’t think of much else I would rather hear. It means I’m doing something right.
“Why don’t you be good to me and see what you can do with this?” Lifting my hips, I grind my aching cock against her. She sucks in a breath, her eyes narrowing with need.
“What do you want me to do with it?” she asks. Fuck me, she is such a little tease. She knows I love it too. Hearing what comes out of that pretty mouth, knowing I coaxed out the wicked side of her.
She wraps her hand around me, taking control of my world while her thumb runs around my ridge. “Do you want me to put this in my pussy? Is that what you want, Alessandro?”
I love the way she says my name almost as much as I love the way she touches me. “Yes,” I groan, precum oozing from my tip the longer she strokes me.
“You want me to ride it? Do you want me to ride it until I come?”
“Fuck, yeah. I want to watch you ride me,” I whisper, fondling her tits until she squirms and moans.
“I think I can do that.” She raises herself over me, and I watch, transfixed by the sight of my cock disappearing inch by inch into her tight, wet pussy until I’m buried deep. Fuck, am I glad she went on the pill so I can feel her wet silk clench around me with nothing between us.
There are times I still can’t believe this is my life.
This woman is mine.
Living perfection moving on top of me.
And I’m the lucky bastard who gets to touch every inch of her body while she moves up and down, giving and taking pleasure. She gives herself over to it so completely, freely, not holding anything back. I didn’t know women like this existed.
And I’m glad I didn’t before meeting her. It means appreciating her the way she deserves. “Make yourself feel good,” I urge, taking her by the hips, bringing her down hard against me. She wiggles her hips, grinding her clit against my base. The sight of bliss washing over her face is hypnotic.
“Oh, I love it,” she whispers, eyes closing, mouth open so she can take short, quick breaths. “I love it when you’re inside me.”
“There’s nowhere I would rather be.”
Her hands slide over my chest, nails scraping my skin before she cups her tits, squeezing, flicking her nipples with her thumbs. She’s my personal living, breathing porn show. “So fucking hot,” I whisper, urging her on while my fingers dig into her flesh.
“You like it when I do that?” Her head rolls from side to side, her hair swinging. If I thought she was only doing it for me, it would be one thing, but no, she’s losing herself, going with what her body demands.
I know what it demands when her muscles start tightening, and her breathless pants turn to high-pitched gasps. “Alessandro… oh God, Alessandro…”
I lift my hips to meet her downward strokes, losing myself a little at a time. Faster, faster, until the bed creaks, her tits bounce, and the tingling at the base of my spine explodes through my body, sending lightning bolts of pure sensation from head to toe.
Her back arches, a silent cry lodged in her throat before the tension breaks and her pussy begins to milk me greedily. I go with it, filling her, until our juices drip between us. There is nothing like this. Nothing like her. Us. This perfect moment belongs only to us.
When it’s over, she falls forward across my chest, her body heaving with every breath. “I love you,” she moans.
“Don’t ever stop doing that,” I whisper, trying to catch my breath. “Because I wouldn’t know what to do without you.”
* * *
Christmas with the Santoros. What a way to close out one of the most unpredictable years of my life.
“Please, have a drink with us.” Rocco waves me into his study before the family’s traditional Christmas dinner. Like the rest of the house, the room is decked out, complete with garland and wreaths on the windows and a ten-foot tree in one corner.
It’s almost too perfect. A year ago, it would have pissed me off. Now I’m admiring it while wearing an obnoxious reindeer sweater that Giulia bullied me into after she bought it during a shopping trip with her friends.
“I have to say…” Dante muses as he pours drinks, “… after the big events we’ve held here this year, it’s nice to have a quiet Christmas.”
What’s quiet for them is anything but for me. All of this family togetherness is still foreign, especially because they’re the family in question.
But I’m not a complete piece of shit. They didn’t have to take me in, didn’t have to make sure I got everything I needed so I could recover. “I can’t remember the last time I celebrated Christmas,” I admit. “This is nice. Thank you for letting me be part of it.”
“Sophia told me holidays were never very important in your family, growing up,” Dante murmurs as he hands me a whiskey on the rocks. “Hopefully, we can make up for it.”
“That’s a nice segue into what I wished to discuss.” Turning away from the tree, Rocco touches his glass to mine. “It was different when the girls came to live here. My sons already had homes built for them on the grounds.”
Okay. Interesting change of subject.
“I had planned to make an announcement during dinner, but my sons pointed out you might want to be part of the decision.” Rocco looks their way over my shoulder, chuckling.
“I admit, I hadn’t thought of it, but they’re right.
You’re a grown man with a home of your own.
But it was always my plan to have all of my children live here, on the estate, and it was always in the cards to build a home for Giulia when the time came.
I would like to break ground in the spring, that is, if you are amenable to the idea and would consider living here, since I know she won’t want to live anywhere without you. ”