26. Begging
For the first time in three days, I sleep.
I sleep in my wife’s arms, her warm body curled against mine. It’s the second time in a decade that I get more than my traditional three to four hours of sleep. And it’s all thanks to her, my warrior wife.
The sweetness of her taste clings to my tongue, but I’m an addict. I need more.
She fell asleep naked, so it’s easy to get under the covers and get access to her pussy, licking leisurely at her centre, waking her up slowly. She tastes like my own version of heaven and all fucking mine. My chest rumbles with a growl of possessiveness that rattles my soul.
Soft whimpers alert me to her wakefulness and I dive in deeper, fucking her slowly with my tongue until her hips roll towards my mouth, seeking friction.
“Andrea.”
She calls my name so sweetly.
“That’s it, sweetheart. Moan louder for your husband.”
She removes the covers, watching me through hooded eyes, and lets me hear her ragged breath coming in pants. The side lamp I switched on gives her an otherworldly glow. She’s so fucking beautiful like this, satiated yet still needy, her eyes dark with lust and skin flushed with desire. There’s no mask of confidence, no pretence, it’s just her in all her perfection. I want to drown in the sight of her from this angle every morning for the rest of my life. The thought is foreign and feels like I’m jumping off a cliff. But with her? I’ll jump ten times over.
“Come for me.”
It’s a demand, loud and clear, and her eyes flare with burning desire.
My mouth latches onto her clit in the circles I know drive her mad and I insert one digit into her pussy, giving her something to clamp around. She fucking loves that. I wonder which dildo I could get inside her while I fuck her ass. If the sight of my wife coming on my tongue wasn’t enough to get me hard—though it definitely is—that dirty thought makes me throb with need.
I lift my head just enough to demand her orgasm. “I said ‘Come’. Now obey, slut.”
Her hands grasp at my roots again and she pulls while keeping me right where she wants me and I don’t let up until she comes all over my mouth with loud moans in the silent space. The low light illuminates her mouth open in a soft O and the tips of her dark nipples puckered and ready for my teeth.
Her cum floods my tongue and I lap at it like it’s the only sustenance I’ll ever need. Her head is thrown back with pleasure, her face contorted with the force of her climax and my chest swells with pride. It’s fucking stupid, but I can’t help it. I love that I can make her come that hard.
I continue to fuck her gently with my finger through her orgasm, bringing my mouth up her body to bite a nipple and caressing the other roughly with my other hand.
I kiss her harshly, not bothering to wipe my mouth clean. I want her to taste herself on my tongue, to feel how desperate I am to have her.
“Are you ready to beg, sweetheart?” I whisper against her lips.
She bucks against my hand and protests. “I’m too sensitive, Andrea, stop. Please.”
I cup her pussy. “You’re gonna take what I give you and thank me for it, do you understand?”
She nods and moans at the same time.
Fucking perfect.
I remove my hand and replace it with the head of my cock, watching where our bodies join, mesmerised.
“My test results came back negative,” I tell her.
I haven’t had sex in too fucking long. I know hers are also negative because I hacked into her social security file, but I don’t want to fight right now so I’m gently coaxing the answer I already know from her.
What leaves her lips isn’t what I expect.
“I know, I hacked into your medical record,” she says with a bashful smile, biting her lip.
That’s the hottest shit she said to me yet. She can call me crazy all day, but my little wife is starting to be as obsessed with me as I am with her. She wanted to know if I could fuck her bare. Why else would she try to find that type of test results?
I groan and press my fingers deeper into the column of her throat. I need her now.
“Beg me to fuck you, wife.”
The defiance in her eyes makes me harder, if that’s even possible. “Per favore, marito. Give me your cock and fuck me until I can’t walk.”
In one thrust, I seat myself inside her.
I can’t speak as she looks into my soul. This is more than a game of seduction I thought it would be. It’s like her eyes peel the layers of my shadows to reveal the man beneath. And when I finally move inside of her, her hands frame my face and my forehead dips down to hers as we connect beyond our physical bodies.
“Giulia.”
“I know.”
My hands caress her thighs, her arms, her neck and I kiss where my hands can’t reach, to her lips, her cheeks, her jaw as I continue to thrust in and out of her. I never want to let go.
I thought my life had ended when I lost my dad and almost lost my mother. I was a ghost going through the motions without a care in the world since everything is so fragile. But with Giulia in my arms, with the taste of her on my tongue and the feel of her body beneath mine, my world stops and restarts to spin on the correct axis after a decade adrift.
Her walls clench around me when I grip her ass and thrust harder into her pussy. I hold myself up on my forearm to circle her clit with my hand.
“Let go for me, sweetheart. I’ll catch you.”
It starts as a deep and slow build, then she’s shaking against me, my name on her lips. I fuck her through her orgasm, never closing my eyes, bearing witness to my gorgeous wife coming on my cock for the first time. Her walls flutter around me, drawing my balls tight, but it’s too soon. I want more. I need more.
The way she’s letting herself go is a thrill I’ve never experienced before. It’s precious and I watch her, pleasure overwhelming her features, until I can count the freckles on her face and kiss the thin sheet of sweat of her brow. Her eyes shine with wonder and bliss, a star in my endless nights.
I roll us over until I’m laying down and she’s seated on my dick, the position making her throw her head back as I get deeper into her tight pussy.
“Ride me, sweetheart. Give me all of you.”
I can’t stop touching her, my hands on her hips, her waist, pinching her nipples and holding her hair so her eyes never leave mine. I can’t let go of her. I’ll never let go of her.
She picks up speed, hips rolling while I take hold of both ass cheeks, my fingers caressing her most intimate place until her pussy strangles my cock. Her hoarse moans fill my ears with the best sound of my life.
I follow her over the edge, spilling into her with a guttural groan. We come together for a long time, our bodies racked by spasms and gooseflesh over sweaty skin. I can’t help but lick it off her body, greedy for more of her, for whatever she’ll give me.
She hums contentedly and looks at me through dazed eyes, and I kiss her nose with renewed devotion. My wife is all mine.
“Let”s get you cleaned up and fed, sweetheart.”
I scoop her up bridal style and enter the shower in her bedroom, depositing her carefully on the cold tiles before heating the water and lathering her hair with shampoo to massage her scalp. I’m sure her legs feel like mine, jelly instead of flesh and bones, melting under the weight of what we just shared.
She lets out a sigh and relaxes under my hands and the pride I feel is too big for the fucking small organ in my chest.
* * *
It’s late when we sit on the sofa, but despite the hours of sleep I got earlier today, I’m still bone tired, a deep sense of failure and dread filling every crevice of my being. If it weren’t for the woman occupying my space right now, I’d be going on a murder spree and take Addams from his bed to bleed him like a pig in front of his wife.
Nico enters the living room.
“Hey, fratellino,” I greet him.
He doesn’t stop his advancing march, and his intention is clear on his severe face. I stand and he wraps me in his arms, squeezing me to his chest. I didn’t know I needed my brother’s love as much as I needed Giulia’s. The fierce protectiveness my brother shows me always presents itself in his actions, in his capacity to obey orders, get his hands dirty and keep a cool head no matter the situation.
I take a step back and observe him. Right now, his control hangs on by a thread. I don’t know if he wants to embrace me again or punch me in the face. Maybe both. He needs blood, and I’ll have to provide it if I want to keep his demons in check. His eyes are wild with hunger and his fists clench at his side.
Giulia must feel it too, because she comes to him and places a hand on his shoulders. “Let’s talk, fratellu.”
Nico visibly relaxes and quirks a brow at the endearment. She called him “brother” in the language of Kalliste. It’s close enough to Italian that we don’t need a translator, but it’s the first time she acknowledges we are a family. My brother looks between my wife and I, and nods to himself with a tip of his lips. His own smile. His own acceptance of our new reality.
“Don’t fucking say a thing,” I tell him. He’s gonna tease me about it. He never does with words, but he has a way of expressing every single emotion with his eyes that’s uncanny and irritates the shit out of me.
“I never do.”
“Boys, when you’re done being boys, maybe we can start?”
I turn a heated gaze to my wife. She looks freshly fucked, frizzy hair flying around her face and wearing flannel pyjamas that make her look so at ease in our home. I’d take another bite if my bastard brother wasn’t in the room with us.
There’s always later.
Right now, someone’s after me and mine.
“I haven’t got to read the news yet. Hit me up,” I tell them, bracing for the worst.
Giulia clears her throat and shifts on the couch, placing her feet underneath her. I recognise the defence mechanism for what it is.
“Right now, you’re in a press shit storm. Your name and your face are on every news channel and, well, we were busy today, so I didn’t get to call on the many favours I’m owed to do damage control.”
“What about the lawyers? What can they do? Can’t they call for defamation?”
“They’re working on clearing the charges,” Nico says. “The evidence against you is flimsy.”
I raise a brow, waiting for an explanation.
“Your fingerprints were on the scene of Mia’s murder, but she was strangled, like the previous body and your prints were not on her neck. Clarke and DeRossi can argue you fucked her, or…”
“No.” I cut him off, my word final. “I won’t have the press paint me as a cheater.”
“Better than a murderer,” Giulia grumbles.
I take her hand in mine. “I’m not getting your name into this mess. Don’t even say a thing if you don’t want to be tied to our bed and edged until you fucking pass out, guerrieritta.”
“Madre di Dio,” Nico swears, but I ignore him. If he thinks I don’t know the club he goes to when he’s in London, he’s mistaken. Edging Giulia is the least I will do if she fights me on this. I’m not budging.
“We need to control your image,” she argues.
“Don’t fucking bother. By now, I have no chance of winning those fucking elections. Let everyone believe I’m the wolf who’ll kill their entire family if they cross me. That’s who I’ve always been, anyway.”
“There’s a difference between rumoured mafia leader and murderer, Andrea,” she says, agitated. “Besides, while you were at the station,” her voice breaks when she says that last word, making my heart clench. “I found something. I don’t know how they were connected, but Addams and Luc knew each other.”
“What?” Both Nico and I ask at the same time.
“Cameras picked up Addams’s licence plate just outside of Luc’s mansion in February of this year, then on his way back to his home two hours later, so I assume they met. And then again three weeks ago, at just ten minutes intervals. I’m guessing he became suspicious of Luc’s silence and went to check for himself, saw the remnants of the burnt house, and left.”
“Which means he knows Misha Petrov or at least, has an inkling of who he is. Then, we do the minimum with the elections. Guerrieritta, I don’t want you to exert yourself trying to get me back in the good graces of the people of West Hill. We’ll do what we have to so people aren’t scared of me and know the accusations are false. In the meantime, we go harder on Addams’s ass, by any means necessary. I want every outfit and mob boss in this fucking city all the way to London to know what we’re looking for and who. We need to fucking find that nanny or the maid.”
For the past three months, we’ve been reactive, focused on the campaign and getting me the donations and funds I needed, attending parties with uptight assholes who don’t fucking care about the wellbeing of the city.
I already do more for them now than I would as a politician. I have money, resources, and sway over the same politicians who don’t want me in their crib.
No matter what happens next, Addams will pay for putting me in the position I’m in. My father always told us to keep a low profile, but never let a feud go unresolved and unpunished. And in the Capaldi family, that means no mercy.
Nico nods to us and walks out the door without another word and I sigh as I recline on the sofa.
“We’ll get through this.”
Giulia moves to me and settles against my chest like she belongs there, my own body moulded to the curve of her body and it simmers my anger down in my veins.
I caress her hair absentmindedly for a moment, letting silence fill the space around us until I can find the words. Her bare left hand taunts me.
“When is Lana and Pierce’s wedding?”
“In May.”
That won’t fucking do. I need to get the wedding ring she wants from her shit father as soon as possible. Excitement fills my veins not only at the prospect of claiming her with a ring but to confront the man who neglected her. He’s in for a fucking reckoning. Addams is untouchable for the time being, might as well take my anger out on someone who deserves it too.
“Let’s go for Christmas.”
She looks up at me then, her green eyes settling on me and sparkling with excitement before she shuts down. “We have to wait for Clarke and DeRossi. We can’t go travelling across borders with your name everywhere painting you as a murderer.”
“Have faith, guerrieritta.”
I kiss her then. Fuck, this never gets old. Her lips taste like sin and salvation wrapped in one. It’s a slow kiss, nothing like the feverish need coursing through us. I still want her. There won’t ever be a moment I don’t want her, but I don’t push for more. We just lazily tangle our tongues and taste each other like we have all the time in the world.
We’re out of breath when we come up for air.
“Giulia, I…”
“Oh fuck. When you say my name, it always sounds so serious.”
I don’t laugh at her attempt at diffusing the tension thick in the air. “This is serious. We are serious.”
She tries to pull away, ready to flee, when she’s usually ready to fight.
“Andrea…” she starts, her tone admonishing. I’m not letting her diminish what we have.
“We are already happening. Our contract is null and void. Your rules don’t apply anymore. I want to renegotiate.”
“Renegotiate what, Andrea?”
She stands then, her little fists clenching in the most adorable way though I know she packs a punch, her shoulder up to the ears. Now she’s my warrior, now I know what to do with her.
“We fucked. We shared a bed. You’re not going anywhere. We’re married in truth and that’s how it will stay until death do us part. It’s you and me until death, guerrieritta.”
“Just because I came a couple of times…”
“Several times.”
“And we slept in the same bed once…”
“Twice,” I counter again.
Fuck, I should be taking as much pleasure in riling her up, but I can’t help myself it seems. But as much as I enjoy fighting with her, she’s resisting me, resisting us despite what we shared, and I won’t have that.
“Be fucking serious, Andrea.”
“I am. I love you.”
The words are out before I can think better of it. It was supposed to be all cute and shit. Maybe with flowers. But the truth remains. And Giulia doesn’t like flowers. She likes honesty and brutal truths. “I won’t take it back.”
She’s shocked into silence, her eyes wide as saucers. I see her pulse thrumming a wild rhythm at her neck.
“I don’t want to let you go. What we have, it’s precious, it’s rare. I know you feel it, not just because you came on my cock, but because you fought to have me out of jail. Because you fought for me, because you called my brother your brother, because deep down you know you love me too.” I take her hands in mine, begging her with my eyes to listen. “Don’t trample on what we have because you’re scared. Let go. I’ll catch you.”
Her eyes water, giving the green of her irises an iridescent glow, but the tears don’t fall. She squares her shoulders and gulps.
“I’m terrified. Andrea, last time I loved a man, he used that love to gain things I wasn’t willing to give.”
Even silence has sounds, the sounds of the room, of the nightlife outside. When she utters the words, the silence in my head is deafening. Everything other than her leaves my mind. Ice fills my every cell, the rage so potent I’m sure I’m sweating it through every pore.
That man is dead already, but the knowledge doesn’t help quiet the need to avenge her, to make her nightmares disappear.
I turn around to go into the kitchen and take a knife out of the wooden block.
“Andrea, what are you doing?”
Concern taints my wife’s voice but I can’t hear it. I take her hand and put the knife in, closing her fingers around the handle then pressing it at my throat. It’s sharp. A drop of blood glides down my throat at the small nick where I press the knife while Giulia tries her best to pull it away. “If I ever hurt you, slit my throat right away because I’d rather die than hurt you.”
My wife is as deranged as I am because she smiles kindly and presses the knife into my skin, making me hiss. “Gladly.”
She removes the knife and licks the blood off my neck, making me grow hard in an instant.
“Now, marito, are you gonna make me beg for your cock again, or can I assume that we seal our new deal with you inside me?”