19. Dominic
19
DOMINIC
I wake peacefully in my old bed. I haven’t slept here in almost a year, and the whole place feels so foreign to me. Luckily, I have the familiar feeling of having Luca lying beside me, wrapped tightly in my arms. Somehow, I’ve already grown so used to this—the calm, quiet morning in bed; the sun hiding behind the closed curtains; and the calming knowledge that we don’t care about what might happen next.
Letting out a long, relaxed breath, I nestle myself closer into his neck, feeling the warmth of his smooth skin against my face. The searing pains of my injuries have settled slightly and left a constant soreness in its place. Despite my entire body hurting, I still feel so calm and relaxed while beside him.
I gaze down at Luca as his eyes start to flutter open, sluggishly trying their best to stay open as he begins to wake up.
“Morning,” he whispers, his voice not quite warmed up yet.
“Morning,” I speak softly. “You sleep okay?”
Luca nods to me, resting his head on my chest and somehow bringing us even closer together than before.
“What do we do now?” I ask him. “I mean, do we celebrate? Do we just wait?”
Gradually running his hand over my chest, Luca leans closely into my ear. “Well, I think I know a way that we can do both.” “Oh, is that right? What do you have in mind?”
He smiles, deliberately gliding his hand back down my chest and to my crotch, rubbing back and forth.
“Luca,” I moan gently.
“Yes?” he asks, his bratty expression getting even worse .
“After everything we’ve done,” I utter, still feeling the soft touch of his hand against my trapped bulge, “I’ve been waiting for this.”
Grabbing hold of his wrist, I pin it behind his head as I roll on top of him completely holding him down. Beneath my weight, Luca wriggles playfully to get free.
“You wanted this,” I say to him with a wink. “So you’re going to take it.”
His pointless attempts to escape end quickly when I rest my knee gently against his groin, rubbing it gently as I do and making sure to find the perfect line between pain and pleasure. He whimpers slightly at the sensation, fully letting go of any control he had left and waiting for me to do whatever I want to him.
“Do you like that?” I ask him, as I start to apply more and more pressure.
He doesn’t say a word, only leaning his head back into the pillow behind him, presenting his quivering lip to me, and closing his eyes, waiting for more.
I lay a passionate kiss on his mouth, feeling the warm, shaking touch of his lips against mine as he kisses me back. Freeing his hands, I take off his shirt, giving me a better look at each and every one of his injuries from last night. I trail my hand across them, feeling each bruise and bump with my fingertips, and he recoils.
“Don’t worry,” I whisper to him. “I’ll be gentle.”
Pulling down his pants, I free his erect penis before taking out my own.
Switching up my approach, I lift myself up slightly from his body, moving my hands under his back, rolling over, and resting him on top of me. After he settles in place, he grinds himself gently against me, letting our hardening cocks rub together. The gentle caress is incredible.
I find an old bottle of lube in my bedside drawer. Ideal. I squeeze some onto my dick.
Taking his petite waist in my hands, I guide him to the perfect spot, lowering him gently down onto my stiff dick and letting him go wild on top of me. He grinds against me, bounces on me, and rides my hard shaft passionately. The both of us quickly forget all of our problems—our old hate for each other, our battle with the Grecos just last night—and soon find ourselves as nothing more than just two people alone, intertwined with each other.
Every single one of his movements is filled with vigorous desire as we both give into our cravings for each other’s bodies. Pulling him down to me, I kiss him gently, massaging his tongue with my own as we rub against each other.
“Dominic,” he moans. “I-I’m?—”
“Do it,” I interrupt, knowing what he wants to say.
Luca falls silent, biting down on his own lip and clinging tightly to me as his body trembles on top of me. I feel the gush of his cum seal the small creases between us, then his muscles relax as the energy leaves his body along with it.
“You’re so good for me,” I sigh.
Taking back my control over him, I thrust my hips and use him to stroke my hard cock, feeling his tight hole gripping against it, pumping myself over and over, hammering his entrance as he whimpers with excitement.
“Dominic, I…” he stutters out, losing track of his sentence with each of my drives .
“Shhh,” I whisper. “I’m almost done with you.”
Unrelenting, I speed up my motions and thrust myself faster and harder inside of him. The immense pressure builds up in my throbbing cock, and the ecstasy runs through its veins and overflows inside of him.
My muscles tighten around him as my thighs gripping against his own, pulling him closer to my body and finally letting go when my load stops pumping into him, and I relax again.
My fast pants of breath and thumping heartbeat overwhelm my ears and make me almost deaf. Slowly, his voice comes back to me as everything else fades out, and I can hear again.
“Dominic,” he gasps.
“Sorry, I got carried away.”
“That’s okay, but that’s not what I was trying to say,” he stutters slightly.
“What do you mean?”“I was trying to tell you,” he says, settling his voice and becoming almost serious. “I wanted to tell you that I’m in love with you. ”
My mouth falls agape, not knowing what words to say next.
“I don’t expect you to say it back,” he rushes out. “I wouldn’t blame you if you didn’t feel the same. I know I’ve caused so many problems for you.”
“Luca, just—” I try to interrupt, but his ramblings drown out my attempts.
“I ran away from you countless times, leaving you alone after we just started getting somewhere, and I tried to fix everything myself and only made things worse and got you hurt.”
Luca quickly starts to spiral, pulling away from me and retreating into his own head.
Holding onto his shoulders, I shake him back to the present. Looking deep into his eyes, I try to keep him here with me. “Luca,” I sputter out, “I love you too.”
My admission makes him finally go quiet.
“Look, I’m not going to say that you shouldn’t have tried to fix things alone or that you shouldn’t have run away from me either,” I begin. “But I also shouldn’t have kept running in headfirst and creating this whole problem. ”
“Can you forgive me?” he asks, almost like he didn’t hear a word what I just said.
“Of course I do,” I tell him. “And I want you to know that I love you too.”
His eyes go wide. “Really?”
Laughing slightly, I can’t help but smile. “How could I not love you?” I joke, pulling him back into my arms.
After we shower together and wash each other tenderly, I follow closely behind Luca as he wanders the hall of my family home, watching as he looks over all of the different family photos that hang on the walls. “You were cute as a kid.” Luca giggles to himself.
“Hey!” I shout, offended. “I’m cute now.”
“Hmm,” he murmurs as he looks at me. “I don’t know if cute is the right word for you.” He shows me his usual cheeky smile, knowing that it can get him out of almost anything with me.
“Fine,” I huff.
Turning back to the rest of the hall, Luca stands almost in shock at all of the random photos of me and the rest of my family over the years, either from family gatherings, me and my brother playing together when we were young, or individual pictures from big life moments or events through the years.
“It’s weird,” Luca admits. “We have big photos like some of these at mine, but we don’t have ones like this,” he says, pointing toward a random photo of me standing with my father in my graduation gown from high school.
“Really?” “Yeah, my dad doesn’t like to celebrate the kind of things he considers expected,” he shares with me. “Sure, we had birthdays and parties, but he never saw the point in documenting them and displaying them.”
“I mean, I can see that, I guess.”
“I can’t,” he says through gritted teeth. “I like it like this.” He keeps smiling at the photo before he turns back to me and gives a slightly nervous look. “So, is that your dad?”
“Umm, yeah,” I respond. “That was a few months before he passed.”
Looking between me and the photo, he says “You look a lot like him.”
“Yeah, I was always told I took after him,” I say as a nostalgic smile creeps over my face. “ My brother looks like my mom. I think that’s why it’s easier for her to be around him.”
“Dom,” he says softly. Luca walks toward me and takes my hand gently in his. “Do you really think that?”
“Of course I do,” I tell him, not able to look him in the eyes. “When I lost him, that’s when I started really acting out, getting into trouble and just doing everything I wasn’t supposed to.” A small tear starts to build in the corner of my eye before I blink it away. “And when she would find out, she would shout and complain, and she would always say that I wasn’t acting like my father, that I wasn’t like him.” My hold around Luca’s hands gets tighter without meaning to. “So when I got into Valmont, I stayed there whenever I could. So she didn’t have to watch me screwing up his legacy.”
“I’m sorry if it isn’t my place to say,” he says, testing the waters for my reaction. “But I don’t think that’s fair on either of you. You’re not your father and that’s okay, but when you keep your distance from your mom, you’re taking away her son and one of the few things she has left of him. ”
The single tear I tried to hide away before comes flooding back to my eyes, many more just like it following closely behind it. I lose any and all words I can think of to respond, not knowing what to say. Not knowing how to feel.
My lip quivers slightly as my mouth stays open.
“I’m sorry,” Luca says, trying to take back what he’s already said.
I shake my head, the only reaction I can manage to give. I don’t want him to take it back. I think he’s right.
Before I can properly wrap my head around all of it, the front door swings open downstairs, its hinges announcing somebody’s entrance.
Peeking my head down the staircase, I see my mom and Gianni making their way into the entranceway and quickly catching sight of me.
“Dominic? What are you doing here?” my mother asks.
“Oh, well… I’m…” I search for a good enough excuse. Not even thinking, I look to my side to Luca, who’s still hidden out of thei r sight, hoping that he can give me some kind of answer.
“Who’s up there with you?” Gianni asks, already making his way toward the stairs.
“It’s just… Uh—” I fight for words again, staring at Luca while I pray for something to happen to clear this all up.
Just as Gianni’s halfway toward us and Mom stands on guard downstairs, Luca steps out around me and makes himself known to them both. Dressed in his disheveled clothes from our multiple encounters and much more obvious injuries than my own on his face.
“What the hell is he doing here?” Gianni demands.
“Luca?” my mom asks. “How come you’ve decided to visit?” Her tone is a lot more gentle and not nearly as standoffish as my brother’s.
“Look, I can explain,” I begin, not quite having an explanation ready for when I next have to speak.
“Oh my god,” my mother gasps. “What happened to you both?”
“It was the Grecos,” Luca says. “They attacked us. ”
“What?” Gianni says through gritted teeth. “Sore losers.” “Sore losers?” I ask, sharing a confused look with Luca.
“Antonio’s backed out of his deal.” Gianni scoffs.
My eyes widen. I can’t believe it. Our plan worked. It actually worked. I turn to Luca again, showing off the most joyful smile and making me almost completely forget about my family just a few steps away preparing for their interrogation.
Even after everything we’ve had to deal with together, the things that they know of at least, why would we be spending the night together, traipsing around my family home, and stealing looks with one another?
“Do you know why?” Luca probes for more information.
“There was some kind of coup last night. Someone tried to take power from him, but the rest of the family didn’t want anything to do with either of them anymore,” Gianni explains. “Antonio looked weak for letting someone else try and take control, and the would-be usurper was nothing better than a backstabbing snake for trying it. ”
“It worked,” I murmur under my breath. “I can’t believe it.”
“What did you say?” Gianni asks.
“I… Well, we…” I stutter out, not knowing the right way to say it. I look back to Luca to see if he wants to take the lead, but all he does is nod along to my ramblings. “We,” I assert. “We dealt with them last night.”
“You did what?” my mom asks, her voice shaking slightly as she decides between worry and anger.
“There’s no way.” Gianni almost laughs. “How could you even manage that?”
“Dominic’s a lot smarter than you give him credit for,” Luca says.
I put my hand out, trying to settle Luca before he takes it any further. He’s certainly gotten more daring, especially when it comes to fighting my battles with me, but Gianni is a whole different type of game. I'm even scared of pissing him off.
“Last night, they tricked us again,” I admit. “They got us exactly where they wanted us and that’s when they did…” I gesture to our myriad of cuts, scrapes, and bruises.
“I can’t believe you could do something so idiotic,” Gianni jeers .
“Let him finish,” Luca jabs again.
“Don’t talk to me like that.” Gianni scoffs.
“Gianni…” Mom scolds.
Finally, they all go quiet again. “Turns out the man who was working with the Grecos was actually Angelo,” I confess.
“Angelo, as in your friend?” my mother clarifies.
I nod, still not over the betrayal. “He’s Antonio’s son.”
My mother covers her mouth, holding in a shocked gasp.
“I know I screwed up by not realizing, but last night, we managed to turn the two of them against each other, and that’s why they’ve imploded,” I ramble through my explanation.
“Yeah,” Luca exclaims. “He’s the one that fixed everything. My dad wanted you guys gone, but Dominic kept us together.”
“And how do we know that for sure?” Gianni challenges. “How can we know that Salvatore won’t just let our family fall to the bottom as well?”
“We don’t,” I respond. “But more fighting won’t fix anything; It never has.”
“We’ll talk to my dad,” Luca promises .
“Fine,” Gianni relents. “But if you mess up, I don’t want anything to do with it.”
I shrug off my brother’s constant complaints. I’ve dealt with them my entire life, and I’m tired of them. I place my hand on Luca’s back and guide him down the stairs, trying to get us out the door without any more questions.
“I’m not done with you.” Mom speaks in an almost sinister tone. “Why are you both here?”
Her cold gaze freezes us both in place. We were so close, only steps from the door.
“After we escaped, we needed somewhere to lay low, so we came here,” I tell her, not completely lying to her.
“That explains why you’re here, but why you, Luca?” she says zoning in on him.
“Well, basically, umm.” He stumbles over his words for an explanation.
“We were both hurt, so we thought it would be better to stick together,” I answer for him.
“Sticking together with a Valenti.” Gianni scoffs.
Mom scowls at my brother. “Can you give us a minute? ”
Gianni rolls his eyes and turns away, pacing away to the next room in a huff.
“Now,” she continues. “Are you both going to stop lying to me?”
Why does she have to be able to read me so well? What the hell can I even say to convince her?
“Dominic, I think we should tell her the truth.”