Epilogue
SEVEN MONTHS LATER
LORENZO
T he walnut double door flew open, and a throng of eighteen to twenty-four-year-olds filed out. Summer break had begun, and the bustle of enthusiasm that filed out sung it loud. I leaned against the car, shades on and nicotine in my lungs. My glare showed off the vile mood I was in.
I swung my gaze through the group lining the street, mild interest grazing my body. A laugh, soft and familiar, floated out amongst the throng and pulled me in instantly.
I found her easily. The magnet to my metal heart. She was with a group of friends. Two of them fucking boys. One of them said something that made her throw her head back and laugh. The walls of my stomach tensed up. I trusted her. With my life. Didn’t mean I liked the male attention she caught, like bees to honey.
She must have caught my glare burning the sides of her face because she turned and caught my stare. Surprise flashed across her face. Really, Principessa? She’d made me promise I’d let her have a drink with her buddies before picking her up. I’d been silent, so I guess she had assumed. Little more than ten months, and she still didn’t know me well, I guessed.
She said her goodbyes in a hurry and bolted into my arms. I caught her with no effort on my part. She wrapped her legs around me and pulled my shades off.
“I thought you promised to let me have a drink with my friends.” A tinge of annoyance threaded her voice.
It wasn’t enough to bother me. “You said to promise. I said nothing.” I rocked her against my dick, semi-hard behind my slacks. “Don’t like the boys.”
“Yeah? Don’t think they like you either.”
“Sure they don’t.” I wrapped my hand around her neck and sucked her mouth into mine. I liked that she didn’t fight me. She melted into my arms like hot wax. I could easily forget the world around me. Except we had a fucking plane to board. I released her mouth with a pop.
She leaned back in my arms, eyeing the line of black cars. I didn’t know why I had thought she was low maintenance. God knows she had enough shit to fill all my cars.
“Mine,” I muttered because, easy or not, she was all that.
Her gaze shifted to mine. “What’s got into your grumpier-than-usual attitude?”
Don’t get me started on her fucking mouth.
I dropped her down, roughly. She stumbled back, but I caught her arm. “Let’s go.” I pushed her in and settled in for the drive.
Apprehension coiled in my stomach. There was acid swirling in there, and it wouldn’t stop till it soaked into every cell in my fucked up body. I couldn’t stop this. No matter how many times we went to Sicily.
“You know.” She grabbed my fist in hers. “I know your mamma died in Sicily. But it doesn’t mean there’s anything wrong with it.”
My eyes dropped to her soft hand, rubbing the tattooed numbers of Mamma’s birth year. It felt like a caress on my broken soul. A million thoughts ran through my mind. All of them had to do with Sicily, and none of them were logical to a sane mind. Sane mind being the point.
Mamma was in Sicily because she wanted to be. Not because she knew there was a damn bomb attached to the bottom of her car. Still, she changed every time she was there. She was happier and more alive than I had ever seen her in my city of choice. It was like she loved it more than us. I couldn’t stop it. Couldn’t keep her from dying. Couldn’t stop her from being happier somewhere else. Couldn’t stop myself from imagining history repeating like the cranked-up engine of an old car suddenly gearing up. Every time we stepped foot on that fucking island, fear clutched my heart that I might lose my wife. Told you. Damn insane.
I swung my arm around her and pulled her to my lap. Sometimes I felt like she understood me more than I did myself. “They teaching you psychology now?”
She laughed. The sound was carefree and light and had a line directly to my cock. “I don’t need to know psychology to understand you.”
“Yeah?” I rubbed her on my dick. “What do you think I’m thinking now?”
She gasped, and her hands clenched around my arms, holding them tightly in place. “I think you’re thinking you’re going to be good,” I growled. “For once.”
I stomped through the aisle, my vexation gathering on every step. It didn’t help that she hadn’t allowed me to fuck her in the car. We weren’t there yet, and she was already changing. I was bemused as to why I even allowed her to get away with this shit.
I swiped the annoying stewardess away, buzzing around me like a fly. She was going to the toilet, she had said. What the hell was she taking so long for? I had half a mind to lock the door and fuck her in the bedroom. In fact, I decided that was an excellent idea.
I stormed into the bedroom and skidded to a halt.
Jesus!
She was on the bed, naked and thighs spread wide. My cock went from a semi to rock-hard in an instant.
“Well, that took you long enough.”
I stepped in and kicked the door shut. Her pussy was pink and glistening like a fucking star in the dark. I licked my lips. “I thought you said you needed the toilet.”
“You thought. I didn’t correct.”
“We need to be buckled up for take-off,” I said, but I was already kicking off my shoes and socks.
A mischievous smirk lit up her face, and a hand flew to her mouth. “Oops! I forgot.”
I knew why she got like this. Every time we were on a plane, she acted cocky. Like she wanted to brand herself on me to forget some stewardesses I had fucked ages ago. Little did she know, she was branded in so deep my organs sang her praises out like a fucking choir.
I unbuckled my belt and pushed my boxers and slacks down. My cock pulsed out, and a groan fell from her throat. My shirt was off, and I was on her in a flash. I pulled her up, spread her wide, and buried my mouth in her sweet nectar. I was all over her, sucking and licking like I hadn’t fucked her for ages rather than just this morning. Her moans were loud and wrapped around my skin like warm honey. I circled back and bit her clit. She made me fucking insane. So I plunged my fingers in and sucked her clit into my mouth. She trilled underneath and exploded in warm liquid. I lapped it all up, made my way up her body, and pushed her taste into her mouth.
My breaths were heavy, my movements unsteady. She called me uncouth. And I was all of that, but with her, I took it to extremes. I proved it by plunging in like a man in a desert finding a fucking pool.
“Zo,” she groaned, and I felt it vibrating the length of my dick. It might have been stupid to another man’s ears. But to mine, it was a fucking symphony.
I tried not to be a fucking five-second man and gritted my teeth and counted backward from fifty. But she wasn’t giving me much of a chance by wriggling temptingly underneath me.
“Stay still,” I muttered.
“Can’t. Move.” I don’t. “Fuck me harder.”
Jesus! She just knew which damn buttons she had to push. I pulled out and plunged right back in. Again and again, until we had a rhythm that was neither slow nor steady. Her breasts bounced with every thrust, and each moan of hers sent a spark up my dick. It was a matter of minutes, and I was exploding like a fucking hormonal teenager, but thankfully she followed me soon after.
Our heartbeats drummed between our chests, and the sound of our hot breaths filled the room.
“Why does your fucking brother need you at his wedding?”
Her eyebrows skimmed her hairline. “Ugh… I don’t know… maybe because he’s my brother?”
Sex and a heart running outside my body made me forget to put a lid on my fucking mouth, and “Hate sharing you,” rumbled out.
She didn’t laugh. She ran her hand up my chest, resting it right on top of my heart. It felt like ointment on my hot, burning wound. “I am all yours.”
“You’re a fucking Di Matteo when you’re there.”
She frowned at the venom in my voice. So what? I wanted her to be fucking mine. Only mine.
“I am also a Martello.”
“Only a Martello,” I said adamantly.
She shook her head. “I am a daughter, a sister, but…” she rushed to wipe the frown off my lips. “Also, your wife.”
“How much?”
She frowned. “What do you mean, how much?”
“I don’t know.” I was needy, and I didn’t care. “What’s the percentage?”
She laughed. “I don’t know.”
I was about to blow my head off with another ridiculous demand.“But you are the reason that my heart pounds a million miles a second.”
A hot sigh left me. That was fucking enough for me.
I couldn’t believe there was a time when I wanted a Sicilian doll in my house. Couldn’t imagine a minute without this fiery princess in my home now. Jesus . I don’t know when it happened. But somehow, she had brought me to my knees and turned her pleas to my needs.