Chapter 59
The Dragovari Tower ballroom is lit up like the inside of a diamond, every surface polished until it hurts my eyes.
Laughter, champagne glasses, sequins catching the light.
Same as every New Year’s Eve before it. Same as last year.
Except she’s here this time. I know she is.
I can feel it.
Una is chattering next to me, scrolling through her phone, leaning in and pointing out different people.
She’s very good at her job. She’s been with me for so many years that she could have easily parlayed her experience into a better position a dozen times by now, but she hasn’t, and I’m grateful.
Not only did Giovanna skip the gala last year, I heard she abandoned everything and left: her job, her apartment.
Her boyfriend. Antonio didn’t give any indication that anything was happening with her, but then again he spent so much time fucking other women, it may have taken him awhile to figure it out.
I haven’t spoken to her in two years. But it wasn’t the last time I saw her.
When I went to the usual places to watch her from a distance—her job, the gym, her apartment—she was never there, so I took to stalking her on social media.
She doesn’t post very often, but her friends tag her in photos.
Most of them featured sunshine and cocktails and her hair blowing in desert winds.
No Antonio. Just her. Just her smile. If I stare hard enough, sometimes it feels like I can breathe the same air as her again.
Standing at the edge of the dance floor, seltzer in hand, I can feel someone watching me.
When I look up, Antonio is staring at me from across the room, stony-faced.
We stay that way for a full minute, rage rising in my veins.
Until he shifts his gaze, and I follow it.
To her.
My world shifts on its axis. She’s looking at me, too.
Everything else in the room seems to fall away: the chatter, the music, Una fluttering beside me.
Then she smiles at me, the softest smile, a smile I haven’t seen on her in years, and I practically stop breathing.
“Tommy,” Una hisses, tugging my sleeve, trying to pull my attention somewhere else, but I shake her off without looking at her.
She’s like a magnet, pulling me toward her.
I slip around the edges of the crowd, eyes locked on Giovanna.
She’s radiant even from a distance, but as I get closer, I can see the changes.
She’s older, more mature. Sharper. Stronger.
Curves in all the right places. I’m fucking obsessed.
Her father, standing next to her, notices me watching her and her watching me back.
Lorenzo’s mouth tightens, and he leans in, arguing with her.
She doesn’t care, just keeps smiling at me, and when he grabs her as she starts to make her way toward me, she smacks his hand away and keeps going.
My girl.
As I get closer, her eyes sparkle, and I lose her in the crowd.
Threading through the press of suits and sequined dresses, I make my way to the hallway she must have disappeared into, just in time to see the bathroom door closing.
I slip inside before it shuts, locking it behind me.
She’s at the sink, looking at me in the mirror.
I can’t stop staring at her, I can’t speak, and she smiles.
“We’re in here so much, we should have our names engraved on the door,” she says lightly.
“Or maybe just have a bed moved in.”
I just stand there, taking her in.
That curve of her hip against the counter.
The way her hair falls just below her shoulders now, glossy under the soft lights.
Every detail sears into my memory, amplifying the collection of moments with her in my brain.
She turns and nods her head toward the counter.
“I believe we got this counter pretty messy a few years back when you introduced me to fisting.” She strolls casually across the bathroom and turns to me, pressing her back against the wall.
“The last time we were in here, I believe you fucked me so hard right here I was afraid we’d go through the wall.
”
Her eyes sparkle, and for the first time in years, I see my old Giovanna.
Not stressed. Not guarded or angry. Just my sweet girl.
And I can’t hold back. I cross the room in a few steps and press into her, bending my knees so I can look her in the eye, then pull her into my arms. Burying my face in her neck, I crush her to me, breathing her in like oxygen.
My grip is too tight; I know it.
I lift her off the ground until she laughs breathlessly.
“Tommy! I can’t breathe.”
I set her down, but I don’t let go.
Not ever again. But I still can’t speak.
I’m terrified I’ll say the wrong thing, break the spell, and she’ll run away from me again.
She frames my face with her hands, soft, steady.
“Tommy Demonio, I really did try to forget you, to get over you and move on. But no version of me exists without you. Everywhere I went, every city, every night, I wanted you there with me. Without you, I’m never home.
”
My heart cracks open, her words hitting so deep that I can’t answer.
My throat locks. My chest burns. I close my eyes and bow my head, cataloging the moment, the words, her touch.
I press it into my memory so I’ll never lose it.
For the first time in so long, the chaos in my brain quiets.
I open my eyes and take my first deep, calm breath in a very long time.
She’s watching me, her soft smile in place, and I know that she understands everything I’m thinking even without the words.
She presses her lips to mine softly. I kiss her back just as gently, melting into her kiss, sliding my hands over her body, feeling her against me.
“I’m sorry, baby. I’m so sorry. For everything.
” I choke out the words, and she responds by sliding her tongue against mine.
I groan softly. I can’t help digging my fingertips into her, and she does the same to me, dragging her nails along the hairline at the back of my neck.
My cock hardens against her, and she sways her hips, grinding into me, her fingers threading into my hair as our kiss deepens.
Heat unfurls in us, around us, intensifying every touch, every stroke of her tongue, every shift of her body against mine.
Fuck, her curves. As if she can read my mind, she presses her palms gently to my chest and pulls away from me.
I step back reluctantly, unsure what she wants, but the smile is still there and it reaches all the way to her eyes.
She pushes one strap of her dress off her shoulder, then does the same to the other.
Keeping her eyes locked on me, she slides her dress down over her chest, and my breath expels from me roughly.
Her breasts are so big now that she has to wear a bra, and it’s so fucking sexy, a lacy thing that shows her dark nipples.
I can’t help but drop my gaze and stare as she shimmies out of her dress, revealing her rounded stomach, her wider hips and a little scrap of panties that matches her bra.
“Fuuuccckkkk,” I breathe. I drop to my knees and run my hands down the curve of her ass to her hips then up the inner seam of her thighs.
Her pussy is emanating heat, and when I gently drag my fingertip along the fabric of her panties, she sucks in a breath, and I can feel her dampness soaking through.
I worship her pussy with my tongue, my fingers, spreading her open for me as she whimpers, torturing her with the lightest of touches until wetness is slipping down her thighs.
I get her so wet that three fingers slide inside her easily, but when I go to insert a fourth, she taps my shoulder.
“Tommy, I want you.”
Smiling up at her, I run my hands up over her curves, up to her breasts, rolling her nipples between my fingers, kissing every inch of her, sucking little marks into her skin, making her beg.
She can barely stand by the time I rise to kiss her neck, dropping one hand from her breast to her swollen clit, and rubbing gently with a steady pressure.
She throws her arms around my neck and kisses me like she needs me.
Her mouth against mine, her breath comes in ragged gasps as I keep rubbing her clit, and run my other hand over her skin around to her ass, sliding one fingertip around her back entrance.
“Please, please, please, please…”
Her begging sounds like a prayer, but I don’t relent until I feel her stiffen just before a hard, slow convulsion rolls over her body in waves.
“Oh my God, Tommy, I’m coming…” she says, her legs shaking, her arms limp around my neck.
She drops her hands down my chest, scrabbling at my belt until I help her undo it.
She unzips my pants and pushes me back, pointing at the floor, unable to form words.
I sit down, and she immediately straddles me, pulling my hard cock to her entrance, her gaze locked on mine as she pushes me inside her.
“Fuck!”