Chapter 40
40
M ont-Tremblant, Quebec - 1978
The Don’s eyes snapped open. The vivid dream—so real, decades later, the pain was still raw—still clung to him. Why now? He remembered Matteo’s frantic pleas to the police, his father’s pale fear when they mentioned his Ma. Even as he’d assured them it would be all right, he’d known it was already too late.
He turned and glanced at Kathy, her grey-streaked hair fanned across the pillow. It wasn’t her age that caused the lovely silver to appear, and the moment he saw traces of it in her hair, he fell even more hopelessly in love with her beauty. It was Kathy. She was the most remarkable woman he’d ever known. From the time she was his and all the bitter years she wasn’t, no one could replace her.
Gently, he slid an arm beneath the covers toward her body. She hardly stirred. Carmelo eased down beside her, pressing close. Kathy groaned as he went between her thighs, waking slowly from her blissful sleep.
“Melo? What… what…time is it?”
First, he started with his tongue. She fell silent. A soft hiss of a sigh escaped her. The ways he teased her clitoris while her bottom bounced on the sheets, the flames of passion he drove into her turned to deep, ragged gasps for air. She shot upright and pushed at his head, resisting the quake of climactic relief his mouth promised. She kicked her feet because the feeling went from good to unbearably decadent too fast. But there would be no release. Carmelo was stronger. A former boxer, a ruthless killer, the Boss of all Bosses in New York, he claimed his woman the way he claimed everything in life, without compromise.
Carmelo’s hand went to her stomach, and with only his hand, he forced her back down to lie flat. Pinned her there, knees parted, thighs shaking, hips rolling, her pussy on his tongue. He reached up to squeeze her breasts and fondle her nipples. He pushed at her thighs with his broad shoulders. The pressure made her knees bend. The heels of her feet drumming on his back.
She put her hands up against the headboard and applied pressure to push back against his relentless pursuit, to seize some control. He nearly chuckled at her feeble attempts. She started circling her hips as her head went back deeper into the pillows and her breath caught in her throat, leaving her mouth open in a silent cry of submission.
Kathy trembled, breath hitching, a fraying string of restraint pulled taut. Kathy could barely breathe or think past the pleasure. And then the air suddenly returned to her lungs, and she let go of the deepest groan of ecstasy she’d given him during the entire trip.
“Melo… stop, please,” she panted, even as he alternated between soft sucking and tickling. Waves of sensation rolled through her, nerve endings ablaze.
He devoured her.
He nipped and licked her outer labia, teased her clit before fucking her with his tongue.“Please, please, please,” she begged as her head thrashed on the pillow. Hair stuck to her brow as she moaned and clawed at the bedspread.
He must have sensed her final release because as her orgsasmic explosion seizured through her pelvis and the heated walls of her vagina clenched he eased up and over from her under the covers.
“Don’t ever tell me to stop again,” he said. The iron in his voice was followed by a deep groan as his thick, rock hard cock sunk into her tightness, wetness. Her body responded. He went deep, but not deep enough. He gave her slow, measured thrusts of his invading shaft, causing her thighs to lock even tighter around his hips. Kathy could barely catch her breath beyond the pleasured gasps she was releasing.
Carmelo lifted and hooked her leg up high, pressing it down to her shoulder with one hand and bracing himself above her with the other. He did so, so he could gaze down her body, past her quivering sweaty belly to her plump pussy as his dick tunneled in and out of her. It had been months since she’d been in his bed, and ever since her return, he’d devoted every minute to making up for lost time.
He loved her harder now. Her body shook with the force of his thrusts. “Oh, Kathy,” he grunted when he dropped on her and pinned her arms back and over her head to look into her eyes and run his tongue over her lips. Domination was his thing. She couldn’t remember a time when he was all shy and fumbling through sex.
Years of passion denied, stolen, and robbed of them both had hardened him. In her absence, he had many lovers, casting them out of his life, while refusing his own marital bed, punishing other women for not being her. It broke his heart when she learned that truth. When she first came face to face with the Wolf of Harlem, she did not know him. And the years that followed with him in pursuit of her, the past nearly destroyed them both. It wasn’t all his fault. She had broken his heart many times, too.
He kept going… punishing her…
“Please…” she moaned.
“Please, what?” he groaned.
“Please let me cum,” she pleaded.
“Wait for me, he grunted. Intense sensation collided through her in wave after wave of pleasure from her head to her feet. Her fingers and toes curled tightly as her body shook, racked with the intensity of her orgasm; she could no longer hold back.
Carmelo grunted in frustration and dropped on her. His head was buried in the crook of her neck. His hands slid under her butocks to grab them hard, and put down a pump action that had them both grunting through his earth-shattering release. He shuddered hard on top of her. She relished the feel of his hot, sweaty body covering hers. The way he panted in hard, deep breaths, how strong and possessive his love felt. She’d never felt this loved with anyone but him. Why, decades later, he still couldn’t believe that she would never understand.
“So good, you feel so good,” he groaned. “I love you so much.”
“Perdonami, cuore mio... non volevo farti male.” he whispered.
“What?” she asked.
“ Forgive me, my heart... I didn’t mean to hurt you,” he translated.
“You don’t hurt me, Carmelo. You hurt yourself by not believing in me.”
“I do. I believe in you,” he lifted his head and looked down into her eyes.
She smiled.
He smiled.
“Good morning,” Kathy said.
His gaze softened. He stared down at her, dazed.
“Every morning for eleven days, it’s been a good morning,” he said and kissed her nose.
“Can you get up, Melo? You’re heavy. I’ve got to pee,” she pleaded.
“Pee in bed, I don’t want you to go,” he groaned and tried to kiss her again.
“Get up!” She shoved him hard.
He laughed and fell over on his back as she scrambled out of bed and rushed to the bathroom. He turned to his side to watch her go. Her body, even all these years later, was as perfect as the first time he ever saw her. It was as if she had aged up until she reached thirty and then started to age in reverse.
Carmelo dropped back on the pillow, satisfied. Maybe they’d spend the day sailing. He wanted to drift under storm clouds with her in his arms.
After a minute, she walked back in. “Melo?”
“Yes,” he smiled.
“When are they coming to install the phone? We’ve been here for over two weeks. I need to check in with Gladys at the bakery. Debbie and I had a bad fight before I left. I don’t even know if she got my message that I was leaving to meet you. She must be worried.” She looked around the room, confused again by the absence of a phone. “I have to call Sandy and make sure she is okay. You have people to call.”
He opened a single eye. “Soon, tesoro. ”
“Today, Melo,” she said firmly. “No more stalling. This is paradise, but paradise doesn’t last forever. We have to go home. Fix things. Okay? We agreed.”
He looked at the wedding ring on his finger. “You’re my wife now?”
“Of course, silly, I’m your wife,” she rolled her eyes and smiled. He smirked but didn’t respond. She turned and left. She was his, both emotionally and legally. No one or thing could ever tear them apart.
He stared up at the ceiling. He heard the shower start. He stroked his dick and willed it come to back to life. It wasn’t responding. Maybe it would with her in the shower. He got out of bed and went after her. Kathy was under the steamy water washing her hair. He stepped in, and she turned with suds in her eyes.
“No! No more,” she laughed, putting up her hand, “What is wrong with you? I’ll be walking funny for a month if you don’t stop. You barely let me out of the bedroom. Today I am going to spend it with Nino.”
“You woke up in a cranky mood,” he said, wiping the suds from her face. She blinked her eyes at him. “I just want to make you relax. Make it better.”
“I’m not. I love this place. We’re in Quebec, but I swear you found our Sciliy here. We take walks through the village on cobblestone streets,” she said, lifting her arms above her head as he scrubbed and rubbed her body with a rag she was using.
“I love the villas and cathedrals with thered-tiled roofs, and the sidewalk cafés mimic what did you call it…the place, in your paintings.
“Portofino… Italy.”
“Right! Portofino. My favorite is thePetite Italiedistrict. The gelato shops and trattorias. I know I promised to go to Italy and Sicily with you. But this is a perfect substitute. Perfecto.”
“What else?” he asked, turning her and washing her as his erection began to rise.
“Oh, yes, my favorite. The gondola ride along the mountain so we could sail around the narrow lake.” She groaned and went to her toes as he entered her from behind. “Melo… go slow,” she sighed.
“I love you, Kathy, I’ve wanted so long to have you forgive me,” he said, kissing her shoulder. Before she could respond, he was thrusting in and out of her, and she was bending to give him the access he craved. Her body made for him responded, though weary, in the most pleasurable ways, and their climax was perfectly timed.
“Then you sided with my enemies,” he grunted.
“Never, that’s not how it happened. I had to stop you, Melo. People were dying, and you were hurting people. I told you that.” She said her hands began slipping as she braced them against the shower wall to keep herself upright.
When done, he embraced her from behind, his hand gripping her right breast. His tongue delved into her ear. “I know. I don’t blame you. I blame myself. I failed you, us, this is my second chance.”
“Stop… we are going to be okay. Why do we have to rehash it this way? Let’s go home and fix things. Okay?”
“What else,” he groaned, still moving in and out of her.
“What?”
“What else have you liked?” he said, changing the subject.
Dazed from the pleasure and the ache in her heart, she struggled to respond. “This, all of this.”
“Tell me more,” he slipped out of her and turned her to face him. He lifted her and put her up against the wall and entered her again, staring into her eyes.
“You’re my Melo. I have you back. Stop searching for my approval. She stroked his face. Relax. It’s not going to end; I’m never leaving you again. I’m your wife now. I know what that means. No matter what you’ve done or will do, I’m your wife, I’m supporting you and only you.. You’re my husband, the big bad Wolf and I love you.”
He finished and let her go. They showered and he scrubbed his back, washed his hairy legs and feet. They talked and joked.
When they were out, he was leaning on the sink to watch her comb through her long tangles in the shower. She smiled at him, “I need my conditioner. My hair is a mess.”
“Looks beautiful to me,” he shrugged.
“Well, it’s not. It takes work. I’ll have to press it again to get it straight,” she sighed. There aren’t even stores here I can go to. Maybe if the technicians can’t get the phones installed, we should prepare to go back home tomorrow.”
“This is paradise. Why not stay?” he said under his breath. “It’s our honeymoon.”
“Quebec?” she laughed. “We can’t live in Quebec. We can’t live here. We have a family and lives in New York. We can deal with the Feds. I won’t have to testify. You know that. They can’t make me testify. We’re married. WE can work it out. You and I will bring the families together, not apart. And maybe sit Sandy down and tell her the truth. We needed this, but it’s time for it to end.”
She turned on the dryer and started to blow out her hair. He walked out of the bathroom and left her there. He went to the large double doors to his verandah. He pushed them open and stepped out on the terrace. Below, he saw the men he’d hired to protect them strolling the grounds of the grand villa he’d purchased by the lake.
Nino was at the table eating with his caregiver, another professional he’d hired for the job. He had spent three years planning their new life down to the simplest detail.
Ernesto appeared.
He glanced at his consigliere as he approached Nino and kissed him on the top of his head. He must have arrived at night. Kathy believed there were no phones, but there were phones, just not for her. Soon he’d have to tell he the truth, and he just wanted a little peace with her before he blew up her world. Peace was over. This was a time of war.
Ernesto looked up at him. Carmelo nodded, and his consigliere walked off. He went back inside and closed the doors. He dropped his robe and went to his closet to get his things to dress. He put on his watch first.
“Kathy?”
“Yes,” she called out.
“Ernesto is here. I’m going to meet with him and get us a phone, then we’ll talk at dinner about what comes next.”
She came out of the bathroom. Her hair was thick and puffy everywhere. He paused again at her raw beauty. “Okay, tell him hi.”
He smiled. “I will, see you in a few.”
She went back into the bathroom. He checked his watch and hurried.