28. Chapter 27
Tucker
Ari came home from the shopping trip with Leyla with about fifty bags of items she bought and continued to give me the cold shoulder. She walked right past me to our room, Christian following behind her carrying all of her bags.
My dad and uncles had left a couple hours ago, so I’d had time to unpack all of our belongings and get a grocery delivery on its way. Now, I wanted to spend some time relaxing with my wife.
I found her in the closet, hanging up her new purchases. “You wanna watch a movie or something?”
She looked at me like she was weighing her options, probably trying to figure out if there was somehow a better offer she hadn’t considered before she shrugged. “Sure. Just let me finish this and shower first.”
A weight lifted off of me. Even if she didn’t seem thrilled to spend time with me, she’d agreed. That was progress, right?
“I’ll order some supper. Any requests?”
“Pizza from that place that’s across from Midnight.” Midnight was one of the clubs owned by my family, and Ari always said that was the only pizza she could tolerate in this town. It was far from New York’s, but was awesome in its own, small town kinda way.
After spending all this time in New York, I was looking forward to it. It had been a staple in our house when I was growing up.
“On it.” I walked over and pressed a kiss to her forehead before heading back to the living room to set up for our movie night.
It wasn’t much, but I pulled out her favorite throw blankets and some pillows she’d picked out and set them up on the couch, with a few candles sitting around the room.
My mom bought us a shit ton of battery operated candles like she used at her house so we wouldn’t risk burning the place down, and I was glad.
If this went how I’d hoped, we’d have a nice talk and end up making up after the movie.
My phone pinged with a text from the guard letting me know our pizza was here and on its way up from the gate. I’d just shut the front door behind me, pizza in hand, when Ari emerged from our room.
My cock instantly got hard seeing her. She was wearing a low-cut black sports bra and a red pair of booty shorts that were so tight it looked like she’d just painted them on. My wife wanted to get a rise out of me, and my dick was definitely giving her what she wanted.
“Food’s here.” I sat it down on the coffee table and headed into the kitchen to get drinks.
Ari hummed. “Good. I’m starving.”
I knew my sister, so I knew they had to have snacked at the mall so I knew she didn’t mean she was physically starving. She was committed to trying to get me to cave.
The thing was, I wanted to make up with her and give her everything she wanted tonight. I just wanted her to understand that part of being partners meant talking about things.
When I walked back into the room, she took a bite of her pizza and moaned. God, she was playing dirty. “This pizza is so good. Best thing I’ve had in my mouth in days.”
Somehow, I managed to not roll my eyes. “Vita Mia.” There was a warning in my voice, but not surprisingly, Ari didn’t back down. I don’t think she’d ever heard a warning that she didn’t view as a challenge.
Dipping her pizza in the garlic butter, she brought it to her mouth, but the sauce dripped and landed between her boobs. “Oops. Silly me.” Slowly, she used a finger to wipe it off, then sucked the finger into her mouth, moaning again.
I was at my limit. Not because my dick was about to burst, though it definitely was, but because this wasn’t how I wanted our relationship to work.
“Arianna.” The raspiness in my voice had her looking up at me with a smile, but just because I was having a reaction didn’t mean I was giving in.
“This is not how real, healthy relationships work. You can’t just use sex and my desire for you to try to manipulate me or the situation.
The only way that this relationship works and we don’t end up married in name alone, living in this house together but completely avoiding one another, is if we have conversations.
If we talk about things. Fucking won’t fix our problems.”
Her jaw ticked with irritation. “It’ll fix the only one I have right now.”
I’d known from her irritation that she hadn’t taken care of her needs last night after I’d walked out of the room.
If she had, she would have been smug about it and in a good mood.
She wanted this to work between us. She wanted the type of relationship she saw my parents and aunts and uncles have, she just didn’t know how to get there.
She’d been so conditioned to hide her own weaknesses while exploiting others that she couldn’t seem to let go and be vulnerable with me.
“And therein lies the issue. Do I want to have sex with you? Absolutely. You are the most beautiful person in the world. But I want more than orgasms with you. If horniness is your only issue right now, then we’re not on the same page.”
Her eyes closed and a sigh escaped her lips. “This is hard for me, Tucker. I don’t know how to do this.”
I pulled her into my lap, wanting her close.
The distance she’d put between us over the past twenty-four hours had killed me.
“I think you do, you’re just out of practice.
Being in New York makes you a different person because you have to be a different person there to survive.
But that version, the one you created to survive your father, never has to come out again.
He’s rotting in hell and you’re a Givenchy now.
You get to choose to be different. Better. ”
“You are one of three people I trust in this world, and after the past few days, I’m starting to question the one I thought I could trust the most. It’s definitely made my walls come back up.”
I was under no illusions that it was easy for Ari to make that confession. “Thank you for telling me that. Maybe if you’d told me earlier, I could have helped you through this. What makes you think Sandro can’t be trusted?”
“He acted so differently when we were there for my father’s funeral. I get that he’s under stress, and I know that he has to be on when others are watching, but that shit he said in his office? It pissed me off and made me question things.”
I pressed a kiss to her temple and then rested my head on hers.
“He doesn’t trust Valentina. It took you a while to trust me, and it will take him a while to trust her.
So when we were all in the office together, he had to keep his guard up.
And while I obviously don’t agree that a woman needs to be a virgin when they get married, I can understand where he was coming from.
Everything he does for a while will be scrutinized.
He needs to do anything he can to make sure that his marriage and children aren’t in that line of fire. ”
Ari sighed. “She’s not a virgin. She confided in me before the meeting. If her father finds out…”
She didn’t have to finish her sentence since we both knew what it would mean.
A smile crossed my lips. Even if Ari was still showing that hard shell to everyone, she was becoming soft on the inside.
When I first met her, hell even when she moved to Crestwood, she wouldn’t have given a shit that Valentina’s life would be over if this secret got out.
She probably would have lit the match and watched her burn, without a second of remorse.
The fact that she was looking out for others now warmed my heart and made me know that we’d be alright.
“I feel pretty sure with the gauntlet that you’ve laid down that Sandro will find a way to make sure her secret isn’t found out.
Though, to be honest, you probably should have told him the truth.
He might have started to trust her a little more if he knew. ”
Ari shook her head as she nuzzled in closer to me. “It’s not my secret to tell. I mean, I know I told you, but there are no secrets between us, right?”
I couldn’t have stopped my smile from growing if I’d tried. “That’s right, baby. I think you’ve earned a reward. How about I take the edge off for you, give you an orgasm, then after the movie, I’ll take you to bed and worship you the way you deserve.”
I could feel her smile against my chest. “I think that sounds like the perfect way to spend the evening.”
As much as I wanted to taste her on my tongue, I wasn’t going to expose my wife knowing that security was in the house, watching the cameras. While they should have been watching all the cameras and probably not the ones from the room we’re in, I wasn’t going to risk it.
I turned my wife so she was still sitting on my lap, but facing away from me completely, her legs spread wide.
“Grab that blanket and drape it over us.” She did exactly as I said and I couldn’t help but chuckle and whisper in her ear.
“Good girl.” The way her eyes fluttered told me how much she liked that.
When she was properly covered, my right hand slipped under the waistband of her pants as my left came up and cupped one of her breasts. A sigh left her lips as I flicked the nipple and her head fell back on my shoulder giving me easy access to her neck.
My fingers reached her core, and goddamn, she was soaking wet already.
With the barest caress of her clit, I knew she wasn’t going to last long, which was good because if I had to deal with too much of this, I’d end up fucking her here on the couch now that we were covered from possibly prying eyes.
After circling her clit a few times, her moans turned into whimpers and her hips started moving, seeking the release she was desperate for. I knew what she wanted and was done making her wait.
I pushed two fingers inside of her, still in awe of how fucking good she felt, and within seconds, I’d found that perfect spot inside of her that drove her wild.
A few strokes there with my thumb massaging her clit, my mouth on her neck, and one hand pinching a nipple and she detonated for me, her face contorting beautifully in her release.
When her body sagged against mine, relaxed from her release, I turned her face towards mine, kissing her softly on the lips. “I love you so fucking much, Vita Mia.”
I may have given her the nickname as a kid, but it perfectly encapsulated how I felt about her now. She was one-hundred percent my life.