Chapter 21
“I still can’t believe you returned from London an engaged woman.”
Marti threw her head back and laughed. She had called Kara and her parents to give them the good news the day after Dante had proposed, a little over two weeks ago. “Believe it, Kara.”
“I bet your ring is gorgeous. I’m dying to see it.”
“It is beautiful and it’s special because it was his mom’s. Dante said it’s a symbol of the love that was shared by his parents and now by us.”
“That’s so romantic.”
“I can’t wait for you to get reacquainted with Dante, Kara.”
“I can’t wait, either. Virgil wanted me to tell you that he’s happy for you, too.”
“Thank him for me.” To this day, Marti figured Kara didn’t know that when Virgil heard that she was moving away from Charlotte, he had paid her a visit.
She and Virgil had cleared the air about a lot of things, and he assured her that after Kara told him what had happened to her, he understood why she’d done what she had, and that he had forgiven her.
She had thanked him and explained that she needed a fresh start, so she was leaving Charlotte.
She had apologized again for all she had done and thanked him for making her sister happy.
He had told her if she ever needed anything, to let him know. She had appreciated him for that.
“Have the two of you set a date?” Kara asked, breaking into her thoughts.
“Not yet. Dante is flying in this weekend, and we will decide then. We don’t want a long engagement.”
“I hope you will at least give me a chance to have my baby so I can be a part of the wedding.”
Marti laughed. “I will grant you that. I’m thinking about a Thanksgiving wedding.”
“That soon?”
“Why not? It’s two months from now, so we have time to make plans. And your baby is due next weekend, so you have no excuse not to be a part of the wedding. Just make sure my nephew is on time. By the way, have you guys decided on a name yet?”
“Yes. Our son will be named after his grandfathers. His name will be Matthew Byron Bougard. But don’t say anything. It’s a secret. We haven’t told them yet.”
“I think that’s wonderful.”
“We do, too.”
“Well, l need to end this call so I can get things ready for Dante’s visit this weekend. I’m excited.”
“I can hear it in your voice. I am so happy for you.”
“Thanks. Goodbye, Kara.”
“Goodbye, Marti.”
When Marti hung up the phone, a feeling of total joy spread through her.
She couldn’t wait to see Dante again. She’d only been home a little more than two weeks, and although she talked to him every single day, she missed him like crazy.
Evidently, he was missing her, too, since when he called on yesterday, he asked if he could visit this weekend. Of course, she told him yes!
Deciding that he didn’t want to spend any more time on the Oregon coast without her, within days of her leaving, Dante had arranged for their ‘private oasis’ to be relocated off the beach to an area at the back of his house.
Then he had packed up and left Wild Rose Point as well.
He’d been anxious to let those he considered family in Sedona Valley and San Francisco know of his wedding plans.
He also wanted to share the news with his family in Italy.
Just then a text came in. She looked down and saw it was from Dante. Couldn’t wait for the weekend. Just landed. Should arrive at your place in twenty minutes.
Marti shrieked with excitement. Dante was in Billings! She rushed into her bedroom, preparing to give her fiancé a special greeting when he arrived.
***
Butterflies went off in Marti’s stomach the moment she heard the doorbell. She glanced down at herself, satisfied with what she had decided to wear. Namely, a flesh-tone cover-up with nothing underneath. She wanted to look seductive, hot, and ready.
When she got halfway to the door, she called out to ask, “Who is it?”
“Dante.”
Smiling, she picked up the security remote off the table, pressed a button to unlock the door, and then said. “Come in.”
He opened the door, and the moment she saw him, her breath got lodged in her throat.
Entering her home was the handsomest man she had ever seen.
She had never seen Dante in a suit, and if she thought he looked like a badass in a linen ensemble, then the only thing she could say for the man dressed in a tailored business suit, with his hair in a ponytail and wearing that single gold loop earring, was that he reminded her of a hero from one of her thriller novels.
Mainly, a suave businessman who could moonlight as a Mafia hitman. That vision wasn’t far from the truth.
He successfully blended two opposing personality types into one very sexy individual, and she wouldn’t want him any other way.
At that moment, she couldn’t love him more.
He was everything she could ever want in a man, more than she could have hoped for, and the thought that he loved her and understood her overwhelmed her at times.
Like now.
“Would you like to tell me why you’re crying, sweetheart?” he asked in a deep, husky voice.
Was she? She hadn’t realized that she was.
Now that he had brought it to her attention, she could feel the tears flowing down her cheeks.
She swiped at them. With him she could only be totally honest. “First of all, I am so happy to see you, and then it dawned on me how incredibly blessed I am to have you a part of my life. I love you so much.”
“And I love you, my beautiful Martina,” he said, walking toward her while removing his jacket, his tie, and then pausing to step out of what appeared to be an expensive pair of shoes.
He came to a stop in front of her as he began unbuttoning his shirt. When he finished, he pulled her into his arms and captured her mouth. Their tongues tangled in a heated rush, electrifying every part of their bodies. She needed this. His taste and everything that was him.
When he finally released her mouth, she whispered. “I need to give you a tour of my home.”
He leaned in and brushed a kiss across her lips. “Later. Just tell me the location of your bedroom, because I still have more clothes on than you, but I plan to remedy that real soon. By the way, I like what you’re wearing, and although it barely covers anything, it looks good on you.”
She smiled at the compliment. “Thanks, and that was the idea. My bedroom is upstairs. The first bedroom on your right.”
He swept her into his arms and carried her there.
***
Dante placed Marti on the bed and glanced around.
Nice. The room was her. Sleek, stylish, with a degree of feminine energy that couldn’t be missed.
At least not by him. He was so in-tuned to all her nuances.
Today there were plenty, and he had been mindful of them the moment he had entered her home.
For him she was the positivity he needed in his life, and it was so easy to shift his focus squarely on her. Like he had done the moment he had opened the door and seen her. With Marti, he saw more than a new beginning. He saw the life he thought he could never have.
Dante took a step back and gazed down at her.
Seeing her stretched out on the bed consumed him with a degree of heat that he only felt with her.
She was beautiful, and lying there, dressed in material that blended so well with her skin tone, made him want to reach out and touch every part of her he saw.
It was quite easy to see that she wasn’t wearing anything beneath that cover-up, and he knew that had been intentional… just for this moment.
He quickly removed his shirt and tossed it aside, then came the rest of his clothing. He needed her and wanted her. Bad. He had thought about her every waking hour and his every sleeping moment. She was and would always be the only woman he wanted.
His Martina.
Completely naked, he moved toward her, and within seconds, he had taken off her cover-up, and she was naked as well. There would be plenty of playtime later, but at that moment, he was experiencing need-time. He needed to reacquaint himself with everything that was feminine about her.
He kissed her and immediately felt the hunger they always shared. He could see himself making several visits to Billings before their wedding. He had told her he wanted a short engagement, and thankfully, she was all in for that.
He released her mouth and inhaled deeply, drawing her scent into his nostrils. That made him need her even more, and a needy Dante would become a greedy Dante rather quickly. He began licking her all over, and no spot was spared from his tongue. The sound of her moans spurred him on, and…
Suddenly, he was shoved on his back, and she was the one doing the licking. The feel of her warm tongue gliding all over him had him moaning. He closed his eyes as a multitude of sensations washed through him.
He knew the moment she had slid him inside her mouth, and another moan escaped from his throat because he knew just what was in store for him. His Martina never disappointed. He released another moan at the way she was working her mouth on him.
Reaching down, he grabbed a fistful of her hair to encourage her to stop.
To spare him a slow, erotic death. Instead, he released her hair, deciding that if he had to die, he preferred going this way rather than any other.
Her mouth was having its way with him, and he had no problem letting it do so.
He opened his eyes when he felt his body getting ready to explode and knew just where he wanted to be when it happened. Grabbing hold of her shoulders, he pulled her up over him. “I need to be inside of you, Martina.”
Widening her legs, he thrust upward and slid into her at the same time she came down on him.
She screamed the moment their bodies connected, and the joining was so intense that it made the bed shake from her orgasm.
She then began riding him with a hardness he needed.
He, in turn, thrust upward to meet each and every one of her downward plunges.
It was as if they couldn’t get enough of each other, and this was the result of the time they had spent apart. Although it had barely been two weeks.
She came again, and when he finally let loose and came with her, the release was so powerful, it felt as if his entire body dissolved into a million pieces of pleasure. From the way her body was trembling, he knew she had experienced the same.
When she looked down at him, and while their bodies continued to tremble from one powerful climax, he grabbed the back of her neck and brought her mouth down to his. He kissed her with an intensity that sent even more passionate sensations ripping through them.
When the last shudders eased from their bodies, he slid her beneath him, slid between her legs to begin making love to her again.
***
“I’ve missed you so much, Martina,” Dante whispered as he eased off Marti and then pulled her closer into his arms. “Talking with you every night on the phone just wasn’t enough. I had to see you. Hold you and make love to you.”
She snuggled even more into his embrace. “I missed you, too, and now you’re here. But I still enjoyed our talks.”
“You would,” he said, chuckling. “I’m the one who had to take a cold shower after listening to all that naughty sex talk.”
“Hmm,” she said, smiling, feeling pleased with herself. “All of it wasn’t about sex. We made plans about where we will live after the wedding, didn’t we?”
“Yes, we did.”
Since she could work from anywhere, she would move to Sedona Valley.
He was already looking to lease a condo near the Ursala Hotel and Resort.
She would join him in Arizona in two weeks to meet his godfather, Ricco, and his family, which included his godbrother, Nico.
From there, they would travel to San Francisco to meet his other godbrother, Skylar Kingston, and his wife, Haven.
She had talked to everyone on the phone, including his relatives in Italy. They had congratulated them on their engagement and were anxious to meet the woman who had changed Dante’s mind about love and marriage.
“There is something we never got around to talking about, Dante.”
“And what’s that?”
“Babies.”
He lifted a brow. “Babies?”
“Yes. Do you like kids?” she asked.
“I love kids, but since I never intended to marry, I never thought about them. Are we having this conversation because you want to have a baby, Martina?”
“Yes. I’m thirty-seven, so I figured we can have at least two before I turn forty.”
He chuckled. “Two in three years?”
“Less than that since I turn thirty-eight in May.”
He grinned. “I’ll do my best.”
“To be fair, before I laid all of that on you, instead of asking if you liked kids, I should have asked if you wanted kids. Do you?”
“Yes. I would love to have a baby…or two…with you. And I would be a good father to my child, like my father was to me.”
“I’m glad to hear you say that because…I’m pregnant.”
The shocked expression that appeared on his face was priceless. “You’re pregnant?” he asked in a disbelieving voice.
“Yes,” she said, smiling brightly. “And before you ask me about the pill, it’s only 99% effective. I guess that day in the shower when the condom broke, you unloaded more than enough to mess with those percentages.”
“You don’t say,” he said, with what appeared to be a proud grin on his face.
“I do say, but don’t get the big head… I’m going to see how much you’re wearing that smile after the first diaper change,” Marti said, returning his grin.
He shrugged. “I’ll handle it.”
Marti eased on top of him and smiled. “Dante Mario Avera, you’ve proven to me that you’re a man capable of handling anything.”