19. Mia #2
“Thank you,” I tell them as Dario puts me in bed.
He takes my shoes off, and I force myself to let him.
Being a patient doesn’t come natural to me, but every slight move I make reminds me that I’m at the very beginning of this healing process, and there’s no rushing it.
I’m not going to find a shortcut that magically heals my insides.
The cut was deep, and it wasn’t a small knife.
Nothing is going to heal this but time, and the more I fight it, the longer it’s going to take.
“We promise we won’t hover,” Nat says as she hovers over me, tucking in the blankets around me like I’m one of her kids.
I raise a brow at her and she laughs while our mom says, “We won’t hover too much, or at least we’ll try not to.”
My dad walks in carrying a tray of food and several bottles of water. “ In case you get hungry or thirsty,” he says and then puts it on the bed next to me.
“Where’s Isabella and Enzo?” I ask, looking around for my niece and nephew.
I see the worry that passes across Nat’s face before she turns her head to try and cover it. “They’re with Dom.”
Reaching out, I grab her hand and force her to look at me.
“Seeing them isn’t going to break me, Nat.
I can’t have kids.” I say the words loud enough for everyone in the room to hear.
“And that’s okay. I’m still the same person I was before this happened, and I still love my nieces and nephews and want to spend as much time with them as I can. ”
Nat brushes away a tear and nods her head. “I’m sorry. I wasn’t trying to keep them from you. I just didn’t want to make you sad.”
“Thank you, but I’m okay. I promise. Besides,” I say, giving her a smile, “it’s not like any of you are going to stop having kids. You all are like a bunch of rabbits, popping out babies left and right. I will be the coolest aunt on the planet, though. I insist on being everyone’s favorite.”
She leans down to give me a hug. “That goes without saying. You know Isabella loves your pink highlights and piercings. The girl’s already obsessed with you.”
I grin and hug her back. “I promise I won’t corrupt her too much.”
Nat sends a quick text to Dom, and when Isabella comes running in, she jumps on the bed and makes her way over to me.
She’s already been told she has to be careful around me, but Dario still stands by, body tense, ready to reach out and grab her if she decides to do something crazy like bellyflop onto me.
Enzo is too small to join in, but I kiss his head when Dominic holds him close to me, and instead of the pang of sadness I was afraid I’d feel at seeing them, there’s nothing but a solid warmth in my chest. I love being an aunt, now more than ever.
When I meet Dario’s eyes, he gives me a wink, and I know in this moment that I have everything I could ever need or want.
Dominic and Nat stay in Italy for another two weeks, and every day during that time, Isabella and I have movie marathons.
I watch more princess cartoons than I ever thought possible, and even though they sometimes make me want to scream at the young women to just save their own asses instead of waiting for a prince to come do it, I still have fun with my niece as we eat our weight in popcorn and sing along to the catchy songs.
We even convince Dario to join in every now and then, and hearing Isabella laugh at his impersonations and silly singing voice is worth every second of discomfort when I’m unable to hold in my own laughter.
After they leave, things are quieter, and instead of afternoon princess movies, Sasha entertains me with ‘80s slasher hits.
When Dario walks in to find us lounging on the bed, both of us wearing a Jason-style hockey mask, he just mutters a low Jesus Christ , grabs me a straw so I can drink my Cherry Coke through the mask and then sits down next to me and reaches for the popcorn bowl.
When I turn to look at him, he grins and shakes his head.
“You’re both insane,” he says, which just makes my brother and I laugh.
I lean over and kiss his cheek through my mask. “If I didn’t already know you were my soul mate, you just proved it.”
He grins and gives me a wink. “There’s my little romantic.”
I smile and rest my head on his shoulder while we finish the movie.
Over the next several days my parents visit me constantly, and I can tell by the relaxed, happy look on my mom’s face that the time here is just as healing for her as it is for me.
It’s been a long time since they’ve been able to take a trip and relax.
This is like a vacation for them, and I’ve caught them sneaking down to the shore on more than one occasion after the sun has set.
I’m happy for them, even if Dario and I are currently living in a hell of constant arousal with no release.
I know it’s killing him just as much as it’s killing me, but he refuses to orgasm if I can’t, even though I’ve told him I don’t mind and I want him to.
He’s a stubborn man, though, and whenever I try to wrap my hand around him, he pins my wrists to the bed and kisses me until I admit defeat.
At the end of week four, I lay in bed after supper, convinced the mattress will have a permanent mold of my body embedded in it for all of eternity and stare at the ceiling.
“I can’t take this anymore,” I tell him.
Dario rolls onto his side and looks down at me. “You’re halfway there,” he says. “Maybe, depending on what the doctor says.”
“That doesn’t make me feel better.” Wanting to take my mind off it, I ask, “Is everything still quiet?”
While Dominic was here, he’d worked with Dario and Sandro to make sure everything was secure within their mafia.
Having Uberto betray them was a surprise they hadn’t seen coming, and it had set them all on edge.
They’d gone through their men one by one, and Dario said they were confident that Uberto was the only traitor.
Things have calmed down among their men, but they give Sasha a wide berth anytime he’s outside.
I don’t think they’ll ever be comfortable around him again, and it doesn’t help that he flew back home so he could get his dog.
He missed Chort, and the two have been inseparable since he arrived.
The combination of two unpredictable, deadly things is more than most people are comfortable handling.
Leonardo’s brother had been easy enough to track down, and no surprise to anyone Franco decided he didn’t want to take his older brother’s place.
He quickly put their villa up for sale and has permanently relocated to Milan.
I doubt anyone will ever hear from him again, and Don Santoro and Don Esposito were more than happy with Dominic’s offer to let them split what was once Fontana territory.
“Everything is good, amore mio ,” Dario says while brushing my hair behind my ear. His touch is whisper-soft, but I still feel it in every part of my body. The longing I feel for him hits me hard, the strength of it always taking me by surprise.
“I know, streghetta mia .” His fingers trail down my neck before lightly grazing my collarbone.
“I feel the same way. I miss the feel of your body, I miss being buried inside you while you cling to me and shatter so beautifully beneath me, and I miss the way your tight little pussy always grips me so goddamn good. I miss everything.”
“Then stop being so stubborn and get inside me. ”
He grins at my tone and then lowers his head to run his tongue along my shoulder before giving it a soft bite. “It’s too soon. I won’t risk hurting you, amore, not even if it kills a part of me to deny you.”
I keep still because I’ve learned that if I move too much, he’ll stop, and that’s the last thing I want right now.
Forcing my body to stay relaxed, I slowly run my fingers through his hair as he carefully lifts my tank top up.
I’d ditched my bra after we’d returned to our room for the night, and he groans at the sight of my bare breasts.
“I’m so glad they didn’t have to remove these,” he says before kissing both my nipple piercings.
“God, you and me both.” I give his hair a soft tug and when his dark eyes meet mine, I say, “Thank you for making sure I got to keep them.”
He grins and swipes his tongue along the barbell. “I knew you’d be furious if you woke up and they were gone. Plus, I just really love them.”
Wrapping his lips around my pierced nipple, he gives me a suck that has my body straining to move. When I manage to keep still, he rewards me with a flick of his tongue and a whispered “Good girl” against my wet skin.
“I can’t last another four weeks.” My confession is given in a shaky voice, strained by want and need, and it’s the closest I’ve come to crying since leaving the hospital.
“You won’t have to.” He slowly kisses his way down my stomach. “I can’t slide into you for another four weeks, but I spoke with your doctor.”
“You did?”
I look down at him and when my stomach tenses with the movement, he shakes his head and gives me a tsk-tsk. “Stomach relaxed, amore .”
I huff out a breath and put my head back on the pillow, forcing my body to soften. I never realized how vital abs are before this wound. Every thing I do, every single movement, feels like it’s connected to my core.
When I’m relaxed, I ask, “What did he say? I thought doctors weren’t supposed to give out information to anyone other than the patient.”
I feel the hot breath of his laugh against my belly button. “I’m your husband, little viper, and the man is smart enough to not tell me no when I ask for something. Stop pouting and I’ll tell you what he said.”
“I’m not pouting, and we’re still not married.” I wait a second and add, “What did he say?”
He kisses me and lifts his head to give me one of his wicked grins. “He said I can eat your sweet pussy as much as I want, and you can come as long as it doesn’t hurt.”
“Those were his exact words? That’s not very professional.”