Chapter 22
SEVEN MONTHS LATER…
I woke to a violent rush of pleasure. My body rocking.
The wet sound of slapping worked its way through my sleep.
I was on my stomach, breathless, sighing, Thor over me, fucking me so well.
In a state of drowsiness, arousal, and laziness, I let my husband take his time with me.
I didn’t come, but I appreciated every delicious thrust filling me while he pressed me into the mattress.
He took me harder and faster, driving deep, until he came.
Thor collapsed over me, the heavy rise and fall of his chest moving against my back as he kissed the nape of my neck.
“Buongiorno, vita mia.”
“Get off. You’re heavy,” I grumbled into the pillow.
“It’s time to get up, baby.”
“It’s time for you to leave me alone unless you want to get punched.”
I heard his little laugh, but I didn’t open even one eye.
With one last kiss on my shoulder blade, Thor left me.
Then I surrendered to my sacred five more minutes of sleep.
I stretched all the way out between the sheets, lifting my arms over my head when I officially woke up.
Full, satisfied, and happy. My lips curved when flashes from earlier fired through my mind, and the sticky feeling between my legs and that delicious little internal ache wouldn’t let me lie.
My hot husband had worn me out last night and again this morning.
I thought that with time, marriage, and all our hectic routines, we would calm down.
That didn’t happen. Thor was too fiery and always ready, and I didn’t know how I was still capable of walking in a straight line.
The sex was wonderful and undeniable. No one in their right mind could refuse something that good or come up with flimsy excuses not to do it.
If Thor was in the mood, so was I.
If I was in the mood, so was he.
The thing was, lately, I was always in the mood. He didn’t seem to mind… The thought made me laugh. It was comical to imagine my Thor turning down sex.
My husband was a walking temptation in pants.
I was happier than I had ever thought I could be. We had our bad moments, but above all, we also had what seemed to be missing for so many couples: we wanted to make each other happy, and we wanted to make ourselves happy in the process. It wasn’t easy, by the way.
Fights were part of our routine, and so were reconciliations.
We had learned a lot from our mistakes, and we kept learning, practicing tolerance every single day, giving a little, making healthy concessions.
I swung my legs out of bed and went straight to the bathroom.
I slipped the robe over my shoulders, then went looking for my two men—or rather, one man and one little man…
and one enormous ball of brown fur. I found them in the living room.
Lucca was piled on his father’s legs as Thor stretched out on the couch watching one of his favorite DVDs, while Lola was below on the rug, chewing her favorite toy.
That image always warmed my heart.
“Buongiorno!”
They gave me their attention. Lola greeted me with a bark and ran to me. I stroked her furry head, and she padded back to her toy.
Thor offered me that smile that melted me completely.
I bent down to receive his kiss, then pulled away to look at Lucca.
“Good morning, little lion. Where’s mamma’s kiss?” His little mouth on mine. “Oh, what a yummy, slobbery kiss, my love.” I sniffed his soft little neck. “Mmmm… my baby smells so good. Did you take a bath with Daddy?”
“Did.”
“I hope the bathroom isn’t flooded this time.”
Thor raised a hand in defense.
“If you blow on him, dust comes off.”
“Did Daddy already give you breakfast, little lion?”
He shook his head, frantic, pushing me away.
“Go, mamma!”
It was my turn to raise my hands, taking a step to the side.
“Va bene. Va bene.”
My tits were no longer his favorite thing in the world. The touchscreen was.
Yeah, he was growing up way too fast…
My stomach growled loudly, so I walked to the kitchen. Thor followed.
“We have a Picasso… Don’t laugh… He can’t keep drawing on the furniture, no matter how cute his drawings are. You need to do something about that wall.”
“Or we could leave it the way it is.”
I paused in front of the pans and gave him a bored look.
“Or you could do something about it,” I offered, getting annoyed.
“So he can decide it’s too white and needs some new cheerful scribbles? Nah!”
“That’s why we’re his parents, Thor. We teach boundaries and things like that.”
“We are doing that, baby. It won’t be the first time, or even the fiftieth, that he learns. Lucca has his own timing. Besides, I’ve already talked to him and explained that he can’t draw on any wall except that one, besides paper, of course.”
“You did what? No, don’t tell me.” I waved a hand in the air and checked the pans, clean and empty, to my hungry stomach’s dismay. “You didn’t leave anything for me?”
“Ella, love, we already had breakfast and lunch,” he said calmly.
I whipped my head around in panic, my eyes nearly falling out of my face.
“What? Why didn’t you wake me up? What the… thing! What time is it?”
Thor was there, leaning forward, forearms on the counter, perfectly calm.
“One in the afternoon.”
“Per Dio, Thor, why didn’t you wake me?”
I started to run for the bedroom, and his arm reached my waist and pulled me to him, trapping my back against his front.
“I tried to wake you, but you were out cold.”
“This is your fault.” I fought to get free of his arm, which only made the other wrap around me too. I huffed in frustration. “Thor, let me go.”
He spun me to face him.
“Mine?”
“Yes, yours, because you kept tempting me last night and exhausted the hell out of me. Not to mention this morning. So yes, it’s all your fault for being so hot.”
“I thought I heard a lot of death threats if I stopped.”
“Funny. You can’t keep getting me worked up with this gorgeous cock”—I grabbed him over his shorts with a wicked expression—“and think I won’t do anything about it.”
His own expression tightened with desire, one hand full on my ass.
“Are you sore?”
“Yes.”
“Then don’t start what you can’t finish,” he growled, batting my hand away while I gave a little laugh, then grew serious.
“Let me go, love. I need to run if I don’t want to get fired.”
“Easy, baby. I already called and told them you’d be late. Your father also called and asked you to call him back as soon as you got up.”
I wrapped my arms around his neck and kissed him calmly.
“You’re the best! Grazie.”
“And I don’t know that?” he boasted.
I rolled my eyes, escaping his hold.
“Can you make me something quick to eat while I call him?”
“Do you want anything in particular?”
“Surprise me.” I winked.
Lucca was at my heels. I went to the armchair, then my boy climbed onto my lap, playing with his motorcycle in the air while I made my calls.
I called Mr. Ferraro, my boss, first, and then papà.
I had left my internship days behind to enter the trainee program thanks to my surprising performance in my internship position, according to Rocco.
New position. Better salary. Specific duties and, of course, more pressure.
Rocco was encouraging me, accelerating my progress a little, it was true, but he didn’t play around when it came to work, and neither did I. Family was family, business was separate.
We were in an internal competition, two teams giving their best to win an important client for the agency.
Training for the real competitiveness of the market.
The bonus for the winning team was excellent.
My team had blood in their eyes and was salivating for that victory.
At the head of it, I was working my ass off to win.
I had to bring work home, piling it on top of my study hours, which left me wiped out, but nothing that interfered too much with my life as a wife and mother.
My men had all the attention they deserved.
Thor didn’t like it, but he respected it.
“Wait, Lucca. Let me finish talking to your grandfather first… No, Dad, he’s trying to snatch the phone… I know, okay then… Uhum. Grazie… Va bene, I’ll talk to Thor… Love you too… Right, I’ll pass it to him. See you later.”
I set Lucca on the floor, kneeling in front of him, and looked at him firmly.
“No yanking off the buttons off the phone after you talk to nonno.”
He only looked at me with the most innocent face in the world, stretching his impatient little hands into the air. I handed him the phone and gestured with two fingers.
“I’ve got my eye on you, little man.” I stood. “Lola, not on the bed!”
The dog barked, jumped down to the floor, and padded out of the bedroom, wagging her tail.
I went into the closet, keeping one eye on my boy.
Lucca was too smart, a natural explorer with a unique curiosity that often drove us crazy, especially when he decided to play junkyard owner or channel Picasso wherever he pleased…
“What happened?” I asked, stepping into the bedroom.
Lucca, sitting on the bed, held his little arms out to me with the biggest pout on his face—the same one he always made when he’d done something naughty—and a colored pencil in his hand.
Thor, facing the bed, lifted his shocked gaze from the paper to me.
As I moved closer, picking Lucca up at the same time, my eyes grew wide, and I felt laughter climbing all the way up my throat.
Colorful scribbles filled the document. At least he hadn’t torn it.
Lucca hid his face in my neck, and I held myself together firmly so I wouldn’t laugh.
Unfortunately, my lips twitched.
“What is it?” I played dumb.
“This isn’t funny, Antonella. This is the purchase and sale agreement for the property where we’re setting up the company, and now it’s completely scribbled on,” he said seriously.
Thor was setting up a security company in partnership with Nathan. After asking Pietra to marry him and having her accept, he had decided to settle his ass down too.
“Love, I already told you not to leave papers lying around anywhere, especially documents. Lucca doesn’t have much sense yet about what he can and can’t do.”
Thor ran a hand through his hair and exhaled hard.
“I don’t leave my papers lying around anywhere, Antonella. I only left the contract on the bed for a moment while I was talking to Nathan on the phone, and when I came back, I find this. And Lucca has plenty of sense, darling, don’t you, little man?”
Lucca didn’t open his mouth, didn’t even lift his eyes to his father as he played with my necklace. He knew very well when to keep quiet and when to talk.
“Well, make another one.”
“It’s already signed and registered, Antonella.”
Well, well, well…
“Lucca, look at me.” Lucca studied him from beneath his full lashes. “You can’t go around scribbling on any paper you find, my son. Now, what am I supposed to say if I need to present the contract? That my son wanted to make a few notes on it?”
Many laughs later, we sort of resigned ourselves to it.
Lucca had a lot of tricks up his sleeve and no fear of showing them, or of sharing the blame with his four-legged accomplice. Just the other day, they had finished off the rolls of toilet paper and made flour footprints through the apartment.
Yeah, I missed my white walls…
I buttoned my jeans with some effort… I have to stop with the little cakes and hot chocolate in the middle of the night… I found a tank top and a light cardigan to throw over it.
Back in the bedroom, I put the phone back in its place, where Lucca had left it on the floor.
I grabbed a hair tie and tied up my hair, which now fell past my shoulders. I was letting it grow. Thor preferred it that way, and I wanted to please him.
I followed the good smell of food. Lucca was entertained lying on the rug, his bath book open, telling the little story to Lola lying beside him.
“I’m free. But papà asked me to stop by quickly. He wants my opinion on a new account. After that we can go check how the construction is coming along.”
Thor and I had found the perfect plot of land in a gated community right in Milan, and we were building our dream house, with plenty of space for Lucca and Lola.
“Then we should call Giulia. Lucca has a dust allergy, and at this hour there will be a lot of workers there handling machinery.”
“No, it’s fine. Papà will stay with him while we visit the construction site.”
“At the company?”
“Yes.”
“He’s working.”
I stole a piece of the bread he was preparing. “But he doesn’t mind having Lucca there for a moment… And you know there’s no reason to be jealous.”
“I’m not jealous. I just think a company isn’t a place for a child either. I’m sure Giulia would love to stay with him for a while.”
“This feud has to stop. It’s getting ridiculous.”
Thor scowled. “It’s not me. He’s the one who keeps letting Lucca do whatever he wants and fills the kid with sweets and spoils him, and you know I’m not lying.”
I came around, rose onto my toes, and kissed his lips.
“Va bene. It’s both of you, then. But you need to stop.
Lucca isn’t a loaf of bread you can split so each of you gets half.
He loves you both. And Dad doesn’t fill Lucca with sweets because then he’d have to deal with me.
Spoil him? Yes, why not? He’s his only grandson.
Besides, our entire family spoils Lucca, and I don’t see you complaining. ”
He turned off the stove and turned to me, planting his hands on my hips.
“Listen, I just want to spend the day with my family, without interference. And you know there will be interference if we take Lucca there. He’ll use his tricks to monopolize our boy.
And in the end, a day we could have had as a family, just the three of us, won’t happen.
How long has it been since we had a day off during the week? ”
“Fine. It isn’t even a feud. Call Giulia.”