Chapter 16 Giovanna
Giovanna
The heaters blaze against the January chill, making the air heavy, almost suffocating.
Bass from the oversized speakers rattles across the patio and glowing pool, the music so loud it shakes in my bones.
I’m perched on a cushioned lounge chair, wishing I was anywhere else, when Lexi drops down beside me with the grace of a drunk rhino, sloshing her drink.
She shoves the cup into my hand with a smirk.
“Aww, Gigi, don’t be mad. All these bitches are just jealous you’ve got Tommy Demonio on his knees, tongue-deep in your pussy.
”
I roll my eyes and take a sip. “It was an asshole move, Lexi. I feel bad.”
“Feel bad if you want, but if I were you, I’d be feeling Tommy.
Why are you even messing with Antonio? He’s cute, but he can’t fuck.
And Tommy, Jesus Christ, his dick is the second coming.
”
“You would know,” I say drily.
She flicks her hair off her shoulder.
“Yes, I would. Which is why you should trust me.”
Seething, I swallow half of the drink as someone cannonballs into the pool, drenching us both.
Lexi screams in my ear, and I wince.
She throws this pool party every year over Christmas, the opposite of Christmas in July.
Usually, I love it. Tonight I feel ancient.
College has ruined me, or maybe Tommy has, because suddenly this whole scene feels small and shallow.
“But you’re in love with Antonio, aren’t you?
”
I choke on my drink and whip around. “Fuck no! Why would you even think that?”
Lexi’s grin falters.
“Wait, seriously? You’ve wanted to fuck Tommy since forever.
He finally wanted you back, and you… what?
Picked Antonio instead? You gave him your virginity, right?
If you’re not in love with him, what the hell are you doing?
”
“Lexi, holy shit, so much of that is wrong that I don’t even know where to start.
”
“Jesus, bitch, start somewhere,” she snaps, snatching the drink back from me and downing the rest like water.
“Never fucked Antonio. Never fucked Tommy. Not in love with Antonio. Not in love with Tommy. Basically just waiting for this fucking nightmare of a break to be over so I can go back to school and escape this high school bullshit.”
“Tommy’s fuck toy,” Antonio slurs, staggering toward us with three or four of his crew in tow.
All of them are drunk, but Antonio is obliterated, his abs shining under the string lights, trunks hanging low, hair plastered to his forehead.
He reeks of liquor and chlorine.
He leans down close, so close his breath is hot on my lips.
“Did you and Tommy plan that little stunt last night? Hoping I’d walk in earlier, huh?
Maybe join in?”
A few people laugh, one whistles, and everyone is waiting to see what happens next.
My expression stays stone cold. I won’t give them the show they want.
Antonio drapes himself over me, forearms heavy on my shoulders.
“Maybe we should make a video for him. You bent over, taking it up the ass. You on your knees with my cock in your mouth. Fair’s fair, right?
I date you, take you out, text you every God damn day, and he gets that pussy?
Nah, babe. It’s my turn.” His lips brush mine, a violation that sets fire under my skin.
“Should I take you to the bathroom? That’s kind of your thing, right?
”
Fury slices clean through my guilt. I smile razor-sharp.
“You wouldn’t know what to do with it if you had the chance.
”
The little crowd gathered around us hoots and laughs.
Lexi cackles the loudest.
“Why don’t we go find out?
” Antonio snarls and clamps his hand around my arm, yanking me up.
The laughter dies, and everyone gathered is oddly silent.
Before I can figure out why, Antonio jerks violently away from me, losing his grip on my arm.
Tommy.
“You’d need a manual and a miracle.
She doesn’t fake it.”
He has Antonio by the neck, one arm wrenched behind his back.
His suit looks fucking amazing, and he’s wearing these incredibly hot black-framed glasses I’ve never seen before, his hair falling over his eye.
But it’s the expression on his face that is most disarming: fucking deadly.
Antonio spits venom through a grin. “Haven’t had as much practice as you, but if you figured her out, can’t be that hard.
”
Tommy lets out a low chuckle. “Careful. You don’t want to go measuring yourself against me.
You’ll end up jumping off a bridge.”
Antonio squirms in Tommy’s grip.
“Fucking robot, Tommy. No heart. Guess you don’t need one when you’re using her for pussy, and she’s spreading her legs to piss off daddy.
”
Tommy snarls and throws Antonio face down on the concrete.
The crowd gasps as Tommy shrugs out of his suit jacket carefully and hands it to me calmly, like we’re sitting down to dinner.
Tie next, then glasses. Then, keeping his eyes locked on me, he rips his shirt off, the little Brioni buttons I picked out flying everywhere.
Everyone steps back except a few women who actually sigh.
My chest tightens. He’s brutal and beautiful, and it terrifies me how much I want him.
Tommy jerks Antonio to standing, and Antonio’s fist connects with Tommy’s jaw.
Tommy spits blood and grins. “Hope you enjoyed that. It’s your last one.
”
Then he tackles him. The fight is a blur of fists and knees, bodies crashing into patio furniture, blood hitting pavement.
Girls scream and scramble. Antonio lands some good ones to Tommy’s gut, but Tommy slams his head against the concrete with a sickening crack.
I can’t look away. I just want it to stop.
My pulse thrums like the bass, hot and dizzying.
Finally, Lexi snaps, “Jesus, Tommy! He’s wasted!
Enough!”
Tommy stands, blood dripping from his knuckles.
He glares at her. “You’re part of the fucking problem, cunt.
Why don’t you tell her what really happened New Year’s Eve?
”
Lexi’s laugh is hollow as she glances around the crowd.
“Please. Like I remember anything from New Year’s Eve.
”
Tommy snarls at her. He drags Antonio up into a chokehold, pulls a knife from his pocket, and flicks it open with a snap that silences everyone.
“This is your one and only warning. If you fucking touch her, talk about her, or look at her wrong again, I will fucking gut you. Slowly.”
Rage boils in my veins.
Another fucking Tommy story to haunt me and get back to my father.
Tommy presses the knife tip into Antonio’s throat until blood beads.
Antonio croaks, “Yeah, I know you’re a fucking psychopath when you don’t get what you want.
”
A slow smile spreads across Tommy’s face as he spits blood on the concrete.
“The word you’re looking for is sociopath.
Treat my girl with respect, or you’ll find out what true disrespect feels like.
”
My girl. That’s it.
Flinging Tommy’s stuff on the ground, I grab Lexi’s empty cup, hurling it at him.
Ice smacks his skin and slides down his back.
“God DAMN it, Tommy!”
I storm off across the lawn, my heels slipping in the grass, rage and humiliation the only things keeping me warm.
It’s fucking freezing, and I hug myself tightly, wishing I had thought to keep Tommy’s coat as I storm toward Lexi’s house.
As if I manifested it, the jacket falls around my shoulders, and Tommy falls in step beside me.
I scowl at him but hug the jacket around me.
“Go away, Tommy.”
“You’re mad about the suit.
” His voice is low, creamy, repentant. If my bathing suit bottoms were not basically an icicle stuck to my ass, they would burst into flames.
My chest heaves. “You think I give a fuck about the suit?” I shove at his chest. It’s like shoving a wall.
“Seriously?”
He looks genuinely baffled.
“Then what—”
“That, Tommy,” I say, waving my arm back toward the pool.
“Everything you just did. What were you trying to accomplish with that?”
His eyes narrow.
“He put his hands on you, Giovanna. He’s lucky I didn’t kill him.
”
My laugh comes out harsh. “Congratulations. All you accomplished was giving those girls a week’s worth of gossip.
And for the record? Protecting me is not your job.
”
His jaw ticks. “You texted me. You said you were upset. So I came.”
“I didn’t ask you to fix it!
”
“Then why tell me?” He is legitimately confused, and it takes everything in me not to strangle him.
The cold hits harder now, and my breath steams in front of me.
I clutch his jacket tighter. “Just go, Tommy. Please.”
“Not without you.”
Incredulous, I whirl on him.
“Tommy, I don’t know how to say this to you nicely, but I’m not your girl.
I’m not your anything. We are not together.
”
He smiles, slow and soft, like I’m a toddler insisting the sky is green.
He leans close, his chest radiating heat into the frozen air.
“I have no interest in saying this to you nicely. Giovanna, you are mine. But you’re right: we’re not together.
Not yet. I’ll tell you when the time is right.
Now get your ass in my car before you freeze.
”
He clicks his key fob, and a blue Bugatti Divo lights up and turns on, its engines purring, the steam from the engine blowing pillowy puffs of white air.
“No fucking way.” I stumble faster toward Lexi’s house, heart pounding, heels slipping in the damp grass.
He catches me like it’s nothing, slinging me over his shoulder, laughing at me as I scream, pounding my fists into his back.
“Put me down! I am not going with you, Tommy! I do not consent!”
“Oh, you don’t?
” He stops short. “Then let me help you.”
He brings his hand down hard on my ass, a loud smack reverberating through the air.
The sound echoes across the lawn as my breath catches in a sharp gasp.
Another smack. And another. Over and over until my ass feels like it’s on fire.
I’m speechless, my pussy so wet, I can feel the heat echoing out to my thighs.
“How about now?” he murmurs with a chuckle.
“Feeling more acquiescent?”
“What?” I gasp, my voice high and shaky.
“Do you now consent?”
I suck in a ragged breath.
“Tommy, I’m not yours.”
“Really.” His voice is low, terrifying, and my heart starts pounding.
Before I can brace myself, he shoves my bikini bottom aside and slams two fingers inside me, rough and claiming.
I gasp and dig my nails into his back as I arch up.
“Tommy!”
“Your pussy get wet like that for anyone else? Tell me again that you’re not my girl, Giovanna.
” He pumps into me as he walks, steady and merciless.
“I’m not—I’m not—I’m not yours,” I gasp in short breaths as my pussy pulses around his fingers, squeezing him tightly.
Fuck, it burns, but it feels so fucking good.
“Tommy… Tommy…”
By the time he reaches the car, I’m clinging to him, practically chanting his name, my eyes rolling back in my head.
He pulls his fingers out abruptly, leaving me aching and empty.
I whimper, my thighs shaking.
“Yeah,” he says, opening the passenger door and sliding me inside like I weigh nothing.
“Not mine at all.”
I curl into the heated leather seat, shivering, dizzy from the fight, the cold, from him.
He slides into the driver’s seat and doesn’t look at me as he rips out of the driveway.
“Seatbelt, baby.”
I do as I’m told.
His bare chest is glistening with sweat even though it’s freezing fucking cold, and I remember how he looked at me when he was finger fucking me at the tailor’s, how he came with me when I was riding him in my closet.
How the only time I’ve ever seen his perfectly serene demeanor ruffled is when he’s touching me.
He wants to fuck with me? That’s a two-way street, asshole.