18. Santino #2
“They don’t, do they?” I watch our hands twist together and I bring her knuckles to my lips, kissing them.
“What was she like?” Jovie asks out of nowhere, surprising me.
“Who?”
“Your wife.”
My brows raise in surprise. “You want to know about her?”
She frowns. “Of course, I do. She’s the mother of your children. She was part of your life.” She cups my face, brushing her thumb across the edge of my jaw.
I lean into her touch, allowing myself to feel grounded and at peace. “I haven’t talked about her in a very long time.” I clear my throat when an unexpected emotion bubbles up.
“Why?” She tilts her head to the side, genuinely curious.
I stare at the wall, trying to think of a good reason or excuse, but there isn’t one that’s good enough.
“I don’t know. The job, mostly, I think.
No weakness can be allowed, or enemies will prey on it.
I couldn’t show weakness and my children couldn’t either.
We bottled up our pain, each of us losing ourselves in grief within the silence of ourselves.
I’m sure that’s why Luca is the way he is.
Omar, honestly, he is the best one to lead the family.
He has a level head. He knows how to work through his emotions and when to set them aside.
I stopped enjoying life. Until now. If you can’t tell.
” I wave my arm around my dull room. “We don’t have to talk about her, Jovie. It’s okay.”
“You never say her name, you know,” she whispers, her nails lightly scratching my arm.
“I don’t?” I frown.
“No, but it’s okay. You can talk to me about her, any time. It’s okay to miss her, Santino. She was a massive part of your soul. That doesn’t go away.”
“Maybe another time,” I say, not wanting to talk about my wife when Jovie is lying in my bed naked. “I only want to focus on us right now. Is that okay?”
“Of course it is.” She plants a kiss on my forehead. “Whenever you’re ready.” She tosses the blankets from her and gets out of bed. I’m left staring at her voluptuous body. “I’m going to go take a shower if you want to join me and then maybe we can go get breakfast?”
I toss the sheets to the side and get out of bed, not wanting to miss the water sliding down her delectable curves. I glance down at my cock, covered in dried come and blood. It pains me to wash my claim off, but now she’s all mine, and no one can take that away from me.
“Sounds like the perfect morning.” I grab her hand and tug her to the bathroom that’s attached.
I slide the doors open, revealing a huge vanity.
One side is mine, complete with my own sink, and the other side is made for a spouse.
It sits empty. There’s even a section for makeup or to do hair and it hits me that Jovie’s meant to take that section.
The realization hits me so hard, I lose my breath.
“Wow,” she awes, looking at every corner. From the high ceilings, to the marble floor, to the soaking tub and the shower that can fit five people in it. She runs over to the tub and squeals. “Oh my God, I can’t wait to soak in this.” She glances around and frowns, the excitement fleeing.
“What’s wrong?” I wrap my arms around her from the back, placing a kiss on the curve of her neck.
“You don’t use this, do you? You have no bubble bath or salts or oils.”
I chuckle, spinning her in my arms so I can look at her. “No, I don’t, but I’ll get you everything you need to enjoy that tub. I only take showers.”
She boops my nose.
No one ever boops my nose.
“Well, you’re with me now and that means, you’ll be taking a bath.”
“Is that so?” I back her into the shower stall, her back hitting the wall.
“Yep. We can even drink some wine, relax, the perfect way to end the day. Sounds nice, doesn’t it?”
“Only because it’s with you.” I turn the shower on, spraying us with warm water. “I’ll do anything with you, Jovie. Everything.”
It’s on the tip of my tongue to tell her I love her. I don’t want to scare her away and decide to swallow the words, and they burn on the way down. I move her under the spray, tilting her head back to get her hair wet, wanting to wash her myself.
She’s been taking care of herself long enough.
It’s time for someone else to do it. She deserves to be cherished and cared for.
I massage her scalp and she groans, her eyes closing as she enjoys the touch.
I squirt shampoo into my palm, shampoo that smells like men, so I’ll definitely need to add what she wants here.
Washing her hair, I do my best to keep the suds away from her eyes, then create a barrier over her forehead with one hand while the water rinses the shampoo away.
Grabbing the loofah, I squirt body wash on it, then drag it across her chest, washing away all the dried sweat and come from her body.
Devastating.
I wash her breasts, stomach, then kneel to do the same to her legs. She spins around and I move her hair to one shoulder, adorning her backside. When she spins around to face me again, I’m gentle when I reach between her legs to wash.
She hisses.
“Tender? Sore?”
“A little,” she replies.
“That’s normal, but we’ll need to take it easy for a few days, so you have time to heal.”
“A few days?” She pouts.
“Don’t do that. Don’t use that cute sad face on me. I’m too much of a pushover when it comes to you,” I joke, trying to remember the last time I felt this happy. “I won’t be able to resist if you keep it up.”
“Maybe I don’t want you to resist,” she replies.
I look up at her, slowly standing to my full height, towering over her, and she blinks her wet lashes at me.
Crowding her space, I raise my arm to rinse the loofah of the suds, drop it to the ground, and washing off the soap from her body. I brush my thumb over the finger bruises I left on her hips last night.
“Do these hurt? I didn’t realize how hard I grabbed you.”
She shakes her head, a soft smile tugging the corners of her lips. It’s hard to focus when she looks at me like that. I could get lost in her happiness, her eyes, her entire presence, and I’d never want to be found.
“Good. I don’t want to hurt you.” I trace every bruise. “Which is why we have to wait until you are so sore.” I cup her pussy, massaging my fingers through her lips.
She gasps, standing on her tiptoes from the sudden grip.
“Do you understand me?” Water rushes down my lips and my filthy girl opens her mouth, drinking every drop that falls onto her tongue.
I growl in contempt, doing my best to reel in my desire. In the next second, my hand is a necklace around her neck, pushing her against the wall.
“Don’t tempt me. No matter what you do, I will not cave, not matter how what you do or what you say or if you beg.
Your comfort is what matters to me and if me doing this—” I slip a finger inside her and she hisses once more in pain “—hurts you. Then, think about how you’ll feel if I take you three more times today. ”
“Three? You’re giving yourself a lot of credit for recovery time.”
I yank her to me by her throat and smother her in a kiss. “You and that fucking mouth.” I shove my fingers inside until she gags. “That’s what you’ll be doing later then, gagging and coughing until you can’t breathe.”
Her eyes glaze over, a silent plea that tells me that’s exactly what she wants.
“Now, focus. Let’s go downstairs and eat breakfast.”
“Can I go back to work?” Jovie bends down to grab the loofah.
“Maybe. Only if I can still get my flower deliveries.” I love teasing her.
“You do know that no matter what, I’ll be going back. That business is my entire life, and I won’t let it go down the drain because some big bad sexy man tells me not to.”
I wrap my arms around her, turning off the shower, and just stand there for a minute wrapped in the warm steam. “You think I’m sexy, huh?”
She rolls her eyes, slapping my chest playfully. “You skipped over big and bad and latched onto that word instead?”
I nip her jaw, chuckling. “I mean, I am big and I have heard from authorities that I am a bad, dangerous man.”
Her smile is gone in the next blink, the mood ruined. “But you aren’t,” she says, her voice broken with emotion. “You’re a good man.”
I snag a towel off the warmer and wrap her in it, kissing the tip of her nose.
“I am a bad, dangerous man. You should know the truth about that before this goes any further.” I hold my breath waiting for her answer.
I never cared what anyone thought of me before Jovie.
I kill if I have to. I torture if I have to.
I set traps if I have to. I spend money to make money.
I control and threaten every politician under me.
I control the police force. Lawyers are in my pockets.
I’m an untouchable, powerful man who isn’t afraid to spill blood, but I’d never spill hers.
Jovie is the safest place she can be. Right here with me.
Under my protection. It won’t be long until my enemies know about her.
She’ll have security detail everywhere she goes.
It’s another reason why her flower shop makes me nervous.
It doesn’t have the security system it needs, but she wants to work, and I respect that.
I only ever want to do what she wants.
“You’re a good man to me,” she says, handing me a towel from the warmer as well.
I wrap it around my waist and step out of the shower, giving her another peck on the lips. I can’t help it. I’m addicted to how her kiss feels against mine.
“I’m only a good man to you. Everyone else could die and I wouldn’t care, you need to know that about me, Jovie. I’m not a nice person. I’m not a good person. With you, I will always give you the best of me and even then, the best of me is bad.”
“Coming from someone who has seen the best of you, nothing about you is bad.”
“Not when it comes to you. You’ll never breathe in the worst of me. Ever.”