Chapter 12
RAFAEL
As I drive to Ava’s apartment, I try to take my advice. Forget about everything else. Focus on tonight, the date, the miracle of being able to take my son and his mother someplace and just… be together.
But it’s difficult. Nico is still in the wind, and though the rest of my men aren’t showing any signs of disloyalty, I’ve still got that niggle in the back of my head. If Nico, my most trusted man, could betray me, what are the others capable of?
I park outside her apartment, taking a moment to compose myself. Tonight isn’t about any of that. The Hungarians and my disloyal man and the whole damn mob can go to hell tonight for all I care.
I leave the car and press her apartment buzzer. “Hey,” she murmurs. “I’ll buzz you up.”
I take the stairs, full of restless energy. Earlier, I thought she was going to cancel the date. I could hear her indecision over the phone. We’re on shaky ground here. I know there’s a real chance she and her parents might decide it’s better not to have me in their lives.
And then what? I can’t abandon my son. The idea of giving Ava up makes me sick.
She answers the door wearing a form-hugging dark blue dress, black tights, with subtle makeup on her face that highlights her natural beauty rather than obliterates it. My breath catches as I step forward and sweep her into my arms.
Our kiss is explosive, pure passion. She grabs the front of my shirt and pulls herself closer, up on her tiptoes as my hands glide over her back and press her tighter to me.
My dick throbs when she gasps and whimpers, conflicted, like part of her wants to sink deeper into the lust and part of her knows she shouldn’t.
It takes everything I have, but I take a step back.
She tilts her head at me, eyes glimmering. “Look at you, being all mature…”
“It’s not easy,” I groan, voice shaking. “Shall we get going?”
She looks at me, then rolls her eyes, a smile tugging at her lips.
I grin. She reads me easily, knowing I’m struggling to hold myself back without either of us needing to explicitly address it. This is what it was like that night, too. Wordless communication, eye contact that said more than words ever could.
“Sure,” she murmurs. “I assume Theo is still welcome?”
I grab her hip and indulgently squeeze. “Our son is always welcome, angel.”
She makes that breathy noise that thunders through me, biting her lip, before moving away as if she doesn’t trust herself to stay too close.
“I’ll go get him,” she murmurs.
“Let me help you.”
“He’s not that heavy…”
I nudge her playfully, distantly noting that my men and half of my town wouldn’t believe this sight if they saw me now. Rafael Bellini, famous for breaking bones when needed, for walking a so-called moral line but still letting out the beast when events call for it…
Smitten, playful, affectionate.
“I mean his things,” I tell her. “His bottles. His basket.”
“Bassinet,” she murmurs. “But close enough. And yeah, sure, I could use some help.”
The small smile she offers feels like a prize.
“Oh, wow,” she murmurs when I pull up outside the aquarium.
The parking lot is empty apart from two cars, which belong to the staff I’ve hired to cook dinner later. Red roses lead in a carpet-like trail from the parking space to the front door. I climb out and walk around to Ava’s side. She’s already half out of the car when I get there.
“I was trying to be a gentleman,” I tell her. “But you’re too independent for me.”
“Oh.” She laughs gently, then gets into the car and closes the door, looking at me with a challenge in her eyes.
I chuckle, open the door, and offer her my hand. She climbs out, then I open the back seat and reach in for Theo. He makes the cutest cooing noise as I cradle him to my chest.
“I’ve got his carrier,” Ava murmurs, looking at me with that tight, needy hunger she can’t hide when she sees me go full Dad mode.
“I want to hold him a while,” I murmur. “If that’s okay?”
She smiles almost sadly, reaches forward, strokes her hand across Theo's head, then gently touches my cheek. “It must feel strange, asking permission. I bet you’re not used to it.”
“I’m not,” I admit. “But I’ve never had a kid before. I’m determined to do this right.”
She takes a step back like my words have shocked her, nodding. I can see the conflict in her eyes, always there, a never-ending battle. But I can tell she likes this… us three being together.
Cradling Theo with one arm, I offer Ava my other. “Shall we?”
“What about…” She gestures at the car.
“My people will bring everything we need.”
She takes my arm, and together, we walk down the red-rose-petal path.
Inside, we’re met with a wall of glass, glowing a deep blue color. Rays glide across the water like silk sheets, big fish drifting between them, orange and green and red. Ava lets go of my arm and walks up to the glass, gazing at it.
“I’ve never seen it like this before,” she murmurs. “All lit up. No one else around.”
I stroke my hand over our son’s head as I watch his mother, the passion in her eyes, her hand trembling slightly as she raises it to the glass.
“This was your escape,” I murmur, remembering what she said that night.
“You didn’t have a tough childhood – at least, not as tough as some – but you found it difficult to make friends and didn’t feel you fit in.
But here, you felt like you belonged. Like these fish were pieces of art put here to inspire you. ”
She looks at me over her shoulder, cheeks flushed through her makeup, eyes glimmering. “It’s like you’re reading my mind.”
“I remember everything about that night,” I tell her truthfully. “Word for word.”
I walk forward, sliding my hand over the small of her back. “Your favorite is next.”
She glows, looking so devastatingly beautiful, I can’t believe there was ever a reality where I was content to be alone. “The jellyfish.”
We walk into the next section. The tanks lit up with fluorescent purples and icy blues, and the jellyfish pulsing across the tank. Theo gargles and raises his hand. I approach softly, letting him touch the glass, and Ava turns to us as if she might cry.
“These always made you think of abstract art,” I say. “They reminded you that art could be anything… everything. I wonder if he’s thinking the same. Perhaps he’s got a little artist’s spirit in him too.”
“Maybe,” she says. “Or maybe he inherited more of you than me.”
I grit my teeth and tilt my head at her.
She gives me a sassy head-tilt right back, as if to say, Go on, tell me to be quiet, to stop ruining this.
“I’ll support our son in whatever he chooses,” I tell her.
She smiles, then forces her lips flat. “If that’s true, that’s beautiful.”
“There’s no if about it.”
She pouts at me. For a terrifying second, it’s like I’m seeing my mother. It all comes back to me in an ugly rush. Her fate. My father’s betrayal. The fact that this life, no matter how hard we try, is never fully safe.
I push it all down.
“Doesn’t the mob have rules for this sort of thing? Aren’t you going to make him your… your successor or whatever?”
“There are no rules,” I say, holding her gaze. “Except the ones I choose. And I choose to support my son in whatever he wants to do, not what tradition or anything else dictates.”
She steps forward, leans over Theo, and finds my lips. I kiss her softly at first, then hard when I feel her breathing picking up. I have to stop after a couple of seconds because Theo is in my arms and I’m going to lose it.
We keep going, walking through the shark tunnel, Ava walking ahead with wonder on her face as she gazes around. Her wonder blooms even more beautifully when we stroll through the sea turtle habitat.
Soon we’re in the central room, a dome of glass surrounding us, tropical fish gliding in every direction. I carry Theo to the corner of the room, to his bassinet, and gently lay him down. Ava joins me, showing me how to tuck him in.
After she turns, looking at the table in the center of the room, rose petals are scattered everywhere, a bottle of champagne sitting in a bucket of ice.
“I didn’t know there was a restaurant here,” she says.
I walk up behind her, wrap my arms around her body, feeling her respond as hungrily as me. My length settles against the perfect thickness of her ass, her curves molding to my body as though they were made for me.
“They don’t,” I whisper in her ear. “I hired out the restaurant down the street for the night.”
She leans back against me. I lower my head, pressing my cheek to hers, feeling her smile take shape against my face. “You’re doing good, Rafe, can’t lie about that.”
“I just want to give you everything you deserve,” I tell her passionately. “This is just the beginning…”
She turns in my arms, hands wrapped around the back of my neck, looking up at me with a hint of danger in her eyes. “This is just about tonight, remember?”
“Hmm,” I murmur, not sure I can commit to it.
“That was the deal,” she says. “But… thank you, Rafe, for making tonight special.”
She stands on her tiptoes, kissing me. I groan through the press of our mouths, gliding my hands over her body, every curve making me ache and pulse. I try to kiss her like a civilized man, but she moans and trembles against me, and I’m lost.
My hands move to her ass, massaging her voluptuousness as she writhes against me, like she’s seeking desperate friction through our clothes. My dick engorges, aches, roars at me to forget dinner and civility and take her right here.
I almost do it too. Almost tear off her dress, lift her off her feet, fuck her standing like a goddamn savage.
Then Theo makes a cooing noise from behind us, and I’m able to use the brief moment to take a step back.
She stares at me, chest rising and falling rapidly. We can’t stop eye-fucking each other.
I walk to the table and pull out her seat.
“Such a gentleman,” she says sarcastically.