9. Liana
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Liana
“He’s trying, Gina, I can see that he’s trying, but I don’t know if trying is enough anymore.”
I pressed the phone closer to my ear and walked to the window, looking out at the harbor lights scattered across the dark water below. The house was quiet, Bianca asleep down the hall, and I had been pacing for the last hour waiting for Dominic to come home from wherever he was tonight.
“Trying how exactly?” My sister’s voice carried a skepticism that she always had when it came to my husband. “Because last time we talked you were crying about how he let that woman override your work and didn’t even bother to tell you about it.”
“I know what I said, and I meant every word of it at the time.” I rubbed my forehead with my free hand and sank onto the window seat. “But then he took us out on the boat, all three of us together like we used to do before everything got so complicated.”
“One boat trip doesn’t erase months of making you feel like furniture in your own house.”
“He braided Bianca’s hair when the wind made it wild.” I smiled despite myself at the memory. “He sat her down on the deck and braided it with his own hands, and then he did the same thing for me.”
“Dominic Costa braiding hair.” Gina laughed. “That’s something I would pay money to see with my own eyes.”
“I want to believe him more than I’ve ever wanted anything. But every time I start to let my guard down, I remember waking up alone for weeks on end.”
“Liana. You’ve been with this man for ten years. You know who he is better than anyone.”
“I used to know who he was without any doubt at all.” I leaned my head against the cool glass of the window. “Now I look at him and I see a stranger.”
“Have you told him that?”
“I’ve told him I’m tired of feeling invisible.”
“And what did he say when you told him all of that?”
“He said all the right things. Obviously.”
“Words are easy for men like Dominic Costa to say.”
“That’s exactly the problem.”
“Maybe you should stop listening to his words and start watching his actions.”
“His actions are confusing as hell, Gina.” I ran my hand through my hair in frustration. “One day he’s distant and dismissive and treating me like an employee who overstepped. The next day he’s carrying me to bed and telling me he can’t live without me.”
“What does your gut tell you to do about all of this?”
“My gut tells me I love him, but I’m terrified that one morning I’m going to wake up and realize I’ve wasted my whole life waiting for a man who was never going to show up for me.”
“You haven’t wasted your life, Liana.”
“Haven’t I?” I turned away from the window. “I gave up everything for him. My independence, my career plans, my whole identity outside of being his wife and Bianca’s mother. And now I’m standing here wondering if any of it was worth it.”
“I think you need to stop waiting for him to become the man you want him to be and decide if you can live with the man he actually is,” she said.
I was about to respond when I heard the bedroom door open behind me.
I turned and there was Dominic, standing in the doorway with his jacket over his arm and his tie loosened.
I didn’t know how long he’d been standing there. Or how much of my conversation he’d heard.
“I’ll call you back, Gina, I need to go.” I ended the call without waiting for her response.
He walked into the room slowly, dropping his jacket on the chair by the door, his eyes never leaving mine.
“Are you bitching about me to your sister now?” His voice was light but I could hear the edge underneath it. “Because from what I caught, it sounded like you were telling her what a terrible husband I am.”
“Eavesdropping on private conversations is incredibly rude, even for you.”
“So is talking about your husband behind his back.” He stopped in front of me, close enough that I had to tilt my head up to meet his eyes. “If you have problems with me, you should be telling me directly.”
“I have told you directly, multiple times, and nothing changes.” I crossed my arms over my chest. “At least Gina actually listens when I talk to her.”
“I listen to you.”
“You hear me talking, Dominic, that’s not the same thing as listening.”
His hands found my waist, pulling me closer.
“What else did you tell her about me?” His thumbs traced circles on my hips through the thin fabric of my shirt.
I put my hands on his chest, not sure if I was pushing him away or holding on for dear life. “That I might be losing you.”
He pulled me flush against his body, his hands spreading warm across my lower back. “You couldn’t lose me if you tried. I’m yours until they put me in the ground.”
His mouth brushed against my temple as he spoke.
His hand came up to cup my face, his thumb tracing along my cheekbone.
“Let me show you that I can be the husband you deserve.” He dipped his head, his mouth hovering near my ear.
“I’m here right now. I came home to you.
I’m standing in front of you trying to make this right. ”
“You’re trying to charm your way out of trouble.”
“Is it working?”
“No.” But my voice came out breathy.
“Liar.” He smiled against my neck. “Your heart is racing. I can feel it. So what’s the problem?”
He kissed down my neck.
I grabbed his hair and pulled his head back so I could look at him. “The problem is you. No matter what you do, I will want you.”
He gripped the hem of my shirt and started pulling it up slowly.
“Dominic, I’m still angry with you.”
He pulled the shirt over my head and dropped it on the floor. “Stay angry. I like you angry.”
“That doesn’t make any sense.”
“It makes perfect sense.” He reached around and unhooked my bra with practiced fingers, letting it fall away. “When you’re angry, you tell me exactly what you want. You stop holding back.”
“I’m not holding back right now.”
“Yes you are.” He cupped my breasts in his hands, his thumbs brushing over my nipples until they hardened under his touch. “You’re trying to decide if you want me or not.”
He bent his head and took my nipple into his mouth, sucking gently, and I gasped and grabbed his shoulders to stay upright.
He lifted me suddenly, his hands under my thighs, and I wrapped my legs around his waist instinctively. He carried me to the bed and laid me down on the sheets, standing over me with his shirt still on.
“You’re so fucking beautiful.” He unbuttoned his shirt slowly. “I don’t tell you that enough.”
“You don’t tell me anything enough.”
He dropped his shirt on the floor and reached for his belt. “Tonight I’m going to tell you everything. Using my mouth, my hands and my body.”
He stripped off the rest of his clothes and climbed onto the bed, covering my body with his.
“I’m going to worship you tonight.” He kissed my throat, my collarbone, the hollow between my breasts.
He hooked his fingers in my underwear and pulled them down my legs slowly. “Every time I look at you, I see the girl I married.”
He settled between my thighs and pressed a kiss to my hip bone.
“Dominic.”
“Let me make it up to you.” He kissed my inner thigh, his breath hot against my skin. “Let me show you how sorry I am.”
He didn’t go for my center right away. Instead, he kissed along my thighs, first one and then the other. His hands stroked up and down my legs. He was taking his time, savoring me, making me wait.
“Stop teasing me.”
“I’m appreciating you.” He pressed his tongue flat against my inner thigh and licked a long slow stripe upward, stopping just before he reached where I needed him most.
“It feels like teasing from where I’m lying.”
“Then you’re not paying attention.” He did the same thing on the other side, his tongue hot against my skin. I squirmed beneath him.
“Dominic, please.”
“Please what?” He looked up at me, his chin resting on my mound, his eyes dark with arousal. “Tell me what you want.”
“You know what I want.”
“I want to hear you say it.” He blew a soft breath over my folds and I shivered. “I want to hear the words come out of your mouth.”
“I want your mouth on me.” My face flushed with the admission. “Please, touch me.”
“Touch you where?” He pressed a single finger against my entrance, not pushing in, just resting there. “Here?”
“Yes, there, fuck.”
He laughed against my skin, and then he finally gave me what I wanted.
He pushed two fingers inside me slowly, curling them forward, finding that spot that made my hips buck off the bed. At the same time, his thumb found my clit and started rubbing in slow circles, not enough pressure, deliberately not enough.
“You’re so wet already.” He pumped his fingers slowly, in and out, his thumb still circling. “Is this all for me?”
“Who else would it be for?”
His voice went hard. “It better be for no one else, ever, for the rest of your life.”
“Possessive bastard.”
“You love it.” He added a third finger and I gasped at the stretch. “You love knowing that I would burn down the whole world for you.”
I grabbed his wrist, holding him inside me. He curled his fingers and rubbed my clit harder and my vision went white at the edges.
“You’re everything to me. My first thought in the morning. My last thought at night. The reason I do any of this.”
He worked me with his fingers, knowing exactly how to touch me after ten years of learning my body.
“Don’t stop.” I grabbed his hair with my free hand. “Please don’t stop.”
He kept the same rhythm, building me higher and higher. “I want to feel you come on my fingers. I want to feel you squeeze me so tight I can barely move.”
“Dominic, I’m close.”
He pressed harder, moved faster. “I can feel it. Your walls are fluttering around my fingers. You’re right there, baby. Let go.”
I shattered with a cry, my back arching off the bed, my walls clenching around his fingers in rhythmic pulses.
Before I could catch my breath, he was pulling his fingers out and climbing up my body, settling his hips between my thighs.
I felt the head of his cock nudge against my entrance, felt the cool metal of his piercing press against my swollen flesh.
“I need to be inside you.” His voice was rough, desperate.
“Then what are you waiting for?”
He pushed inside me in one stroke, and I felt every inch of him stretching me open, filling me completely. The piercing dragged against my walls and I moaned, grabbing his shoulders, pulling him deeper.
“God, you feel incredible.” He bottomed out and held still, his forehead pressed to mine. “So hot and tight and perfect.”
“Move.” I wrapped my legs around his waist. “I need you to move.”
He started slow, pulling almost all the way out and then sinking back in with torturous control. Long, deep strokes that hit places inside me that made me see stars.
“Harder.” I dug my nails into his back. “I need you to fuck me harder.”
“I’m savoring you.”
“I don’t want to be savored right now.” I bit his shoulder hard enough to leave a mark. “I want to be fucked.”
He growled against my neck and snapped his hips forward, driving into me hard enough to make the headboard slam against the wall.
“You want hard?” He pulled back and slammed in again. “You want rough?”
“Yes.” I was panting now, my nails raking down his back. “Yes, give it to me, stop holding back.”
He grabbed my thighs and pushed them up toward my chest, changing the angle, going deeper. The new position made every thrust hit my g-spot dead on, and I screamed, actually screamed, not caring who heard.
“That’s it.” He fucked me harder, faster, the wet slap of skin on skin filling the room. “Let them hear you. Let the whole house know who you belong to.”
“Dominic, fuck, I’m going to come again.”
“Already?” He shifted his weight to one arm and reached between us, finding my clit. “I barely started.”
“I don’t care.” I was shaking, every nerve ending on fire. “I need to come, please let me come.”
“Since you asked so nicely.” He rubbed my clit in fast circles, his hips never slowing. “Come for me, Liana. Come on my cock.”
I broke apart with his name on my lips, my whole body convulsing, my walls gripping him so tight he groaned. He fucked me through it, drawing out my pleasure until I was sobbing and writhing beneath him.
“Your turn.” I grabbed his ass and pulled him deeper. “I want to feel you come inside me.”
“Fuck.” His rhythm stuttered. “Say that again.”
“Come inside me.” I clenched around him deliberately. “Fill me up. Make me feel you for days.”
He slammed into me one last time and froze, his cock pulsing inside me as he came with a broken groan.
I felt the warmth of him spilling into me, felt his whole body shudder, felt the weight of him collapse on top of me as his strength gave out.