“I know you don’t mean to, but it hurts. I thought you loved the woman that I was?”
“Love her?” Giovanni smiled. “Love isn’t a big enough word to explain how I feel for her. For you. Of course I love her. I worship her.”
“Yeah right,” she turned to stand. He stopped her.
“Look at me,” he said.
She looked into his eyes. “I chose her. I fell in love with her. I’ll burn my life to the ground before I ever let her go.”
“But I’ve changed. Right? You prefer the new and improved me. Right? That’s what you said.”
“It’s not a fair question,” he said.
“It’s an honest one. A simple one. You do see us differently. That woman you saw laughing and drinking was the one you met in Napoli, and then again in Milano, Bellagio. The one you convinced to come to Sorrento. She was not the one you found in Switzerland. The mother of a toddler who had witnessed the death of her best friend. The woman you found and brought back was different, afraid, guilt ridden, she wasn’t half as confident as I am now. I feared her return too, Giovanni. Doubted I could be her again. And then tonight I finally understood, I am her.”
“I’d kill for either of them. That’s my point,” she said. “I understand, Bella. I do. You are stronger, but you aren’t that different. The world is different. I can’t protect you from everything I fear. When you slip away from me, we are vulnerable. That’s my biggest worry,” he said.
She leaned in and kissed his lips. She wiped her lipstick from his lips and chuckled. “Remember how it felt the first time we kissed, made love?” she asked.
A sly smile lifted the right corner of his mouth. “I remember how soft I thought you were.”
“Soft?” she laughed.
“Your skin. Soft.”
“Ah, I remember. In your room, when you went up under my dress. You were very naughty to molest me, and we’d just met.”
“Mmm, yes,” he groaned deep in his throat. “The first time my hand went up under your dress and I felt your thighs.” He ran his hand along her thigh, and the split to her dress parted. The fabric concealing her thigh dropped off to reveal and expose her leg all the way to the hip. He nuzzled her breasts. He rubbed and caressed her thigh, first the curve of it, and then he brought it over to ease between. They parted when he caressed his hand an inch closer to her sex. “Yes, soft. And your pussy, all I could think of was how soft you would feel if I were inside of you,” he kissed her neck.
Mirabella shivered and swallowed her smile. Desire tickled her intimately. She closed her eyes and tried not be distracted by the feel of his lips, the caress of his hand.
“I’ve never been attracted to a man who didn’t know how to pursue what he wanted. But you, Gio? You always take it to another level,” Mirabella admitted. “When your hand went under my skirt I couldn’t believe you knew I’d like it.”
“Ah! Shy, yes that’s what you pretended to be,” he kissed the side of her mouth.
“I was not pretending!” she protested.
He looked at her. She cut her gaze over to him. “Well maybe a little bit.”
He chuckled. “I’m glad. I wanted the chase. I like arguing,” he nipped her earlobe.
“You do?” she asked.
“I like it when I get my way. I always get my way, Bella.” He now had her thighs parted enough for him to rub three fingers over her sex. She sighed again. It came out as a soft moan. She put her hand between her thighs and covered his. Her fingers stroked his knuckles. His fingers parted the thin fabric of her thong. He eased two fingers into her and she gasped.
“I just want you to be proud of me, baby,” she said moving against his hand.
“I am, always, Bella. Very proud,” he said watching her intensely. She rode his hand. She pumped her hips and worked her pelvis. It wasn’t his cock, but it felt delicious. Mirabella bit down on her bottom lip as her back bowed and her breasts heaved.
“You like that?” he asked.
“Yeah, oh yeah,” she said.
“Tell me, Bella, what did you like about me? The money?”
“No!” she gasped and dropped her head back. He kept fucking her with his two fingers.
“The power?” he asked.
“NO!” she cried out now squirming and rubbing her pussy up on his hand as he slipped knuckle deep.
“My temper?” he asked.
“A little,” she chuckled.
“What was it, Bella?”
“Oh, ooooh,” she breathed when his thumb began to circle her clit as he fucked her with his hand. “Yes, Gio. Like that.”
“Tell me what it was you liked about me? In the beginning?”
She glanced over at him. Confused he would make her use her brain when her pussy was singing for him thanks to his hand. “Your… your… eyes. I love your eyes. It’s why my babies have your eyes. Beautiful… love…it’s your eyes,” she gasped and shuddered. She slammed her knees shut and climaxed for him.
“I remember everything.” He licked her nipple through her dress as she melted into bliss. “When Nico brought you to me in Lorenzo’s club, and you rejected me. I loved it. I wanted that woman.”
“You did?” she panted.
“Yes. I wanted to fuck her, make her shut up, be mine.”
Mirabella laughed out loud and hit him playfully. He bit her cheek softly.
“What else?” she asked.
He pulled his fingers out of her and she groaned.
“And then I just wanted her to love me.” He paused. She looked again into his gemstone eyes. “I wanted to be loved by her.”
“Why?” she asked.
“I didn’t know why then. I think I finally understood when I learned about your father and mother. When I discovered what my father did to keep them apart.”
“What did you discover?” she asked. Loving to hear him talk like this to her.
“Destino,”
he kissed her cheek.
“Il mio destino.”
“We are destiny, to have found each other across an ocean of lies and deception. That is fate, sweetheart, and true love,” she smiled.
“Do you?” he asked.
“Do I what?” she asked.
“Do you still love me, after everything I’ve done? Knowing everything I am capable of doing?”
“More and more each day.” She took his face in her hands and brought it down to kiss his brow. “So much it scares me. You worry about me, Gio, what about my worries? Some nights when you’re off working and gone from me, I can’t sleep from worrying. Sometimes our life can be quite scary. Every day I pray for your soul, mine, our family, our future. If I ever lost you it would kill me.”
He pulled her dress down her shoulder and her breasts were uncovered. This was not easily done because she had taped her breasts to the fabric to keep them from spilling out of the dress.
Mirabella stopped him as he tried to remove her pasties. “You trust me right? You know, I can live in two worlds without becoming some uptight bitch who will plot to steal your children.”
He laughed. “Yes, Bella, I know this. I am…” He said. “It threw me tonight. You drinking, celebrating without me.”
“You were jealous—”
“
Mannagia!
I am not jealous!” he protested. He dropped back on the bed in defeat.
“Ammazza!”
“I’m killing you?” she chuckled. “Is that what you said? How?”
“I’m ready to make up,” he sighed. “Enough with the talking.”
“You said you liked it when we talked.”
“Yes. But aren’t we finish?” he asked.
“Not until we agree,” she said.
He ignored her. His arm was thrown over his eyes. Mirabella refused to give up. She turned and straddled his waist. He lay still on his back. She put her hands flat to his chest and she could feel how fast his heart beat. “Donna Mirabella Battaglia, they know who I am, Gio. They respect who I am.”
“And who are you now?” he asked. He removed his arm from his eyes.
“A wife, a mother, a sister, a fashion designer. A woman who isn’t afraid of life, even though she knows it can get scary. She welcomes the future, her future, inside or outside of this family. I’m not my mother. And you aren’t Tomosino. We are Mira and Gio.”
He smiled. “You’re right. I don’t want to be a bastard. It’s never you, Bella. It’s me. I hold on too tight. I get… confused.”
“Jealous,” she corrected him.
“Confused!” he insisted. She smiled and nodded that they could substitute the word. “
Perdonami
.”
Long ago she used to tell Fabiana that the reason her red-haired friend failed so miserably in love was because she liked her men broken. Love shouldn’t be hard or complicated. Love should be the easiest, most fulfilling experience in life. Was it Fabiana she was speaking about or herself? Every man she’d ever loved has been complicated and stubborn. Yes it was hard, but moments like the one they shared now when he lowered all defenses and gave himself to her, were the most fulfilling. Nobody saw her Giovanni the way she did. She feared for his life, for him period. The only power she had was her love for him.
“Ti perdono.”
She lowered the back zipper to her dress and pulled down the sleeves the rest of the way. She peeled off the pasties stuck on her nipples. The dress was left gathered at her waist. She leaned in until her nipples brushed over the silk threads of his shirt, and smoothed her hands down to his sides. A deep moan slipped up from his throat. She felt his erection beneath her, and that too excited her. She kissed his chin and then his neck as she started to undo the buttons to his shirt. “You like that, sweetheart? Can you now please fuck your donna?” she whispered.
“Sí,”
he answered. And made to rise to undress.
“No,” she said and pushed him down. “Is this the suit I tailored for you?”
“One of them, yes,” he smiled. “You set it out for me to wear, remember.”
“Yes. It’s one of my favorites. Keep it on.” He arched a brow to her request. She ran her hand over the fine threads. “You look like my Don in this suit. I want to fuck the Don,” she teased. Their lips met. His tongue slipped inside. Within his kiss she tasted his strength, his weakness, and his apology. It tasted like sincerity and acceptance. Sweet.
Giovanni loosened the tie to the side of the evening gown she’d worn. She wore these dresses for him. Each came from an exclusive collection of formal evening and casual wear that allowed a woman to wrap her curves by day, to be unwrapped by her lover at night. She called the line of dresses
Bella Donna
, inspired by her husband. The dress was cast away and she was exposed in nothing but her black lace garter belt, stockings and designer heels.
“I love my wife.” His large hand gripped her hip and flipped her beneath him. “You pray, Bella?”
“Often,” she said.
“Pray that I can control myself,” his gaze lifted to latch to hers.
“I don’t need to. You never have to control yourself with me,” she teased.
Giovanni eased her nipple in between his lips, and the suction of his mouth sent another spasm of heat through his groin, making his dick bulk behind his zipper. He released her from the kiss and went down between her parted legs. When her inner thighs pressed against both sides of his face he remembered again how soft she felt. He kissed her there too. Not a lot of tongue, only his lips. A sweet soft kiss to her core. The first of many apologies he intended to make to her tonight.
She bit her bottom lip against the moan trapped in her throat.
Oh merciful God,
her heart cried out.
“Don’t tease me if you have no plans to please me,” she giggled. The wine continued to fuel her desire and her anger. Or was it now just pure happiness diluting the blood in her veins? She laughed and arched her back. She gave him a show with her raised arms above her head, and the sultry roll of her hips. Giovanni released himself from the confinement of his zipper. He remained fully clothed, his shirt only loosened by a few top buttons. She however was stripped down to her garter belt and stockings. After a single thrust his dick breeched tight heat, and she could feel her passion curl and tighten like an iron vice around her pelvis. His thick cock spread her channel. He thrust into her with measured force until his reach was balls deep. It was too much and not enough at the same time. Mirabella crossed her legs and locked her ankles to trap him between, willing to endure.
“Mmmm, Gio. Yes!”
Distressed she clung to him, wanting him to fuck her harder and faster. Without realizing it, she was shouting out her desire between thrusts. The wine made her forgetful. The walls were thin in their temporary residence, and her children were not far away.
She tried to quiet herself and could not. A thick thumb pressed against her other hole. Mirabella’s breath seized when it pushed down inside of her. His thumb pumped in and out of her forbidden zone in time with his thrusting dick. He kept her pinned beneath him, driving them both to climax. Giovanni kissed her face, rubbed his jaw against her soft face, and fucked her slow and then harder and faster. His body went rigid and stiff, but his dick kept tunneling. Mirabella wept from the relief as they both collapsed under the weight of a renewed climax.
“Yes, baby! Yes!” she cried out.