Giovanni (19 page)

“Your point?” Kim asked, cocking a brow.

That right there was Gio’s point.

“You just proved it. Someone else would have moved on, knowing I wouldn’t budge. You don’t. You argue with me, make me explain myself. It doesn’t matter if I don’t want to or not. You get me to talk. It’s great.”

Kim laughed. “Great?”

Gio kneeled to the edge of the bed, reaching out to grab Kim’s wrist and tug her up on her knees. The shirt she wore rode up over the curves of her hips and ass. Needing to feel more of her against his palms, Gio let go of her wrists to skim his hands under the shirt. Sweet heat danced to his skin. Gio pulled her closer until they were inches apart.

“For me, you’re perfect.”

Kim shivered when the tips of his fingers grazed along the swells of her breasts. “
Dammi un bacio,
Gio
.
”

The Italian coming from her mouth was a surprise to Gio. And a huge fucking turn on. He was aware she was well-versed, but he rarely heard her speak it. A kiss, that’s what she asked him for. So simple, yet it rendered him silent.

“Gio?”

“Is a kiss all you want from me, Kim?”

“No,” she whispered. “I want it all.”

“But you’re scared I can’t give you us.”

“Doesn’t mean I don’t want it, Gio.”

Gio kissed her feather light, then deeper as Kim’s lips parted to grant him access to her sweet mouth. Her teeth nipped gently at his bottom lip, sending a direct shot of lust straight down to his cock. Kim’s fingers skipped up his arms and over his shoulders to the back of his neck, tangling into the hair at his nape.

“You should speak Italian more often,” Gio told Kim, letting his thumbs flick over the hard peaks of her nipples. He loved feeling the goosebumps bloom over her flesh under his motions. “To me, though. Only me when you’re speaking like that.”

A single fingernail dragged down the back of his neck, slipping below his shirt. “Oh?”

“
Mmhmm
.”

“I can do that.
Spogliati,
Giovanni.”

The words curled around her tongue in the most erotic way.
Get undressed
, she told him. Gio groaned a thick sound that originated somewhere in the back of his throat. “Jesus, yeah, only to me like that.”

“Hurry,” Kim ordered playfully.

Kim helped Gio along by pulling his shirt up over his head. He fumbled with the button and zipper of his jeans as her lips came crashing down on his all over again. It was a demanding press of her mouth and a claiming sweep of her tongue to the seam of his lips pushing Gio to move a little faster. Denim was kicked to the floor and the soft pads of her fingers were tugging at his boxer-briefs, pushing them down over his hips as well.

When they hit the floor, Gio was back on the bed with his knees to the mattress, bunching the shirt Kim wore in his fist. Roughly, he pulled the fabric up, the hard ridge of his cock falling to her stomach between their bodies. The friction of her moving against the sensitive flesh of his shaft drove Gio insane.

Flames of desire licked at his nerve endings. Kim fanned those flames, her hand coming between them to circle his cock in a tight fist and pump his member. She didn’t loosen up her grip until air was cutting through his teeth, following a harsh moan of her name.

“Want this off,” Gio ground out, pulling at the shirt still on Kim’s body. “It needs to fucking go now.”

She let him take the offending article off her, giving him access to her breasts. Fuck, he loved Kim’s tits. The perky mounds fit just right into the palms of his hands, and she quivered every time his fingers tweaked at the rose colored buds of her nipples. Bending down, his teeth bit into the side of her right breast hard enough to let her feel a sting.

It was also enough to leave perfect imprints of his teeth on her body.
One mark
, Gio thought. He was going to leave a dozen more that only he could see by the time they were done. She was his, and he wanted her to know it.

“Who do you want, Kim?” Gio asked, kissing a path up to her collarbone. “Tell me again.”

Her voice was muted thick with desire, but he still heard her. “You.”

“Only me.”

“Only you,” she echoed.

At her breast, Gio caught the peak of her nipple between his teeth, laying his tongue flat to the bud to taste. Every inch gave off a different flavor. Sweet. Tart. Musky. The distinct essence of Kim mixed across his palate.

“Love the way you feel under my hands,” Gio said, driving his palms down the contour of her stomach. “Soft, smooth, and so fucking hot for me.”

Kim whined, vibrating under his touch. The closer he came to her pussy, the more intense her gaze became. Her pleading was on the tip of her tongue. He could see it in the way she watched him explore her body and feel it in the cant of her hips grinding into his bare erection.

“What do you need,
Tesoro
?”

“Touch me,” Kim begged. “God, just touch me,
please
.”

“I am.”

“
Gio
, please.”

“Use words,” Gio demanded. “Or I promise I’ll stop.”

“No, don’t stop,” Kim gasped as the pads of his fingers stroked above the hood of her clit. Her hand was back to his shaft, stroking him tightly while her other held strong to his shoulder. “I want to come, Gio. Fuck me and make me come with your fingers.”

Dark chuckles burst from his chest. There was something beautiful about such dirty words coming from a pretty mouth. It turned him on like nothing else. The pulse in the shaft of his cock increased, hardening him further.

“That’s what I wanted to hear, Kim.”

The bareness of her sex was silky under the tips of his fingers when his digits dipped between her fleshy folds. She was soaked. Her thighs shuddered and clamped around his hand as he sunk two fingers into her tight core. Wetness from her pussy smeared to his palm. There was nothing like the scent of Kim’s juices. Gio fucking loved it. She was always slick and ready for him, her body willing. The closer she came to her orgasm, the stronger she would smell and the more she would gush around his fingers. Gio wanted to get her climax rising fast so he could taste those juices of hers on his tongue.

Gio fucked Kim’s pussy with two fingers, fast and deep. Sliding a third finger in, he spread the digits on the withdrawal to stretch her open and make her hot tunnel feel even more full of him. Just as quick, his thumb was pushing to the hood of her swollen clit, rubbing back and forth with every thrust of his hand to her sex.

“God, Gio … just like that,” Kim moaned.

Her hand circling his shaft squeezed hard enough to make him groan. Her fingernails dug into his shoulder, surely leaved scored, red lines. Gio didn’t care; her marks were worth wearing.

“Oh, I know exactly what you like, don’t I?”

“
Yes
.”

She was close to tipping over the edge of climax, her clenched teeth bared as she whimpered. Her blue eyes were wide open, locked on him like a missile. Gio thumbed her pulsing clit harder, feeling her hips rock into his hand with every thrust.

“Almost,” Gio murmured, the walls of her sex fluttering around his fingers.

“
Cristo
… yeah.”

Curling his fingers inward, Gio sought out the fleshy spot to make her fluids gush and her body shake. When the cry tumbled from her lips, broken and high, mixed with the tensing of her muscles, he knew he found it. Her hand beating him off stuttered in its rhythm, but Gio didn’t mind. What he wanted more was to see her come.

Thrusting to the spot again, the coiling tension radiating from Kim seemed to break all at once. Kim’s whines rose an octave, her cheek pressing to his. Tart smelling juices wet his palm as she came, shaking and mumbling his name to his cheek. Gio withdrew his fingers from her sex as she released his cock.

Kim’s soft mouth ghosting over his jaw stopped him from bending her over and taking her like he was a goddamn animal. She wrapped her fingers along his wrist and brought his still soaked fingers to her lips. Gio stared, silenced, his blood thrumming with desire as his fingers disappeared into her mouth. A tongue swirled around two fingers, taking with it the juices from her sex.

“Taste me,” Kim murmured when he pulled his fingers away. “Kiss me and taste me.”

Gio didn’t need to be told again. Instead of another crushing kiss like before, he took his time to love her mouth, taking every bit of her arousal he could sweep away with his tongue. The tart flavor had his lust raging so hard that all he could think about was pushing her to the bed and fucking her until he couldn’t think of anything else.

He stopped kissing her to ask, “What do you need?”

“
Voglio far l’amore con te
,” Kim said softly.

Make love to me.

Not a fuck. Not dirty, quick, or hard. She didn’t want to be used, and really, Gio didn’t want to use her. “I can do that,
amore
.”

Gio stayed on his knees, grabbing Kim around the waist and lifting her to straddle him. As she sank into his lap, she positioned his cock at her slit, taking him all the way in as she lowered herself. The constricting walls of her sex flexed around his shaft, catching the air hard in his chest as he became lost in the feeling of her natural around him.

For a moment, Gio held Kim firm on her backside to keep her still, his fingers digging into the soft roundness of her ass. He just wanted to feel her—the way she fit him perfectly, how her channel encompassed his length while her come was slick and warm on his cock. It never failed to amaze him how every single part of himself tuned into Kim when he had her like this. An awareness of her body, her sounds, the way she looked, and how she felt. It was all his, and he knew it.

Gio was always going to love this woman, no matter what. The knowledge was a balm to the parts of his soul that he neglected for far too long.

Keeping his one hand holding Kim’s ass, Gio used his other arm to cradle below her backside. With no rush in his movement and no roughness in his intent, he began lifting her body on his length, slowly letting her lower back down at the same speed. The sensitive tissues of her channel contracted and grasped his cock harder.

Kim caught onto the rhythm fast enough, rolling her hips on his member every time she fell back onto his length. Shudders crawled over her frame. She was quick to bury her face in the crook of his neck, tender cries of bliss falling against his skin. One of her hands tangled into his hair while the other was placed between his shoulder blades as he continued with that same slow, worshipping pace.

“Gio, I …” Kim trailed off as a tremor rolled down her spine.

“
Shhh
,” he soothed, kissing a path over her shoulder to her neck.

Her skin tasted like sex, him, and her. A whole different kind of fever swept over her body, taking him under with its warmth. Kim tossed her head back, giving Gio the best view of her face as she bent into the support of his hand coming up to hold her lower back.

Color was returning to her skin, taking away the sickly paleness that had been bothering him all morning. With her lips parted, cheeks flushed, and her body bowed like an arch, she was fucking gorgeous. She was so incredibly sexy that it hurt to stare at her too long, though he couldn’t help but watch her ride him.

“I’m gonna—” Kim’s words cut off as a high cry accompanied her pussy clamping around his cock and her hands balling into fists. Tension had coiled her muscles tight like a spring before they all released.

Gio watched the orgasm sweep over her features, dilating her pupils and clenching her teeth. The milking contractions of her climax fading out took him straight to his own peak faster than he expected. Kim pushed him off the precipice with her kiss on his mouth, claiming him all over again. Gio spilled his come as deep as he could get into her sex, holding her snug to him as his nerves sung with release.

It felt so fucking primal. Like he’d permanently put his mark her in a way.

“I do want us,” Kim whispered against his cheek.

“I’m going to give you us,” he promised.

Somehow
. But, Gio was going to start by giving her something else first. Something he hadn’t ever given to anyone else because there wasn’t a soul on earth like her. No one owned Giovanni Marcello like the woman in his arms did.

“
Ti amo tanto, Tesoro
.”

Kim’s smile was radiant, her words breathless. “I love you, too.”

Chapter Sixteen

Kim was surprised though she probably shouldn’t have been, to see her brother sitting on the other side of Franco’s table as she walked into the kitchen. There were three other men at the table, as well. She only recognized Lucas, the other two were a mystery. Franco stood at the head of the room, muttering into the cellphone he held to his ear.

“Kimberlynn!” Cody half-shouted when he noticed her in the entryway.

Several heads turned in Kim’s direction, including Franco’s. The anxiety in her bloodstream increased when he shut his phone off. Rage narrowed his gaze. “
Vaffanculo
! Go to my office and get out of my face!”

“I’d rather not,” Kim said softly.

She had the distinct feeling the outcome of this meeting would be better if it were had in front of other people. Franco’s irritation began to show as his jaw ticked.

In the back of her mind, Kim thought about Giovanni. How he kept her closer to him that morning in bed as if he sensed she was going to leave though he couldn’t have known. She considered their three quiet days together in a hotel room where they were able to pretend the rest of the world didn’t exist and she was only his.

Giovanni’s promise of meeting his own death if something happened to Kim was too much for her and her broken heart. She couldn’t handle it because it was exactly what they were going to lead to in the end. Her death was the only way out of the arrangement with Franco, and Kim wouldn’t be the one thing that took Giovanni’s life away.

She loved him. And she loved him enough to let him go.

Kim hoped he understood. Giovanni did what he had to so he could protect her, and now she was doing the same for him, too. It wasn’t any different.

He could go back to New York to his brothers and parents who loved him. The reputation he earned would remain intact instead of stained by their actions together. His hurt and anger would fade, eventually. He would move on. That was how life worked. Time healed wounds and life was worth living. Giovanni deserved to have his to live, so regardless of how much he loved and wanted her, Kim was going to make him have one.

When he jumped into the shower earlier, Kim left the hotel.

“There’s a cab waiting outside,” Kim informed Franco. “Someone needs to pay the tab.”

Franco tipped his chin in Cody’s direction. “Go get that taken care of, Abella.”

Cody eyed his sister as he stopped at her side, sympathy resonating through strongly. Kim thought about what Giovanni said in regards to her brother. Maybe he was right. “Hey.”

“Hey,” Cody whispered, tugging on the sleeve of her Henley shirt. “You okay?”

No
.

“I will be,” Kim said, hoping her smile felt truer than it felt.

“All right, then. Chin up.”

Kim squared her shoulders and stood a little straighter to face Franco once Cody was gone. “Do you want me to apologize?”

Franco sneered. “That and more. Where have you been for the last three days?”

“Away.”

“Away,” Franco mimicked. “Just like how you disappeared from school, too. I’d love to know how you keep vanishing into thin air. You lied to me, Kimberlynn. I don’t like a fucking liar. I want the goddamn truth, and I want it
now
.”

Kim remained calm. “What do you mean?”

“You told me you had been with a girlfriend before you took off again. Do you think me an idiot, girl?”

“No.”

Just too self-absorbed to see anything but himself.

“You must because if you think I don’t have every single one of your acquaintances marked down, just in case, I sure as hell do. See, I had the boys out looking for you, and while they did that, they stopped to ask your friends a few questions.”

Kim stiffened, refusing to let him make her cry. “I don’t have friends, Franco. You took them away.”

“Exactly, but you have old friends. None of them have been with you and no one they know has spent any time with you, either. Although, one of your previous girlfriends happened to mention she noticed you chatting with someone she didn’t recognize the first day you took off.”

Fear climbed Kim’s spine with punishing steps. “She’s lying.”

“Oh, I doubt that,” Franco said very matter-of-fact. “She isn’t the one with a penchant to disappear and hide things like you do.”

“Or did your men scare her into saying something so they would leave her alone?”

Franco’s lips drew a thin line. “Let’s get something straight here. You’re going to be my wife, which means you don’t get to keep secrets. And if that means I have to lock you inside of a house twenty-four-seven to prevent you from doing something like this again, I will do that. Instead of an enforcer trailing behind you in a car, he will sit beside you on the couch, stand in the doorway while you cook, and wait outside the bathroom when you’re inside.”

Kim released a shaky breath. “It won’t happen again.”

“Funny, I don’t believe you. You’ve not given me many reasons to, and for me, that’s just a damn shame. Look at this house, Kimberlynn. Your beautiful new car. Dinners that cost more than most people in this country make in a month. The clothes, shoes, bags, and jewelry lining your closet. Don’t you see those things at all; aren’t you grateful for the things you have by being with me?”

“I never asked for those things.”

Or you
, she wanted to add.

Franco scoffed all hateful and dark. “You’re no different from any other whore. You might hide it better than they do, but you’re just the same.”

“Don’t call me a whore, Franco,” Kim said quietly, meeting his gaze head-on. “I am not one of your
goomahs,
and you won’t treat me like I am.”

“Then perhaps you shouldn’t act like one. I’m only going to ask one more time, Kimberlynn, and I expect your complete honesty. Where have you been?”

“Away,” she repeated.

“Okay,” Franco said, nodding. Then, he turned to Lucas, ordering, “Get it for me.”

Lucas got up from the table and left the room before Kim could consider what Franco was trying to pull on her. While he was gone, Franco waved at the free chair. “Sit, my pretty little fiancée, so we can have a proper chat.”

Why did that title seem so derogative when he said it?

Kim did as Franco demanded, waiting the two minutes it took for Lucas to return. The item slung over his arm made Kim’s heart leap into her throat as her stomach dropped to the floor. After returning from Lake Mead, she hadn’t thought to hide Giovanni’s leather jacket, instead leaving it slung over the back of her desk chair. Franco or one of his idiots must have noticed it when they cleaned out her dorm.

Franco grabbed the jacket from Lucas and tossed it to the table. “Who does that belong to?”

“Me,” Kim said, not completely lying.

“It’s a man’s jacket, Kimberlynn. I thought we established I’m not an idiot.”

“So, I can’t have a jacket because it should be worn by a man? It looks fine on a woman, too.”

Franco cocked a brow. “And yet I’ve never seen you wear it once.”

“You want me wearing—”

“I’m aware,” he interjected severely. “I’m also aware of the things in your closet at your dorm, what has and has not been in it over the last few months. I’ve been watching you long before the casino deal, and you never wore it, then. It smells like a man, Kimberlynn. It
still
smells like the man who owns it. Who does it belong to?”

He’d been watching her before she was caught counting cards? Good God, why?

Kim’s panic ratcheted up a notch. “It belongs to a friend.”

“I want a name.”

“You won’t get one,” Kim said with a shrug. “You might think I’m nothing more than a possession you own, Franco, but I’m not going to let innocent people be hurt because you’re fucking insane. It’s just a jacket. I borrowed it because it was chilly and forgot to give it back.”

“You’re not a good liar.”

Kim placed her hands in her lap, hiding their shaking. She was counting her lucky stars no one in the room recognized the jacket as Giovanni’s. “Prove me wrong.”

“The same friend you’ve disappeared with twice now?” Franco asked. The hint of a threat edged his words sharp.

“No.”

Franco moved so fast he was a blur. His fingers dug into her jaw, keeping her head still and making her stare straight at him. An ache started in her face from his rough handling, but Kim didn’t even blink to show it.

“Again, you’re a terrible liar, Kimberlynn.”

Franco forced Kim’s head to the side, giving her a view of Cody leaning in the entryway to the kitchen. A cold indifference colored her brother’s expression, causing Kim’s heart to contract painfully. He didn’t even care about what he saw.

“Apologize to your brother for worrying him with your childish nonsense,” Franco demanded.

“I’m sorry, Cody,” Kim whispered.

Before her brother could respond, Franco turned her back to him again. The cruelty in his gaze was something Kim had long become accustomed to seeing, but it still scared her all the same. “You’re right, I don’t have proof. What I do have is enough for me to be suspicious and very pissed off.”

Without warning, Franco tossed Kim from the chair, sending her sprawling to the floor. The last thing she wanted to be was below him when he was angry, so instinct forced Kim to her feet just as quickly as she fell.

Kim held her jaw in her hand, feeling the bruises from his fingers already beginning to form. The fury bubbling up from her stomach felt like poison as she faced him, defiant. “Don’t you
ever
touch me again, Franco.”

The slap came so swift and hard to her right cheek, Kim didn’t have time to react. Once more, she flew to the floor as her knees buckled from the force of the hit. The surprise and pain registered at the same time. Her cry echoed in a deathly silent room. A metallic tang bloomed in her mouth—blood. Kim spat red saliva to the floor as her whole body shook.

He hit me
.

Kim couldn’t believe it, and suddenly, she knew leaving the hotel had been the biggest mistake she ever made.

None of the men at the table would look at Kim. More blood seeped along Kim’s tongue, the pain throbbing from one side of her jaw to the other. Franco didn’t let her get up from the floor the second time. He leaned down to grab her face in his hand again, fingers pinching into the tender spot where his slap had landed.

“Someone has been touching you, and I will find out who, Kimberlynn. I might not have proof right now, but I will.  When I do, I will still marry you just the same as I always planned. My seat as the Don of my family will be protected once my father’s gone. Then, I will put you down with a bullet like the whoring bitch you are before I go about my merry fucking way.”

Kim’s fists clenched into tight balls against the tiled floor. It was the only show of fear she gave him. She wouldn’t let the welling tears fall. “Let me go.”

“Oh, I will.” Franco glared, his voice turning to a whisper. “Be grateful this is all you’re getting for your little show, sweetheart. If your brother weren’t watching, I’d take you upstairs and show you what a girl like you deserves. After all, you’ve already been giving it to someone else with my ring still on your hand. Why not me?”

“My father wants her to get the rest of her things from his house,” Cody said from the doorway, his tone hard and cold. “As soon as possible. His words, not mine. He’d like to be done with her mess.”

Franco released Kim, standing to right his pants. “I’ll send someone over.”

“Actually, I think he wants to speak to her about this crap she pulled and he’s having that dinner with his wife’s family, so she should be there to at least show face.”

Franco sighed, sparing a glance down at Kim. “Get up, Kimberlynn.

Kim did as she was told, not wanting to risk earning another slap. “But my—”

“Shut up,” Franco snapped at her. “Cody, will you need Lucas to tag along or can you handle keeping an eye on her yourself?”

“I can do it,” Cody assured.

“Good. Kim, get out of my face before my charitable mood leaves.”

Kim was gone from the room before her next breath, needing to get out of the house as quickly as she could. At least she remembered to grab her messenger bag someone left by the front door.

• • •

Cody hadn’t driven more than ten minutes away from Franco’s home before his car was jerked to the corner of the road and put it in park. Kim was hiding her bruised cheek in her hand, willing the burning in her eyes to go away so she wouldn’t cry. Humiliation and terror were a damning constant in her heart.

The sound of a seat belt unbuckling caused Kim to flinch away from her older brother. She couldn’t even stand to look at him, let alone have him look at her. Cody surprised her as he leaned over the seat and strong arms swallowed her into their embrace.

“I’m sorry. I am so sorry, Kimberlynn. Sorry, sorry, sorry,” Cody chanted, holding her tighter as the tears finally fell.