La Cosa Nostra, This Thing of Ours (26 page)

"I see you are back at it?" I sit at the table next to
her looking over her shoulder. I see she has also been reading
La Cosa Nostra
. The large book is spread open and it looks like she is a quarter of the way done. Even though I'm not happy about it, I can't be mad at her. 

"Oh
God, Liam, you wouldn't believe it. The Esposito family has been in control of the southern half of Italy since the 1600's. Their reach goes everywhere; the church, the law, the government. Also, in the late 1800's there was a fight for some territory. Guess who the fight was with?" Her eyes are wide when she glances at me long enough to see me shrug.

"It was a small territory close to the coast, but nonetheless the
Espositos wanted all coastal land. It was Crisiano Tarseta's land." She stops to gage my reaction. I know that there are plenty of Tarsetas in Italy, so I really don't get excited.

"
Crisiano Tarseta is your great, great, great grandfather." She nudges me to get a reaction. 

"How do you know that?"

"Because I have been researching your family tree, but it gets better. The Tarseta family won the battle, even though they eventually moved on, they did so on their own." She is smiling from ear to ear, but it fades as she sees that there is no response from me.

"T
he Tarsetas defeated them once when the odds were totally not in their favor."

"I hope you're
not insinuating we fight them." I cock my head to one side to gage just what she is trying to say.

"Of course not, baby." She rolls her eyes at me.  "I'm
just saying that there are ways, we can find a way for you to meet your mother."

"It is very dangerous. I
f Giovanni found out his wife had a bastard child, at the very least he would kill her." I lean over the table and place my hand on her arm and watch her reaction. 

"You're thinking that I mean we go to Italy and announce
, "Hey I am Teresa Esposito's son." I'm not saying that. I'm saying we go there and check it out, just an Italian boy visiting his native country with his girlfriend." She sounds so sweet and innocent it's hard for me to say no. "Besides, baby, wouldn't you love to take me to Italy?" She bats her eyelashes at me.

"God
, you are so fucking cute." I grab her arm and pull her onto my lap. "You know I would take you anywhere, do anything for you." Wrapping my arms around her waist I pull her close, kissing the side of her cheek. 

"Ok
ay, good. I say we leave for Chicago tomorrow and get ready to go to Italy." She beams at me.  What can I say, she is so excited and happy there's no way I can't do this. She turns in my lap so she is straddling me, her hands on the back of my chair. 

"I guess we are going to It
aly." My hands are on her hips. She starts moving in my lap, grinding against me. It takes me all of two seconds to be hard underneath her. She has that look in her eyes that says she wants to devour me whole. It is not lost on me that we are in her parents' house, in the middle of the very open, not private kitchen.

"Petal, where is everyone
?" I try to stop her hips from moving against me, the friction is driving me wild. She is kissing my neck and her little moans are making me ache with want. 

"Not here," s
he whispers, moving to my lips. I don't know if I can physically stop her, it is taking all I have to keep the thought anyone could walk in at any time. Her hands go under my shirt, snaking their way over my stomach to my back.  All the while she is grinding against me. Just when I'm about to give in to her, the back door opens.  She doesn't get off my lap though. 

Sitting up straight
she's still astride me, I don't move. I don't know who walked in the door, but I know I don't want them seeing my excitement, that even with the awkwardness of the situation is still not going away. Harper sits back on my legs, pouting with disappointment. 

"Hey
, lover boy, maybe you can refrain from doing inappropriate things to my sister in our family's kitchen," Kade spits when he walks into the kitchen.

"Oh, grow up,
" Harper snaps back, shooting her brother a dirty look. Still not climbing off my lap, her hands go to my shoulders. 

"By the way, I think you might need a new engine for your car."
Kade throws the keys to my car on the table before washing his hands at the sink.  Whatever he's been doing outside it has made him incredibly dirty.

"What the hell does that mean?" Harper gets off my lap, gr
abbing the keys off the table. She seems pissed at me, what did I do?

"They borrowed th
e car last night." I am taken aback at how mad she is right now.

"Sweet ride, but we may h
ave broken it," Kade chuckles. I'm pretty sure he is goading me into a reaction. I would think if he ruined my car he wouldn't be such an ass about it.

"Why the hell did you do that?" Harper barks at me.
Why the hell am I in trouble here?
"I love that car, and you let my brothers take it for a joyride.  You better hope there is nothing wrong with that car, because shit will hit the fan!" She yells at her brother now, which only makes him laugh.

"Oh really, and j
ust how is that going to happen?"  Kade laughs even harder when Harper gets even more pissed.

"I'm sure the car
's fine. I didn't know letting your brothers drive it would make you this upset." Her head darts to me now, and she is really upset. 

"Relax
, kid, even lover boy knew I was kidding." Kade laughs all the way out the back door. 

"I love that car
," she pouts, climbing back on my lap. 

"I didn't know that car meant so much to you." I bring her to me, pressing her body up against me. 

"It reminds me of you. I love watching my hot Italian boyfriend behind the wheel of that car," she says, pulling away from me to stare in my eyes. 

"Yeah,
" I raise my eyebrows.

"Yeah," s
he raises hers and wiggles them up and down. "Very hot," she giggles. 

Chapter 31

After checking for flights to Italy, we decided to leave for Chicago that night. A flight in three days had two first class seats left to Rome, Italy, where we would take a five hour train ride along the coast to Agropoli. We would stay there for a few days getting our bearings. The Esposito Compound was only about an hour's drive, located in Vallo della Lucania.  

I still had not agreed to going to
Vallo della Lucania, but to appease Harper I had not disagreed either. As I'm driving north on interstate 35 toward Chicago, it is dark out and Harper has her head buried in La Cosa Nostra, a little flash light in hand as she devours the book. 

"
I have to ask, is the author of that book still alive?" I have one hand on the steering wheel, the other resting on her bare knee. 

"It's written anonymously, so I have no idea." She looks up from the book for a second before her head
's down again. "You wouldn't believe some of this stuff. I mean, even though technically the Mafiosi goes back hundreds of years, there is family after family with ties to it. The list is amazing. Everything from drug trafficking, to murder, prostitution, corruption of public officials, and, as of late, cybercrimes," she reads from the book. I can hear excitement in her voice.
This is not a movie, Petal
.

"All the m
ore reason to keep our distance," I mumble. I'm not going to fight with her right now, but when it comes down to it, there is no way in hell we are getting close to that compound. 

"Your
mother, baby. Do you want your mother in that life?" She picks up her head and turns to me. 

"No, of course not, but it is the life she has.
I can't save her from it, no one can, Petal." My girl is very smart, but she is not being smart right now. I don't know what she is thinking, that we are going to storm the castle or something. "We are going to Italy, and we will look around a little bit. I am standing firm on this, we will not make ourselves known to anyone," I snap a little too hard. I thought maybe from what she had learned so far she would be scared, but it only seems to excite her more. 

"Geez, Liam, relax.
I don't even know if half of this stuff is true." She sounds hurt.

"I have a feeling more of it
is true than you think," I say in a much softer tone. She slams the book shut and places it on the backseat. 

"Al
l right, I guess," she sighs, having to admit I am right is a hard pill to swallow. "I'm still excited to see Italy though, is that allowed?" she smarts off.

"Y
es, Petal." I shoot her a grin. She puts her hand on top of mine on her knee. Rubbing it gently first, she guides my hand up her thigh.  Instantly my heart starts racing and I grip the steering wheel. Slowly she moves my hand up under her skirt and my cock gets rock hard just like that. She guides my hand between her legs, and using her finger on mine, she helps me move her panties aside. 

"Jesus
, Petal, you are so wet," I growl, trying to keep my attention on the road. She inserts my finger inside her with her finger also entering. I feel her pussy tighten around our fingers, a tiny moan escaping her lips. With her direction, she moves our fingers in and out of her wetness.  

"Do you know how bad I want you right now
?" she moans, her hips moving, grinding herself on my hand. It's all I can take. I pull off the side of the road, releasing my hand from her to shift down and stop along the interstate, cars rushing by as she climbs onto my lap. 

"God
, you are amazing." I pull down the straps of her dress, then release her breasts from the cups of her bra. She is moving against me, grinding back and forth against my cock. It's throbbing as I reach between us to free myself. Her panties already to the side, my cock impales her as she slams down on me. 

Our lips collide
through our heavy breathing as I grab the back of her neck, slipping my tongue across her lips. Sucking on her bottom lip, I feel her pulsating around my cock. I can tell she is getting close to orgasm, so I release her lips, pressing her body to mine. I still have my damn shirt on, and don't like not feeling her bare breasts smashed against my chest. The way she says my name when she is coming always sends me over the edge. I have never felt or heard anything more amazing. 

"Liam, oh
God, Liam." She presses the side of her sweaty face against mine, her body heaving with pleasure as I release into her. I feel wave after wave of intense pleasure rush through me as I press on her back firmly so I can feel her heart beating against my chest. I hold her against me, our bodies moving as one. 

A passerby lays on the horn as they zoom by us.  "Fuck, Petal, each time with you is better than the
last," I breathe into her hair. She lays her forehead against mine, and I can see her smile from the flashes of the headlights as the cars pass us.

"I love you," s
he whispers, biting her lower lip. I take her lip with mine, kissing and sucking gently. 

"God
, I love you, too," I say between gentle loving kisses. 

By the time we reach Chic
ago it is three in the morning. Harper is out in the passenger seat. 

"Petal, we
're here." I gently rub her leg once I have parked in the car garage of my building. She stirs a little, but is basically out cold. She didn't sleep much the night before because she was too busy researching, the two nights before that she was crying her eyes out. I nudge her leg a little more, but she still barely moves. I get out and open her side. Leaning over to unbuckle her seatbelt first, I lift her out of the car, one arm under her knees, the other around her shoulders.