Total pages in book: 100
Estimated words: 94048 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 470(@200wpm)___ 376(@250wpm)___ 313(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 94048 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 470(@200wpm)___ 376(@250wpm)___ 313(@300wpm)
I kiss his chin and neck before he takes a fist of my hair and buries my mouth with his. Our tongues swirl around each other and I kiss him like that for a while, staying in his lap and feeling his warmth against me, until we finally break apart.
I manage to coax him upstairs and we fall into bed together. The sex is slow, tender, like he needs to express himself and I let the pleasure and the moment wrap around me. His mouth between my legs, his tongue on my nipples, his cock buried deep inside. We fuck until we’re a sweaty mess, and then we fuck some more, and I give him everything, and he gives me everything in return. I come three times before we’re both spent, beyond exhausted, physically sated but still emotionally raw.
The blinds are pulled and the room’s dim in the early morning sunlight. His eyelids flutter, but he won’t fall asleep.
“I need you to know something, topolina.” He tugs me tighter against him. We’re naked, and my one leg is tossed over his hips, my breasts on his side. “You don’t have to do this. If you don’t want to. I won’t hold it against you. I release you from our deal.”
I sit up on an elbow and stare at him, because I swear, he’s got to be the dumbest man in the world if he’s saying something so stupid to me right now.
And I tell him so, along with a few choice curses.
He smiles and shakes his head, his thumb teasing down my lip. I slap it away.
“I’m going to be the head of a family on the brink. Everyone’s out to get us right now. The cops, the politicians, Santoro’s gang, all the other gangs. They smell blood in the water. I’m keeping the worst of what happened out of the news, but there are too many rumors and too many bodies. It’s hard enough being the Don’s wife, and it’ll be twice as hard doing this with me. I love you, and I want to give you the choice before it’s too late.”
I could bite his stupid nipple off right now, except that would mar what’s otherwise a perfect chest, so I hold back.
“Simon, listen to me. No more choices. No more indecision. I’m not going anywhere.”
“There are going to be legal battles. Half our fucking soldiers have a case against them right now and the DA is dead set on taking me down too. We’re going to be in court for years litigating what happened here, and I’m going to have to spend all our capital and call in all our favors just to stay afloat, and I have to do this while murdering all of Santoro’s crew. I just need you to be sure.”
“I’m sure.” I kiss him gently. “I’m absolutely sure.” I straddle him, arching my back, my pussy brushing over his half-hard cock as I lower my face to his chest.
He sighs with relief and holds me against him.
In a few minutes, he’s asleep, and I’m not far behind.
“Imagine you walk up to someone on a crowded street, scream out your real name and your Social Security number, then shoot a stranger in the skull. Imagine you somehow convince everyone that an angry grizzly bear did the murder and not you.” Davide raises his glass in a salute. “Because that’s basically what my brother’s trying to do, and it’s working. Cheers to fucking that.”
It feels so normal. Family dinner in the main house. Except Freddie’s still in the hospital glued to her husband’s side, there’s construction going on all over the oasis, and bullet holes still riddle most of the walls. Elena hung pictures and paintings in a vain effort to cover most of them over, but she missed a few and I can’t stop staring at them.
The sheer number of bullets that were fired is staggering. I didn’t see the worst of it, but Stefania gave me some of the gory details. There were so many shells that the cleanup crew had to work for an entire day sweeping them up with massive brooms, and that was only after the cops took two trash bags filled with them, as if they’re going to do ballistics.
“It’s almost good there were so many people trying to kill each other,” Elena says thoughtfully as she tops up all the wine glasses.
“Explain that one to me,” Stefania says, eyebrows raised.
“Well, it’s just too much for the cops to follow through on. The sheer scale of what happened is crazy. The politicians have an incentive to make it seem less bad, and the DA doesn’t want to jam fifty different murder cases through the system all at once. It’s almost like bigger is better.”
Stefania doesn’t look convinced, but at least it gets a bitter laugh from Simon. “That’s a good point, but it means they’ll come for the leaders instead.” Then he points at himself and finishes his drink. “Although I’d like to see them try. We have an army of lawyers, and they’re arguably the most dangerous part of our family.”