Chapter 64
So the sex was abso-fucking-lutely great…
Until I almost blew it again with another loaded question.
We were lying in bed one night after another round of multiple orgasms, and I was tracing my fingers across his skin.
I noticed he had a couple of round scars on his body.
“Is this a bullet wound?” I asked as I pointed at one on his abdomen.
“Uh-huh.”
“You have two of them?”
“Three, actually. Occupational hazard.”
“Did you get them all at the same time?”
“No.” He pointed them out one by one. “That was from a shootout when I was 20… that happened a couple of years ago when a rival family went after me and my brothers… and that was from protecting Alessandra in Florence.”
The final one was a line of scar tissue on his arm like someone had cut him with a particularly nasty blade.
“You protected her? How?”
“Actually, she protected me – I just didn’t know it at the time. Remember the Turk? He had some of his guys try to kidnap Alessandra in Florence. I hustled her over to our car, but the only reason they didn’t kill me was because they were trying to avoid shooting her.”
“Well, you still protected her,” I protested.
“That’s my job,” he said nonchalantly.
“You mean, in your family? You’re, like, a bodyguard?”
“No – that’s my job as a man.”
I got up on one elbow so I could look at him. “What do you mean, ‘that’s your job as a man’?”
“Men are supposed to be the protectors.” He smiled and caressed my cheek with his hand. “Although… sometimes… they’re the ones who get protected.”
I knew he was talking about what had happened in the barn.
I kissed his hand and smiled…
But I still wanted to know what he was talking about.
“Okay, so – you’re supposed to protect all women?”
“Well… I mean, if I can, I guess. But I was specifically talking about family.”
“Like your sister-in-law,” I said.
“Yes. Although she wasn’t my sister-in-law at the time.”
I know it was completely irrational –
I mean, the chick had married his brother and was now his sister –
But I got hit with a bolt of jealousy.
I don’t know why, exactly…
Although maybe it was just the thought that he would do that for any other woman besides me.
Massimo continued, unaware of the green-eyed monster gnawing at my heart. “I meant more along the lines of a man’s wife and his children.”
Without thinking – and probably because I was still jealous – I blurted out, “So you’d protect our children.”Please check at N/ôvel(D)rama.Org.
As soon as the words left my mouth, I about had a panic attack.
SHIT – why did I SAY that?!
But Massimo just smiled at me. “Yes… but that’ll be your job, too.”
My fear subsided a little and was replaced by curiosity. “What do you mean?”
“It means that I keep you and our children safe… and you keep our children safe. You’re the last line of defense.”
“…the last line of defense?” I asked uneasily.
“If something happens to me.”
My chest constricted and turned cold. “You said you wouldn’t leave me.”
It was like six-year-old Lucia had taken over my body and was giving voice to my deepest fears.
“The only way I would ever leave you is if I had to die to protect you.” He smiled. “And our children. That’s my job.”
His words slammed into me again with another tidal wave of emotion.
There was grief as I pictured my parents dying in front of me…
But there was also this deep gratitude. Because I knew without question that my parents would have given their lives to save me.
It’s just that they were taken by surprise. They had been killed before they could even make the choice.
But there was another emotion that raced through me:
Overwhelming love.
That this man wasn’t running from talking about having children with me…
That he wasn’t running from talking about his duties…
That it was actually part of his code – the entire definition he had of himself as a man.
That he would fight and even die for me and our children…
And he expected me to do the same for them if the time ever came.
My eyes filled with tears that spilled down my cheeks.
He misinterpreted what my tears meant, though.
He thought that I was thinking of my parents.
Or, more accurately, he thought I was only thinking of my parents.
“Hey… I’m sorry,” he whispered as he gathered me to his chest. “I shouldn’t have said that.”
I pushed away from him. I could see a hint of fear in his eyes, afraid that he’d said something to fuck it all up –
But instead, I only pushed away from him so that I could grab his face and kiss him.
Passionately.
With all my heart.
He kissed me back just as passionately.
When our lips finally parted, he whispered, “What was that for?”
“For being you,” I whispered.
I wiped the tears from my eyes – and he helped, brushing them away with his thumb.
“You okay?” he asked.
Dumbass me – I should have just told him what I was feeling.
I love you. I LOVE you. I LOVE YOU.
That’s what I wanted to do –
But I was afraid.
Afraid he wouldn’t say it back.
So I took the easy way out…
And said the one thing it was easy for me to say:
“I need to fuck you right now.”
He laughed, totally surprised – but to his credit, he rolled with it. “Well, I’m not gonna say ‘no’ to that.”
I straddled him and kissed him desperately, never wanting to let him go…
And as soon as I felt his cock grow stiff enough, I reached down and put it inside me.
And I rocked my hips as I kissed him over and over.
This time, though, I didn’t focus on me and my orgasm –
I wanted to do something for him.
“What can I do to make it hotter for you?” I whispered as I rode him.
“I don’t think you can,” he murmured.
O-ho – a CHALLENGE.
I knew what he liked…
So I reached down, grabbed his hands, and placed them on my ass.
Then I leaned down and whispered in his ear, “I hate you.”
Of course, what I really meant was, I LOVE you.
Maybe that’s the only way I could say ‘I love you’ – with the opposite.
I don’t know.
But I said it over and over again, with all the sweetness and fervor I felt inside me.
He liked it.
When I finally pulled away because I was getting close to coming, he stared up at me like he was hypnotized.
One hand still squeezed my ass, but the other reached up and caressed my breasts as I rode his cock, getting closer and closer to orgasm, and my whispers gradually became shrieks.
“I hate you… I hate you… I HATE you…”
All the while meaning I love you… I love you… I love you…
Until we both came at the same time, and I collapsed on his chest, and we kissed.