Alessio (The Guzzi Legacy Book 2)
Page 18
Fuck, yeah.
Corrado was up for that.
The thing Alessio wanted to be doing?
Well, it certainly wasn’t what he was doing.
“You’re quiet down there,” Cara said, drawing Alessio out of his thoughts.
The loud chatter at the table continued like she hadn’t called him out on the fact he wasn’t feeling the conversation tonight. To his benefit, Alessio turned his attention away from Corrado and Ginevra sitting across from him. He wanted to be over there—or rather, get both home, and in his bed.
That’s what he wanted.
Instead, he smiled at Cara, tipping his wine glass up for a quick drink. “Things on my mind, that’s all.”
Corrado’s mother returned his smile, her gaze drifting across the table from where he was sitting to the other two, but came back to him. “So, what you’re saying is I should thank you for making time to leave the penthouse for us, hmm?”
Alessio laughed. “Anything for you.”
He loved Corrado’s mother. There was something warm and inviting about the woman. She comforted without trying at all, and he never felt unwelcome here. And, through watching her with her small army of sons, he had learned how a mother should love their children. He respected her for that, more than anything else.
“Well, I’m glad you’re all getting it figured out,” Cara said, winking.
Alessio shrugged. “Getting there.”
“Figuring out what, now?”
Corrado’s voice drew Alessio’s attention back across the table. He would have sat over there, on the other side of Ginevra, but he didn’t trust his control to do that right now. Corrado had a far better handle on his needs and keeping them tampered down until it was an appropriate time.
No doubt, his hand was on Ginevra’s thigh under the table. He’d have the soft skin of her thigh against his palm, warm and shivering. Despite having ate dinner here, he bet Corrado could still taste the woman on his tongue, too, because Alessio sure as hell could.
And he wanted more.
If he was over there, like Corrado, they would have already left. So, he took the seat across from them, and settled himself with his fucking imagination. Which frankly, was just about as bad as having them.
Alessio shifted in his seat, ignoring a raging erection because now was not the goddamn time, and his body didn’t care.
“Figuring out what?” Corrado asked again, grinning.
Alessio gave him a look as Ginevra turned into the conversation, her conversation with Bene over. He gestured between them with a flick of his wrist. “This.”
He wondered how Corrado would take him outright saying that at his family’s dinner table. Sure, they’d come here a lot over the years. Both had sat at this table, ate meals with his parents and siblings, and were together through it all. Yet, never once had they said those words.
Oh, sure, he told Corrado’s father when Gian asked.
That wasn’t the same.
Corrado nodded, unbothered at the silence stretching over the table, and glanced his mother’s way. “Yeah, that’s about right.”
“How?”
Both Alessio and Corrado’s attention snapped to the youngest of the second set of Guzzi twins. Bene, who Ginevra had just been conversing with moments ago. At the lift of Corrado’s brow, a silent order for his brother to clarify, Bene did just that.
“How does that work?” he asked.
Corrado cleared his throat. “Bene.”
The warning was clear.
Don’t ask.
“I get how that works,” Bene muttered, “I’m not a fucking idiot, Corrado.”
“Then don’t ask.”
Bene looked only to Ginevra. “No, how does that work? Because Corrado was like a sixteen-year-old girl with her heartbroken throughout high school—in a fucking mood, and you just wanted to punch him in the throat and tell him to suck it up. And Les? Yeah, in case you didn’t get the memo, he’s a fucking asshole on his good days, too. How does she put up with it all the time? Because I had to live with one for a long while, and that was enough for me.”
Ginevra’s mouth popped open, but she said nothing. Maybe she didn’t know what to say. Light laughter drifted down the table, from the other twins, Marcus at the end near his father, and the heads of the household, too. Not nervous laughter, either, but genuine. Because well, none of what Bene said was a lie, and he always had the biggest fucking mouth at the table.
Alessio wasn’t even offended.
Corrado grunted under his breath. “I am not that bad.”
“I am,” Alessio said, nodding in his seat, “and Corrado is … well, Bene isn’t wrong.”
“See,” Bene said. “I wanna know how.”
All eyes turned on Ginevra again. Alessio was sure this was not what she had planned for the dinner, but hell, one had to expect anything with the Guzzis. Well, everything except judgement or problems. As long as they gave a shit about you, then that’s what mattered. They would be the first to jump in and support whatever someone needed or wanted even if it meant everyone else would back away.
Her cheeks tinted with pink as she said, “Well, I learned to like it, I guess.”
“But how?”
Ginevra’s stare drifted between Corrado at her side, and Alessio across the table. “Kind of hard not to with those two, that’s all.”
Bene opened his mouth to speak again, but it was Gian who spoke up to stop him at the other end of the table. “That’s enough, Bene, you understand the rules. Unless someone offers, you mind your own.”
The youngest twin scowled. “I can’t help I’m curious.”
“Be curious privately and allow others the same respect.”
“Fine.” Bene muttered to Ginevra out of the corner of his mouth, “But they’re still moody as fuck, and I’m not sure how you do it.”
Alessio smirked at Corrado’s mother, shrugging as he took the final drink from his wine glass. “So yeah, it’s good.”
She laughed. “That’s all I care about.”
Right.
Him, too.
Alessio whistled low, admiring the twin Ducati super bikes parked in front of the large garage. “Damn, I will need to get me one of those.”
Matte black.
Chrome detailing.
Speed like nothing else.
“Yeah, I need one,” Alessio said.
Beside him, Chris chuckled and shook his head. “Ma saw them, and the first thing she said was it was just another way for Bene and Beni to kill themselves.”
“Well …”
“She had a point,” Chris muttered. “They have no concept of fucking danger, and if anything, they chase that shit. Usually together.”
“You’re aware I like you, right?”
“Mostly, yeah.”
Alessio nodded and gave Corrado’s twin a smirk. “But I’m also grateful you’re not as close to Corrado as those two are with each other. I couldn’t handle your ass in front of me every single day.”
Chris chewed on the piece of gum in his mouth before muttering, “You know what? Same.”
Yep.
He respected Chris a great deal, like the rest of Corrado’s family, but he also wasn’t lying. He wouldn’t appreciate and like Chris as much as he did if he was around twenty-four-seven.
Facts were facts.
“And what are you two doing out here, hmm?”
Chris and Alessio spun around to see Gian crossing the driveway, coming their way with a knowing smile. The man tossed his hands in his pockets, looking unconcerned that they had snuck out of the house, and away from the noise.
Mostly, Alessio just needed to breathe. Corrado should enjoy dinner with his family—they had tonight planned for a week, now. Ginevra was having a good time, too. It didn’t matter that Alessio wanted to take them home, and move onto far better things.
His needs could wait.
So, he needed distance.
A breather.
“Adm
iring your sons’ bikes,” Alessio said, spinning back around to look over the Ducatis again. “I hear your wife doesn’t appreciate their beauty.”
“No, she doesn’t appreciate that they stunt on them, and regularly break two-hundred kilometers an hour on the highway. Because she knows, when they hit the pavement, there will be nothing left.”
“And yet, here they still are.”
Gian chuckled darkly. “Only because Cara has not gotten mad enough to tell me to get rid of them, yet.”
“They’re not kids anymore, Papa,” Chris said. “They’re adults, with their own money, and they can do what they want with it.”
“Except you all will always be my kids, regardless of your ages. And you keep thinking you can do what you want, Christopher, we’ll see how that works out for you.”
Chris sighed.
Gian smiled as he came to stand in between the two. He gave Chris a nod and then tipped his head back toward the house. “Give us a minute, would you?”
“Sure. Later, Les.”
Alessio tipped his chin in Chris’s direction, his silent goodbye. It was only once the front door of the mansion slammed shut that Gian turned his focus on Alessio next to him.
“I’m glad to see things are better for you three, but I didn’t think you—or him—wanted me to mention it in there,” Gian said.
“We’re getting there. Still complicated, but—”
“There’s three people,” Gian interjected, chuckling, “the complications can’t be helped.”
“It’s good complications, though.”
“I bet.” Gian rocked on his heels, surveying the bikes in front of him, and then staring up at the dark sky overhead. “On another note, I had a phone call with Dare earlier.”
Alessio made a noise under his breath, bitter and annoyed. “Right, well, I should go find Corrado and Ginny.”
“Or you can accept that when people care about someone else, sometimes they make bad decisions or say things without thinking them through because their feelings sometimes get in the way. All things considered, Alessio, I think you should be able to understand that better than anyone else. Stop ignoring his calls—he’s the only father you’ve ever had, blood or not. Attempt to keep what you have, regardless of what your pride thinks about it.”
Jesus.
Alessio let out a harsh sigh. “I have a job I need to do—sometime over the next week, I need to be on a plane for it. I planned on seeing him before I left, or when I came back, considering I have to make a stop at The League before I head out.”
“Good.”
“And he doesn’t need to use you as his messenger. He has Cree for that.”
“Right,” Gian said, turning to face the house with a knowing grin, “but sometimes, it’s better to go to someone who can make more of an impact when it counts, you understand?”
“Not really.”
Gian patted him on the back. “You don’t have to.”
“Where did Alessio go?” Ginevra asked, peeking up at Corrado over her shoulder where he stood close to her back. “I didn’t see him sneak out.”
All Corrado had to do was tip his head down, and as he spoke, his lips whispered over her skin. It was enough to get her body humming again. From that moment in the changing room earlier that day, she had been on a high. Her mind knowing where this would lead, and she wanted it more than anything. That anticipation had curled around her nerves; she felt like she might snap.
“Careful,” she said quietly enough that the people laughing a few feet away wouldn’t hear them or notice their distraction. “You will start something we can’t finish here.”
Corrado’s dark chuckles pulsed against the back of her shoulder. “Patience is a beautiful thing to learn, but you get me best when I have none, Ginevra.”
God.
Well, he wasn’t wrong.
“And he snuck out with Chris a while ago,” Corrado murmured. “I suspect he needed a second to relax … get his mind off things. He’s another one, you know? Alessio doesn’t have a fucking ounce of patience in him.”
That dark, suggestive tone of his had her stomach clenching. All husky, and deep. Like he already had the taste of her on his mouth, and he was ready for more. It was enough to make her wish they were anywhere but here, and that Alessio was with them.
As though he could read her mind, Corrado’s hands tightened on her hips. Those fingers of his pressed firm enough to make her breath catch, reminding Ginevra how good it was to have his fingers filling her ass while Alessio had been fucking her on that chair.
It also reminded her they were not at all in an appropriate place for her to be having those kinds of thoughts.
“We should go,” she whispered.
Corrado’s lips curved into a smirk as his mouth drifted along the line of her shoulder to the junction at her throat. “We should. Let’s say goodbye, and go find Les, huh?”
“Please.”
A thick noise fell from his throat, and those fingers of his flexed at her hips harder, promising the best of their night was yet to come. She couldn’t wait.
“Leaving, are we?”
Ginevra smiled, tipping her chin down to hide the reddening of her cheeks at the familiar, sexy voice behind them. Why wasn’t she surprised that Alessio had sneaked up on them in the family room while they were distracted together and then stayed quiet, so he could watch them.
He loved that.
It made Ginevra hotter.
“Well?” Alessio asked, stepping up beside Ginevra. “Are we leaving?”
She heard the other question in his statement he didn’t outright ask. That simple yes or no they always waited for her to give. It was their reminder, even when their movements were rough, and she felt like she was spiraling down to crash between them, that … she still had the control here.
Even when it didn’t seem like it.
“Yes,” Ginevra said. “Yes, we’re leaving.”
They knew her so well.
They knew each other so well.
And maybe that was what captured Ginevra the most when she was between Corrado and Alessio. That even in the simple things, as they undressed her, they were so aware what the other did that in their rushed movements, they didn’t clash. Their hands knowing and sure, like they had mapped these paths out on her in their minds a million times before they had ever gotten her on her knees on the bed.
It was how they moved with each other, how they worked that took her breath away first. Even as their attention focused in on her, she stared up in enough time to watch Corrado lean over her from the front, reaching for Alessio. His thumb caught the other man’s lip while Alessio drew soft circles against Ginevra’s clit.
Corrado’s other thumb slipped past Ginevra’s lips for her to suck on the tip even as he kissed Alessio.
Still, her body hummed.
Still, she had to watch.
She barely remembered the drive home. Not when Alessio had settled into the backseat with her while Corrado drove far too fast down the highway. She didn’t think about the blur outside their windows from the speed when Alessio was between her thighs, his hands holding her down against soft leather while his tongue found a spot on her body no man’s mouth had ever been. And his fingers were there, too, pressing into her ass to stretch her open.
In the front seat, Corrado told Alessio, “But don’t let her come.”
Yeah.
Alessio followed the direction, too. Throughout the drive, on the way up to the penthouse, and now she was in their bed, one standing on the right of the mattress as he worked her pussy and clit with his mouth and his fingers, and the other in front of her …
She still hadn’t come.
Oh, they brought her so fucking close.
To that edge where blissed numbness came in, the seconds right before they would push her into the abyss of an orgasm … and they stopped. Corrado would kiss her, his hands driving over her spine, and under to her chest where he tweaked at her nipples. Ale
ssio would back off from behind her enough to let her shaking subside.
And then they would begin again.
Like now.
And Ginevra?
Fucking crazy.
If there was a raw, pure version of her, this was it. She didn’t recognize the sounds climbing her throat every time they denied her another orgasm. Her begging had started three denials ago.
“Please, please,” she mumbled.
Corrado’s hand curved her cheek, the tender touch about the only thing that didn’t make her ache in the best way from the rest of their roughness. “Not yet, kitten. See, you’re almost there … he will edge you again and again, until you want to scream. And then it’s going to feel like nothing will sate you except everything.”
“And don’t you want that, Ginny?” Alessio asked behind her.
Why did their voices sound so hot?
Throaty.
It drove her crazy, too.
“Almost,” Alessio murmured. “She’s shaking good.”
Corrado peered down at her, a glint staring back at her. “You can see it in her eyes, too. They darken when they widen.”
She didn’t understand their words, not when another orgasm was so fucking close as Alessio continued circling her clit at a much faster speed than before. And yet, she was scared they would take it away from her, too.
Deny her again.
Corrado kept his touch at her cheek, his thumb roving over her trembling lips as he freed his cock from the confines of his boxer-briefs. A grunt escaped from his mouth when she leaned forward, her mouth encasing the head of his cock even as he stroked the base made her wetter.
It seemed like it.
Then again, it might have been when Alessio’s mouth found her pussy as his fingers kept working her clit, his tongue lapping at her sensitive tissues and flicking at her entrance for more sensation added to the rest.
Or it might have been all.
“Fuck, Ginny.” Corrado’s words sounded like they ached coming out. “Les, at this one, yeah?”
Alessio’s hand at her ass flexed roughly against her muscles, and he pulled away from her sex, making her whine low. “You s—”