Bound By Blood

by Reilly, Cora

  Soon my hands couldn’t stay still anymore. I stroked Lily’s neck, her collarbone before I cupped her breast gently through the fabric of her dress. She moaned softly into my mouth and I couldn’t resist sucking her lower lip into my mouth as I kneaded her breast. I was already growing hard, tasting Lily, feeling her.

  “I need to make love to you,” I rumbled as I pulled away. She nodded with a dazed smile.

  I lifted her into my arms and carried her toward the bedroom where I lay her down on the bed. I climbed on top of her, my thighs parting her legs. Careful not to rest my weight on her belly, I kissed her again as my fingers slid down the strap of her dress. She wasn’t wearing a bra underneath so her beautiful pink nipple appeared as I tugged down her dress. Not able to resist, I kissed it, feeling it harden against my lips before I drew it into my mouth. Lily moaned, her hips lifting to meet mine. I circled Lily’s nipple with my tongue, watching her face. Her eyes were lidded, those pink lips parted. I gently rocked my hips, knowing she wanted to feel me there. But I wasn’t in a hurry. I took my time kissing and sucking her nipples until Lily shifted almost helplessly under me.

  I let up and pushed into a sitting position then helped Lily get out of her dress. She reclined again and I dropped light kisses all over her belly before I moved lower to the soft triangle of darker hair. When my tongue traced her slit, Lily bucked her hips with a breathless moan. I smiled against her bundle of nerves and gently traced it with just the tip of my tongue. I kept my touch light and slow, teasing Lily until she begged for more, for release.

  I swirl my tongue around her clit, then take a long lick along her center. I push a finger inside of her pussy, groaning at the feel of her heat, her arousal. My dick’s digging into the mattress and I’m close to losing sight of my main goal: prolonging Lily’s pleasure for as long as I can, but my own need burns hotter with every passing second. As I suck her clit, I curl my finger inside of her and Lily snaps. Her cry sent another thrill through me. I pumped my finger harder, faster, wanting my cock to take its place.

  I pushed up, unbuttoning my shirt impatiently. Lily quickly sat up to help me until I was finally naked. Bending over her, I slid into her, slower than I would have liked but I couldn’t help but be worried I’d hurt the baby after all.

  Lily wrapped her arms around my neck, pulling me closer. Her belly bumped against my abs as I lowered myself for a kiss. Every thrust into Lily felt like heaven from the wet heat surrounding my cock to her gasps and moans. Soon our bodies fell into a rhythm. Lily met my thrusts with her hips, driving me deeper. We never stopped kissing even as our breaths came shorter. When Lily dug her nails into my shoulders and pulled away for a moan, I allowed myself to let loose as well. Lily clung to me as my movements became uncoordinated. Eventually, I paused, breathing harshly against Lily’s throat. Her lips found mine for another kiss. I rolled off her but pulled her into my arms.

  We fell asleep like that not long after. As usual my sleep was peaceful with her at my side. No matter how bad the day, Lily kept the horrors at bay.

  Luca, Matteo and I sat in Luca’s office, talking business. Even if Luca and I were closer than he was with his other Captains, he expected me to report frequently. He’d put his trust in me by making me Captain despite the many dissenting voices and I wanted to show him that he hadn’t made a mistake. That’s why I worked hard every day to make sure the clubs and bars under my wing flourished. He wouldn’t have a reason to regret his decision.

  My phone rang. Usually I would have turned the sound off during a meeting with my Capo but Lily could be giving birth any time now. She was already five days overdue.

  Lily’s name flashed across the screen.

  I jerked to my feet and picked up. “Lily? What’s wrong?”

  Luca and Matteo both fell silent.

  “I’m in labor. I don’t think it’ll take long.”

  “Where are you?”

  “At home. My doula is here. I’m waiting for you.”

  “I’ll be there soon. Hold on.”

  Lily laughed. “All right.”

  I hung up, flustered.

  “I assume Liliana is about to have your baby?” Luca asked.

  I nodded shakily. “I should—”

  “Go ahead. Your wife needs you,” Luca said.

  “Good luck,” Matteo said with a wink.

  I turned and rushed to my car. I usually wasn’t someone who disregarded traffic regulations as a sport like Matteo, but today I raced through traffic, cutting lines and taking red lights where I could.

  When I arrived at home, out of breath and ready to carry Lily to the car or call an ambulance, I was surprised to find her sitting on the sofa, with her doula, the wife of a soldier, behind her, massaging her back. Lily was breathing heavily, her face twisted in pain.

  After a moment, her eyes settled on me and she gave a shaky smile. “You are quick.”

  “I hurried,” I said. “Should we head to the hospital now?”

  Lily looked at her doula. “We can wait another hour, I think.”

  I shook my head. I knew Lily trusted the woman but I’d rather have a doctor close by. I walked toward her, causing the doula to stand up and give us some privacy. Sinking down beside Lily, I kissed her hand.

  “Let’s get you to the hospital. I want you and our daughter to be safe. Next time we can discuss having that homebirth you want.”

  “Next time,” Lily said with a smile.

  I helped her to her feet and slowly guided her to the car, glad she’d agreed.

  Less than two hours later, Sara was born. She was as beautiful as Lily with big brown eyes and soft light brown hair. Lily nursed her with a tired but loving smile, and I held her in my arms, admiring her strength.

  “She’s so beautiful,” Lily said again.

  I nodded, stroking Lily’s bare arm. Protecting others had been my job for a long time but now it was suddenly part of my life, because the people who needed my protection were my life.

  Liliana

  Sara was asleep in her room so Romero and I had some time for us. This happened rarely. Sara kept us busy and so far, I couldn’t bring myself to let anyone else watch her overnight or in the evening, even if Aria had offered to babysit several times.

  When I walked back into our bedroom, the lights were dimmed and the door to the bathroom was ajar. As I stepped into the doorframe, my heart swelled with love. A dozen candles cast their warm glow on my surroundings and soft jazz music played in the background. Romero waited beside the bathtub, a box with my favorite chocolate truffles in hand and a bottle of non-alcoholic sparkling wine on the edge of the tub. He was only in tight boxers. My eyes took in his muscled chest and strong thighs, feeling a familiar tug between my legs. Since Sara’s birth, our love life had taken a hiatus and still hadn’t picked up where it had been before my pregnancy.

  “This is beautiful,” I whispered as I walked toward him and pressed up to his side. Now I wished I’d put on something sexier than a T-shirt and panties.

  “Is there a reason?”

  There wasn’t always. Romero was a romantic at heart and loved to surprise me with candlelight dinners or relaxing evenings in the bathtub. Still I always asked because my brain was frayed since Sara’s birth. Neither of us had ever forgotten an important occasion and I didn’t want to be the first.

  “The anniversary of the night that I made you mine,” he murmured before he left a lingering kiss on my lips. I loved remembering our first night together, the moment I’d known my heart irrevocably belonged to Romero.

  “That’s a good reason to celebrate,” I said, smiling up at him.

  “Why don’t we relax a bit?” His eyes reflected the desire slowly kindling in my belly as well. His hands slid under my T-shirt and helped me pull it over my head before he tossed it away. Despite the warmth in the room, my nipples pimpled. Romero’s fingers next hooked in my panties and slid them down slowly. His eyes never left mine, practically devouring me. How could I have worried Romero wou
ld care that I wasn’t wearing sexy lingerie? I hooked my hands in his boxers and pushed them down. My desire burned even brighter seeing Romero completely naked.

  He helped me into the tub and I sank into the hot water with a moan, feeling my tense muscles relax. Romero climbed in behind me and poured us the sparkling wine before handing a glass to me. We clinked glasses, and I settled against his chest and took a sip of my wine. Closing my eyes, I released a soft sigh. “I could fall asleep like that.”

  Romero’s lips traced my throat. “You didn’t get much sleep in the last few months. If you want to sleep, I’ll hold you.”

  Despite my body’s need for sleep, I also felt another growing yearning, and I knew Romero would feel an even stronger desire. “No,” I said softly. “Not tonight.” In my words swung my need for more and Romero picked up on it. As we listened to music, Romero’s hands caressed my breasts. The touch was gentle, almost fleeting. His palms and fingertips barely brushed my sensitive nipples but they puckered eagerly. Soon his cock grew hard against my back. He kissed my throat and the tender spot behind my ear as his fingers focused on my nipples, lightly circling them.

  Romero’s soft teasing was just what I needed to awaken my body. Without meaning to, my legs slid farther apart, pressing firmer against Romero’s muscled thighs. One of his hands slid down my belly until his fingertips brushed my pubic bone and brushed over my folds. As with my breasts before, his touch was careful, light. His fingers seemed to discover my folds with gentle strokes, rarely touching my clit, which swelled under the soft ministrations. I turned my head and kissed Romero, tasting him. His index finger rubbed small circles on my clit. Soon I rested bonelessly against him as we kissed and he cherished me. Despite the slow pace my body soon tightened with pleasure. Romero pulled back, our eyes locked, his fingers keeping up their slow caress of my clit and nipple. My lips parted, my lashes fluttered and then my release overwhelmed me. I moaned, my body arching into Romero. He kept up his caress until I sagged against him, spent as if we’d spent hours making love as in the past.

  He slid one of his fingers into me, causing me to moan again as he began to fuck me with it slowly. I reached behind myself and stroked his length. Romero’s breathing deepened immediately and he added a second finger to my center, making my inner walls clench. My head dropped back against his shoulder as I peered into his eyes.

  “Don’t stop,” I gasped.

  “I won’t,” he promised. I loved the darker, deeper timbre his voice took on when we made love.

  I was getting closer and closer, my hips bucking in rhythm with his fingers, and then stars burst in my vision. Romero breathed heavily, his arousal unmistakable at my back.

  “Ride me, Lily,” Romero murmured.

  I turned around and hovered above him, his tip brushing my throbbing entrance. Our lips met in a gentle kiss as I lowered myself on his cock. When he was sheathed all the way in me, we both paused, our eyes locked.

  “This feels so good,” I whispered.

  “Yeah,” Romero breathed. It still amazed me how good Romero could make me feel, how loved and cared for. I hadn’t regretted marrying him for a single moment. He was the love of my life and the best father I could imagine.

  Romero grabbed my hips, guiding my movements as I rocked up and down. The water sloshed gently around us as our bodies slid against each other. Soon my rocking turned almost desperate as I drove Romero’s cock deeper into me. One of his fingers found my bundle of nerves, rubbing it. My hold on Romero got tighter as I got closer. “Tell me when you come,” Romero panted.

  “Not long.”

  My movements became jerky, uncoordinated, but Romero’s upward thrusts hit just the right angle. “I—” Words died on my tongue as a wave of pleasure radiated through me but Romero knew my body.

  He threw his head back and gripped my hips hard as he came with me.

  I slumped against his chest, breathing harshly.

  A sound came from the baby monitor. Both Romero and I held our breaths, listening but it was silent. I breathed in and giggled.

  Romero rubbed my back. “I missed this.”

  “Me too,” I admitted. I hadn’t thought about sex as often in the last months but now I realized sex was more than pleasure, it was giving and receiving closeness on another level.

  We stayed like that for a while before soft wails rang from the speaker. Sara was waking up. Romero kissed me and helped me get out of the bathtub. I quickly wrapped a towel around myself before I dashed off toward the nursery beside our room. Sara was bellowing by then and didn’t quiet until I’d settled on the plush armchair and nursed her. The towel was bunched around my hip and I knew I’d be getting the armchair wet, especially the constant dripping of my hair.

  Romero came in, dry and in boxers but he carried a towel. He walked over to me and created a makeshift turban for my hair. “Do you need a blanket?”

  “I’m not cold,” I said with a smile. “Thank you.”

  He nodded, then watched me for a little while. “Seeing you like this makes me happy.”

  He bent down and kissed my forehead, then he walked out. I joined him in bed thirty minutes later. The moment I snuggled up beside him, he put away his phone where he’d undoubtedly been reading work emails. I yawned, exhausted.

  Romero wrapped his arms around me.

  “I always feel safe in your arms.”

  He kissed the top of my head. “You are safe. If I could I’d even protect you in your nightmares.”

  I looked up. “You do. Knowing you’re by my side does. I rarely have bad dreams and if I do, they have nothing to do with what happened in the past, only about the crime thrillers I sometimes read. You banished every bad memory.”

  Romero tightened his hold on me. “I’ll make sure there are only good memories in our future.”

  “And even if something bad happens, I know you’re there.”

  “Every step of the way.”

  I kissed him, then pressed my ear on his chest, listening to his calm heartbeat as I drifted off to sleep.

  Cara

  My stomach was in knots when I knocked at the front door of my former home. I’d moved into Ryan’s place only two months ago but his apartment already felt more like a home than this place ever had. Talia opened the door and gave me a smile which soon turned into a frown. “What’s wrong? You look tense.”

  She wasn’t the oblivious girl of the past. At only sixteen, too much had happened to her. If Dad were still alive and saw us now, he wouldn’t recognize us, not even Mom. But she was a good actress so maybe she’d succeed in making him believe a charade.

  “Big news to share,” I said.

  Talia’s eyes widened. “You’re going to marry.”

  I wasn’t even wearing my ring yet. It was hidden in my purse for later. Puzzled, I asked, “How do you know?”

  “I expected it any day now. You and Growl live together after all. It was only a matter of time.”

  She was right. Living together in our world before marriage was frowned upon, but my life had gone off the right track a while ago, so I wasn’t as obsessed with fitting in anymore. There were more important things, which was why I had wanted to live together with Ryan before marriage. He would have married me months ago, but he’d respected my wish and waited with his official proposal until a week ago. Even though I knew he wanted to marry, his knee-fall and the beautiful ring came as a surprise.

  Even if I’d already said yes and would marry him either way, I couldn’t deny that it was important for me to get my family’s approval, and Talia and Mom were pretty much the only close family I had anymore.

  “Does Mom suspect something?”

  I entered the apartment. Luca allowed Mom and Talia to live in it for free. It was a nice three-bedroom place in Brooklyn, newly renovated and completely furnished, but less than what we had been used to in Las Vegas. Mom was struggling with this fact. She couldn’t accept that the life before Dad’s murder was gone. I hoped one day she’d realiz
e that it could have ended so much worse if Luca hadn’t taken us in and given us a home in the Famiglia. Even if some people looked down on us for our family history, they mostly kept their opinion to themselves because we were related to the Capo.

  “You know how she is,” Talia said as she closed the door. “She prefers to ignore unpleasant truths.”

  She acted and looked so grown up, I had trouble getting used to it.

  I followed my sister into the dining room where Mom was setting the table. She looked up, stressed. “Dinner still takes a few minutes. Without staff, things just don’t work how I’m used to.”

  I didn’t mention that we were lucky to have a home and Mom didn’t really have anything else to do at the moment. Doing housework and cooking should be doable. In the past, invitations to social events and gossip meetings with her so-called-friends had been her main occupation, but in New York most people still avoided us. The only people who invited us were Luca and Aria, and that was mostly Aria’s doing. Luca might have taken us in but he didn’t care much about us. Not that I blamed him. We didn’t know each other. He was a stranger for me as well.

  I headed toward her and embraced her briefly. “No rush. We have all evening.”

  She nodded but I could tell that the words didn’t really sink in.

  “How can I help you?”

  “You’re the guest. You shouldn’t have to work.”

  I rolled my eyes. “Mom, I moved out only a few months ago. And we’re family. We don’t have to stick to social rules when we’re alone, don’t you think?”

  “I still think it was a mistake to move in with him before you’re married.” Her unsaid “or at all” lingered between us. She didn’t like Ryan and she didn’t try to pretend otherwise.

  “Ryan and I love each other, Mom. You can accept it or not, but it won’t change what I’m feeling.”

  “I didn’t say anything,” she said, even though she had. “It’s your life. You don’t want anyone to tell you what to do. I have no choice but to accept it.”