by Serena Light
“Yes,” Her voice came out hoarse as she massaged the back his head with her free hand, nodding to his questions.
“Liked it?”
“Yes,”
“Want me to do that again to you sometime?”
“Oh, God, yes,” Nicole groaned and pressed her lips to his in a breathless kiss when he chuckled at the reaction. Rubbing his thumb over her bare side before pulling back from her lips to kiss her cheek and the exposed skin of her neck and then her shoulders. Stopping every movement between them as his wife wrapped her arms around him, burying her face into the hollow of his throat.
“We can stop here,” He murmured against her shoulder, drawing circles on her side.
His wife hummed in question and pulled back just enough to stare back at him with furrowed eyebrows and half-lidded eyes.
“We can stop here if you like? If you’re tired or have changed your mind.” He pulled back to look down at her hazy green eyes that shone gold in the lamp’s dim lighting. “It’s your call,”
“Before leaving Tuscany, I told myself we would go all the way,”
“It’s okay if we don’t,”
“I know, but I don’t…I don’t want to delay it any longer,” Nicole looked up at her husband, acutely aware of his length pressed against her thigh. “And besides what about you-?”
“-You don’t have to worry about me, I can promise you that much,” Salvatore combed back her hair, kissing the tip of her nose when affection swelled in his chest for her tousled hair and half-lidded hazy eyes. “I just want you to be comfortable and one hundred percent sure about this,”
“I am sure,”
“Yeah?”
“Yeah,”
“And you’re not saying this for me?”
“No,” She shook her head and lowered her gaze to the base of his neck, swallowing before meeting his eyes again. “I want to do this, for me,”
“Okay,” Salvatore nodded and wrapped an arm around her, pulling her to him as she exhaled shakily to feel his hand trail down her side and rest at her hips. “Nicole, I want you to know that there is no shame in changing your mind midway, okay?” He placed a kiss on her temple.
“Okay,”
“And you can tell me if you don’t want to do this anymore,”
“Alright,” She exhaled and tighten her hold on him just a fraction when she felt his hand grip her thigh, her breath stuttering in her throat.
“Just my finger, okay?” He whispered into her hair as she nodded, her shoulder hunched together as she buried her face under his chin closing her eyes tightly, letting out a gasp when she felt his finger rub over the sensitive nub, Salvatore tightening his hold on her at the reaction. “It’s okay, I can stop,”
She shook her head beneath his chin, her fingers trembling against his back as he placed tender kisses against her crown and gently parted her legs. Nicole hiding her face into his chest and whimpered to feel him slowly ease one finger into her. Her legs tensing at the foreign intrusion.
Salvatore spent time murmuring soft words against her hair, checking in with her to see if she wanted him to stop but was only responded with a shake of her head. Her husband kissing the side of her face and the back of her cheek before easing in another finger, Nicole whimpering and bunching smaller into him, but didn’t want him to stop.
Easing her opening, Nicole could feel the hammering of his heart and the hardness of his length against her stomach, having no doubt in her mind that this wait was excruciating on him. Looking up, she watched his eyes shut with his eyebrows scrunched together in concentration, biting his lower lip in an effort to try and keep the pace steady and gentle on her.
“Salvatore,” Her breath stuttering in her throat as he hummed and looked at her through half-lidded eyes. Nicole placing her hands on either side of his face. “I’m ready,”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes,”
A grunt escaped Salvatore at the words as he pulled away from her, his entire body flushed and a sheen of perspiration covering his skin. Moving on top of her, he braced himself on either side of her head, looking down at her with lust and pain clashing in his eyes, his breath coming out in uneven pants and his chest heaving with every breath.
“Are you sure?”
“Yes,”
“One hundred percent?”
“Yes,”
He only bit his lip at the words, leaning down, he captured her lips in his own and aligned himself to her entrance, every muscle in her body tensing at the initial contact.
“Relax, Nicole,” He breathed against her mouth. “Look at me, you’re alright,” He nudged her gaze towards him as she swallowed the lump in her throat and nodded.
“You’re alright,” Salvatore’s breath stuttered in his throat, watching Nicole squeeze her eyes shut against the pain and grit her teeth from crying out. His heart fell in his stomach to see her eyebrows creating a crease between her brows, her fingers clutching onto whatever she could get her hold on. “You’re alright, Nicole, I promise,” He grunted when he felt some form of resistance, steeling his nerves as he saw a tear trickle down the side of her eye.
“I’m sorry,” He choked out when the resistance gave away, a startled cry escaping Nicole at the foreign feeling as she buried her face into Salvatore’s shoulder, trembling from head to toe. “I’m sorry baby, it will all be over soon I promise,” He murmured into her hair.
He maintained a steady pace that allowed Nicole to regain her composure, his heart aching to hear her quietly sniffle. Her cries slowly morphing into small moans and whimpers. Her head resting back on the pillow as she looked up at her husband with half-lidded eyes, cupping his face into her hands and placing a kiss on his lips.
“You can go faster,” She murmured against his mouth, knowing how much effort it took on his part to go slow for her. “I’ll be fine,”
“No,” He shook his head at the words. “No,”
“Baby, it's okay,”
“No,” Salvatore grunted and buried his face into the crook of her neck, peppering kisses across her skin as she arched into him, feeling her stomach clench and a bubble of pleasure build.
She tugged at his hair, moaning into his shoulder before clawing her nails down his back to feel that familiar sensation tug at her gut, her eyes screwed together and her whimpers echoing in Salvatore’s skull. Her reactions causing pleasure to build inside Salvatore as he gripped at the sheets above her head, moaning into the crook of her neck.
A white flash shot through them both as Nicole came undone with a gasping cry that had tears gather at the corner of her eyes and Salvatore tried to muffle his groan in her skin, gripping at the sheets until his knuckles turned white.
Nicole lay with her back to Salvatore’s chest, both of them having cleaned up and now his wife lay curled against him, sound asleep.
He smiled drowsily at the back of her tousled hair. Taking a strand and twirling it around his fingers before he shuffled closer to her, placing a kiss on her nape before settling down to sleep. Too exhausted to turn off the lamp behind him.
The Mafia boss couldn’t keep from smiling when Nicole shuffled in his hold, laying her head on his chest and resumed her slumber, a warmth spreading through Salvatore’s chest at the action just before his eyes closed.
Chapter XXII: Happily Married
Nicole gasped and clutched at the sheets, her back arching off the bed and her face flushed red. Her breath came in uneven pants and tremors went through her, small mewls escaping her lips as she writhe on the bed, her hair disheveled and her chest heaving.
"God," She groaned, shutting her eyes tight as her knuckles turned white with her hold on the sheets
With a startled jump, a shudder passed through Nicole as whimpers escaped her, her body sagging against the mattress afterward with her breath erratic and her head spinning due to the lack of air. With trembling fingers, she touching the base of her neck, feeling the fine sheen of sweat over her body.
The mattress dipped
beneath her with the movement before Salvatore's face loomed over her, smirking at the dazed expression across her face, leaning down and capturing her lips with his own, a groan escaping Nicole at the salty taste that infiltrated her mouth. Moaning against his mouth she reached for his shirt, pulling it over his head as he moved away from her, his hands flying to the hem of her nightdress which had ridden up to her stomach.
"You don't let me sleep," Nicole complained into his mouth, running her hands over his bare body, dragging her nails down his chest as he shuddered. "Either you make me sleep late or you wake me up early,"
"Do you want me to stop?" He asked, his lips brushing hers with every word as he pulled the grey nightgown over her head and tossed it to the side, his hot kisses trailing from her neck to her chest as she threaded her hands through his hair.
"God, no,"
A chuckle escaped Salvatore as he grasped her hips in his hands, pulling her towards him as she slid down the bed, smirking at his wife as she gave him a soft smile and wrapped her legs around his waist, kissing him gently as one hand fumbled to get the trousers off him. Just as Salvatore reached down to help her, a knock sounded on the door.
"Fuck off," He murmured against her lips as Nicole chuckled, the knock sounding once more forcing him to groan. "Goddamit," He spoke in irritation, getting off the bed and fixing the waistband of his trousers before walking down the extended hallway, opening the door and squinting at the guard before him.
"What?"
"Sir, there is a boss downstairs to meet you," He informed curtly, bowing his head in submission.
"It's a Saturday," Salvatore ran a hand over his forehead. "As I said, on weekends I won't get to work before 12, it's 9. If it's serious, tell him to wait or come back later."
"Yes, sir," The man nodded as he closed the door behind him, making his way back to Nicole, who lay on the bed, her legs tangled in the sheets and her hair disheveled with the duvet pulled to her chest, looking at him with glimmering green eyes.
"So...sir," His wife purred at him. "Where were we?"
Grinning at her, Salvatore bounded onto the bed, instantly covering her body with his own as he pinned her hands over her head in one swift motion before capturing her lips.
At 11, Salvatore stood in front of his full-length mirror with a grey towel around his waist and his hands slick with gel as he ran his fingers through his hair, pushing back his tresses.
"Look at you," Nicole hummed, wrapping her arms around his chest from the back, placing a kiss against his shoulder blades. "So handsome,"
"And very naked," He rebuffed, turning in her arms to place a quick kiss on her forehead as she giggled, reaching for his towel as he clucked and grabbed her hand. "I've got work to get to,"
"You can work on me,"
"I can to that whenever, mio cara," He murmured, cupping her chin into his fingers and brushing his lips with her. "Besides, I've got all day tomorrow to "work" on you,"
Nicole smiled as she let him pull away and put on black slacks with a white button-up beneath a matching blazer, his tie a deep purple color with a pocket square to match.
Giving her a quick kiss, he left the room and went down to work, raising an eyebrow to see the man seated before his table, looking weary and tired.
"Welcome, Donatello," Salvatore spoke as he sipped from his coffee mug, looking at the man over the rim of his glass as he settled behind his desk, the man standing with a bowed head before him. "To what do I owe this pleasure of you showing up in my office at 9 a.m. in the morning?"
"I...I had heard this was the best time to meet with you, sir,"
"That was the case before I got married, Donatello, haven't you heard?" He inquired, swiveling in his seat as the man swallowed. "You're a married man yourself, aren't you?"
"I am, but I didn't come to talk about my wife,"
"Then what did you come to talk about?"
"Sir, my family is being threatened and I would like your help in ending the threat,"
"You want men, weapons, or wits?"
"Men and weapons, sir,"
"And what do I get in return for this assistance?"
"I'll pay you whatever is required,"
"I see..." Salvatore sipped his coffee. "Well, let's negotiate a price shall we?" He gestured for the man to settle down.
He spent a majority of the evening dealing with various mafia transactions, glad that it would all end at 4 p.m.
Since they had returned from Venice, Salvatore had a few changes brought about. For a start, he gave the responsibility of the nightclubs to Marco, allowing him to get home and done with work by 8. He then further changed the fact that Sundays would be his day off, where he did not cater to any form of work, and on Saturday he just dealt with the most urgent Mafia matters from 12 till 4, after which he did not listen to anything about business.
His men still had trouble adjusting to the sudden changes, but Nicole had been ecstatic when he had told her.
A knock sounded on his door when he had been peering over a document.
"Come" He spoke, flipping the page before looking up at the sound of the door opening, smirking to see Nicole walk in with a colorful floral top and blush pink skirt that reached her knees, a plate of sandwiches in her hand. "What brings you here?" He questioned, closing the document and putting it to the side.
"Well, I thought I'd bring you something to eat," She shrugged, coming to stand before him with her back to the table.
"Oh, what a dutiful wife thing to do," He chuckled and settled on his seat, Nicole sitting on top of his table and handing a sandwich to him as she had the other one, both of them chuckling at random things as they ate, men coming and going, momentarily taken aback by the sight of Nicole but then reporting to Salvatore in short words as he nodded and dismissed them with a wave.
"So what have you been doing?" Salvatore dusted his hands and stood from his place.
"I made something," Nicole bounded off the table, grinning up at him. "And I wanted to show it to you,"
"Really? What'd you make?"
"It's a surprise, come on," She grabbed his hand and led him out to the back and into the forest before they stopped before her greenhouse. Nicole led the way inside and stopping at the wall at the far end, a large board standing against the wall with half the space covered in pictures and the rest devoid of anything.
"It's a work in progress," Nicole shrugged, gesturing to the canvas as Salvatore took a closer look, realizing she had pictures pinned up. "But so far, it's coming together well enough."
He recognized the pictures and the scenes depicted in them.
The very first one was him as a newborn baby on a ventilator in the NICU. He had been such a frail baby that the doctors feared he wouldn't live. Having been born asthmatic, he has constantly in and out of hospitals for the first 5 years of his life before it finally began to settle down. The second one was of him being 1-year-old, standing in nothing but white diapers and leaning over a box to grab something out of the frame, his black hair an unruly mess with a thin frame and bright blue eyes. The second was of him as a 2-year-old, sitting on a hospital bed with an oxygen mask over his face, longingly looking out the window to his left. Then he was 3 and then he was 4.
In the picture where he was 4, a picture of a newborn baby swaddled in a blanket was next to it. And he instantly knew it was Nicole as an infant.
He watched as both him and Nicole grew over the ages, Salvatore eyes bright with mirth and a huge grin on his face on all the pictures leading up to when he was 17, then at the age of 18, he didn't so much as smiled in the picture, only look at it with cold blue eyes. Nicole on the other hand, had the opposite transition, grinning widely until the age of 9 after which all her smiles turned forced or non-existent until she turned 19, making him 23. The picture of the 23-year-old was of him seated on the sidewalk with his elbows on his knees, looking up at the camera from below his hair that was falling into his dark eyes.
Then he was 24 and she was 20, both of
them looking at the camera without mirth. The pictures that followed were much the same: dull eyes, forced smiles, or no smiles at all.
By the time he reached the picture of him being 28, he was surprised to see it being their wedding photo. Nicole seated in a chair with Salvatore standing behind him, both of them in their wedding attires and giving professional looks to the camera: evidently being forced into this.
Salvatore watched how the second picture was of their first month together and then their second and third month. He noticed how their indifferent expression morphed into small smiles and smirks, before becoming genuine smiles and grins their eyes lighting up with every successive image and in one they were even laughing. The last was of them together in Venice, standing on a bridge with the canal to their back and Salvatore's arm around her waist as they grinned at the camera, their hair blowing due to the wind.
"What do you think?" Nicole asked, standing to the side with her hands behind her back. "It's still a work in progress, and I wanted us to put the picture of our ten-month anniversary, you know, given that it's March."
"It's nice," He admitted, running a finger over their wedding picture before standing from his crouching position. "Although, do you plan on documenting every month of our married lives?"
"No, just the first year," She shrugged, stepping beside him. "So what do you say to the next picture?"
"Sure, why not?"
"Great." Nicole grinned. "Although, you're looking a little...bland,"
"Bland?" Salvatore scoffed. "In Armani?"
"Well, you know, there is no color..."
"I left my purple tie in the office-"
"-I was thinking more of blue," She intervened, stepping forward and running her blue paint-coated hands over his cheeks. "There, now you look lively,"
"Did you just..." Salvatore trailed in disbelief, touching his wet cheek for it come back a bright blue. "Smear paint all over my face?"
"Oh, just a little," His wife grinned.