by Olivia Fox
What kind of sick animal was I if I wanted to beat my pecs like Tarzan and scream out into the forest, dragging Savanna into my cave. The woman was pregnant, for God’s sake.
Her voice came from the doorway. “I realized something when those men tried to steal me away from you. Of course, I worried about the baby and me too. But in spite of that overwhelming concern, I couldn’t keep the fear from pounding in my brain, the fear that I might never see you again. That I might not tell you again, right to your face…” She leaned forward and laid her hand over my heart. “I love you, Dante, and when it comes to our family, I’m all in.”
28
Dante
Contrary to popular belief, there was no blood exchanged in the swearing in ceremony. The vows to my sworn family were awash with the spirit of Drago ancestors. From this day forward, I’d swear obedience to the Don, assist all other families in the syndicate—and avenge an attack on our family, no questions asked.
Instead of blood dripping from Zio’s hand, he spilled a gentle sprinkle of water from the watering can onto the earth surrounding the newly planted tree. “Loyalty makes a family, Dante. You’re a dutiful nephew, grandson, and now you have the Don’s blessing, and that of the consigliere and your captains. Omerta: never betray your code of silence.”
I repeated the vows to protect my family and my friends after Zio. The vow of loyalty until death. My father kept it until a rival gang killed him, back in the day when the Drago’s business dealings were more about strong-arming than deliberation.
It felt right.
To lead our family into a new era of success and legitimacy, advised by the wise counsel of my uncle, grandfather, and those men who made it through the era of slaughter, moving us into a period of mostly lawful transactions.
Cousin Carlos did the honors, making his round with a tray of ouzo for every attendee.
A red-tailed hawk flew small circles in the sky overhead and we held up our glasses of the fiery, licorice liquor while the Don toasted in Italian. “May God have mercy on my enemies, because I will not.”
Zio faced me and said, “And here’s to Dante, and to no more Bulgarian interference. No more watching our backs. Those two idiotas were squashed like bugs. No more interference from the eager beavers.”
“Which bugs? What beavers? What did you find out?” I asked, completely out of the loop.
“Don Orlov contacted the Alberto when he returned from L.A. Turns out two low-level Bulgarian associates tried to head out on their own. They stole fifty thousand dollars’ worth of ecstasy from the Bulgarian crew in Los Angeles and brought it here to sell. Foolishly, they tried to get in with Orlov’s gang,” said my uncle.
“Turns out, their efforts included Pete’s murder—somehow they learned the Russians wanted a bigger piece of our development and the fools thought they’d take matters into their own hands and send us a warning,” said Carlos, who’d been in on the conversations with the Russians.
“Idiotas,” my grandfather repeated and spat on the ground.
“They’re the same punks who tried to kidnap Savanna. They’re better off dead. They’d never survive the hassling they’d get for being overpowered by a pregnant woman. She’s something that girl of yours.” Zio shook his head.
“Better off dead? Who killed them?”
“Maxim. Orlov’s soldier. The Bulgarian mob is now in his debt.”
“And so the world turns,” I said. “Sounds like everyone can come out of hiding now.” I held my cup out for another shot of Ouzo.
Carlos stepped forward, his mouth twisted into a complacent half grin, “This here is a little early wedding present to go with the rest of the good news.” He handed me an envelope which I opened in front of them all.
“What am I looking at?” I asked.
“That there is your proof that Savanna is in the clear. The DOJ investigated the disappearance of this guy, Mathew, and after speaking to her on the phone, produced insufficient evidence to make a final determination as to whether or not any crime has occurred. In so many words, case closed. Far as I can tell, now everyone can come out of hiding, right?”
I had the sudden urge to hold my fiancé tight and let the relief sink in. We had nothing to worry about. She was in the clear.
“From what I hear, some of our family members are enjoying their concealment a little more than expected,” said Zio, jerking his eyebrows up and down, and tossing his ouzo back with a satisfied smack.
“How so?”
“The Colpo di Fulmine struck your cousin Sergio. The lightning bolt.” He lifted a huge hand in the air and brought it down slow to emulate thwacking himself between the eyes. “By Savanna’s aunt. They’ve got at least two more weeks until they hit port—who knows what will happen.”
“One can only imagine.” I said, shaking my head, remembering it was time for me to pick up Savanna’s pregnancy present.
I stopped by the bakery where Savanna was overseeing operations with aplomb. “We need another batch of blueberry scones for tomorrow morning or we’ll run out, and Linda, if you would get the brownie batter started we can pop those in the oven after lunch.”
“My timing is excellent,” I said. “Lunch.”
“Dante!” Savanna spun around. “I thought you had that... er, thing today with your grandpa.”
“I did the thing. Ready to take you to lunch now. Come on.” I held my hand out to her and led her to my truck. I opened her door, and she couldn’t miss the small basket sitting on her seat.
Her hands flew to her mouth, and she sucked in air. “What’s this?!” She pranced on her tiptoes.
“It’s your practice-baby,” I said, unable to resist the temptation to lean forward and smell her.
Delicious.
“What’s his name?” she asked, picking him up and making the universal mothering coo of females everywhere.
“The Yorkie breeder called him Hank, but you can decide on a name you like. Obviously.”
“I like Hank,” she said.
“I like you.” I kissed her nose. “A lot. And you’re going to like this a lot.”
I handed her the envelope, unable to wait for her to open it. “Wedding present from Carlos. The DOJ has closed the investigation of Mathew’s disappearance. You’re in the clear.”
My chest swelled when she threw her arms around me, and I felt the hot tears of her relief soak through the fabric of my shirt.
Savanna got into the truck with Hank on her lap, and I strapped her in, realizing she now exuded the air of a woman at peace.
Not a girl on the run. Not someone trying to convince herself that everything was going to be okay, but a person who knew deep down that all was right with the world.
And that she had her place in it.
That place was next to me, by my side; frosted with a love as mouthwatering and satisfying as cream cheese frosting.
29
Savanna
Florence, Italy
I grabbed the apricot scented bubble bath off of the marble shelf in our suite in Florence and turned towards the window overlooking the Duomo to prepare my bath.
Only one problem.
A huge, hairy, black spider sat on the drain catch, waving its fangs at me, ready to pounce.
Just as the front door of our room opened and shut, I screamed so hard there were flames in my throat.
“Dante! Come here!”
His heavy footsteps sprinted down the hallway and he shouted, “Where are you?”
“In here! Hurry!”
He burst into the bathroom, his breath ragged, and panting.
I had backed myself up against the wall and pointed accusingly towards the tub.
“What is it!?” he asked.
“It’s a ginormous spider! You have to get it out! Just don’t kill it.”
“Let me get this straight, you just made me think you were being eaten alive by this little arachnid, but you want me to save it?” he asked.
“I know they’re good fo
r the environment. I just don’t want it attacking me!”
“That tiny thing is way too small to take a bite out of you.” On that note, Dante reached down into the tub, scooped the spider onto one palm and quickly covered it with the other.
A shiver shot through my entire body. “What are you doing?! He’s going to pierce you with his gigantic pedipalps.”
“I’ll set him outside on the window ledge, his new home, far away from the scary screams of my frightened baby.”
I disinfected the entire tub with hot, scalding water and squeezed a big splooge of bubble bath into it. The apricot scent relaxed me, and I took off my clothes.
“Mind if I join you?” Dante asked, giving my body a shameless, sweeping gaze.
“Not at all.”
Dante slid in behind me, wrapped his arms part way around, and palmed my breasts, rubbing circles over my nipples, “These are definitely dirty. They’ll need lots of rubbing clean.” He picked up the bar soap and used it to make a soapy, slippery lather all over my breasts, arms, legs, stomach, and shoulders.
Keeping his promise, he came to a halt on my ultra-sensitive buds, pinching them while he said, “These are still dirty as sin, but I know a part of you that’s absolutely filthy.”
“Oh, really? And what would that be?”
In answer, he slowly dove his hand down my belly, to the apex of my thighs, and started rubbing circles over my mons, avoiding the single, throbbing place that would take me to orgasm.
He squeezed his muscled thighs on either side of mine and trapped me in his powerful embrace.
“Hold still.” He blew his hot words in my ear. “Don’t move. I need to get my obscene obsession clean.”
I was powerless to resist him when his rough voice stoked my belly, whispering his dirty promises. His fingers stroked my clit, sending me into shivers of ecstasy.
“My turn,” I said, wriggling out from between his legs and turning around, and kneeling before him. Taking the soap out of his hands, I made thick, foamy bubbles all across his hairy chest.
Like him, I took my time and lingered to appreciate his solid flesh beneath my palms.
He was a hard man.
My man.
And yet he was gentle and loving with me in a way that chased off all uncertainty and peeled bare my insecurities until I stood before him, my true self.
He was devoted to the authentic version of me.
“What have we here?” I asked in a voice that I hoped sounded seductive and not awkward, like I felt sometimes when faced with his fierce and intimidating beauty.
“It’s all yours, baby,” he said with a hoarse promise. “I’m aching for you. Let’s get dry.”
Watching him towel off, his obliques rippled with the slight movement and he grew harder in front of my eyes. I craved his precum as if it were my favorite soft serve ice cream and was eager to taste him.
He used a brush to slick back his thick, black hair. Throughout all of his grooming, his shaft strained upward in a thick curve.
“Are you coming to the bedroom or what?” I asked.
“Good things come to those who wait, Savanna.” He lifted me in his bronzed arms, carrying me to our bedroom.
“You’re so brilliant bringing me on this vacation before you take office in two months. It’s going to be a crazy time.”
“Not to mention the fact that by then you’ll be well into your second trimester. You won’t have as much energy. I’ve seen that with my sister and cousins. It was now or never, baby.”
He lay me down on the bed. There was something sacred about the time we spent in the bedroom, sleeping together, making love, drinking coffee, reading, watching movies together.
“Now that I have you here, why don’t you be a good girl?”
He pulled back the covers from his lap to reveal his very hard, very erect cock which direly needed attention, as evidenced by the pearly drop which slid down the head to the beginning of his shaft.
I lowered myself between his legs so that the strong, fuzzy grip of his thighs surrounded me.
Grasping the base of his cock, I lowered my head and surrounded him with the suck of my mouth. He stifled a hungry groan. I slid my hand up and down the length of him, marveling at the steely thickness.
“Do you remember your safe word?” I asked.
“How could I forget? It’s Signora Drago. But I won’t need a safe word, will I?”
“That’s for me to know and you to find out.” I lowered my mouth over the tip of him and swerved my tongue back and forth under his spongy head. He was hard for me and only me. We belonged together, and I’d prove it.
He made a wholly sensual sound, a low rumble of desire, and held the sides of my head while thrusting over my tongue. I gathered saliva in my mouth and shoved his now throbbing dick as far as I could into my mouth. I wrapped my fingers around the base of him, stroking up and down, while pulling at the end of his erection with my mouth, creating a delicious and by the sound of it, agonizing pleasure.
I could sense by mere touch when he was ready to orgasm, and I knew if I didn’t stop, I’d soon have a mouthful of his creamy seed. Instead, I raised my head and listened to his tortured groan and climbed up his body with every part of my hormonally charged body on fire for him. It felt like I’d come if he simply put his fingers on my clit.
I raised up on my knees to arrange my pussy directly over the head of his erection. Reaching behind my back, I lowered my hand to him and gently tugged at his balls, causing him to moan aloud. I slid my fingers upwards over the thick base of him, I slowly stroked his rigid flesh, now covered with my saliva. Judging by the feral sound of his groans, he was getting extremely close. I slowed down and placed both my hands on his shoulders.
“Help me,” I said, showing what I meant by lowering my pulsing opening to the crest of his cock. “I can’t get it inside without your help.”
“What are you trying to do to me, Savanna? I need to be inside of you now.”
He slipped just the tip of him inside, and he was boiling against my skin.
“Your wish is my command,” I said and shoved myself onto him, until I was filled with his throbbing erection.
My plans may have been foiled because there was no way I could draw out his release. Instead, I used the leverage of my hands against his broad shoulders to push his heavy erection into me, lunging onto him with my cunt.
It was such a powerful, feminine feeling, being in charge of his most primal urges.
“Do you need to use your safe word?” I fucked at him some more.
His eyes squinted tight, his mouth was open, it was as if he could barely get the words out. “I might, I don’t know how long I can hold out with you fucking at me with your tight little pussy. God, it’s so good, so tight around me. I’m going to...”
I knew exactly what he meant. Concentrated at my center, and I could feel the coiled pulse of my passion with every thrust. He was made for me, and we moved together as one, his every ridge stroking me to erotic heights I’d only read about.
But I was torturing him now.
I was in control, commanding him with my pussy.
Leaning down, I whispered in his ear, “Don’t you dare come. I’ll know if you’re close, and if you get there, I’m going to stop fucking your big dick.”
I drug my palms over his chest and pinched his nipples between my fingers, gently palpitating them, not knowing if he’d like it as much as I did but felt extremely turned on when he cried out with pleasure.
My legs were getting sore from thrusting myself onto him, but the effect was so rewarding, I couldn’t stop myself.
I wouldn’t stop myself.
Not until I tortured him how he did me with his belt, nipple suckers, and slaps to my pussy.
This was payback time.
“For God’s sake, Savanna. Signora Drago. Let me come!”
The rules of the game were such that our safe words had to be upheld, but it did me in to halt the act of springing up a
nd down on his throbbing member, his rough hands squeezing and caressing my ass as I plunged myself onto him.
But rules were rules.
I brought the assault of my pussy to a stop, Dante shoved all the way inside, and I rested my buttocks on my heels, my hands placed on his chest, both of us gasping out our torment.
“Are you sure you want me to stop?” I asked. “What if I tell you to come?”
“I need to come. I don’t know how I’m not coming now. It’s taking everything I have. Please, please let me come.” He groaned.
“Okay, since you asked so nicely, and you’ve been such a good boy, saving me from spiders. Massaging my feet at night. Bringing me to Florence.”
I leaned down to the side of his head, pulling his ear lobe in my mouth and laving it with my tongue. He jerked inside me in response. I whispered, “I fucking love it when I ride you like this. I’m going to fuck you now, and shove my pussy onto your big, fat hard-on as fast and hard as I can.”
The sounds of stark need came from both of us as I rotated my hips in slow circles around his thickness.
Dante thrust into me, the tendons in his neck standing out, and I was so deliciously full of him. My entire body was on fire when he rubbed at my clit, pulling out almost all the way, then plunged deep.
He pressed harder into me, deeper, filling me up with his maleness, I met his driving rhythm beat for beat until we came hard, fueling each other’s climax.
We lay together afterwards, relishing in our shared connection.
Dante stroked my hair and said, “So about that safe word...” His bass tone reverberated against the mattress beneath me.
“It’s a little late for that now, isn’t it?” I asked.
“No, I mean, will you?” His words vibrated through me and he kissed the beautiful engagement ring picked out by Babe, the cat. “Will you be Signora Drago?”