by Ciara Cole
“Me either.” He watched the doctor’s nimble fingers squirt some gel stuff on her slight baby bump and glided a long white probe over her belly.
“Okay now we’re going to listen for the heartbeat.”
Giovanni didn’t realize he was holding his breath until he heard the whoosh and then the glug-glug glug-glug of the heartbeat. “Isn’t that kind of fast for a baby?”
The doctor smiled kindly and squinted towards the screen with the weird black and white blobs. “Normally I would say yes, but if you listen closely you’ll hear that its two heartbeats.”
Two? “But that means,”
She nodded. “Yes, you are having twins.”
Talia gasped and covered her mouth as tears trickled down her cheeks. “Twins? I’m going to have two babies?”
“That’s right.” Her smile was wide. “Twins are hereditary, you know.”
Giovanni cleared his throat. “My grandfather is a twin.” His eyes began to sting at the thought of two small babies. His babies. He heard Talia sniffle and looked down. Her brown eyes swam with tears as she looked up at him. “We’re having twins,” he whispered and cupped her face, placing a sweet kiss on her mouth.
“Giovanni, twins,” she said again, disbelief in her voice. She looked to the doctor who still smiled indulgently. “Is everything alright…with them?”
“Yep. It’s too early to tell the sex, especially with two little guys in there, but if you take a look you can see both kiddos.”
They both leaned in and squinted to make out their babies. “Oh look, they’re holding hands…aren’t they?”
“They are.”
He squeezed Talia tight when she burst into tears. “My babies,” she wailed.
He kissed her cheek. “Our babies love each other already,” he whispered in her ear, brushing a kiss behind her ear.
“I’ll print these out for you. Come back in four weeks for your next check up. And congratulations.”
Giovanni helped Talia sit up and wrapped his arms around her shoulders. “Congratulations Talia,” he smiled and felt his heart expand when her smile met his.
“Congratulations, Giovanni.” She leaned her forehead against his chest and her body began to shake. “Not only do I get pregnant the first time I have sex in forever, but I get two babies instead of one.”
“Well you are a bit of an overachiever,” he laughed and kissed her forehead.
With her in his arms, Giovanni knew in that moment, he would do whatever it took to keep her and his babies safe.
~
Talia was pretty sure she was in shock. Twins. She would have to take care of twins now. On her own. She wasn’t sure that was something she could do without help, even if it was paid help. She had no doubt Giovanni would provide financial assistance for her and the twins, but a single mom of two was not a title she looked forward to holding. “Wow,” she said for the tenth time as she entered Giovanni’s home.
“That was definitely a surprise,” he answered. She knew he felt as shocked and unsure as she felt, but she was in no place to deal with his emotions just yet. “Come on in, would you like water or juice? I had Esme stop and get some of those juices you like.”
She gave him a smile, grateful that he was trying. “Water, please.” She took a seat in the modern style white chair in his sitting room. She muttered a thanks when he handed her the ice cold glass and chugged down half. “So you want to talk.” With her hands cradled in her lap, she looked up at him expectantly.
Giovanni took a seat on the sofa to her side and scraped a hand over his face. “I have so much I want to say to you, to tell you but I don’t know where to begin.”
“Try the beginning, Giovanni. You say you want to make this work but neither of us really knows anything about the other.”
“That’s true so I’ll start. My uncle, his name is Vincenzo Tucci, he’s head of the Tucci crime family.”
She sucked in a breath of surprise. “Seriously? Your uncle is in the mob?” She couldn’t stop the disbelieving smile on her face.
“Yes. He’s the guy who calls the shots. And,” he paused and she knew it was hard for him to get the words out. “I used to work for him.”
“You? You were a mobster?”
He loosened the collar of his sweater uncomfortably. “I wouldn’t say that, but I did have a role to play and I did it for too many years. I’ve been out of it for close to a decade. But my past is coming back to haunt me.”
She listened closely as Giovanni told her how some of the foot soldiers had been popping by his restaurant on a nightly basis for the past few weeks, about the unannounced visit by two detectives this morning and a few weeks ago. He was stressed out and she could see why he’d been so absent from her life. “I’m sorry Giovanni.”
He frowned. “Why are you sorry?”
“I’ve been unfair to you, so ready to judge you for not keeping your word. You were right, I was angry with you but not so much about this morning, more about the past couple weeks. You made me believe you wanted to be involved with me and with the babies,” she smiled and rubbed her belly, “and then you pretty much dropped off the face of the planet other than the gifts.”
His shoulders drooped and he knelt in front of her. “I’m so sorry about that, but I couldn’t leave Penny alone with those guys. Hell I couldn’t leave my restaurant with them hanging around. And I didn’t want to risk them following me to you.” His hands trace the line of her jaw, thumbs scraping across her bottom lip. “You mean so much to me, Talia. I couldn’t put you in the line of fire but I can’t let you go either.”
“Oh, Gio. I don’t want to let you go either, but you have to talk to me. And,” she sighed heavily, “I have to talk to you.” So with her hand in his, she spilled everything about her life. She told him about her drug loving absentee parents, their scuzzy friends and how she’d left home as a teenager to give herself a chance at a real life. “It’s part of why I’ve been so reluctant to get involved. With anyone. But I want you, I did even before I found out about the babies.”
He smiled. “I want you too, and our babies.” He leaned in and kissed her, one hand rested on top of her on the small bulge at her midsection. “I love kissing you.”
“Not as much as I love kissing you,” she told him, tugging his bottom lip with her teeth. “Tasting you,” she said as she licking up his neck and nipping his earlobe. “Being with you, naked,” she whispered in his ear and licked into his mouth. They kissed until she was breathless and aching. “Take me to bed, Giovanni.”
He stood and scooped her up in his arms. “Whatever you want, beautiful.” He kissed her as he swept her up the plush cream carpeted stairs and into his sunny bedroom, where they collapsed on the bed, a tangle of limbs and lips. “I need you Talia, right now.”
She shivered at the way he groaned in her ear, like he just couldn’t be without her. “I need you too. Right. Now.” She used her sultriest voice because she just couldn’t wait another minute to have him. She needed Giovanni at this moment, more than she’d ever needed another person.
Giovanni took her mouth, pouring everything he felt into the kiss, making love to her mouth the way he would love her body soon. He was ravenous for her, ripping her clothes off and kissing her body all over. “Damn you taste so good Talia. I could taste you forever.” And he did, kissing and sucking those dark chocolate nipples until she shuddered on the brink of climax. But he pulled back and kissed down her belly and to her legs, placing open mouth kisses on her ankle.
“Gio,” she moaned.
His only response was to blow on her moist hot center, before he licked into her. He relished the sound of her heated cries and the way her husky voice groaned his name. He licked into her opening until her legs tightened around his head, and when he pulled her clit into his mouth, Talia released a long keening cry that went straight to his dick. “Oh baby you turn me on. I’m not going to last long.”
“Neither am I. Hurry.” She loved the way he felt when he
r hands caressed up and down his hard muscles. And when he thrust into her, it took all her willpower not to shout how much he meant to her. Instead, her mouth touched him wherever she could reach as he drove into her over and over. “Yes, Gio,” she cried and tightened her legs around his waist.
“Oh Talia, you’re so wet for me.” His strokes were sure and long, deep and teasing. Faster and faster he went until they came apart at the same time. “Babe,” he groaned and fell onto his back, pulling her with him.
“That was unexpectedly intense and incredible.”
“I love your body. It’s like it was made for me.”
His words made her shiver and her tongue swiped along his nipple. “You certainly have the instruction manual for it.” Talia was half asleep when she heard his deep voice whisper in her ear.
“I think we should move in together.”
Chapter Eight
“Okay this is the last box for the bedroom. Where do you want it?” Giovanni smiled through his exhaustion. Two months ago he’d been able to convince Talia that their best shot of being a real couple was for her to move in with him. It had taken some coaxing—the best kind of coaxing—but she’d finally agreed. And after two months of dating, things were going well. So well he already purchased an engagement ring. He was waiting for the right time to ask.
“You can just sit it inside the dressing room.” She shook her head. “I can’t believe I just said that. I have an entire room dedicated to hanging up my clothes and putting them on.” She turned to place a hanger on the pole. “Strange.”
“But you are happy about this?”
Talia smiled and cupped his face with one hand, pulling him down with the other. “I’m over the moon about this. About us.”
Giovanni rubbed her growing bump. “Me too.” He knelt down so he was eye level with her stomach. “Hey kids, we can’t wait to meet you.” He looked up at her and he could feel the goofy grin on his face. “I never thought I would be this happy and it’s all because of you Talia.”
“You make me happy to, honey.” She smacked a kiss on his lips and laughed when he growled and picked her up. “Put me down, these babies of yours weight a ton!”
He loosened his grip so she slid slowly to the floor. “Hey those are my babies you’re talking about!” He rubbed her belly again. It was such an addictive move, rubbing small circles over the place where she grew his children. If someone would have told him a year ago that he’d get turned on by the thought of a woman carrying his child, Giovanni would have told them to get their head checked out. Now though, he found his body responding whenever he looked at Talia. Her brown skin was lighter now from the dark days of winter, but it glowed like she had glitter embedded in her smooth skin. Her hair was nearly touching her butt, which he loved running is fingers through. The sound of her purring as he stroked her hair was one of his favorite sounds.
“Yeah well your babies are pressing on my bladder and soon they’ll be bigger than I am.” She smiled despite her gruff words.
Giovanni scooped her up and sat on the bed with her. “That’s not hard to do babe, you’re no bigger than a plate of my marinara sauce.” He laughed when she smacked his shoulder.
She pushed him backwards and straddled his waist, grinding herself against the hard ridge between his legs. “Giovanni. Telling a pregnant woman how tiny she is, is a good way to get laid.”
He also loved how horny she’d been lately. Insatiable was more like it. “That wasn’t my goal, but I can’t say no to you.” He flipped their positions so she was on her back, legs on either of his shoulders and ran a finger over the dampness between her legs.
“Giovanni,” she moaned at his touch.
He slid her panties to the side and slid one finger inside her. “Yes, Talia.”
The doorbell rang, followed by insistent knocking. “Shit,” she muttered.
“Stay right there,” he told her and flew down the stairs, flinging the door open. “What?”
Detective Miller and his fat partner were back. “Mr. Tucci we need a word.”
“I’m listening,” he told them gruffly.
“May we come in?”
“No.”
“Giovanni who is it?”
He looked over his shoulder at Talia, so beautiful he could cry. “Cops. Again.” She nodded and stood at the bottom of the stairs, mobile phone clutched in her hands. He turned back to the cops. “What is it you need a word about?”
“Tucci cut the crap, you’re coming with us.” The bloated cop grabbed his arm and yanked him outside.
“I hope you’ve been on the force long enough to get a pension because I promise you when this is all over, your badge will be mine.” He sent a worried glare to Talia who watched with tears in her eyes. “I’m okay,” he whispered and they carried him to the car, reading him his Miranda Rights.
~
“Did you know, Tiana?” Talia stood in front of her friend, hands on hips as her world unraveled before her eyes.
“I swear Talia, I had no idea. I mean we were all little shits back in high school, but that was just teenage trouble. Not mob trouble.”
“See that’s the thing, we had a really serious discussion months ago about our pasts. He told me he’d been involved back in the day, but he hadn’t been involved for years.” She believed him, and she knew it was just turning a blind eye to hard evidence. Giovanni wouldn’t lie, not about something like this. Not now. She rubbed her belly and paced back and forth in the kitchen.
“If he told you he was involved then, I doubt he was involved in…why did they arrest him?”
Talia shrugged. “I don’t even know! They didn’t say, but I do remember him telling me someone had been hurt.” She squeezed her eyes tight trying to remember if the angry fat cop or the handsome black guy had said anything. That’s when she remembered. “Tiana, I recorded it.”
“What?”
She nodded. “I heard the voices and one sounded kind of hostile so I turned on my camera. You know you can’t be too safe around cops these days.” She grabbed her phone, swiping the screen to open it and she pulled up the video app.
Tiana leaned over her shoulder and the women watched silently. “That officer violated the law, damn him!” She picked up her phone and typed out a message while she spoke. “Let’s do a little sleuthing on our own.”
Talia’s brows furrowed. Would it be smart to antagonize the police without knowing with absolute certainty that Giovanni was innocent? “Why would we do that?”
Tiana fisted her hands at her hips and frowned. “Because you love him you big dummy. Where’s there a computer in this palace?”
“Mine is in the living room.” She stopped when she realized she’d put up no arguments about loving Giovanni. Because I do love him. She closed her eyes and let that thought settle in her heart, in her stomach and felt her body grow warm. “Yes babies, we’ll take care of Daddy.”
Tiana was already hard at work when Talia waddled in with two glasses of iced tea. “Okay so there has been speculation for years that at one time Gio was involved in the mob, but if it’s true I can’t find any evidence he was arrested for anything. I did find a rather extensive list of things he’s been accused of. Publicly. By NYPD.”
Talia sit. “Tell me everything Tiana, and don’t sugarcoat shit.” She sat back and rubbed her belly while Tiana recounted allegations that Giovanni, her sweet Giovanni, had beaten people to within an inch of their lives, blackened eyes and busted lips of people who didn’t pay what they owed. Several people had disappeared and the police had publicly accused Giovanni of causing their disappearance. Then Tiana had read off a list of other crimes for which members of the Tucci crime family had been convicted of. “Damn,” she said on a harsh breath. Her man had really been in the thick of the shit with the mob. But even the allegations were at least a decade old so she knew. “He’s innocent. Now we just have to figure out what they’ve arrested him for and what evidence they have.”
Tiana smiled. “Tha
t’s my girl. I knew you weren’t a wimp.” She gulped down some tea. “And I called Antonio, he’s going to find out everything we need.”
Talia’s frown morphed into a smile. “Giovanni did tell me you two were on a date at The Family Table and you looked awful cozy.”
She shrugged. “He’s hot and he seems like a good guy, but, I don’t know. It’s weird.” She said no more and changed the subject. “Gio doesn’t have a criminal record and he was arrested once at nineteen for fighting at an unsanctioned gym but no charges were ever filed.”
Talia watched her friend, in her element. Tiana wanted nothing more than to be a hard hitting investigative reporter. Today those skills would come in handy. “Then we have to figure this out, Ti. I can’t lose him.”
“I’ll make sure you don’t, girl. I love Gio, he was like a brother to me even when we were shit starters. He made sure I didn’t go overboard, as I had a tendency to do back then. If I got too drunk, he made sure he took me home so no one tried to pull anything funny. And I haven’t seen you so happy in years. You’re glowing and fat with two babies. That’s some beautiful shit.” She smiled and wrapped an arm around her dear friend.
Talia pushed the tears back and sank into her friend’s embrace. “I know they’ve got the wrong guy, Tiana. I’m going to figure this out.”
“No Tali, we’re going to figure this out. Together.”
~
When Talia awoke the next morning, her eyes were puffy from crying herself to sleep and her stomach was growling its hunger. The twins had been moving around for the past few hours so she finally pulled herself from bed and dressed in grey maternity jeans, a fitted white t-shirt and a soft pink cashmere sweater. She looked good and strong yet feminine and most importantly, Talia was comfortable. She knew today would be a long day, and she hoped when it was over she would be that much closer to proving Giovanni’s innocence.
With her hair in a loose bun and a swipe of mascara and concealer, she followed the delicious aroma to the kitchen. “Antonio,” she went to him and wrapped her arms around him. “I’m glad you’re here. Thank you for making breakfast.”