by Bethany-Kris
Those were the best kinds, though.
Pleasure raked through her body while her husband’s hand slowed between her thighs, and his mostly naked form leaned over hers. Her hands had clenched into the bedspread, but she let it go to drift her fingertips over his body. Taut, firm muscles met her fingertips. Cross kept in shape—he never stopped moving, really. Right then, though, his muscles were tight like coils, ready to release and break.
On her.
She could not wait.
Their night was just getting started.
“Say thank you,” he said along the seam of her lips.
“Thank you.”
Cross grinned. “My girl. You almost looked fucked out.”
“Not entirely.”
“Almost, Catherine.”
“Jesus Christ,” Catherine breathed. “God, I missed you.”
“Love you.”
“And that. Always that, Cross.”
Before Catherine could let the relaxed, lovely sensation take over her senses too much and make her want to crawl under the sheets and sleep, she rolled to her stomach. Pushing up to her knees, she flicked her loose waves over her shoulder, let her bare ass rest high, and her upper half arch low.
Catherine shot a look over her shoulder, and grinned at her husband. Cross’s gaze never once left her swaying ass. “Like what you see?”
“You know what I am.”
She sure did.
An ass man.
And a leg man, depending on the day.
But he definitely loved her ass.
Catherine slipped a hand between her thighs, ran two fingers through her slit, and smeared her wetness along her folds. Another little shake of her ass, and Cross’s jaw tightened in the sexiest way when he let out a husky grunt.
“Come on, then.”
“You are testing my control, mia donna.”
My woman.
Catherine let her wet fingers pat against her sex with gentle taps. Just enough to wake her clit up all over again, and make her pussy hot. “Won’t you fuck me now?”
“Haven’t you learned by now that teasing me only makes me insane, Catherine?”
“Actually, it makes it better. I was hoping you might gag me, pull my hair, spank my ass, and fuck me until I can’t breathe. But hey, if that’s a bit much for—”
One of his hands connected with her ass hard. The sting it created was enough to make her move a couple of inches forward on the bed with a hiss.
“Say it again,” he demanded.
Catherine laughed through the ache. “Gag me, Cross. Pull my hair. Spank my—”
She didn’t get anything else out after that. He snagged up the tie that had fallen from his suit on the bed when he picked it up earlier. The bed dipped when he climbed in behind her. She sighed, pleased, as his hard cock pressed into her ass through his boxer-briefs. She couldn’t help but back into him, to tease him just a little bit more. That tie of his was wrapped around her mouth all the way to the back of her head where he wrapped the loose ends of the material around his fist.
Gagged, Catherine smiled.
Cross tugged on the tie, gathered her hair into his fist with the makeshift gag, and pulled harder. “Fuck, I missed my wife. Say it again, Catty.”
Her words were mumbled behind the gag.
She didn’t think Cross cared.
“Fuck me until I can’t breathe.”
“That’s my girl.”
He tugged once more on that gag and her hair, she felt him shove his boxer-briefs down, and then he was pushing inside of her clenching cunt. Like earlier with his fingers, he didn’t go in easy, and he didn’t give her any warning.
Catherine didn’t care because she loved it.
The slap of his skin against hers, and the wet sound her pussy made every time he drove into her was fucking lovely. He filled her full, stretched her open, and fucked her stupid. Between measured, deep thrusts, his palm came down to tap her ass and thighs, leaving behind a beautiful sting and likely pinked skin.
Already, her body shook.
Already, her nerves sang.
He pulled her hair, spanked her ass, kept that gag tight, and fucked her so good. She wasn’t made of glass, and he never treated her like it.
Her cries were mumbled and muffled behind the gag, but that didn’t stop more from spilling out. She was back in her happy place. A place that smelled like Cross, tasted like their sex, and felt like their love.
Nothing else mattered.
“Take that cock, Catty. Fuck it good, babe.”
Oh yes, she had mostly certainly missed this man.
“Wake up.”
“Mmm, no.”
“Cross, wake up.”
“Catherine—”
“Wake. Up. Wake. Up.”
Each one of her words was punctuated with a kiss to his hard abdomen. Something else on him was hard, too, but she was working her way to that issue of his. If he would only open his damn eyes.
“Cross …”
Her husband absolutely refused to open his eyes. In fact, he was using his arm as a shield over his face to hide from her.
“Catty, we never get to sleep in. We can’t even be naked in bed at home come morning because Cece crawls into bed with us every goddamn day. Let me enjoy this, babe, please.”
“Mmm … nope.”
With that, she crawled lower on his body, pushing away sheets until her hands could wrap around his thick cock, and her lips were kissing below his navel.
Cross let a slow hiss of air slip past his lips as her grip tightened on him, stroking him even more alive and awake.
“Besides, it was you who let Cece start doing that in the first place,” Catherine told him. “Lie in your bed, Cross. You made it.”
“You’re terrible.”
“Is my mouth terrible, too?”
“Wh—”
She let go of his shaft, and took his cock into her mouth before he could finish his sentence. All the air Cross had been holding in came rushing out of his chest in a whoosh. She sucked him all the way down to the base of his dick until it touched the back of her throat. It made her eyes water, but she loved it.
Cross finally uncovered his eyes, and dark soul-deep brown found her in an instant. Lust raged there, and pleasure curved his mouth into an approving grin as he groaned out her name. His hips lifted off the bed as she started a slow rhythm sucking his dick. His fingers came to weave into her hair, and he tugged and pulled along with her movements, guiding her the way he liked.
“Jesus Christ,” he grunted. “Love it when you suck my dick, Catty.”
It didn’t take too long before Cross was blowing his load, and Catherine was licking him clean with a smile and a wink. He could go for hours fucking her, but when she sucked him off, he was weak.
She loved that.
It gave her power.
Catherine liked using it.
Often.
Kissing back up his stomach, she stretched over his form like a happy cat baking in sunlight. Given the early morning rays coming in through the window and falling across the bed, she felt just like that, too.
“I owe you for that one,” he told her.
“It’s a good way to wake up.”
Cross chuckled, and stroked her swollen, tingling lips with his thumb. “Fucking right.”
“Happy anniversary, Cross.”
Her husband’s roughened, dark features lit up with a boyish grin. “Happy anniversary, babe. So hey, how did that meeting go with Bianchi yesterday evening?”
Catherine’s happy mood fled instantly.
Cross didn’t miss it. “What happened?”
“My mother.”
“That doesn’t make sense, Catty.”
She pushed off Cross, and rolled to her own side of the bed. On her back, she stared up at the ceiling. “It does when you know what happened. She basically played me into going to the meeting alone, and then, I fucked it all up.”
“Wait, back up. How did y
ou fuck it up exactly?”
Catherine quickly recounted the events that happened before saying, “I offended him repeatedly, and he let me know it in a not so subtle way.”
“That’s bullshit.”
“Is it? In this business, we all know respect rules the house, Cross.”
“Yeah, but—”
“Bottom line, he guaranteed I wouldn’t have the cocaine supplied by him from here on out. So guess where that leaves me?”
Cross sighed. “Shit.”
“Yeah. I have to go back, and let both my cousins know I have effectively screwed them out of their long-term supplier. We’ve got what, Cross, maybe a couple of months of cocaine stored between the Three Families and my mother’s supply?”
“Maybe less, maybe more.”
“Exactly. Not nearly enough. Especially if a major deal comes up with one of the Three Families, or sales pick up for whatever reason on the streets. I don’t know what I’m supposed to do.”
“Well, if you feel like your mother got you into this mess, then maybe she can help you get out of it.”
Catherine scowled. “Maybe.”
“You don’t sound happy.”
“I’m pissed at her, Cross.”
“Yeah, I got that.”
Catherine didn’t really want to discuss all of this right now. She was in a Four Seasons hotel room in Florence with her husband on their anniversary. The least she could do was shove her problems aside, and live in the moment.
Putting her smile back on, Catherine rolled back on top of Cross, and dropped a sweet kiss to his mouth. His lips curved into a sensual smile against her own.
“You left Cece with my dad, huh?”
Cross shrugged, and then grabbed her trim waist in a tight grasp. “Basically.”
“I bet she’s giving him hell.”
“She misses you, too.”
Catherine tried not to frown, and failed. “Yeah?”
“Don’t feel guilty. Work is work, and we knew that. We make shit work, right?”
“Right,” Catherine said.
Although she wasn’t sure if she believed it entirely.
“Oh, she’s got this new idea thanks to a friend, so fair warning.”
Catherine raised a brow. “What idea is that?”
“She wants a baby brother.” Cross tossed his head back into the pillow and laughed, adding, “Or a brudder, I guess.”
She stilled on top of her husband, and her gaze darted to his. Cross quieted instantly, matching her frozen state.
“You’re serious,” she deadpanned.
“Her little friend she plays with at Ma’s—”
“Yeah, yeah, I got it. And I suppose you didn’t explain that no, we’re not able to just hand her over a baby brother. Also, it doesn’t even work that way. We don’t pick a baby’s gender.”
Cross rolled his eyes. “Catty, she’s just a kid. Besides, you know what that kid is like. You can’t just tell her no. It doesn’t work that way.”
“Oh, is that what it was?”
He wouldn’t meet her eyes, then.
Catherine smacked him on the chest. “It’s not, is it?”
“Ow.” Cross rubbed at the spot. His gaze narrowed. “No, that’s not it, babe, because I’m kind of on her side here.”
“Cross!”
His hand tightened to her waist, making her breath catch, and a sweet heat flood her veins.
“She’s three,” he said, “and we’re not getting younger.”
“I am only thirty-one, thank you.”
“Catherine.”
“Cross.”
“Catherine, I want another child.”
There it is …
Catherine didn’t fault Cross for his wants, nor for the fact that he voiced them. She wanted the same things, but …
“Look how busy our life is right now,” she whispered.
“Look at how beautiful it is, Catherine.”
“You don’t think that’s selfish to have a second child when we don’t get enough time together as it is?”
“I think we can make time.”
“I’ve let you be alone too much lately, clearly. You’ve had too much time to think about this and come up with good arguments.”
Cross smirked, and his hands slid up to cup her jaw. He pulled her down low until their lips were just a breath apart. “Give me another child, my sweet girl.”
Catherine shivered. “Cross …”
“You don’t even want to say no, babe.”
“Of course not.”
“Is that a firm yes, then?”
“It’s not a no, Cross.”
“So, a yes,” he urged.
“Let’s call it like we did with Cece.”
He nodded. “Comes when it comes.”
“Exactly. Also, two is my limit, Cross Nazio Donati.” Catherine kissed him again, a quick peck that made him scowl at her when she didn’t linger. “We’ve already got one child that might as well have come straight from your mouth.”
Cross’s pride was clear when he replied, “And she’s fucking perfect.”
“She is.” Catherine rolled off her husband, but kept a hand tucked in his and pulled gently. “Come have a shower with me, and then we can order breakfast into the room.”
“Mmm, the shower is a yes. Breakfast in-room, a no.”
“What, why?”
Cross climbed out of bed, and dropped a kiss to Catherine’s temple. “Because I have more surprises.”
Of course he did.
“Have I told you how much I love you lately because you’re amazing?”
Cross pulled her into the attached bathroom with a laugh, saying, “Yeah. But hey, stroke my ego again, babe.”
“Want me to stroke something else?”
He kicked the bathroom door shut.
“Nope, I owe you.”
Hell. Yes.
Cross wasn’t willing to take his eyes off his wife as they rode the elevator to the bottom floor of the Four Seasons. The bohemian dress she wore reminded him of years long gone—when they were younger, although things were not as simple then, either. The multicolored dress was low cut in the front and back, making him think they should have just stayed in the room for a little while longer.
He didn’t think he looked half as good as she did in his black slacks, and a white silk dress shirt.
“You’re not going to tell me what the surprise is?” Catherine asked.
“Nope.”
For the fifteenth time.
“But we’re basically downstairs now.”
“Still a firm no,” Cross said.
Catherine huffed, but her sweet smile told him that she wasn’t too angry about his little games. “Fine.”
Cross chuckled, and tugged his wife’s hand to bring her closer. Spinning her to stand in front of him, so that her back was to the elevator doors. He placed two fingers under her chin. Pressing a bit, Catherine looked up at him with twinkling green eyes. He bent down a couple of inches to catch her lips with his. Slow and languid, he let his kiss tattoo the familiarity of their love to her mouth while the elevator dropped the last few floors.
Catherine hummed a happy sound under her breath, and wrapped her arms around his waist. Cross shifted his weight from foot to foot, making Catherine sway with him so that his back was now turned to the door instead.
Yes, this was better.
Besides, he really wanted to see her face when …
The elevator jumped a bit as it came to a stop on the main floor. With the opening of the elevator came a warm breeze from the opened doors across the main entrance of the hotel. The draft of air sent the flowy skirt of Catherine’s dress blowing out around their legs.
She leaned up on tiptoes and pressed one last kiss to his mouth.
It was probably just enough for her surprise to see her.
“Ma!”
Catherine instantly turned into a statue in Cross’s arms. Her unsure gaze darted to his, and then over his shoulder
. A joyous smile lit up her face, making Cross match the expression.
“Ma!” Cece shouted again. “I rides the plane! I did! I did!”
“Oh, my God, she is so loud,” Catherine said.
“My kid all over,” Cross agreed.
“You know it.”
“Happy anniversary, babe.”
Cross stepped aside to let his wife dart out of the elevator. Catherine did just that the very second he let her go from his embrace. Stepping out of the elevator, Cross found his daughter standing twenty feet away in the cutest yellow sundress, with matching colored sandals and a big bow in her tied up hair. Dante and Catrina stood on either side of their granddaughter. Cross was sure that the only thing keeping Cece still was Dante’s hand holding tightly to hers.
Cece’s excitement spilled out at the sight of her mother, and her little sandal-clad feet stomped up and down on the spot over and over. “I loves my ma, Ma.”
God, did she ever love her mother.
Catherine kneeled down in front of Cece with arms wide open. Finally, her grandfather let the child go. Cece wasted no time flying into her mother’s waiting hug. Cece’s little head tucked into Catherine’s neck and shoulder, and for a few moments, the rest of the world ceased to exist for the two.
Sure, his daughter adored him. She was his little firecracker.
Her mother, though?
There was some kind of bond with Catherine and Cece that no one came even remotely close to having with the child. Cross thought, sometimes, it reminded him of how attached to his father that he had been as a child.
Catherine peered up at her parents. “Thanks for keeping secrets, I guess.”
The two laughed between one another.
“Secrets worth keeping,” Dante replied easily. “Cross took an early plane to get here yesterday evening. Cece and I took a private charter jet during red-eye time, so we would be here this morning. I made sure she got lots of sleep, though.”
“Thanks, Daddy.”
Dante waved it off. “Anything for you, Catty. Cross had the details down. Our part was easy.”
“Hi, Ma,” Cece mumbled into Catherine’s hair. “I rides the plane. I did.”
“Hey, baby,” Catherine whispered. “You sure did.”
“Misses my ma, Ma.”