by Bethany-Kris
Corrado was the only one who thought to say, “Congrats, man.”
“Thanks.”
“But bad timing,” came a new, but familiar, voice.
Corrado made a grunt under his breath, lifting his hand to show the face on the screen of his phone that he was currently video chatting on. Or rather, the call he must have been on before they call came running out of the house. Alessio, his other spouse.
“Like Corrado told you,” Alessio said on the screen, clearly amused, “congrats, and all.”
Yeah.
Really bad timing.
Didn’t he know it?
“I’ll call you back, or just call Ginny, Les,” Corrado said.
“I was having fun, though.”
“Let’s not and say you did, okay?”
“Don’t hang up the phone on me, Cor—”
He did just that.
However, the few seconds Alessio had used to make a joke clearly calmed them down a bit. The man certainly wasn’t a Guzzi by blood, but he belonged with them just the same. He proved it time and time again, like now. The way he just knew when the right time was to step in, and make a bad situation better.
“Okay,” Chris said, putting his hands up to pat Marcus on the chest, forcing their brother to take a step back with every smack, “let’s take a minute to breathe—all of us. We wait for Ma to get home with Papa, whenever they finally get around to seeing a judge about the possibility of another bond hearing, at least until the charges are properly dropped, and then we’ll sit back down and revisit all of this, yeah? Let them figure all of that out first, she’s still at the penthouse in the city, but said she would call as soon as she got the okay to go down and get Papa. Then, we will revisit this.”
“There’s nothing to revisit,” Bene said, “she’s mine—I love her. She stays with me.”
Marcus still glared.
Except now, Bene knew, things had changed.
A baby changed everything. It made this written in blood. And his baby was still a Guzzi no matter who birthed the child.
Marcus was always going to be Marcus. He was who he was. The man their father made. He’d protect a Guzzi no matter what.
Until the day he died.
• • •
“Caroline, yeah,” Ginevra said, “kind of a play on Corrado’s and his mother’s name, but with a little twist Les liked, too.”
“I love that name.” Vanna beamed at the eleven-month-old baby currently toddling from chair to chair at the small dining table his parents used in their large kitchen when they wanted a more intimate place to eat with their sons. She never let go of one before moving to the other, not quite trusting her legs yet. “And she’s so beautiful.”
“Like her mother,” Valeria added. “Maria, don’t you take another cookie from that pan. I saw what you were doing, princessa.”
Even with all their Italian flowing constantly, or usually, Valeria still held tight to her Spanish roots. He figured it was good for their kid, though, because the girl got Italian from Chris, a bit of French from their dad and Marcus, Spanish from her mom, and English from everyone else.
“But I was only taking one for Daddy.”
Valeria pursed her lips. “But were you really, though?”
“Well ...”
“Maria,” her mother admonished.
“He would have let me have it anyway!”
Laughter from the ladies lit up the kitchen.
From his position in the doorway leading into the kitchen, Bene smiled at the scene but didn’t move further inside where he could be noticed. He didn’t mean to spy, really, but after Christopher forced him to take a walk around the property to chat while Corrado took Marcus up to their father’s office for his own conversation, Vanna promised she would be fine to sit by herself.
He didn’t think so.
His brother didn’t give him a choice.
He found she was, in fact, just fine, and apparently made friends with Chris and Corrado’s spouses. Valeria, who always had to be cooking something to keep her hands busy, and Ginevra who was never far behind in that respect, had a whole table full of sweets baked, it seemed.
For who, he didn’t know.
By the looks of Vanna’s flour-dusted hands, she’d joined in.
And probably loved it, too.
He’d thought after his walk that Vanna might want him to save her from whatever awkward conversation she found in that time, but it seemed she was doing just fine. Plus, wouldn’t she need some friends in this family?
Before he could convince himself otherwise—because God knew he wanted her all to himself—Bene turned on his heels and headed deeper into the mansion. Before long, he found himself standing in the sitting room that connected his old bedroom with his twin’s. Unsurprisingly, Beni stood near the windows while he chatted on the phone to his wife waiting for him in Chicago.
“Yeah, soon, Aug,” Beni said, “once we get everything settled out here ... nah, I think you’ll like her, and she’s exactly what I thought she would be considering him.”
Bene smirked a bit.
His twin ... always the first to have his back.
Even when he was a shit.
Bene cleared his throat, gaining his brother’s attention for the moment. Beni gave him a look over his shoulder, but quickly went back to his call with a, “Okay, love you, too, babe.”
“I’m surprised she’s not here, too.”
His brother shrugged as he pocketed his cell and turned to face him. “She’s working on an article and has a bunch of interviews to do for it ... some of them could be done over the phone, but others were better in person. I didn’t want her sacrificing that for something we were handling, you know? Besides, she calls Ma every day just to talk to her about whatever book they’re currently reading.”
Huh.
“They read the same book?”
“Yeah, Aug picks one and then Ma picks the next.”
Bene nodded. “Didn’t know that.”
“It’s their thing, you know.”
“Vanna might like that—huge fan of Ma’s reviews, and all.”
Beni chuckled, saying, “I will let August know. Where is Vanna, anyway?”
“In the kitchen with Val and Ginny and the kids.”
“Oh?”
“They seem to like her.”
It was just ... everyone else.
Yeah.
Beni, seeing the nerves in Bene’s jittery hands, said, “Give Marcus some time, huh? He’ll relax and fall in line with the rest of us. He just needs to get shit figured out in his own head before he’ll come around, that’s all. It’s been a rough couple of months for him.”
“Doesn’t matter if he does or not. She’s mine anyway.”
“No, right,” Beni agreed, “I’m sure you’re more worried about Ma and Papa.”
Bene shifted on his feet, clearing the lump in his throat. “A little, maybe.”
“Don’t be.”
Easier said than done.
22.
“Marcus headed into the city for the night and will stay at his penthouse, I guess.”
Vanna didn’t miss the way Bene’s jaw clenched at Chris’s statement.
“Because he has things to handle there, or he’s pissed—”
“Oh, no, he’s still pissed.”
Bene grunted under his breath. “All right, thanks.”
“Mmhmm. Have a good sleep. Hopefully, Dad will be out tomorrow.”
“Right, right.”
Over Bene’s shoulder, Chris called, “Night, Vanna.”
She managed a smile from where she sat at the foot of the bed in Bene’s bedroom. “Thanks, you too.”
Bene closed the door behind his brother, but he clearly hadn’t missed the change in Vanna’s tone when he turned around to ask, “You okay?”
She shrugged, focusing on her hands folded in her lap. After pulling on clothes to sleep in from his walk-in closet—an over-sized tee, and a pair of boxers—she
just wanted to climb into bed and forget this entire day had happened.
“Tonight was supposed to be very different for me.”
A new husband.
A bed she didn’t want.
A life that wouldn’t be her own.
And now, here she was.
“It’s a lot to take in,” she admitted.
Bene crossed the space between them, rounding the bed to come and stand in front of her. His hands came to land on her thighs, and instantly, she opened her legs for him to fit in between. Tipping her head up, the two of them took a moment to stare in silence before he was the first to break it.
“It’s all on you now. You know that, right?”
“For now, maybe, until your parents—”
“Vanna.”
She dragged in a sharp breath at the strength in his stare. “As long as you want to be here with me, then that’s where you’re going to be. No matter what. Regardless of what anyone says. That’s how it’s going to be.”
He made it sound simple.
She wondered if it would be.
“You shouldn’t fight with your family over me, Bene. I’m not sure I’m worth that.”
And she wasn’t.
Truly.
Not after everything.
“Except you’re worth the world and more to me.”
“But not for them. To them, I’m just—”
“Mine,” he said thickly, squeezing her thighs at the same time to make his point clear. “To them, you are mine. And that’s what matters, Vanna. I promise, and it might not be easy at first, but we’ll get there. Just trust me.”
“I want to believe you. I do.”
But everything that had ever been hers was taken away in one way or another. A mother she’d never known. A father she wasn’t sure she ever really understood. A life that could have been so different. And almost a future, too.
She wanted him, though.
Bene.
More than anything.
She chose to want something, and she was willing to give anything to have him.
Vanna didn’t pretend to be the victim, not anymore. She did terrible things for a cause that wasn’t even hers, and she was just selfish enough to want to keep a man she knew she had hurt. She wasn’t the good guy here ... she was a villain who wanted their happy ending. And still, she wanted to believe him that maybe there was something worthy enough in her to be given a second chance, to start over as someone better.
To be his.
Bene leaned down close enough to her that his body flattened against hers while her hands balled into the chest of his dress shirt. His lips found hers, words whispering along the seam of her mouth in the most wicked, but promising, way. “Then just trust me, Vanna.”
That whisper turned into a kiss lighting up every nerve in her body all at once. It took nothing at all, just their lips dancing a smooth rhythm before his tongue found its way to hers, slashing with hard strokes that already had her wet between her thighs. Because she knew how good his mouth was going to feel once it was on her pussy again.
God.
It had been way too long.
“You want that—me?” he asked when his mouth skimmed her jawline. “You want me to fuck you now, Vanna?”
“Jesus, yes, please.”
That was all Bene needed to hear. Her clothes were pulled from her body by his rough, fast hands, and she only wanted more. A shiver raced through her body when she fell back to the bed, and he took his damn time dragging her panties down her thighs, leaving her spread wide and bare to him when he stood back up.
She hadn’t forgotten what it felt like to be under the weight of this man and his passion but she still loved how it managed to sneak up on her every single time. She heard the tug of his zipper when he leaned into her reaching hands. She found his kiss again, just as hot and heavy as it had been only moments ago before he was pulling away.
Vanna only took in one sharp breath of air before Bene was between her thighs. Her hands, fisted into the bedsheets, quickly left to find purchase in his dark head of hair while his tongue stroked her from slit to her clit, and then his tongue found a fast rhythm beating against the already-throbbing nub.
He knew how to make her fly.
So damn fast.
“Fuck, fuck, fuck ... Bene.”
Her words came out just like that.
High.
Broken.
Unintelligible curses of his name. Because damn him for being the only thing in the world capable of taking away everything she thought she was and making her better if only for him. Damn him for making it feel so fucking good, too.
It was the sudden graze of his teeth along her clit that sent Vanna falling over the edge. The orgasm came rushing in fast, a cry catching in her throat when her back arched from the bed. She was still shaking and whispering his name when he slid up her body, already shoving his pants down to step out of them. Oh, he stopped just long enough to kiss the spot below her navel, a soft and brilliant smile tugging at those lips of his, before he was on her again.
Vanna took his violent kiss, and found his cock pressed between their bodies with her palms, stroking his hard cock fast while he grinded against her.
“Vanna, damn ...”
She swore her name was a prayer on his mouth.
He worshipped her always.
That, more than anything, got her off like nothing else ever would. There was something about knowing she took away all his control like this that made her sky-high.
Bene’s arms hooked around her thighs, pulling her legs high and wide as she dragged his cock against her slit, letting him feel just a bit of her slick heat before his hips jutted forward. He filled her full and stretched her wide with one thrust, making her let him go so that her palm could rest against the hard ridges of his toned stomach while he fucked her hard and deep.
Fast strokes that had their bodies trembling.
Her heart racing.
And her pussy aching.
She needed to come again, and he knew it. Bene let go of one of her legs to use his thumb to stroke along the seam of her sex where his cock continued to fill her pussy. And then he was circling fast with that same thumb against her clit, using her own wetness as a lubrication to have her feeling and sounding wetter than ever.
“Fuck yeah, I want that pussy to come, Vanna.”
All his dirty words.
Those dark promises.
Of course, she came again.
Harder than ever.
• • •
Bene’s arm tightened around Vanna’s waist where they stood on the right, curving staircase in the grand entrance of the mansion. Three steps higher, Beni and his wife waited with them. Down in front of the main doors, Marcus and Corrado stood in tense silence. Apparently, whatever argument the two had been having just moments ago in hushed tones was now over, and they were comfortable with pretending as if the other didn’t currently exist.
Siblings, Bene had said, it’s normal.
She didn’t know if that was true.
Or if it was—once again—the brothers arguing about her, or her presence in the mansion. She hadn’t left the home once Bene brought her, although Christopher’s wife had brought her some clothes to use, but she made sure to stay with him whenever she could. And not because she thought someone might hurt her, but rather, she didn’t want any of them to be uncomfortable with her.
Hadn’t she done enough?
It was already awkward.
Why make it worse?
Besides, it was about to get worse, anyway.
All eyes went to the front doors of the mansion when they were pushed open, and Chris stepped inside first. Right behind him came his mother, and father. Vanna was sure that they expected to come home to a celebration, of sorts. Or at the very least, happiness. After all they had gone through with the man being in jail, his future uncertain, this should have been a wonderful day.
Instead, the first thing that happened whe
n the couple walked through the front doors of their mansion, returning to their grown children and grandchildren playing in a connecting room, was look their way. Directly at her and Bene.
Gian tipped his chin up, the hard line of his jaw flexing as he bit back words. She didn’t need him to speak those words for her to know they were on the tip of his tongue. The heat blazing in his gaze, practically nailing her to the floor, said it all.
Bene’s arm tightened on her side.
“So, what Chris explained on the way here is true, then?” Gian asked.
“Depends on what he said,” Bene replied.
Chris dropped a handful of bags to the marble floor. “Everything.”
“Oh, and Tommas called, Bene.”
Right.
The man—the Guzzi brothers’ uncle—who helped Beni and Bene put the information Vanna sent him about the Camorra and the dirty cop to use.
Basically, all of it, then.
He knew it all.
“While I understand that you might consider yourself in love with—”
“Gian,” Cara said quietly.
Vanna’s stomach flipflopped, threatening to spill what remained of her breakfast after her first round of throwing up that morning. At least, Bene had been there to hold her hair back, and make her feel better after. She willed the vomit away, begging her body to not betray her.
It was just nerves.
She could handle that.
His gaze flew to his wife instantly. “He brought her here.”
“See,” Marcus muttered to Corrado beside him.
“Shut your face,” Corrado replied.
“Well—”
“That’s enough,” Cara told the two, and then to Gian, “don’t make rash decisions; because he clearly didn’t.”
“You don’t think some of things he did were rash?”
“Stop it. Think about it, Gian. All he did, he would have known what it meant to bring her here, so consider that it means something, and we should discuss it before you say something you cannot take back. Is our son not worth that? And the other thing Chris told us—we have to consider that, too, now.”
What other thing?
Vanna knew better than to ask.
Still not the time.
“That’s not fair, bella.”