by Willa Okati
“You know what I mean. Let him command and patronize until he freezes his own tongue off, then, and all he can do is spit ice cubes instead of nasty words.” Antonetta squared her shoulders. “You may be the first to know, Rick. I am done with him. Done with the Dominicis, and if I never see another glass of wine again in my life it will be far too soon.”
Rick’s grin spread from ear to ear. He would have pounded her on the back as heartily as a sturdy footballer if he’d thought she would allow it. “Good on you!” Then, rather more subdued. “Oh. You’re leaving Italy, aren’t you?”
Antonetta grimaced in apology. “I cannot stay. Though for your sake, and the sake of my cousin, I would otherwise try. You do understand, don’t you?”
He did. Patriarchal might still ruled supreme over far too many women here and abroad in Europe. Inspiration struck. “You’re after going to America, aren’t you?”
Her own smile dazzled him. “I am. A friend of mine, Magdalena, lives in Baltimore. We met when she toured our estate and wrote letters.” A faint hint of pink tinted Antonetta’s cheeks. “I also wrote to her brother, Paolo.”
Rick chuckled, wholly approving. “Give Magdalena a kiss from me, and tell Paolo if he doesn’t watch his step he’ll have a hooligan coming over the pond to kick him around.”
“I shall. Thank you, Rick.” She startled him by ducking in to kiss his cheek, chastely, as would a sister. He realized, at that late moment, that indeed she was a sister to him and would have always been if he’d thought to allow her that close.
When she stood back, demurely tucking her hair behind her ears, he took a moment to admire her. “Take the world by storm, Antonetta. It doesn’t quite deserve you, but I expect you’ll do the best you can with it.”
“Is that a compliment?” Antonetta dimpled. “Hush, hush, I understood you. Down, boy.” She gently brushed Hamish’s muddy forepaws off her thigh as the mutt, bored with being talked over, attempted to nudge back in for his share of attention. “I will bring the world to its knees.”
“All shall love you and despair?”
“Something like that.” She lifted her chin proudly; almost immediately, she softened. “And now, enough about me. We must speak of Adriano and what is to be done with him.”
Ah, yes. Rick blinked in surprise at himself, for having let Adriano slip his mind even for a few minutes. He took a quick look around to make sure the slippery fellow was where he’d last been left, and sighed in relief when he saw Adriano still parked under the cypress tree with the photo album open in front of him while he studied it diligently.
“What do you think’s to be done about him?” he asked, choosing his words with care. He knew more and more what he’d do, given his way, and he didn’t want to argue with a true lady, but be damned if he’d not keep Adriano by his side. He’d not lose him again.
Except…Antonetta was his family by blood, whereas he had only a tenuous tie of affection in the eyes of the law. She could take him away, if she’d a mind to. Haul him to America with her.
“Rick, breathe,” she chided, tapping his arm. “Adriano is…” She gazed at him. “He looks happier here than I have known him to be since we were children. None of his hardness or his falsely glittering gold.”
“That’s poetic enough.”
Antonetta shrugged both elegantly and eloquently. “You often try to avoid meaningful conversation by trying to be witty,” she observed. “This you cannot avoid hearing unless you block your ears and hum, and I do not suggest you try. Agreed?”
Rick mumbled under his breath, embarrassed. For fuck’s sake, it was like being caught out by a teacher.
“Good. As simply as I can put it: Adriano belongs with you. For as long as he will stay with you, keep him here. And if he should decide to leave? Go after him. Happy, I said he is, and happy I meant. Not just now, Rick.” Her mood saddened. “When you two were together and no one was meant to know, but I did ‑‑”
“You did?” Rick blurted, astonished.
“I have two good eyes in my head, and I do not choose to blind them. I was surprised, of course! But then I looked and saw that when Adriano looked at you, and when I caught him thinking of you, he…he loved you, even if he didn’t quite understand that, and it made him a better man.”
Rick gaped at her.
“Don’t stare at me; it’s true.”
“I never thought…”
“Yes, well, that makes two of you. Now! I have said what I came to say.” Antonetta nodded firmly. “I will not insult you by suggesting you take Juliano’s money for base purposes. However, if you wish to insult him, I would cash the check. He expects a proud refusal.” She winked at him. “Consider that. And take Adriano to Venice again. Enjoy it as if it were the first time you went together. He loves Venice. More than that, though…”
Rick stood still as Antonetta took both his hands in her own and squeezed them gently. “If anyone can save Adriano from himself, Rick, it is you. It was you, and now it will be you again. Do not be afraid of love.”
Choking on anything useful he could possibly say, Rick lifted her hands to his lips and kissed the knuckles. “Your wish, signorina,” he murmured, not quite bold enough to look her in the eye. “My command.”
The warmth of her affection seemed a blessing falling over him. “Good,” she said simply. “Thank you.”
Rick looked back to Adriano, who raised his head as if sensing it and beamed at him. Young. Innocent. Loving. “No,” he replied, quiet as a mouse. “Thank you,” he said, not sure who he was grateful to but damned glad all the same.
Gladsome and light-hearted as a boy.
However, when Antonetta had driven away and he thought to look inside the box she had brought him, and found therein several tubes of highest-quality lubricant along with a dizzying array of condoms, he felt rather more like a man, and rightly so.
He laughed to himself as he closed the box and headed for Adriano. “I’ve got a surprise for you, love, and I know you’re going to like it.”
Chapter Eleven
“Can you believe it?” Rick asked, creeping out of the villa’s small kitchen into his darkened bedroom. Their bedroom, now. “I think Hamish is actually asleep, curled up around his rawhide and all.”
Adriano snickered, albeit with good humor. “You sound like a frustrated new parent.”
“Not far off the truth, more often than not. He’s a handful to keep up with. I can’t imagine an infant would be a great deal worse.”
“Then you have not spent much time around any infants,” Adriano remarked.
“And you have?” Rick winced. “I’m sorry. You won’t remember that, will you?”
“But I do,” Adriano said, surprised and thoughtful. “I recall a pretty woman. More than pretty, she had the face of an angel. I must have been young, for I remember having to look far, far up at her. I recall her holding a baby, a sickly thing who cried all the time.” He sighed. “After that, it all goes blank.”
Rick carefully looked away. “That would have been your mother,” he said, “and your baby brother.” He hoped Adriano wouldn’t ask him what became of the child.
From the unhappy noise Adriano made, Rick figured he’d guessed. Rick didn’t like to think about it, himself, for the sake of the tyke and for the selfish wondering about how his life would have been different if Adriano hadn’t been the only Dominici son and heir.
Hoping for a distraction, Rick flipped on the lamp on his bedside table, oddly hesitant to turn around and face Adriano. Blast his contrariwise nature, anyway. He could play the forbidden lover all day long and go like an Energizer bunny, but apparently, give him a box full of sex aids and the family’s blessing and he froze up like a blushing virgin.
“Rick?” Adriano hesitated behind him. “Is something wrong?”
“No, no,” Rick lied hastily. “Just wondering if you’re…. if you’re tired enough for sleep yet, that’s all.”
“Sleep? Perhaps.” Adriano wrinkled his nose, goo
d humor evident notwithstanding. “I think I would prefer fresh sheets first.”
Oh, right. Rick would have given an unlikely-to-be-fathered firstborn for a hole to open up in the earth for him to crawl into. “Oh, Lord.” He censored his next remark, which would have been it’s been a year since I had anyone around to care a whit about the state of my bedding but me, not wanting to upset Adriano when they were having such a fine night. “See, love? That’s what you do to me; you get me that worked up that I forget to change the linens.”
“I can do it,” Adriano volunteered, looking hopeful. Rick firmly doubted that Adriano had ever changed a sheet in his life, but if he actually wanted to…
“There should be some extra sets on the top shelf in the closet,” he said, pointing to the boxy intrusion in the corner of his bedroom. “Nothing fancy, mind you.”
“No, of course not.” Adriano’s grin turned wicked. “We’ll only dirty them again. Soon.”
Rick tipped his head back and laughed. “True enough! However, one bedding change per night is all you get, friend. I don’t have that many spares.”
“Then you, friend, may sleep in the wet spot,” Adriano replied serenely as an angel. With his height and long reach, he had no trouble retrieving a set of sheets and set to work stripping off the old to make way for the new, an adorable intensity of concentration on his face.
Rick could have watched him all night. Dear lord, but he loved this “new” Adriano more than he’d have ever thought possible. He still remembered the old upsets, for sure; he doubted those would ever fade from his own fully functional memory.
The thing was, though … the new moments he wanted to capture alleviated the old sting all too well, and made him yearn for more still. He supposed that was what people meant when they waxed eloquent about second chances.
He drank in the sight of Adriano leaning over his bed ‑‑ their bed, now, if he had anything to say about it ‑‑ and frowning with concentration as he smoothed wrinkles from the fitted sheet. The firm lines of his chest stretched taut and the reach extended him so that his sleep pants slipped an inch or so down his belly to reveal the top curls of his pubic hair. Beneath that, Rick had no trouble discerning the solid state of Adriano’s cock. Did he even realize? The man walked around half-hard most of the time, Rick remembered.
Well, now he had free license to take advantage of it as much as he cared to, didn’t he?
“Hey, you,” Rick said, surging up and darting around the bed. He caught Adriano by the waist, hauling him back and fitting their bodies together, his groin pressed to Adriano’s arse.
Adriano inhaled a sharp breath, going rigid, then relaxed with a sound nearly like a purr when Rick kissed his temple. He made a mental note to not sneak up on Adriano again before abandoning rational thought in favor of his libido.
“It’d be a shame to climb into fresh sheets when we’re both dirty,” he murmured into the shell of Adriano’s ear. “Even if we do end up with a wet spot ‑‑ or four ‑‑ to sleep in, it’d be a right pity to go to bed without a shower, don’t you think?”
“Four? How unambitious of you,” Adriano gibed, wriggling in Rick’s arms until he’d turned around to face him, twining his own arms around Rick’s waist. He nuzzled in close, bumping their noses together. Almighty have mercy, but this “new” Adriano was a tremendously soppy git, wasn’t he? Rick loved every moment of it.
“Four isn’t enough for you?”
“Four is only the beginning.” Adriano bit the tip of Rick’s nose.
Rick chortled, trying not to sneeze. “Lunatic. So.” He tugged at the waist of Adriano’s sleep trousers, teasing him. “I’m headed for the shower. Care to join me?”
“Mmm.” Adriano nipped at Rick’s lips, sucking the lower one between his teeth and nibbling. “Is there room for both of us?”
“Not really. That’s the whole point and most of the fun.” He slapped Adriano’s arse, copping a quick feel of his tight glutes. “Meet me in there.”
“We don’t go together?”
“Soon.” He returned Adriano’s kiss. “I’ve a few supplies to gather first.”
Adriano glowed with hopeful glee. “Sex supplies?”
“And then some. You, love, are going to get fucked within an inch of your life and brought all the way back again.” Rick stole a second kiss, going deeper, stroking the flat of Adriano’s tongue with the tip of his own. When he retreated, Adriano looked stunned, much to his satisfaction. “Warm the water for me, and get naked. I’ll join you soon.”
“And then you’ll come,” Adriano murmured mischievously, turning away. The cheeky bastard had the impudence to wiggle his arse at Rick while he walked out of the bedroom.
Rick resisted the urge to punch the air with his fist in triumph, and more wisely used his time to select the best of the waterproof lubricants, snagging a handful of condoms at the same time.
A night to remember, this would be, and then some.
“Ready or not,” he called, following in Adriano’s wake.
As he approached the bathroom, he found that Adriano had ignored the harsher overhead light fixture and chosen the softer warmth of the old lamp sitting on the vanity. Rick had hardly ever used it, not needing any sort of atmosphere when all he wanted to do was scrub down and perhaps jerk off, and it smelled pungently of dust burning away atop the light bulb.
But he barely noticed the smell, given the view that greeted him. Adriano had left the opaque glass shower door leaning ajar and undressed. He leaned against the tiled wall, head back and legs akimbo, one hand behind his head and one wrapped loosely around the base of his cock, fondling himself. When he locked eyes with Rick, he grinned as would a prowling Cheshire cat and tugged harder, his cock rising full and firm.
“Judas Priest,” Rick whispered, enraptured. “Look at you, now.” He tossed the bottle of lubricant and handful of condoms into the shower stall by way of applause; his cock rose to play the part of standing ovation.
“I would rather look at you,” Adriano replied. He released his cock for the sake of tugging briefly at his balls, rolling them in his palm. “You are wearing too many clothes, I think.”
“I think you’re fucking well right.” Rick shrugged out of his shirt, snarling when it snagged on his arms, but grinning like a fool to himself when Adriano guffawed at him. “Laugh it up,” he mock-scolded, finally freeing himself. His hair crackled with static electricity. “Oh, this is nice. If I touch you now, we’ll electrocute each other.”
“We cannot have that.” Adriano reached almost idly for the hot water spigot, giving it a lazy twist. He was quicker with the cold tap, and, as he still had the Devil’s own luck, failed to either freeze or scald himself. Instead, a gentle cloud of steam began to rise right away, humidity billowing out of the open shower and filling the bathroom.
Rick shut the door to stop any of it escaping. He stared at Adriano as Adriano returned his attention to his cock, running his thumb over its plump head.
“Still too many clothes,” Adriano murmured. “Is this a particular habit of yours?”
“Screw you,” Rick returned, cackling. “For that, I ought to make you wait through a proper striptease.”
Adriano’s eyes darkened. “Another time. Naked, Rick. Naked and in here now.”
Rick’s hardening cock jumped behind his zipper, adding its own vote in favor of stripping down ASAP. He mentally saluted and shimmied out of the jeans, kicking them behind him. And, because two could damn well play at that game, he took hold of his own cock and dealt out a few easy pumps.
Adriano shook wet hair out of his eyes. “I’ll drag you in here by that appendage you seem so proud of,” he warned.
“All you had to do was ask nicely.” Rick held his head high and marched into the shower, shutting the door firmly behind him. Immediately, he found himself smothered by what seemed a solid wall of man with approximately eighteen hands but thankfully only the one cock, although it was doing its best to drill a hole through his fla
nk.
Rick spluttered on mouthfuls of shower water and something close to giggles, trying to fend Adriano off. “What d’you think you’re doing, you great eejit? We’ve got all night. Slow down.”
“Mm-mmm.” Adriano seized Rick’s nape between his teeth and shook him gently. He began to thrust his cock along the cut of Rick’s hip and got a good firm grasp on both globes of Rick’s arse to hang on to. “Quickly.”
Rick couldn’t really complain, but… “Why, love?” he murmured, turning his head to one side to give Adriano better access.
Adriano refused to reply.
His silence disturbed Rick, distracting him enough to try and pull back. “Adriano? What’s wrong? I can’t help you if you don’t tell me, you know.”
Adriano refused to look at him. He buried his face in Rick’s shoulder, lips tickling over the tender spot he’d just marked. “Before I forget again,” he said almost too quietly to be heard over the rattle of falling water. “While I still remember how I love you so.”
Rick thought his heart really couldn’t take much more of this, on more than one level. “Listen, you,” he said, jostling Adriano to make sure he understood Rick’s seriousness. “If you forget? I’ll remind you.”
“Rick ‑‑”
“Shush. I’m not done. I don’t care how often you need to be told, I ‑‑”
“But you will grow tired of it,” Adriano protested, stilling, though his cock softened not a bit. “Tired of me. Who would want such an idiot about them for long, if they can’t even recall the name of the man who ‑‑”
“I said shush.” Rick pulled back far enough to press his hand over Adriano’s lips, and glared into his sad dark eyes as he made his vow. “I’ll always take care of you, love. Always, I swear it. It doesn’t matter if you don’t ever remember, d’you see? We’ve years to make new memories. Forever, if we’re lucky.”
“And if forever is only ever a single day?”
“Then it’ll be forever today, and I’ll remind you as often as you need it. Now hush, love, and let me kiss you. Or, if you like, suck you. After which, I’ll fuck you good and proper as I’ve promised. Now, which would you rather?”