Page 36 of La Dolce Vita

"It's beautiful; It’s better than beautiful. You’re still my woman. Nothing has changed. I just want you to talk to me. You don’t have to prove anything to me.”

“Hold me tighter. Tighter!” she said.

He did. She shivered. She wept with her face buried against the side of his neck.

“Let’s see a doctor,” he whispered.

“You will let me see a psychologist and talk about us? Our family? Our marriage? Anything I want?”

"I will do anything to save you, even from me," he lifted her chin and forced her to look at him.

"Will you stop coming here, going on these trips, staying away from me?”

He sighed.

"Will you?"

"It's business, Bella."

"Liar."

"I'm here, Bella."

"No. You're gone most nights. You leave. And it scares me. And when you are here you come here to sleep instead of staying with me. You barely notice me. I want to know the truth. Is there another woman, Gio?" she choked on the words. "If there is, I deserve to know. Who is she?"

His brows shot up in surprise. She regretted the question the moment it slipped from her mouth. It made her sound so pathetic. But men like him had mistresses. And wives like her sometimes drove them to them. She's tainted now. Even if they never spoke of it, they know what Kei did to her. They lost something pure. They both felt it.

“Che cazzo--what the fuck! Why would you even think I’d do that?”

“I dunno. The sex, I initiate it most of the time, and...”

“Bella? Stop. You know me! You fucking know me damn it!”

“I’m sorry,” she wept.

"There is no other woman. There never will be. I've had a lot on my mind, so I needed space."

"Kei? He's winning isn't he, Gio?" she asked. "From the grave, he's torturing me."

This time, she feared his answer. She braced for it when he didn't speak quickly to deny it. She closed her eyes and her heart seized in her chest.

"No, Bella. He doesn't have that power over you or me," Giovanni said softly.

"I'm sorry. I shouldn't have mentioned his name."

He pulled her in, and she turned to straddled his lap and wrapped her legs around his waist as he sat on the edge of the bed. He kissed her cheek.

"That was nice," he said. "You coming here. You know better. I don't want my Bella coming out here in the middle of the night."

She chuckled, and then they fell silent again. She dared to look into his eyes. "I scratched you," she said.

"I liked it," he smiled. "Slap me next time, too.”

She nodded that she would. “You left bites on me. I won’t be able to cover them up."

"I don’t give a fuck. You’re mine. They should see it.”

“Who? Your aunts and children?” she laughed.

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