Page 277 of Vita Mia

“You hurt me,” she confessed. The weakness in her voice made her cringe. She was usually far stronger in resisting. But she’d been emotionally drained by her family. She had never felt more vulnerable and needy for love and comfort.

“I said things I didn’t mean,” he began. “Whether you called me first or last. That was my son you lost. Our child. And I should have stayed. I should have been there.”

Stefano touched her face. He captured her face in both his hands. Eve felt her heartbeat slow to a barely-there thread of a pulse. Stefano did what she feared the most. He kissed her. At first Eve pushed at his chest in protest and tried to turn her face away from his beseeching kiss. But when Stefano was determined there was no denying him. And she had to admit it felt good to be desired by her husband and not the rejection she constantly felt from Nico. Soon Eve responded with the lift of her chin and slow glide of her hands up his back.

“Eve,” he moaned and began to smile as she rubbed her body up against him.

His lips left hers but he cupped her face and she kept trying to kiss him.

“I love you.Je t'aime beaucoup. This time I win this fight.”

“Nico isn’t a threat, he never really was,” Eve tried to explain. “I just want to be free.”

“Je vais me battre pour vous,” Stefano said and Eve believed every word. Stefano feared no one. When she confessed to him who she really was, and her brother’s power and Mafia connections he shrugged it off. When he met her father and had to humble himself to marry her. He did. And after he abandoned her he came to Cuba and faced the consequences. He was met with a gun to his face, but he stood his ground. If he said he was going to fight for her, he meant both physically and emotionally.

“Okay, okay,” she said and calmed the raging bull inside of him. That’s what they called him in the boxing ring:‘the raging bull’.

“I won’t give up this time. I won’t let him have you. No one can take you from me if you still have me in your heart. Do you Eve? Do you have me in your heart.”

“Yes.”

“You’re my Eve.l'amour de ma vie.”

The last wall of resistance broke. She kissed him and he let go of the jealous rage building in him. He gave in to that passion between them that made her marry him so impulsively. He swept her up against him and spun her. Held her by both halves of her butt cheeks and squeezed. She laughed. She kissed him again and again. His tongue sweeping deeper, his chest swelling and expanding with his hard breathing. Eve held on to him after the kissing. Stefano head was between her shoulder and neck as he laid kisses on her there. She exhaled and let herself believe in him again. Her eyes opened slowly while in his arms. Nico stood under the archway observing. She stared into Nico’s eyes. In the past he would turn away. She expected more of the same. But he didn’t. He stared back at her. Almost as if daring her to break her husband’s heart and go to him. Nico took a step toward them and Eve eyes stretched with surprise over his intention. Carlo appeared. He was laughing and totally oblivious to what he might have prevented. He pulled Nico to come with him. Nico was unmoved until he mouthed the words to her:ti amo. Eve felt as if she’d been stabbed in her heart to finally have him say it to her now. Stefano lifted his head to look into her eyes. “Let’s go upstairs. To your room?”

Eve looked past Stefano to where Nico once stood.

“Eve?”

She smiled. “Okay baby, let’s go.”

Stefano swept her off her feet like a groom does his bride. She smiled for him and let him carry her the rest of the way.

***

“THE GUESTS ARE ALLsettled in for the night,” Mirabella said. She walked over to Giovanni with a glass of water. He was in bed looking at his phone. He set it aside and accepted the water and his blood pressure pill. He took it down and smiled at her.

“You didn’t take it today. Don’t think I didn’t notice.”

“Did you know that Lo takes the pill too?” he asked.

“I’m not surprised. You’re both old.”

“Old!” Giovanni grabbed her and pulled her down to the bed. She laughed. He turned her to her back and stared down at her. “You think I’m old?”

“Seasoned. Very seasoned,” she said.

“Better.” He moistened his lips. His gaze lowered to her nightdress. He pulled it up above her shapely thighs and over her thin gossamer panty. He pulled it up over her breasts to reveal them to him. He ran his flat palm down her tummy and then back up to her right breast that he caressed. He held her gaze as his hand slid back down into her panty and looking into his eyes did strange things to her heart. After all these years his eyes were windows to his love for her.

First he brushed his lips across hers. It was the familiar taste of him. Rum on his breath mixed with the sharp citrus scent of his cigar. The tip of his tongue traced the seam of her lips and forced them to part.

“I waited all day for this,” she said when his mouth lifted from hers. “Can you put on your hat?”

Gio paused.

He chuckled.

“For me?” she said in a sweetened voice. “I’ll do anything, if you were that hat.”

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