Page 27 of Mafia’s Final Play

She gave a rather impish little smile as she took his hand and stepped into the tub before she turned to sit in front of him. She slid between his legs and leaned back against his chest. The tub was big enough for them both and deep enough that his arms could rest easily on the sides. They both inhaled the scented steam from the bubble bath and relaxed. “This I like.”

He smiled at her words. “What, are you saying there’s something you don’t like here?”

The question was asked with his eyes closed, the outside world far away and unable to intrude on this moment with his wife. She felt good pressed into him like that, she was totally relaxed with him now, used to being naked with him. A grin spread over his face as he thought about that first time he’d undressed her, how she’d been so shy and timid. Now, “shy and timid” wasn’t the word he’d use for her at all.

Marie wouldn’t argue with him on most things but that was because she tended to agree with him. If she disagreed with him, she’d usually say it. She wasn’t afraid of him or his wealth, and that was a good thing. He’d wanted to dominate her, to make her his and only his, to the point where he wanted her every thought to only be of him, but he’d eased back on that when she’d started to have problems, and he saw that she did that anyway, even without his dominance.

Marie was the wife he’d always wanted, even if he hadn’t known he’d wanted one. She slid down his body and turned to look at him. “What are you thinking about?”

“I’m thinking about how lucky I am.” Wet fingers left a trail down her face as he ran his fingertips down her cheek.

“Are you? You’re strapped with a basket-case for a wife, and now we’re hiding from people that want to kill me to get back at you, how is that lucky?” The dark-brown eyes that made his heart beat with unspoken emotions were filled with sadness, maybe even sorrow at what their lives had been like. “You had to marry me to save me from your aunt, as well.”

“Ah, but I’d marry you again, Marie. Even if it wasn’t to save you from Celeste. As for the hiding, I’d run across the globe if it meant you were safe.” He looked down at her face and felt that emotion grow as a warmth that spread through his chest. “I’d take the world down, burn it down and rebuild it, all for you, Marie.”

He smiled when her eyes went wide and her mouth fell open.

“Don’t be so shocked, you’ve given me something I’ve always wanted - a home. That home lives inside of you, it is you, and I won’t allow the world to take that away from me. Not again.”

“I’m glad, Matteo. I’m glad you feel like that.” She looked away, amazed at how he’d made her feel. “If I’m your home, it’s only because you’re mine.”

“Then we’ll burn the world down together if we have to.” He pulled her up, her hot, slick skin pressed to his, and he kissed her until all thought left his head. All thoughts except for her. She filled his thoughts, his desire for her drove everything else away. The night might have been ruined by the snow, but in a way, the snow gave them the chance to have something even more special - a moment that they would always remember.

13

“The water is getting cold,” Marie whispered to him as he rinsed her hair out.

They’d been in the tub for a while, long enough that both of them were now clean and more than a little ready to get between warm sheets. He ran his fingers over her head one last time to make sure all of the shampoo was gone before he let her up. “Okay, let’s get to bed then.”

They’d emptied the bottle of wine and both were just a little tipsy, but that was more being drunk on love than on the wine, she thought. He’d all but said he loved her, and she’d almost let the words slip past her lips. By now, it almost hurt to not say them, but she held them back. He wasn’t ready, not yet.

The bathroom towels were large, warm, and fluffy enough to be blankets, so when she wrapped herself in one, she didn’t need another. With a giggle of pure delight, she ran to their bedroom. He was right behind her.

He caught up to her and dragged her under the covers with him. The giggles turned to outright laughter. “God, I need to hear that every day.”

His words jarred her and she looked at him. “Me laughing? Why?”

“Because it means you’re okay, Marie, that you’re still with me.” He pushed the covers off their heads and pulled her to sprawl over his chest. “I could hurt you very easily, my world has already done that time after time. I don’t want you to hate me for the things that come into our lives because of who I am, what I am. So, as long as you’re still laughing, then I know that everything is alright.”

“I see.” She let her tongue flick out to wet dry lips and she saw how it caught his attention. “You do know you haven’t actually hurt me, though, right?”

“I do, Marie.” His voice came out gravelly, rough, as he sat up against the pillows.

Marie sat up beside him, her knees pulled up to lean against as she looked at him, the towel barely clinging together now. “I’m not with you because I have to be, Matteo, not anymore. I’m with you because I want to be.”

Even if that wasn’t fair to him.

Before she could let that thought fester anymore, he pulled her to him and kissed her until she was breathless, but she didn’t care. She twined her tongue with his and crawled over his hips until she straddled his body. His left hand came up into the back of her hair to tilt her head to the angle he wanted, while his right came up to pull at the towel that still, somehow, clung together. He pushed it away at the same moment that he broke their kiss.

His lips teased at her nipples, sucked them into hard points before he licked them in a way that nearly had her in tears with torturous pleasure. He didn’t just stop there and have his way with her. She gasped when he pushed her back swiftly, his own body moving to settle between her thighs. With a grin, she stretched her body, opened her thighs, knees up, to let him do whatever he wanted to do to her.

The sensation of soft lips against her yielding skin, his hot breath over her wet skin, then, the lap of his tongue against her folds. Her back arched to press deeper into his mouth, to find just the right spot, but he was already there. His tongue circled and flicked before he tired of teasing her.

The drum of his tongue against her clit matched the race of blood in her veins. Something welled up in her, words that she wanted to scream, but she held those words back and panted his name instead. Softly, over and over, she said his name as he continued to drive her higher.

She thought she’d lose her mind when he slid two fingers into her hot center, when she felt him reach that spot that so many called a myth. They were people that didn’t know, that didn’t know that Matteo was a miracle worker who had found it, and knew exactly how to work it.

The world exploded around her, it must have, because all the oxygen left her body and she shook, trembled, convulsed through something that was pleasurable, that stole everything from her, and made the world stop for long seconds. It all went blank, and then, with a cry of shock, it all came over her again. She thought she’d pass out. She needed air but then didn’t care if she ever breathed again because Matteo had her in his arms. His tongue drove her high, over and over.