“I need to—” She dug her nails into my skin. Her hair was matted from sweat, her breath coming in pants.
“Look at me. Move with me.”
I buried myself inside of her again, this time moving slower, letting the connection between us flow. I wanted to see her. To see those eyes.
I wanted her to see what she did to me.
She whimpered. A soft, sweet sound. “This…”
“Feels so good,” I said.
“I’ve never felt—” A garbled sound came from her mouth as she looked down, watching as I slid in and out of her.
“Watch,” I said in Italian. “Watch as we come together.”
I knew the signs of her body as well as I knew mine. My balls tightened right before she cried out, and I poured myself inside of her. I refused to sever the connection, even after her breath had returned. I watched as she came fully back to herself. She blinked at me for a second before she rose some on her elbows.
Balancing on one, she lifted a hand and let it drift down my neck in a caress that made goosebumps appear on my skin. Then she looked away from me.
“I better go shower,” she whispered.
“Mia,” I said.
It took her a minute to look at me. When she did, her eyes had changed. They were determined again. Set.
“What happened earlier changes nothing, ah?”
She shook her head, turning her face away. She left me standing naked in her room as she locked me out once again.
Chapter8
Mia
The man I wanted to see was right where I knew I’d find him. In the pool, doing laps like a caged shark.
If there ever should have been a man who had gills instead of lungs, it should have been my father. He was built for the water. He could hold his breath for an ungodly amount of time, not to mention swim with some of the strongest currents in the world. He had when he was stationed in Alaska while in the US Coast Guard.
Brando Piero Fausti made sure all his children could swim by the time they could walk. But I preferred to swim midday when the sun was high and the air hot. I folded my arms over my chest, a little chilled. The sun hadn’t fully risen yet, and the early morning air still held some of the night in it.
Instead of waiting for him to come up for air, I took a seat at the edge of the pool. A football was left out, probably by one of my brothers, and I turned it over in my hands while I waited.
After he broke the surface, as smoothly as a dorsal fin, he shook the water droplets off and looked at me.
Like Saverio, my father was tall, dark, and deadly. Those eyes brought most men to their knees, while mamma was the only one who could bring him tohis. I could always soften the hardness in his eyes. When it happened, it usually softened me, too, because it was so rare.
Not this morning. My cheeks felt heated from what Saverio had told me.
“You didn’t tell me,” I said, “about Saverio coming to see you.”
If I didn’t just say it, I might have chickened out. Not because I was afraid, but because this conversation wasn’t going to be an easy one.
He swam over to me, using the side of the pool to rest his arms. It seemed like my father was born with muscles and would probably die with them. He was as fit as he was when he was a teenager. Even better looking.
Would probably die with them.
The thought of something happening to him made me look away. He turned my face toward his, droplets of cool water making goosebumps appear on my skin.
“It was a decision mamma and I made together. It wasn’t made lightly.”
