My arms encircle her waist, preventing her from doing more than breathing. Even then, I steal her breath with my kiss. It’s enough for us to both come. I fill her cunt until it’s dripping down my cock. I gather her hair in one hand and end the kiss. My lips find a spot at the top of her back where a shirt will cover. I suck hard enough to bruise, marking her in a place only we’llknow about. I give her four more, forming a circle. A symbol for the rings I’ll put on her finger. No end and no beginning.
A mission of this proportion can’t be rushed if we want all the moving parts to work together. It’s been a month since Patrick died. It’s been a month since the last attack on Vita and me. We’ve been lying low in the condo most of that time. I haven’t proposed, and we haven’t eloped. We agreed to wait until everything’s settled before getting engaged. We don’t want to begin the next phase of our life with upcoming battles looming over our heads.
So much togetherness could wear on people’s nerves. But we’re doing well together. I have a gym in one of the spare bedrooms, so we work out together and alone. Both of us favor two workouts a day when we get the chance. We’ve stuck to running on the treadmill rather than exposing ourselves while running outdoors.
It’s not as though we haven’t seen daylight or breathed fresh air. We go to the grocery store together and run other errands as needed. We have an entourage with us now. We sense when the other needs space. And if we don’t, we communicate well, so we’re not trampling on each other’s toes.
“Jandro, what do you want for dinner tonight?”
She names two Venetian dishes, while I suggest two Colombian ones. The two she suggests, sarde in saor and bigoli in salsa, are sardine dishes. My revulsion is immediate. She laughs and admits my reaction is the same as when she hears about the little green crabs she hates.
We’ve been learning more about each other’s upbringing and cultures. I’m not quite an honorary Italian yet, but I cando more than just swear in the language. She’s definitely an honorary Colombian since she’s learned our accent and many colloquialisms to add to her already fluent Spanish.
“Jandro, I love our time together, but won’t your family expect you to get back to work soon? Won’t you have some trips to Colombia coming up?”
She’s deduced much of what I do when I travel there. I’m mytío’sfixer and chief negotiator in our homeland, the land of cocaine and honey. Fuck the milk; you can get that anywhere. It’s ground zero for our largest enterprises. I don’t need to explain what I’ll do when I’m there.
I haven’t divulged all that’s planned for our retribution. My family agreed Vita should know what’s happening with hers. She’s aware we intend to buy their support. When the time comes, she’ll put in a good word for us. We hope once theMala del Brentafall to us—I mean ally with us—the others will take the cue and accept our help. For now, the price of peace for them is keeping any future squabbles away from my family, which now includes Vita.
“No,chiquita, there’s nothing pressing. You know I’ve been working from home a lot. Nothing emails and phone calls can’t handle.”
South America’s been shockingly quiet lately. Ever since we eliminatedTíoHumberto—mymamá,tios, andtía’s tío—nothing’s boiled over. It was a reminder that anyone we don’t consider family will meet a violent end. He committed fratricide and murdered myabueloalong with having a hand inTíoEsteban’s murder.TíoLuis has reminded a few people of their place within the prisons, but beyond that, there’s been no need for me to handle anything in person.
She assesses me skeptically, and I know she believes I’m downplaying things, but I’m not. All things considered, there haven’t been any other fires to put out lately. It’s actually makingthe men in my family twitch. This much calm usually comes right before a storm. But so far, so good.
“Will you hand me the eggs, please?”
I pass the carton to her before chopping plantains.
“I admit, Jandro, you’re far more domestic than I expected. Domestic and domesticated.”
I playfully growl at her and snap my teeth.
“Yes, I don’t think it’ll take much to housebreak you.”
I chuckle. “I can cook and clean,chica, especially if you agree to wear that French maid’s outfit I got you. That feather duster has your name on it.”
She giggles, and the sound goes straight to my cock. Last night’s roleplaying was among the best so far. I’ll gladly scrub the toilets from now until eternity if she lets me use feathers on her again.
We’re seated at the table when my phone buzzes. I pull it from my pocket and read the text.
“I tempted fate, didn’t I, Daddy?”
She’s taken to calling me that more often since we’ve had privacy here. I love it every time she does. It has nothing to do with age play or a DDLG relationship. That’s not our thing. It reminds me of the trust she’s placed in me and how far we’ve come.
“It’s time,chica. I don’t know how long I’ll be gone for, but I’ll call and text when I can.”
“I appreciate that. I know radio silence is actually a good thing.”
In our world, no news is good news.
“We can finish dinner, then I’ll take you to my parents.”
It didn’t thrill her at first when I proposed she stay with my parents while I’m gone. However, she listened to my reasons and agreed that with no family here and her only friends being the Mancinellis, she didn’t have the resources in place if somethingwere to go wrong. She’ll have men I trust guarding her, but it’s not the same as my cousins being there for her. Plus, I don’t want her to get lonely.
I’ve spoken to Carmine, and between his grunts, I got him to agree to look out for her in the case of an emergency and for some reason she couldn’t get to my family. He’s also agreed to make it easy for Vita to visit Serafina at either of her bakeries. I survived dinner with them here two weeks ago. The women had an animated conversation after being apart for so long. Carmine and I managed not to stab each other with our butter knives.
Once we’ve loaded the dishwasher, we grab the bags we packed a few days ago and head to my parents’. Everyone’s meeting up there, so Vita and I said our private goodbyes earlier today. We’ve been doing that every morning, noon, and night in case that was the day I had to leave. I force myself not to picture what we did earlier when I handcuffed her to our bed. We got a new headboard and footboard set just for that.
