AllFreeNovel
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When I emerge from the bathroom in my bathrobe, my hair piled on top of my head, I smile at the sight of him. He’s fiddling with the remote, trying to get the French Netflix app to work properly on the TV.
“What’s wrong with it?”
He swears in Italian and punches more buttons. “Something about output or input or some fucking shit. I’ll call Marino in here to come work this. How the fuck do they expect us to enjoy a movie if they make it this complicated?”
A small, unplanned laugh escapes me. “Can I try? I think you have it on the wrong input.”
He hands over the remote, watching with his stubborn arms folded as I fiddle with the remote selections. It takes me a few attempts, but within the next minute, the Netflix logo flashes on the screen. He swears again and drags me into his arms, pressing kisses on my face.
“My wife is so smart,” he growls, nipping at my neck. “Brains and beauty. A fucking turn-on if there ever was one.”
His ticklish advances earn more unexpected laughs out of me as I struggle to free myself in his strong arms. He only holds me closer, nipping at me again with his mouth on my throat. As dumb and immature as it is, it’s the most effortless moment we’ve had in a long time—him playfully capturing me with punishing affection.
Eventually, I still in his arms, winding my own around his neck. I lean in for a soft kiss. Nothing deep or passionate. More just me trying to do what feels natural. I’m not a woman desperate with desire as I often was in the past. I’m not feeling like I have to pretend either as I’ve done for so long, it’s become a part of me.
For now, a soft kiss on the lips feels right. It feels…good.
And when doubt whispers in my ear, telling me I should start pleasuring him right now, I tune it out. Giovanni told me to be myself. I owe it to him to try.
“What do you want to watch?” he asks, staring into my eyes, smoothing the hair along my crown. “Actually, I thinkIshould get to pick.”
My brows squish together. “Um, who made up that rule?”
“You picked Paris. I pick Netflix.”
“That’sifyou can work the remote.”
“Mouthing off to the Don will get you into trouble, Honey. Watch that pretty mouth.” He gives me a playful tap on my backside before he returns to the remote.
I plop myself down on the bed and watch him. His brow furrows in concentration as he searches through the seemingly endless selection on the app.
For once, I’mhopeful. At least, faint traces of what I can think of as hope—it’s still difficult to tell what is real and what I think I should be feeling.
Giovanni joins me on the bed as the movie begins to play. For the next hour and a half, we lay curled up and entangled, our attention on the movie. A couple of times I interrupt our comfortable silence to ask a question about the plot, or to make a comment about a scene. Giovanni doesn’t pass up the chances to tease me, always pulling me closer, his hands always on me in some way. I welcome it, secretly focusing on the warmth and sturdiness of his body.
If you told me this was a memory from years ago, I’d believe you. Nights we spent in our penthouse at the Vittoria where we first watchedPulp Fictiontogether, or our honeymoon, where we’d spent weeks in vacation mode like lazy bums.
Even if things changed in recent years,thisis what we’ve always been capable of.
I twist my leg around his and rest my head against his chest. My gaze is set on the TV, but my ear’s pressed over his heart. He intakes these deep, almost beastly breaths even when still, such a powerful man with enough strength for us both. I listen to the cadence and marvel at the sound. The little things like this are what I’ve been missing. It’s what I never wanted to lose…
Giovanni rakes his fingers down my back just as absentmindedly. When the credits roll, he asks what I’d like to watch next. I lift my head up and the signs of a smile show at the corners of my lips.
“I was almost thinking I didn’t get a turn.”
“You did pick Paris,” he repeats from earlier. “I think that warrantstwoNetflix turns.”
“Not you changing the rules!” I jab him in his muscular side. It’s about as hard as any brick wall. “Too late. My turn!”
I swipe the remote from his grasp and attempt to sit up. Giovanni’s reflexes are too fast. He pins me under him, quickly disarming me of the remote, and “punishing” me with a deep, greedy kiss. I half giggle into his mouth, unable to help myself, giving up any fight under him.
“Cheater!” I scream first chance I can.
“I’ll cheat any way I can if it means I get to kiss these lips.” He silences me again with another kiss that quickly grows passionate.
His tongue slips into my mouth and brushes my own at the same time his hands begin to wander, drawing apart my robe.
“Gio,” I gasp. I push hard at his chest so he’ll pull back. As soon as there’s enough space between our bodies, I scoot my body, sitting up against the bed’s tufted headboard. I pull the neckline of the robe closer together, covering my breasts. “There’s probably something else I should tell you before we…” I sigh and rub the pads of my fingers against my shut eyelids. “I don’t want to do it anymore.”
