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“Right. I would have liked to watch her as she worked.”
He shrugs. “Then you should have kept your hands to yourself. We agreed. When we’re all together, I call the shots. Always.”
His response startles a laugh from me. “You are such a petty asshole.”
“Did you not benefit from my actions?”
“One point for you.” I turn my attention to the warm body in my arms.
I can’t stop touching her. Her shoulder, back, sides. Everywhere I can reach, I touch. A comfortable silence descends between us and the peace loosens any residual tension within me.
Sloane’s breath kisses my neck and her lips move against me. I look to Valentino to translate what she’s saying.
“She wants you to talk to her until she falls asleep. That she missed listening to your voice the most whenever she was away.”
I still at her confession. Although I’ve never heard my voice, enough people have commented to me on its strangeness. In all my recollections, Sloane is the only person who’s encouraged me to talk, but I thought it was to preempt bullying attempts. Not that she finds comfort in my voice. My heart thumps in my chest and I hug her closer while I tell her about my day.
Across from me, Valentino wears an inscrutable frown. Sloane turns in my arms to face him and I stop talking. I can’t tell what she is saying and Valentino makes no attempt to translate for me, but I don’t mind. From Valentino’s startled expression, Sloane must have revealed something he didn’t know, arousing my curiosity. When he nods and glances away, I have to bite my tongue. I’ve never seen anything turn him bashful. What is Sloane saying to him?
She reaches a hand to him and the brief glimpse of him with his shields down disappears. He takes her hand and she drags him beside us. Once he settles, she caresses his beard and he leans into her touch. Not to be left out, I twist her face around to give her a slow, sweet kiss.
My heart sings with joy and belonging like I’ve never known. Once we part, Valentino and I take turns bathing Sloane and washing ourselves. With the water cooling, we don’t linger and make ready for bed. Sloane sways when she stands, well on her way to falling asleep. I lift her and carry her to the bed, talking all the way, using my voice to soothe her into slumberland. She doesn’t fall asleep until she settles between us with one hand cupping Valentino’s cheek and the other threading our fingers over her stomach. A peace I rarely see slowly settles over Valentino’s face as he falls asleep.
With Sloane curled between us, I debate how far I can push Valentino into a repeat performance. The wedding is a few weeks away and I can’t abstain from the bliss Sloane offers now that I’ve tasted heaven.
* * *
After a busy morning in the hospital doing rounds, fatigue should be dragging at my legs. Yet energy zings through my body in an endless loop and I know why. I can’t help but whistle as I recall last night’s activities between Sloane’s thighs. What bliss! And this morning, Valentino left before we woke again, leaving me helpless but to spend additional quality time learning Sloane’s body. It took everything inside me to keep my word and not fuck her the way I wanted.
With a little extra pep in my step, I open my office door. My high vanishes as I recognize the imposing figure sitting at my desk as if he owns it. Giulio takes one look at me and sneers.
“Are you going to be difficult today?” Giulio speaks slowly so I can read his lips, a courtesy he rarely gives me.
While I take a few moments to consider my next move, he says, “You won’t want others listening to what I have to say.”
I walk farther into my office and close the door. “What do you want?”
“Talk Valentino out of having this ridiculous wedding.”
“You do it. I have no problem with this marriage.” I fold my arms and rest against a filing cabinet in the corner.
“He refuses to see me. He’s still in a snit about the last time I dropped by the mansion.” He steeples his fingers and peers above them at me with a stern frown on his face.
“I fail to see how this is my problem.”
“That woman is not DeLuca material and will ruin his prospects in the family.”
“Still not seeing how this has to do with me.”
He huffs and his vibrating nostrils hold me captive. I know how dangerous it is to get on Giulio’s bad side. The fact that he is here asking me for help means I’m safe for the time being.
He grits, “If you need a reason to do the right thing, then how about I tell Valentino the real reason that woman enlisted in the Air Force?”
I straighten, because only Sloane and I are supposed to know her reasons for choosing the armed forces over attending college with us.
“I can’t deny that he holds her in high regard despite my many attempts to talk sense into him. With how he feels about her, how will he react when he finds out you failed to live up to your promise to protect her? Remind me, how many beatings did she suffer for you? So many that she literally had to run for her life to avoid being forcefully initiated into the most violent street gang in Springfield.”
His knowledge causes cold sweat to drip down my back and acid to surge in my stomach. The truth will hurt Valentino as deeply as a betrayal. He would still go forward with the wedding, nothing will stop him from marrying Sloane, but I wonder if he will continue to welcome me within the fold. I shake the doubts from my head. He might be hurt and get mad as hell, but I’m willing to withstand whatever he dishes, because the three of us are a unit. Always and forever. Nothing will separate us.
