La Famiglia Read online

  “Why?” Mira asked. “If what you say is true and he wants the best for Esta why would he care if I make sure that happens?”

  Dominic slouched in his seat. He was tired. He had a lot to contend with, especially now that they had issues with the Mottolas. The last thing he needed was Mira’s crusade of justice. So he decided to give it to her straight. He sat upright. “Esta suffers because of the last insult she did to our mother. Do you know Eve is buried here?”

  “Yes, I know.” Mira nodded.

  “Well Esta could have shown kindness and allowed her to enter the family plot. The church would have granted it if Esta permitted it. But she refused. Giovanni also believes she convinced many people to stay away from our mother’s funeral. It hurt him deeply.”

  Mira looked away. “He has to move on.”

  “Does he? Giovanni has endured scorn and ridicule all his life. It’s part of him now. Those that took pleasure in the suffering of his mother earn no kindness in return.”

  “It bothers me. Worries me. I saw the look in his eyes, and it scared me. I don’t want him to be a man that could torture an old woman no matter what her sins were,” she reasoned.

  “But he is that man, Mira,” Dominic reminded her.

  Her gaze returned to him.

  “And you should realize that now.” Dominic warned. He then smiled. “How about a compromise?”

  “I’m listening,” Mira said.

  “I’ll hire a nurse to tend to her, to make sure her medicine is administered correctly. The nurse will give you regular updates on her health. But she stays where she is.”

  Mira looked relieved. “Thank you, Domi.”

  He winked. “No problemo. Let’s keep this between us. For now.”

  She grinned. “I agree.”

  * B *

  Giovanni had to smile at the way his wife fussed with Eve who protested being locked in a high chair. To settle the dispute Giovanni moved the baby chair closer to his seat. They ate and listened to the updates on Fabiana’s in Milano from Catalina. A few times Giovanni observed how Dominic looked uncomfortable when Catalina talked about her future projects in the company. He knew that feeling. He was glad arguing with Mira over her desire to work was over.

  “We have something to propose, honey,” Mira said, and silence fell over the table.

  “We?” Giovanni looked up from his food, chewing. Apparently Mira wanted the family to hear her idea, or she would save the proposal for pillow talk.

  “Yes me, Catalina, and Rosetta,” Mira announced.

  Giovanni’s gaze cut away to the other two and both were unable to look him in the eye. Bella didn’t have that problem. In fact she glowed with excitement. All of it spelled trouble. “Let me hear it?”

  “Catalina showed me her designs. She has a great concept for Fabiana’s. I’m so proud of her. Sooooo….”

  Giovanni looked from Mira and Catalina. Mira did a drumroll with her fingers on the table and Eve laughed.

  “I think Catalina should be the head designer for Fabiana’s.” Mira announced.

  Giovanni swallowed. “What?”

  Mira laughed. No one at the table did. Either his wife didn’t care or was too pumped on her idea to notice. “She’s ready for it.”

  “No she isn’t,” Giovanni frowned.

  “She is. And we have to strike now. Rosetta and Catalina will go back to Milano and get to work right away. Everyone is raving about the boutique and the project releases they’ve done so far. Carole Montague has so many commitments in New York. It’s perfect.”

  “Let’s not discuss it now.” Giovanni waved it off. He glanced over to Dominic whose face was red as a tomato. However, Catalina couldn’t be happier. Giovanni shook his head. Those two were headed for trouble. Mira opened her mouth to say more and he gave her a look that his request was not to be challenged. His wife dropped it. Not before giving him a serious scowl over being silenced.

  Giovanni winked at her and continued to eat. Talk of designing dresses ruined his appetite.

  * B *

  The night ended and Dominic retreated. He couldn’t get out of there soon enough. It took every fiber in his being to keep his cool through dinner. Catalina and Mira blindsided him with their talk of Fabiana’s and his girlfriend’s future. Not once did Catalina mention their plans to marry. And when Mira talked to him about Esta she didn’t mention it either. He had to wonder if Giovanni’s warning was true. And that realization made him feel like an ass. He couldn’t be the man to hold her back from her dreams. But was he the man to let her dreams override his own?

  Dominic decided to take one of the smaller villas on their land, one close enough to the beach to give him some perspective. Once inside he polished off a bottle of wine before he calmed himself enough to let go of his anger. The darkness of the evening had filled the inside of the villa and he didn’t bother to turn on a light. Instead he closed his eyes and reclined his head on the chair. Sleep and some space was all he needed.

  Several minutes had passed before that tranquility was disturbed. A knock at the door at first faint grew stronger. Dominic squinted in the dark not sure if he was fully awake.

  “Domi? Are you here?” Catalina asked. “Domi? Open up!”

  “Yes,” he groaned. He sat upright and his rational thoughts swirled in his head. He forced himself to stand tall and walk on steady feet to the door. It took effort. How much had he drunk? Catalina stood on the bottom step with a red and yellow shawl around her shoulders. She wore a strawberry red strapless dress that billowed by the wind around her thighs. And her long dark hair was blown in her face. Dominic looked out to the sea. In the distance he could see a high tide rolling in over the shore. Possibly rain was coming.

  “I thought you were out here. Can I come in? It’s cold!”

  “Not a good idea. Giovanni. Rules. Talk to you tomorrow.” He tried to close the door.

  Catalina threw up her hand and stopped him. “They’ve gone to bed. We need to talk, Domi. Please? Can we?”

  “For fuck’s sake! Do I have a choice?”

  Before she answered he turned and walked off.

  Catalina stepped inside the dark villa. There were several on their land and one that was actually on the beach. The men who worked for her family used most of these smaller cottages. Dominic rarely spent the night out here. She could sense his disappointment at dinner. The last thing she expected was to find him sulking in a dark villa that reeked of wine.

  She closed the door and reached for the light switch. Dominic’s hand went up to his eyes immediately. He dropped in the chair behind him.

  “Were you out here drinking alone?’ she asked. She could see he was. The empty wine bottles were sprawled over the floor. “Domi? Why do this? Why not talk to me? It’s so childish.”

  “Do you want to get married, Catalina?” Dominic asked.

  “Of course I do.” Catalina answered.

  “Then what was that bullshit at dinner? You going back to Milano and then heading off to America? You didn’t discuss any of it with me. You knew I was going to ask Gio to let us marry. You humiliated me.”

  “I’m sorry. I am. Mira blindsided me with the news. After she saw my designs she came up with the idea of me launching my own line under Fabiana’s. How could I say no? It’s my dream.”

  “Since when do you dream of making clothes?” he asked.

  “Since I grew up and lived a little from under your shadow.” She fired back. “I don’t see how any of this threatens us, or you.” Catalina walked over to him. She got on her knees before him. “Domi, look at me. You know me. Am I running away from you or just becoming my own person? You have always supported me. What’s changed? Tell me,” she pleaded.

  “You think I don’t know when you’re lying? This was your idea. You changed. I’ve been too distracted to see it,” Dominic said.

  “How do you make that leap? You haven’t proposed. Giovanni hasn’t given his consent. I don’t even have a ring.” She touched his knee
. “You can ask Giovanni for us to marry. And if he says yes, then I’m yours.”

  She waited a pause for her words to sink in. Dominic closed his eyes and slouched deeper in the chair. Catalina continued, “ If he says yes or no I can still be a designer. I can still be a wife. And I will always be your Catalina.”

  Dominic laughed. “Is this how you fooled Franco? With empty promises?”

  The accusation stabbed her in the heart. She recoiled a bit inside and swallowed her hurt. Damn him. He was just like her brother. When they hurt they hit hard. “I’m going to ignore that comment because I don’t want to fight with you, not over something as important as how we respect each other, how we love each other.”

  Dominic’s eyes opened. He leaned forward and stared directly into her eyes. She couldn’t look away from the soft love in his brown eyes. He grabbed her face with both hands. “Giovanni said this day would come. Are we here already, piccoletta? Tell me now and I swear I’ll learn to live with it. I swear it. But don’t play games with me, cara. If in your heart you need something different then tell me. You were so young—”

  “Stop it!” she tried to break away but his hold on her face was tight as a vice.

  “It’s true. You were young and I—I don’t know why I couldn’t help myself. I love you with everything in my heart. I always have.” Dominic confessed.

  “He’s wrong about us, Domi. They all are. There’s nothing impure about our love. I swear it. I want you, and this life we have. Different from the life my mother had with my father. Do you understand?” She kissed him. She wrapped her arms around his neck and held on to him while surrendering within their kiss. “I love you, Dominic Esposito Battaglia,” she repeated after several kisses. “I’ll give you a family, our own family. Trust me. I will marry you when the time is right. I will never leave you. And I’ll never let you leave me.”

  Dominic relaxed. He was surprised, because he hadn’t realized how much of his long buried fears of rejection had turned in on him. Self-hatred and loathing was beat into him by fists and vicious words before he learned to crawl. His biological father was a cruel sadistic bastard that even in death visited his nightmares. But never when his sweet Catalina protected him with her love. She was his shield against the word of doubt.

  He lifted her by her arms and she came willingly to his lap. The soft round cushion of her ass snuggled his groin. His heart pounded. His dick went rigid when she settled in his arms. Deep down he had to admit that her defiance, independence, free will, pleased him on a primitive level. Every man loved the chase. Why else would Giovanni work so hard to make a woman like Mirabella his mafia wife?

  Catalina shrugged off her shawl. In doing so she revealed her slender shoulders. He moved her dark locks away with the brush of his hand so he could see the lovely contour of the shoulders that extended up her neck. She was gentle, serenely wise, and beautiful. She was his salvation. Dominic rubbed the tip of his nose against hers. She blinked once but maintained his gaze. Her soft hands touched the side of his face and slowly stroked down his jaw. “Love me, Domi, it’s okay,” she whispered as her lips brushed his brow. “I won’t let you down.”

  Dominic closed his eyes and titled his chin upward as Catalina’s petal soft lips met his and he opened his mouth, allowing her to sweep him up in her gentle kiss. Her lush breasts mashed against his chest as he held her tightly. Catalina was the sweetest kisser. Her tongue touched his, retreated, and then swept over and over. Even more satisfying was the fact that no other man had ever tasted what was his and lived to tell the tale.

  Her fingernails scraped his scalp as she gathered his hair. She pulled his head back and released him from her kiss. Dominic opened his eyes and blinked as she opened her dress and she then drew his head down to give him her rosy perked nipple. To feel her nipple scrape his tongue was wildly erotic. His tongue circled the circumference and then he sucked on each thick morsel hard and strong. Catalina’s eyelids fluttered. Her hand glided from his scalp to his neck and she held it She exhaled deeply.

  Why did he feel like he was seducing an innocent each time he slipped into their passion? Dominic forced the doubts from his mind and claimed her as his woman. His hands went around her small waist to her back. He released the nipple to ravish the other with his tongue and mouth. The sucking became urgent and intense. She allowed him the freedom. Dominic let go. He dragged his tongue up her collarbone, neck, across her cheek and halted at her ear to whisper: “I will fuck you tonight. I love you. I want you. So bad.”

  “I believe—” Catalina sighed. He slipped his hand between her thighs and she parted them. Her head dropped back in a silent gasp. “Yes.”

  Dominic eased aside her panty and rubbed his two fingers over her wet slit.

  Catalina saw it constantly. Saw her father and mother work to protect Dominic from his feelings of inadequacy. She watched Giovanni and Lorenzo protect and rough him up to make him stronger. Dominic had abandonment issues. Yes he was smart and loyal, but he was also vulnerable and wounded. Only she could save them. She believed it with everything in her. As his fingers slid into her she gripped his arm and her pelvis seized, she made a silent vow to be careful with his heart. He removed his hand.

  She clutched his shoulders when he lifted her up in his arms. She wrapped her legs around his waist and rubbed her cheek against his scruffy jaw. Dominic carried her into the dark. He was on her the moment they hit the bed. Taking off his clothes and her dress, and underwear, he did away with them so fast she barely had time to catch her breath.

  And he was inside her driving hard, long strokes of his dick, thrust after thrust. The lovely weight of his virile body pressed her down into the mattress. He leaned his forehead against hers and they stared into each other’s eyes.

  “Tu queria,” he said thickly. “I must have you, cara. I must.”

  She heard him catch his breath when she moved up against his driving thrusts. He eased his hands under her buttocks to lift them so her tightness could fully encase him. His smile widened. Catalina held to his shoulders and moved beneath him, she rode the wave of pleasure. He rolled his hips with each thrust and fucked her deep. He withdrew to the ring of his cock and then plunged in once more. Catalina sighed. He took her left leg and pushed it down over to her right side and positioned himself on his knees to fuck her. And he did so well. Dominic turned her. She got on her knees and hands. She tossed her long locks and looked back at him as he steadied his strike.

  A single thrust and he was fucking her again. She looked back at him to see the pleasure contorting his flushed face with sweat breaking over his upper lip and brow. Catalina dug her fingernails into the bed sheets and mattress. Deep long dick strokes beat at her pussy causing lovely friction that heated her inner walls, melting her core. She liked how controlled he was in his delivery. Catalina collapsed on the mattress, weak, unable to keep up. Dominic lay across her, fucking her. She turned her head to the side. He pressed his cheek to hers. His ass lifted and fell and his dick went in and out of her repeating the rhythmic dance until her toes curled.

  “Sei incredibilie. Sei bellisima. Sei uno dono—you are a gift. Amore mia—my love.”

  Dominic gripped her by both hips and raised her a bit so he could hit spots beyond her belief. Strong pelvic spasms rippled currents of the sweetest pleasure through her. He dropped his head on the back of hers and they climaxed together.

  And then they crashed. Dominic dropped on top of her. Catalina squeezed her eyes shut and forced the tears back. She hated hurting him. All she ever wanted since she was a little girl was her Dominic—and she intended to have him, to have it all.

  7.

  “Buongiorno,” Marietta said. She rubbed the sensitive peaks of her nipples over his chest and planted a gentle kiss to his lips. Her arms were raised, her hands pressed flat to the wall above his head and pillows. She straddled him and the spry pubic hairs that grew wildly over his lower pelvis tickled her pussy. “Nice,” she said as she shivered from the pleasurable
contact.

  “Mia moglie,” he groaned. His hand reached and stroked the side of her thigh.

  “I’m not your wife yet. Today is your wedding day silly.” She removed a hand from the wall and traced her finger across his bottom lip. Lorenzo’s lashes parted a fraction. She could barely see the color of his eyes they were so heavily lidded. “You ready to be mine, bad boy?” she asked.

  “I’m ready,” he rolled her over to her back. “Sei tutto ciò che voglio—you’re everything I want.” Lorenzo kissed her lips, her chin, under her neck, her collarbone. No words spoken in Italian or English had ever affected Marietta so deeply.

  Marietta giggled. He parted her legs and positioned his body between. He settled on top of her with his hands firmly gripping her ass. He squeezed. His kisses began the sweet wet trail from the peaks of her nipples to her navel. Marietta swallowed and relaxed a little more knowing he’d keep going. She tingled with anticipation. She drew her knees up and rested the bottoms of her feet on his shoulders as his head lowered to her pussy. Lorenzo opened the outer lips of her pussy with his tongue and plunged it in to swipe up sweetly. His hot breath fanned her distended clit and she shivered. His tongue licked the sensitive skin at the entrance of her pussy and then dipped inside. Marietta tilted her head back and her jaw clenched to suppress a moan, her thighs clamped shut on his head.

  And then his lips sealed over her clit and he sucked hard and strong. She lost control. She yelled his name and a slew of curses as she gripped his hair, and thrust her pelvis up to keep his face buried deep. Marietta was lost in pleasure.

  Carlo usually smoked his marijuana to unwind. Alcohol tended to make him aggressive, even violent. Tonight neither alcohol nor marijuana could settle his mood. He dropped his head back and listened as Marietta cried out again in pleasure. Lorenzo fucked her good. Envy and guilt warred within him. The sound of her pleasure would haunt him the rest of the night. He should leave the cabin and go top deck. He should turn on the music box in his room or the television. He should do anything but listen to his best friend fuck his woman.