One week folds into another, and soon we’re in the middle of April, and my father still hasn’t been found.
By now, everyone is aware of Stefano Garzolo’s disappearance. Everyone except for Gemma. Vale and I decided we wouldn’t say anything to her. She doesn’t need to concern herself with the whereabouts of our piece of shit father when she’s busy growing a new human inside of her.
Rafaele assumed command of the Garzolos in my father’s absence, and he’s busier than ever. I see him far less than I would like, which is why when I walk into the dining room one morning and find him there having coffee, my insides perform a happy little jig.
“What are you doing here?” I ask as I take the seat across from him.
He peers at me over his newspaper. “Decided to work from home today. Heard Loretta’s forcing you to take a day off. Said you’ve been working too hard.”
It’s been a busy few weeks at the shop. Loretta’s taken my suggestions to heart, and our catalogue for the new season just came out. Orders are up, debts are down, and we’ve even managed to find some money to hire a crew to repaint the store.
“She’s working just as hard,” I tell him.
“It’s her business. She’s supposed to be. You’re not.”
I take a sip of orange juice. “I like helping her. It’s better than just sitting alone at home.”
I’ve thrown myself into work so that I don’t ruminate too much on Rafaele’s absences. He’s always gone during the day. At night, he returns to our bed late enough that we only have time for one thing.
The sex is good. More than good. My husband seems to have made it his mission to learn every subtle nuance of my body. Even on nights when he appears exhausted, he’s never too tired to make me come. Never too drained to spread my thighs and feast on me until I see stars.
There’s one problem though. He won’t talk to me. Not really.
I’ve given up asking him about work on the days he seems distracted. He refuses to open up to me about whatever is bothering him. But even on days he seems okay, as soon as the conversation veers past small talk, he shuts down. He distracts me with his kisses and his body and keeps me at a distance I don’t know how to bridge.
Rafaele’s expression softens. “I’ve been gone a lot.”
I study his handsome face. Papà told me Rafaele doesn’t feel emotions, but that’s not true. He feels, but he keeps every one of those feelings inside. Hidden from everyone. Me included. Sadness pangs through me, even though it’s stupid. I shouldn’t be so bothered by this…this…lack of emotional intimacy.
I have a husband who treats me well and who fucks me well. He’s letting me work. He’s letting me do whatever I want as long as I obey a few rules that I don’t even mind anymore. This is more than I ever could have hoped for when it comes to this marriage. I should be happy with the hand I’ve been dealt. But there’s something in me, something I don’t fully understand, that longs for more.
“You’re here now.” I smile. “So what are you planning on doing all day?”
His gaze sparks. “You.”
I arch a brow. “Oh? Bold of you to assume I’ll clear my calendar for that.”
A small smirk unfurls across his lips. He stands up and walks around the table until he’s behind my chair. His hands fall to my shoulders and begin to knead them. “What will it take, tesoro, for you to make some time for me?”
“Hmm.” Damn, that feels good. My eyes flutter closed. “It’s morning, so it’s too early to be wined and dined.”
He applies more pleasure, working a low moan out of me.
“Maybe a gift,” I breathe.
His lips brush against the shell of my ear. “How fortuitous. I already bought you a gift.” He nips on my earlobe with his teeth. “I think you’ll like it a lot.”
A frisson of excitement runs down my spine. “What is it?”
He straightens back up and pulls out my chair. “Come.”
I leave my breakfast untouched and follow him to his office. Once inside, he closes the door and locks it.
“Take off your panties,” he commands as he walks over to his desk.
I arch a brow. “Shouldn’t I get the gift first?”
He throws me a heated glance. “You’ll get it in a moment. Take off your underwear, tesoro.”
This man. So bossy. I reach under my dress and shimmy out of my underwear under his watchful gaze.
When they’re off, he nods with approval. “Good. Remember the first time I made you come in this room?”
“How could I not?”
His lips quirk. He pats the surface of his desk. “Come here and bend over just like then.”
My core clenches. What is he planning? Some kind of reenactment? And where is my damn gift?
I huff an annoyed breath but do as he says, coming to his side of the desk and lowering onto my forearms.
His knuckles lightly brush against the back of one thigh as he lifts up the skirt of my dress. “So wet already,” he murmurs, dragging a finger through my folds.
My lips part on a gasp, and my back arches in response to his touch. “Is the gift an orgasm? I feel like that’s cheating.”
His fingers disappear. “It’s not an orgasm. You’re very impatient.”
“Yes. You should know this by now.”
He makes a low chuckle. “Today you’ll get a chance to work on that particular skill.”
What?
“Stay there. Just like that,” he says in a low voice.
I hear a drawer open and then close. Now I’m really curious. I try to look over my shoulder, but a hand appears around my neck, preventing me from moving.
Something slick and cool rolls down the crevice of my ass.
I gasp. “What is that?”
“Lubricant.”
Again, what? My brain is still trying to catch up with what’s happening when something smooth and firm prods against my back entrance. Tingles erupt over my skin. “Rafe, are you doing what I think you’re doing?”
The pressure doesn’t disappear, but he doesn’t increase it either.
“What do you think I’m doing?”
“Sticking things up my butt.”
He snorts a laugh. “You catch on quick.”
“What exactly are you trying to put up there?”
“I got you a toy.”
I drop my forehead to the surface of the desk with a thud. “Oh my God. This is my gift, isn’t it?”
“Don’t you want to test it out?”
“Please tell me it’s smaller than your cock.”
He huffs with amusement. “Yes. Significantly.”
He moves the toy in a tight circle, spreading the slickness around my asshole, massaging it almost. An unexpected jolt of pleasure travels through me.
“Anal is not something I had on my agenda for today,” I mutter, even as I lean back into him. A part of me is very curious and very turned on.
“Do you trust me?” he says in a low voice laced with arousal.
I bite down on my lip. He’s never done anything to me I haven’t enjoyed… “Yes.”
“Good. Take a deep breath and relax.”
The pressure increases until it turns slightly uncomfortable, and then it’s gone. “Breathe,” Rafaele instructs. “It’s in.”
Tentatively, I clench my cheeks. I can feel there’s something there.
Rafaele wraps his palms around my shoulders and guides me back up until my back is pressed to his front. “Today, I’m going to take your ass,” he says, his lips brushing my ear. “I’m going to own every part of your body.”
I clench again, trying to get used to the strange sensation. There’s a foreign pressure inside me, but it’s not as noticeable as I would have expected. “Who says I’ll let you?”
“Oh, you’ll let me.” He takes a step back. “Actually, you’re going to beg for it, just like you begged me for everything else.”
I turn around to face him, my cheeks hot and my pussy pulsing with excitement. “Keep dreaming. Now what?”
An all-too-satisfied smirk graces his lips. He slides his hand into the pocket of his slacks.
Click.
A gasp tears its way out of my lungs. Holy shit. The toy is vibrating inside of me.
I anchor my palms against the desk behind me so I don’t tumble to the floor. The sensation isn’t like anything I’ve experienced before. I can feel the vibration in my ass and my core, and somehow, even in my clit.
I blink at him against the dizzying wave of pleasure that envelops me. “What the fuck. You’re playing dirty.”
His smirk grows. “Can’t handle it?”
My body quivers. “I. Can. Handle. It,” I grind out, trying my best to pull myself together. I move my hips, trying to escape the sensation, but it’s impossible. My chest rises and falls with heavy breaths, drawing Rafaele’s attention.
His eyes darken, and he reaches out to fondle my breasts through the fabric of my dress. When he tweaks a nipple, I feel like I might explode.
“Doing all right?” he coaxes, his expression all decadent amusement. “Or are you getting hot?”
I’m burning up. “Not at all.”
“How long do you think you can last?”
“Not sure. Long.” There’s pressure building inside of me, but not the kind that’ll ever find release without some additional help. I can see how this will quickly become maddening.
He leaves my breasts alone and drags his hand down to my belly, letting it hover just over my pubic bone. I try to grind against him, but he keeps it just inches away from where I really want it.
Torture. Pure torture.
“Well, I have to get some work done,” he drawls even as he turns up the strength of the vibrations with the remote in his pocket. He makes an attempt to lead me out of the room, but I plant my feet against the floor and refuse to move.
“No.”
“No?” He turns up the setting once more.
I make a wanton moan. “Are you crazy? How long do you need to work for?”
He stifles a laugh. “I’ll just be thirty minutes.”
“Thirty minutes?” I shriek. “I’ll take care of it myself in those thirty minutes.”
His gaze flashes with warning, and he wraps his hand around my throat. “Don’t you dare.”
“Ten minutes,” I squeeze out.
“Fifteen.”
“Fuck. Fine.”
He drops his hand and gestures at the sofa. “You can wait there.”
“I’ll stand.”
“As you wish.”
The bastard sits down at his desk like he’s not actively torturing me, and opens his laptop. He looks like he doesn’t have a care in the entire world. In the meantime, my body breaks out in a sweat. The vibrations just keep going and going, taunting me with the promise of pleasure. I shift my weight from one foot to the other and bite on the inside of my cheek. There’s a steady pulse inside my clit, needy and begging for attention.
I eye the clock on the wall. It’s been a minute? Only a minute?
If I want to do this for another fourteen, I need a distraction. Even shuffling over to the bookshelf is agonizing. I gulp down air and try to move my body in a way that doesn’t make my problem any worse than it already is.
When I make it close enough, I grab the first book I see and open to a random page.
“He thrust into her, his throbbing member as hard as a steel pipe. Desiree moaned wantonly, ‘Yes, yes, Jeremiah! Fill me with your seed.’”
“What are you reading?”
I slam the book shut. “Smut. Why do you have smut in your office library?”
“Ah, you must have found my deceased aunt’s old collection. She lived in this house for a few years. Lovely woman.”
“Sorry to spoil your memory of her, but she was a total perv.” I shove the offending text back onto the shelf. The last thing I need right now is to be a fly on the wall for Desiree and Jeremiah’s night of passion.
I grab another book, this one with a safe title—A Comprehensive History of Geopolitics—and open to chapter one.
The clock counts down at a snail’s pace. About halfway through, shivers start to cascade through my body. Drops of sweat trail down my back and soak my dress. I’m swaying, sucking down air while the pressure in my core builds and builds. I clutch my book tighter and read the same sentence over and over again. Finally, we hit the fifteen-minute mark.
Rafaele stands up, an envelope in his hand. “I just have to drop this at the mailbox.”
I toss the book aside and throw my body between him and the door. “Don’t you fucking dare.”
Amusement dances in his eyes. “What’s the magic word, wife?”
“Please,” I beg. It sounds like a sob. “Please.”
He presses me against the door with his muscled body. The impact nudges the toy against a spot inside of me that makes me whimper.
“Please what?” he asks in a husky voice.
I look at him through my eyelashes. “Please make me come.”
He brushes a strand of hair behind my ear oh so gently, like he’s not the most evil man on earth. “What else?”
I swallow. Damn him. “Please fuck my ass.”
He grins. Butterflies explode inside my belly. “That’s my good girl. I’ll gladly fuck your pretty little ass.”
Before I know what’s happening, he’s carrying me out of his office in his arms. I squirm in his hold, chasing that high that’s just out of reach. My body buzzes, every nerve ending at the ready, and when we finally make it to the bedroom, there isn’t a thing in the world I wouldn’t let Rafaele do to me.
He tosses me on the bed and flips me on my stomach. “Get on your hands and knees.”
I quickly slip out of my dress and obey, baring my ass to him. Slowly, he pulls on the toy.
“Oh fuck,” I moan as he thrusts it in and out of me a few times. I need more, so I reach between my legs and press my fingers against my clit.
The toy disappears. Rafaele pulls my hand away and holds it firmly against my lower back.
I cry out in protest. “Why?”
“Because you’ll come when I say you can come.” There’s the sound of his belt buckle coming undone.
He snakes one arm around my thighs and pulls me toward him until my feet are hanging off the edge of the bed. A moment later, he slides his cock inside my pussy. I nearly choke at the sudden fullness. He starts thrusting and reaches around to strum my clit. I groan. Yes, finally. His fingers move in tight, perfect circles at just the right speed. The pressure inside of me expands until I’m fisting the sheets and moaning his name. He thrusts into me, going fast and deep and hard, making me writhe until my orgasm explodes through my body. I fall off the edge into the abyss, my body spasming with harsh waves of pleasure.
“Oh God,” I groan.
Before I can even catch my breath, he pulls out of my pussy and prods against my back entrance. My eyes spring open as he starts to push inside. He’s definitely bigger than the toy.
I clutch the sheet. “Holy shit.” The stretching sensation is back, and it’s a lot more intense. On the edge of barely manageable even in my post-orgasm haze. I do my best to breathe through it.
Rafaele grunts behind me. “Fuck. So tight.”
I whimper as he goes deeper.
He stills, digging his fingers into my hips in a possessive hold. “Tesoro, are you okay?”
“Fine,” I squeeze out, trying to focus on relaxing my muscles.
Rafaele drags a firm knuckle down my spine. “Is it too much?”
I press my forehead to the bed and let my head loll to the side. “Give me a few seconds.”
He moves his hands to my ass cheeks and starts to massage them. Soon I can feel the remaining tension uncoil inside of me.
“Keep going,” I tell him.
He pushes in a few more inches and groans. “That’s it. You almost got it. Fuck, you look gorgeous.”
His words send a fresh wave of arousal through me. Sweat drips down my neck. Everything feels deliciously dirty. I rise up on my palms and press back into him until my thighs meet his.
“Fucking hell,” he mutters.
I expect him to start moving, but he stays still. Waiting for something. “How is it, tesoro? I want you to enjoy it as much as I am.”
Warmth slides through my entire body. “I might if you start moving sometime this year.”
He chuckles, gives my ass a firm smack, and begins to thrust. I arch my back, meeting his movements with my own.
He groans. “Fuck. You take it so well, Cleo. I wish you could see it.”
I imagine his thick cock sliding in and out of my tight little hole and moan at the image. I want to see it too. A brilliant idea comes to me. I can see it.
My phone is on the nightstand, a few feet away. I shift and manage to reach far enough to grab it. “Rafe,” I moan. “Call me from your phone.”
Rafaele’s movements slow and then stop. “Fuck, okay,” he says hoarsely.
He pulls out while I place my phone on the bed in front of me. There’s some rustling as he fishes his phone out of wherever it is.
A few seconds later, I pick up his video call.
The image of his hard cock spayed across one of my ass cheeks makes me groan.
“Watch,” Rafaele growls as he wraps his hand around his length and presses the head against my hole. Slowly, so fucking slowly, he enters me, and it’s all I can do not to come right then and there.
“Oh God,” I moan as he fills me right to the hilt.
He holds the camera slightly above, giving me a full view of my ass and back. And then he starts to pump.
Watching him fuck me on video is like having sex on steroids. My body tingles everywhere, and all traces of my earlier discomfort disappear. Now, it just feels good. Really fucking good.
Rafe smacks my ass again, his groans growing louder.
“I’m close,” he grunts. “You’re gonna come for me one more time, tesoro. You’ve earned it.”
He reaches around and presses his long fingers against my clit before giving it a flick.
That’s all it takes for me to explode. I writhe against him as my orgasm wreaks havoc inside my body, struggling to keep my unfocused gaze on the screen.
His camera work gets sloppier as he fucks me harder and harder. I can tell he’s losing control.
“Fuck, Cleo. Fuck.”
At the last second, he pulls out, and I watch him come in long spurts all over my ass and back. He ends the call and throws his phone on the ground.
I moan and splay out on the bed. He collapses beside me, cheeks red, forehead sweaty, and lips parted as he takes deep gulps of air. I’m utterly breathless. Boneless. Buzzing.
Somehow, Rafe manages to get up a short while later. He returns, and I feel something warm and wet drag over my skin. He wipes me down and presses a kiss to my right butt cheek. I peer over my shoulder at him, and he’s giving me a reverent look.
“Jesus, Cleo. That was…” He clears his throat, seemingly at a loss.
Satisfaction flickers inside of me. “I know.” I turn onto my back and pull him down beside me.
Soon enough, sleep tugs on my mind. Why not take a nap? I press up against Rafe and let out a happy sigh.
This is good. This is easy. This is all you need from him.
But as I drift off, that tendril of longing for something more flutters deep inside my chest.
