Aftermath Read online

  He had an important rendezvous with a Russian. He snarled. “Fedrik it is payback time!”

   

   

   

  ****

   

   

   

   

  Nico suspected Bianca played match-maker. She claimed the spare bedrooms were filled, which he knew was a damn lie! He didn’t intend to offend his hostess and accepted the sleeping assignment without mumbling a word. Sharing close quarters with the woman he loved wasn’t easy, especially when he reconciled they were done and he didn’t have a chance.

  Yes, she came and brought the boys for moral support but it didn’t change what she said a few days ago. She couldn’t do it, she didn’t want to and he relented despite the knot in his chest and let her go. Now, here they were, less than ten feet from each other and he couldn’t touch her, couldn’t hold her, and couldn’t do a damn thing except face the window on a hard ass divan trying to rest and clear his head before the job. He heard the bed move before he heard her voice, “Nico, I’m truly sorry about your dad. It’s a shame I didn’t know about your real father until yesterday. You never told me about him, why?”

  He feigned sleep. He didn’t want to answer her question or talk about why’s. If that’s the case, they could talk about why she hadn’t said much all day but now she wanted chit-chat when he wanted silence before meeting with the guys tonight. He knew Ari, this wasn’t about the whys. She opened a line of communication to emotionally draw him in. She was horny, plain and simple and wanted sex.

  After a few minutes he heard her lie down and whisper, “Good-night, Nico. I have to leave tomorrow. Darren’s doctor wants him in for a check-up.”

  “I thought you took him to the emergency room and said everything’s fine?”

  “I knew you weren’t asleep.”

  Nico rolled on his side to face the bed, “I’m going to that appointment,” he said, besides he had unfinished business in New York. He had to tie up the loose end with that youth claiming to be his brother’s son. If he discovered Sergio lied, he’d carve the little shit into pieces for the cruel con. But, if it turned out he was telling the truth, he’d set the kid up with some money, hopefully he’d straighten-up his life. Vincent would do the same thing. Yeah, Vincent would have done a helluva lot more.

  “So, when it’s about our kids you talk.”

  “I was listening to you, isn’t that what women want?” Nico scowled.

  “You mean avoiding conversation, don’t you?”

  “You want conversation, now, when you haven’t said much to me the entire day? Sweetheart, give me a break.”

  “What do you want me to say to that, Nico?”

  Angry, emotionally drained and tired of Ari’s bullshit, he sat forward and leaned his elbows on his knees with his legs apart, searching Ari’s face in the dark. “You know what the hell I want!” She didn’t answer and he bolt upright, yanked the t-shirt over his head, stepped out of his shorts and stood naked, “But, isn’t a fuck what you want?”

  When she didn’t protest, he crossed the distance, seized her ankles and pulled her toward him. He then spread her legs and caressed the inside of her thighs. He didn’t want talk, dammit, unless it was to tell him she’d changed her mind and wanted him back, otherwise she needed to kill the damn questions.

  He roughly yanked down her panties to give her what she wanted. She wanted to fuck without any strings attached and he’d screw her like any other woman and when finished walk the hell out the door!

  Nico glared at the pretty woman who was the love of his life, daring her to flee, wanting her to stay, but not wanting to plead his case to do it. Either she made up her mind about what role she wanted in his life, be it wife, lover or friend or he’d choose for her. He preferred Ari as a spouse, a lover and confidant. He couldn’t do the friend shit and have a meaningless fuck with a woman he loved. It meant something, but he decided to disconnect.

  Bam!

  Emotions off!

  His body hovered above the sexy woman then he bent to kiss her while massaging her clitoris with his fingers, making her squirm by the touch of his hand. Her succulent lips opened wider and her legs when his mouth descended from her lips, licking her throat, not bothering to remove the sheer negligee instead wetting it with the tip of his tongue. She lifted her buttocks when he replaced his fingers with tongue.

  Ari gripped the firm shoulders to demand more. “Nico…dammit, fuck me…now!”

  He wanted her to wait. This was his want, not hers and he disregarded the passionate plea to drive her mad because it’s what he wanted!

  Ari pushed harder and whimpered, “Please…I want it Nico,” then thrashed about when his large hands palmed her ass. His tongue and lips worked in consort and found her G-spot and she raked fingers through his hair, as her liquid sex filled his mouth. 

  “Nico…Nicooooooo…oooooh pleeeeease!”

  He pushed up the flimsy top to massage her breasts, stimulating her areolae with deft fingers and they hardened beneath his touch. Her body spoke the truth to him with each adoring thrust of her pelvis to his face and the carnal confessions of feminine flesh confirmed her desire was much deeper than lust. He wanted her to say it, scream the damn thing from her mouth, but in stubborn Ari fashion, she demanded and gave him ultimatums rather than admit she wanted to be with him. He empathized with her fear; a control freak wants to stand at the helm, but he failed to relent. This is a battle of the sexes and he was damned if he’d let her win!

  Alberti managed to have children and a marriage which brought semi-normalcy to his life, all he wanted was the same thing…with Ari. If not with her, he pledged to remain a whore-mongering bastard for the duration of his life.

  Retirement wasn’t in the immediate future, truthfully, it’d been difficult being away from the action. He couldn’t do a nine to five either and pretend to be normal when he wasn’t. All of that’s a fantasy Nico and that’s something she had to understand. Every time he tried to conform or change his destiny, someone died and goddammit he wanted to keep her and the kids alive!

  The emotional detachment began to dissolve.

  ‘Ariana you’re my destiny dammit…how else could we have survived without incident so many years?  When we were together Vincent was alive and it’s my fault he died. Honey I’m hurting inside with this guilt. I screwed up royally, love. I got the memo, I read it and you’re right. But this friends with benefits shit can’t work with us, with youI need more.’

  These were his thoughts, unshared with the exotic woman in his clutches. Instead, he decided to end the bullshit tonight…cut the sex out of their relationship. After tonight she’d have to find another stand-in. The friends with benefits had to end.

  He wanted a second chance with Ari. She was more than a friend. Much more.

  He fucked up. It’s true.

  He cheated, yet it hadn’t been the first time. The difference with his latest affair is he had feelings for the young woman and was pulled in to the fantasy. His male ego, plain and damn simple got him here.

  Selange’s admiration and the way she stroked him with her mind made him feel wanted and needed, something he hadn’t felt in a long time. Hell and damnation screamed at his back, yet he ignored it and ultimately it caused his marriage to collapse. 

  He wanted Ari to need him that way and love him enough to want to be in his life!

  Nico withdrew his fingers to position her right where he wanted for maximum penetration. His knees collided with the edge of the mattress and he guided his rigid organ into the moist protection of her body and thrust so deep she gasped. He made certain she remembered it was Nico occupying her body and not Gregory, the low-life shit, the so-called upstanding lawyer she screwed and who later kidnapped their kid. Today he buried his father and a loving caress from her would have sufficed. A gentleness of touch and an empathetic woman who loved and eased the pain with affection is what he desired and not
a lawyer who transformed into a woman only when she wanted sex!

  He rocked with her and she lifted, gyrating with those curvaceous hips and squeezed him making demands. Ariana pushed harder and faster, “Nico…fuck me!”

  His resolve shattered and he held her face; his thumbs pressed hard on her earlobes. She had no choice except to look him in the face and see the depth of the man without barriers of pretense. They were skin to skin, in an intimate position when hearts are bared without words and what's required is listening.

  Nico wondered if Ari felt the love sheathed in anger requesting entry to her heart and pleading for Ari to fulfill his emotional needs.

  Nico pushed further and her cervix naturally accommodated his sizable staff. The erratic vaginal twitches were the physical response as she opened to him and moaned on each upward and downward stroke. As he moved he held her face immobile like an iron clasp listening to her voice.

  In ecstasy she complimented him in different languages, yet these were not the platitudes he wanted to hear. He handled her roughly, unable to hide his frustration or cancel-out the rejection. She held him around the neck unable to discern pleasure from pain or grasp the depth of his emotional agony. The selfish sex craved woman seemed more concerned with his dick than his brain.

  He moved at a frantic pace, speeding the tempo, making her scream and kiss at his mouth, but he led the mating to finally settle who the hell was really in control. Sure, he allowed her to take liberties with his body when he was feeling generous, but tonight he chose to go rough, thinking about her previous statement, “Don’t get any ideas about you and me Nico, it’s only a fuck!”

  He wanted intimacy but she wanted detachment, he wanted long-term; she wanted one night stands and booty calls. He didn’t want any of those things with Ari. He hungered for her unconditional love!

  The silk material was ripped away after he lowered her down and then he hoist her to the center of the bed. He was beyond control and didn’t give a damn if he woke the dead. He didn’t give a shit about anything anymore except the sexy mother of his children raining love the entire length of his hardened flesh.

  Damn Ariana, I love you. Love me back sweetheart, that’s all I ask!

  His hands pressed into the mattress over her head and he claimed her mouth and saliva as his own. The incorrigible woman’s response was to stretch her mouth wider, gyrate her hips, grip his ass and meet his thrusts with equal ferocity.

  Her lovely breasts bounced as Nico rocked her body and the bed. She drove him crazy when she nibbled his bottom lip, then slid her hands down to hold the base of his shaft coated with their fluids and worked him good. Those fingers caressed and maddened him it felt so good. Ari whispered in his mouth, calling his dick an anaconda and all types of crazy shit, but nothing of her love for Nico the man!

  He shut-down emotionally and gave her what she wanted.

  His mouth pushed down hard on her lips to shut her up. She had to take long nasal breaths for air as he pressed her head into the fluffy pillow. His pelvic bone ground forcefully against her soft flesh while surging back and forth prompting throaty moans during their conjugal act.

  The woman refused passive participation and pushed forward. He didn’t budge, instead he removed her arms from his neck, easily breaking her hold and pinned them high above her head and pressed her wrists to the bed with more force than necessary. His mouth detached from her lips and worked its way down to suckle her breasts. There was little care given to the sensitivity of her nipple and he sucked and nibbled each one like a hungry beast. She squirmed and he gripped her tighter with his hands and teeth until she relent and lie immobile under the ferocity unleashed.

  Her eyes flew open at Nico’s roughness. “Nico!”

  Nico ejaculated during an upward thrust and she silenced. Finally, Ari got it. It took her a while but after tonight she’d think twice about using him as a tool. He demonstrated his emotionless side, usually reserved for women interested in a sizable dick and nothing else. Ari received detachment and a callous fuck!

  His cell rang and he hastily withdrew from the folds of her moistness completely saturated from base to crown with their fluids. “I have to leave.” He said flatly then hopped off the bed, grabbed his clothes and entered the bathroom. Then she heard a loud boom and swore the walls vibrated. Ari blinked in disbelief. Did he punch the wall?

  Ari frowned, what the heck was she thinking?  Sleeping with him sent a mixed message. She was as confused as he was about their relationship. Oh, phooey, she wasn’t confused about a damn thing. Her heart craved Nico dammit but her brain kept working in a legal argument against it. Oh, such mumbo-jumbo, she scoffed in her head then released an exasperated breath, beat the fluffy pillow and groaned, “Dammit Nico, why the hell can’t I just say I love you. I don’t want to live without you –you’re what I want?”

  She flopped on her back and stared at the ceiling as she listened to the drumming sounds emanating from the shower. She envisioned Nico, standing there in naked glory, letting the water strike his taut flesh. Undoubtedly, scowling and pissed at her for refusing to give in. Nico was as untamed and lethal like the jungle king; accustomed to ruling and getting his way. A great lion of a man who kept her outside of his world as protection but once she entered and glimpsed the violence first-hand, it was a scary wilderness. A lawyer in the wilds of lawlessness is the most skittish of the beasts, simply because it’s out of its element and words cannot deter sharp claws or jagged teeth. 

  The stickiness and throbbing surrounding her vaginal region was a sore reminder of the sweet heaven called Nico she reluctantly relinquished. She sighed, “I love you Nico but I’m terrified for our kids and my heart. Oh, goodness listen to me talking to myself. Damn, I should just go in there and say…Nico, here’s the thing, I’m scared. I can talk my way around a courtroom but it’s in a controlled environment. I like a little danger….I married you didn’t I?”

  Frustration ruled and she gripped the side of her head, trying to clear the ‘after sex with Nico fog’, “Ah, shoot, come on Ari, you need to stop second guessing yourself, you’re a lawyer with responsibilities, not some smack talking mob chick!”

  Nico emerged from the bathroom fully clothed and glanced in her direction, “Who were you talking to?”

  She climbed out of the bed in need of a soothing bath after the rough sex and on the way past the tall dark Sicilian, she shrugged, “I have no idea what you’re talking about, you’re hearing things.”

  Ummm damn you smell good…look at you…all pissed at me but you know you liked it. One thing I know about you Nico is you could never resist this pussy because it sucks that anaconda like a licorice stick!

   

   

  CHAPTER FOUR

   

   

   

   

  Evangeline peered from the window which overlooked the front of their estate. She saw Nico exiting. He was very tall, even from this height she noticed. She smiled, ecstatic to have such a handsome and imposing older brother. If any of the guys at the uppity prep school she attended saw him coming, they’d piss in their pants. And he had sons, even better. Aaron was the adventurous of the pair and he was funny. The one Darren was too serious like his father and a bit stuck-up. When she asked what happened to his face, he walked away as if she hadn’t spoken a word. She wasn’t trying to hurt his feelings, she really wanted to know.

  Aaron confided what happened to his brother and she felt bad. Unfortunately, people were shit. That’s what her father always said. “Evie, remain wary of a boy interested in the size of your wallet and not your heart.” He warned on her sixteenth birthday as he stood beside the shiny Alfa Romeo dangling the keys in his hand. “This is my gift to you…my daughter and not my gift to a boy, capisce?”

  “Yes, papa!” she shrieked happily and ran to the sleek white car.

  Her sister Maddy received what she wanted, a Vespa and a puppy. What a stupid girl!
/>   Anyway, she barely got to drive the car and when she did, it was with a bodyguard as a passenger and that was no fun. She checked the time on her cell, only three more hours and the party would end. She ran to the guest room and tapped Aaron and he sat up. “Meet in the hall.” Then she hurried to Maddy’s artsy bedroom and gestured with her hand to the figure seated in the dark. “Come, we can go.”

  Maddy wasn’t happy about aiding her sister and tried once more to talk her out of the scheme. After-all, they had recently buried their beloved father and it didn’t seem right. “Evie, I do not feel good about this. Maybe, we should not go.”

  “You agreed. Didn’t I do the same thing for you when you wanted to go see an American band? This is the time you help me.”

  “But…”

  “No buts, let’s go.”

  “Oh, okay.” The younger twin whined, then grabbed her oversize Bohemian bag from the dresser and slipped her feet in plain platform shoes.

  Evie’s eyes widened at her sister’s attire. It was dull and lifeless and that hair, ugh! “I hope you have a brush in that satchel for your hair!”

  “Do you want to leave or not?”

  “Yes. I will make you presentable later. Let’s go.”

  They met Aaron in the corridor and the trio was quiet as they hurried to the stairs. Suddenly, the bathroom door opened and the little boy Sal emerged, fully clothed and asked, “And where are you all going?”

  Evie fanned him away, “Go to sleep brat.” She said in English.

  Sal overheard them plotting earlier and he wasn’t staying behind. They were going to a party and he wanted to go. Aunt Carmen had parties all the time and this was his chance at fun. “I’m going.”

  “No you are not.” Evie spat.

  The kid crossed his arms, “Then I will have to disturb your mom. Do you want to upset her?”

  “Let him come!” Aaron replied annoyed at the girls for wasting time, besides it was good to have Sal along. Another boy, even if he were only eight or nine, he wasn’t sure how old the kid was because he acted really mature, was better than riding with two foreign girls who’d talk in their language and shut him out. For all he knew, they could be talking about him.