"When were you going to tell me?" I fumed, spitting out the first thing that popped into my head.
I didn't want to pick a fight, but I was picturing his family and Kenny telling him how bad I was for him. The worst part was I agreed. You shouldn't be with me, Scott. "It just happened last night. Your last exam was today. Was I supposed to tell you with my dick down your throat?" he yelled back. He made excellent points. He was painstakingly patient this last week. Tried to talk to me instead of making a move in bed last night. He gave me everything I said I wanted. To boot, he had no control over how other people felt or reacted. So why was I so angry at him and not them? "How did it go?" he asked affectionately, lowering his voice as he halted me in front of my study by grabbing onto my arms. If I didn't catch the quick glimpse at the door of the study, I would have thought nothing of itHis eyes dropped to the floor. When he raised his head again, his eyes were on fire with rage. I got what I had been pushing for. He was done being patient with me. "I'm not fucking doing this with you again. I'm done begging you to stay," he said, stepping aside. "You want to leave, Stacy? You want to go and be a don? You want everyone else to decide what happens between us except fucking us? Fine. Fucking leave. Better yet, I'll fucking leave," he said, turning his back on me and marching his way back to the kitchen. I slid down against the frame of the door, watching him walk away. I was such a fucking asshole. He did everything right. All I had to do was let him and I couldn't even do that. So what if he looked at the damn photos? He walked away from that and he still wanted me. So what if everyone we loved hated me now? I won them over once. I could do it again. So what if I came for him when he spoke or touched me? How the fuck was that even a p
When he entered the bedroom, I was there standing in front of the bed, waiting for him. He didn't so much as glance at me. "Can we talk?" I ventured when he started hastily pulling open closet doors and drawers. "You wanted me to leave. I think it's best that I do just that," he said, pulling out his suitcase and slamming it onto the bed. Shallow breaths. Racing heartbeat. A bead of sweat running down my back. Did he have me panicking? Fucking nothing for the near dead men's blood on my hands, but he pulled out a suitcase and now I went ballistic? It was fucking bullshit. I watched him go up and down, tossing clothes into the suitcase in a frenzy. Still not so much as a glance at me. Baby, I'm not used to this. I don't know how to do this. I'm losing my shit. I thought for sure you'd come in here and say let's talk and we'd figure it out like we always do. How many times did you come back and beg for me? Could you reall
His beautiful eyes shone with conviction. He was making such an effort to be strong. Baby, I love the way you stick to your guns, but I can't let you this time. Let me see you be weak for me. "Making a point," I said, slapping the second set of cuffs around my other wrist. Then I turned my back on him and walked back to the bed. I knew he was looking now. So I crawled onto the bed, flashing him my naked pussy and ass as the robe crept up my body. "We're not going to fix this by fucking, Stace," he said, but he stopped packing. He came closer, coming to stand at the foot of the bed. "Tell me what you saw when you looked at the photos," I said, turning around to slap one of the cuffs around the bedpost. Eyes still roaming over my body curiously, watching my every moment, trying desperately to stay sharp. On the verge of calling me out on what we both knew I was doing.
"The shit in that study is fucked up, okay? But baby you were thirteen when it started. Just a child. A grown ass man forced your hand. Like the badass you are, you gave him the ledgers. You made him to see you as more than someone who hurts people until you were strong enough to make sure he could never force your hand ever again. How you got there, how you survived, doesn't matter to me," he said, stroking my cheek, his eyes softening for me. The tears started flowing readily again as I searched his eyes for deception. Anything I could latch onto to prove he was a liar. That he didn't love me. That he was waiting to leave all along. "Even what I did to Joey?" I asked, guilt overwhelming my senses. "The way you looked at me that day—" "You did what you had to do to live long enough until I could find you. A week ago and when you were thirteen. I'm never going to feel anything but affection for you for surviving long enough until I cou
"I told you. If you want something from me, you're going to have to earn it," he said, standing at the foot of the bed, his face unreadable. "Tell me how. Tell me what you want," I choked out. "Let's start with the truth. Do you want to be a don?" he asked, still nothing in his eyes. I didn't know this look. It fucking hurt. Where was all the love? Desire? Trust? Eagerness to be mine? "No. It doesn't matter if the entire mafia turns on us again. We'll figure it out somehow," I said, letting go of the idea that I wanted the kind of power that came with being a don. "If I became a don, it would have been to keep you safe. That's all I want. For it to be safe for you to love me. Nothing matters but you, Scottie. The only one I want any power over is you." I nearly cried again when this declaration brought him back to me, cautiously spreading my legs and crawling in between them.
"Interesting. Not sweet whore, but secret whore. Your pussy's very specific. Figures," he said with a chuckle. "Tell me what else your pussy likes to hear, baby." The sound of his laughter put me at ease. I wasn't reading into this, was I? He wasn't just going to fuck me and leave anyway, was he? "Scott," I moaned anyway. "What happened to next time I fuck you, you'll be coming long before I touch your pussy?" "You were the one begging to be touched, my dirty girl. Aren't you a presumptuous cum dumpster, thinking I'll fuck your sweet pussy?" he said, my pussy clenching down on his fingers a little harder and longer than the first time. "I know you're going to fuck me. You're already hard for me. This turns you on far too much for you to walk away," I purred, allowing myself to let it happen despite the helpless state I was in. I needed to hear the words so badly. To make matte
The words combined with him pulling away from me sent a burning pain through my chest. I ignored it, watching him get off the bed and strip. When he was stark naked before me, my eyes went straight to his dick. The desire to touch back was overwhelming as he pulled the belt and parted the already ruffled and half undone robe on my body. My eyes trailed up his perfectly sculpted body until they came face to face with his handsome face, finally meeting his eyes again. "This is what you'll get if you ever ask me to say the words again," he said, lowering his body back onto the bed and crawling in between my legs. He grabbed onto my legs and slowly pushed them back until my feet were behind my shoulders. "Do you want me to fuck you, baby?" he asked, looking down at my body folded in half before him. "You don't want the words. You want dick, Stace. Isn't that right? I'll let you pick which you want, my secret whore," he said, pressing the he
Euphoria crashed down on me over and over. His hand on my thigh, fingernails digging into my flesh. His thrusts savagely rocking my body. The after effects of the words. The new faces of pleasure he was making. His eyes closing and his head falling back as he cursed, grunted, panted. My pussy walls clung to his dick throughout it all. Once it started, it felt like it would never end. My body quaked continuously, nothing but his hands holding me together. Elation took me over completely until I was drowning in ecstasy. Exaltation reached every cell in my body. He took me to heights of pleasure I never knew were possible, even for him. "Scott, Scott, oh baby please," I rasped out, unable to even look him in the eye, my throat hoarse from screaming, sweat dripping down my body, eyes squeezed shut. "You're already coming, baby. Not much more I can do for you," he grunted through gritted teeth. That was going to cost him, but his smart mout
That last part was such a her thing to say. Was that really what she thought? It would explain how I apparently caught her off guard. "Please, for the love of God, let me sleep and shower first. There are dark circles under my eyes. And my make up—" What the fuck was she talking about? She was fucking flawless. Perfect in all her imperfections. "Shut up. I won the bet about Kenny and Marlene," I said, laying the phone down on the ground and starting the five minute timer. "So now Scott says shut up. You've said more than enough in the last few hours. Now just listen." She clasped her hands behind her back, swaying back and forth nervously, her eyes dropping to the timer. Words failed me. I had a whole speech and everything. Even if I didn't, I was me. I always knew what to say, except right that second I was tongue tied. "That photo's taunting me," I said, spitting out the thought in my he
By this point, she had me watching her from behind a lens. Flashes of the thousands of times she had me taking her photo went through my mind. Watching her was my favorite thing to do until she started letting me touch her. I loved every last one of them. Studied the thousands of photos frequently, especially this past week, like some junkie trying to get a fix. The sweet ones where she looked like an angel. The dirty ones where she looked like the perfect whore. The goofy ones that I made sure I was a part of. The everyday ones where she had a pencil in her hair while she read or picked something out at the grocery store. Every last photo I took of her and every memory attached to it flooded my brain. "Fucking stunning every time," I said, trying to calm my raging heart as the sun began to rise, the silhouette of her before it. Slightly trembling fingers took several photos, as the excitement of holding a camera surg
"Can't we do this another time? Surises come along every day and it's been such a long night," Stacy moped. Not this sunrise. Not this moment I wanted to give her. It was all she could do to hold onto the tripod towards the end, so I let her get on my back and gave her a piggyback ride the rest of the way up my mountain. "You knew this was coming. I warned you I'd be making you miserable by bringing you out here before the crack of dawn while we were in Fiji. Sacrifices have to be made to please your future husband, Stace," I said, enjoying the feel of her body pressed up against my back. The morning was chilly, contrasting with her body heat. Or was I sweating? Maybe she was right and this just wasn't our moment. It would come once though. The sunrise of our one year anniversary. I had this picture of how it was going to go down in my head and I just wasn't ready to give it up. "On our anniversary? We just spent two ho
"Is the world's greatest commitment phobe still proposing today after this shit storm?" Kenny asked me as I watched Stacy sit across from Jeff to read through her immunity deal. "You just get the champagne ready. Be on standby, Ken. Call in sick. You'll get the call soon," I said, sharing an excited smile with him before I opened the door to Jeff's office to sit down next to Stacy. "You can have your lawyer look it over before you sign. Take your time," said Jeff, waiting patiently on her. "She's her own lawyer. She's like two classes away from being one?" I boasted as I watched her brilliant mind go to work while she read. "Three," she corrected me, eyes still darting over the words on the page. "Besides, we trust you. Don't we, Scott?" That's what she said, but she carried on combing the document. In about two minutes, she'd have tons of questions for him. "Yes, we do," I said to my fath
"I will never let anyone hurt him, Ken. On my life, I will always keep him safe," she professed one more time. "I know you will, Stace. For the record, you were always my favorite best friend," he said, cautiously wrapping his arms around her as he started sobbing. "Same Ken," she said, returning his embrace readily, rubbing his back. Eyes still on me, she stuck her tongue out at me, making me chuckle as I got up to join them. "Un-fucking-believable. What am I, chopped liver?" I said, watching Kenny pull back as I shot him a nasty look. "You're okay. Tolerable. Second best. I keep you around because of her," he said, wiping away his tears with the back of his sleeves. "I can't believe you fucking told her you were proposing. What the fuck is wrong with you? How will you survive marriage?" His stupid remark had us chuckling between the three of us. We all wrapped an arm around the other an
There was that promise of forever she said I couldn't have until I asked her to marry me. It was as good as a yes to my proposal. My heart was doing flip flops in my chest. I knew it was for their benefit, maybe even just because she was nervous about talking to them instead of me, but her words were aimed directly at me. Sweeping me right off my feet. Claiming every bit of me as hers. Allowing me to let go of the tiny part of me that wondered if she really could have killed me in those woods. It wasn't just luck or the words I said to her that made her want to save me. I was happy if I gave her the strength to do what she needed to do, but I firmly believed she would have gotten there anyway. She had been doing it for eight years. From the moment we met, she had been protecting me. Even when she pushed me away. She chose me for eight years. Came back again and again, no matter how many times Don Angelo called her home, to make me fall dee
He pulled out a chair for himself, then one for me, urging me to sit next to him. With a resigned sigh, I sat down two chairs away from Kenny, as close to Stacy as I could. I gave Willow and my mom a pleading look so they would follow suite across the table. Stacy took her seat and folded her hands in front of her. Folding her hands was her tell for when she was nervous. They all looked away uncomfortably. No anger. No malice. Just sadness and fear. It was all I could do to stay seated. Not grab Stacy's hand and storm out. She asked me to let her do this though. All I could do was sit back and watch helplessly. "Marlene, you're right. We should have reached out and talked to you all about what happened. It sucked that she was the only one of you to come by and ask us what happened though. Instead of going off the news and wherever else you got your information from. Still, I'm sorry we didn't reach out either. We were trying to figure things out betwe
"No, you're not leaving," said Marlene, grabbing Kenny's arms and turning him towards Stacy and I. "Your best friends are getting engaged today. You've been brooding about this whole situation for over a week and I'm sick of it. Deal with your shit, Kenny," said Marlene, her arms folded and chin jutted out. Go Marlene. Marriage looked good on her. She surprised me more and more all the time. "Does everyone know I'm proposing today?" I asked, focusing on the wrong thing entirely. It got my nervous, half asleep girlfriend to smile though. I'd take that. "You weren't exactly trying very hard to hide it," said Stacy, momentarily caught up in my eyes. I wished I could have her look like that for the rest of the day. A light blush tainted her cheeks and her smile was enough to bring armies to their knees. The way she looked at me made me feel like we were the only two people alive. As much as I appreciated wha
"Soooo… Do you think there's more?" he asked in his most innocent voice. "I'll kill you if you try and find out today," I said, equally as breathless and sweaty as him. It took me a moment to realize I just threatened him without flinching or apologizing. I forced myself to let it go and enjoy the afterglow of the best sex of my life. The heat and sweat coming off our bodies should have been enough to get me off him, but it wasn't. Despite my threat to get off him, his arms wrapped around me gently. "No promises. I love you," he said, completely at ease as he started stroking my hair. "I expect to be told about all future… Locations and phrases." "I love you too. That's no fun. I'm not doing that," I said, out right refusing his request. "Is that right? We'll see," he said cheekily, kissing my temple. "Let me take you to lunch. I want you to enjoy your first day of freedom."