Chapter 23

GIOVANNI

B aths were supposed to be a relaxing couples activity. The girl would lean back on the guy while they enjoyed the warm water and he fingered her cunt. Baths with Novalee were anything but relaxing. I’d coaxed her to lay back on my chest which was when she would shift around, pop her bottom lip out, and call me an asshole.

I couldn’t even wash her without her swatting at my hands. She calmed down a little after I held her under the water. Mostly because she was too busy coughing to fight me. From now on, we would have showers, or I might actually drown her.

“Ouch,” Nova slapped my arm and pushed the cloth away from her face. “That hurts.”

“It wouldn’t hurt so much if you stopped moving.”

I didn’t put her on the counter for fun. Her wounds needed to be properly cleaned and dressed. If I left this shit up to her then the Gio carved into her skin would surely be infected by now. Thankfully, it was almost healed. And nicely I might add. It no longer required dressing. The antiseptic I still applied. This was Nova after all.

“I don’t need your help.” Nova winced away from the cloth in my hand.

Sighing, I placed my hands on the counter on either side of her ass and looked in her hazel eyes. “Do you have to be so difficult?”

“Do you have to be an asshole?”

“You like it when I’m an asshole.”

She jerked her head to the side and lifted her chin. “No I don’t.”

Not even she believed that, but I could play along.

I pushed my hand up her thigh. “Are you telling me that you want me to make love to you?”

That shit made me want to gag.

“Gently caress your curves…” I leaned in, pressed my lips to her collarbone and grazed my nose up her neck. “Kiss every inch of your body.”

“Eww,” Nova pushed me back. “Stop that. It’s creepy. Be an asshole again.”

“Exactly what I thought. Now shut the fuck up and let me finish.”

She finally complied, albeit it was with a pout on her face, but at least she stopped moving.

I went about cleaning her wounds and inspecting the bruise on her jaw—which I was still tempted to kill Marty for—while she sat back and glared at me. Occasionally Nova would quip some smart ass remark, like screw you, and I hate you. But my favorite was when she huffed, crossed her arms and muttered, “my ass hurts.”

That one made me smirk. I bet her ass did hurt, but it would’ve hurt a lot more without any preparation. Even with the plug, her tight little asshole did not want to let me in.

“Anal sucks. I don’t like it.”

I smoothed the last bandage on her arm, said, “you will,” and bent forward to kiss the top of her breast.

“Okay, um, we are never doing that again.”

That’s what she thought. There were at least three other sizes in that package of butt plugs I bought.

She cocked a brow down at me, “I’m serious, Gio.”

I answered her by pulling her nipple between my teeth and biting down until she squealed and slapped the top of my head.

“Let’s get one thing straight,” pulling my mouth away, I slapped my hands down on the counter, caging her in my arms and growled in her face. “You don’t decided how I fuck you. You just take it.”

“Why?” She spat back. “Are you going to drown me if I don’t.”

Jesus Christ.

“Maybe if you had cooperated…” It was just a damn bath.

That was the first thing I did when we got back here. Nova was covered in dirt and wounds from her fight. I didn’t want her getting an infection. Plus a warm soak would help with any soreness she had. Not that she did a whole lot of soaking.

“You know, some girls like to bathe with their fiancés.”

“And some girls don’t have dicks for fiancés that will stick things in their ass.”

Alright, that was it.

“How about we do it again?” I dropped my hand, pulled her hips forward, and pushed a finger in her back hole.

Nova sucked in a gasp, causing her head to bang on the mirror behind her.

“Come on, Gattina ,” I pumped my finger out and in again. “Say something smart now.”

When Nova didn’t respond I arched a brow, “no? Didn’t think so.” Then I pulled my finger out and stepped over to the sink to wash my hands.

She was quiet for a minute, but I could feel her eyes on me, and not in the angry way they usually were. The wheels in her brain were turning, and there was this look on her face that gave me a pretty good idea of what she was thinking about.

“Does Carissa like it?”

Here we go.

“I don’t want to talk about it.” I knew this topic would come up eventually. Although I hoped it would be later, if ever.

Something tugged on my chest when I met Nova’s stare. There was a sadness in her eyes. Not the pitying kind. It was more like concern with a hint of rage. If I didn’t know any better, I’d say Nova cared about me. Why did that fill me with pride?

“Alright,” I sighed. “What do you want to know?”

The first thing she asked wasn’t what I thought. Nova called Carissa a pedophile, so I figured she would want to know how Carissa got me in her clutches, what horrible things she made me do and so on. But none of those were the question that came out.

“Are you still sleeping with her?”

I couldn’t help but notice how Nova refused to look at me. Was she jealous? “No. I’ve been trying to break it off for a while.”

“Trying to break it off? So you couldn’t do it?”

How was I supposed to answer that? “It’s complicated.”

Her chest heaved with a heavy sigh. “When was the last time you were with her?”

“The first day of school.”

“The first day of school? When you saw me?”

Was she crying?

I dipped my head down to try and look at her, but she averted my gaze. “Nova, look at me.”

Using my finger, I tipped her chin up and looked in her eyes as a tear rolled down her cheek. I didn’t like that look on her face. I wanted to wash it away and punch myself for ever making her feel that way.

“My shit with Carissa has nothing to do with you.”

“You went back to her because of me.”

“No,” I shook my head. “I went back to her because of me. She’s not the monster you think she is. Carissa was there when no one else was.”

“Like when Kato killed Atlas?”

I didn’t say anything. What could I say? Denying it would only be a lie.

A frown tugged at the corner of her mouth as she tipped her head. “Do you ever wonder what life would be like if that night never happened?”

“Sometimes.”

That was the real problem between us. It wasn’t Carissa, or our constant fighting. It was our brothers. Regardless of what they may or may not have done, we still loved them. And nothing would change that.

We stayed there staring at each other for a while. Nova thought about her brother while I thought about mine. But for the first time since all this started, my thoughts slipped from Atlas to Kato. Would I have done any different in his shoes? No. If someone attacked Nova, I would gut the fucker alive. I didn’t forgive Kato, I never could, but maybe I understood him.

Desperate to get my mind off Atlas, I pushed off the counter, and said, “you don’t need to worry about Carissa. She doesn’t mean anything to me.”

“You were with her for four years, she must’ve meant something to you.”

She did at one point—I might’ve even loved her—but she was just something I needed at the time. I would’ve never done any of this with her. I wouldn’t have cleaned her wounds or kissed her forehead when she was sleeping. I didn’t even stick around long enough to see her sleep. Carissa was a come dumpster I used to relieve tension. Nova was… more.

“I don’t want to talk about Carissa.”

“Fine,” Nova huffed. “But if you fuck Cindy Fassbender, I will kill you.”

I don’t know if the attitude was her way of not thinking about shit, or if she was genuinely pissed. Either way, I had no idea who she was talking about.

“Who the fuck is Cindy Fassbender?”

Nova arched her brow. “The girl from the diner.”

I was drawing a blank.

“You were arguing with her?”

Nope, still nothing.

“Really? I threw a pot at your head because of her.”

I remembered the pot. That was right before I took Nova’s virginity. But I didn’t remember a girl. Wait…

“Are you talking about that desperate slut who was trying to ride my cock?”

She stared at me for a second before saying, “I’m so hot for you right now.”

“Oh yeah,” I leaned in and grazed my lips off hers. “You want me to fuck her up for you?”

“If you keep talking like that,” Nova arched her back, pressing her breasts into my chest, and wrapped her legs around my waist. “I don’t know what I’ll do.”

Was that so? Okay, I could play this game.

Grazing my nose up her neck, I growled in her ear, “you wanna watch me slap her around and show her what a pathetic bitch she is?”

“Keep talking.” Nova reached out, slipped her hand under the towel I had around my waist, and grabbed my cock.

I groaned when her fingers squeezed my girth.

Now this was a distraction I could get behind. Thank you Cindy Fassbender.

“I bet that bitch would look good with a broken nose.”

I don’t know what Nova had against this chick, but this shit was getting her hot. Her arousal was all over the heady breaths she panted out while she jerked my cock. If this shit kept up I was libel to slit this Cindy’s throat and fuck Nova in her blood.

“I’ll have Atlee hold her down and make her watch while I fuck you. So she can see what she’ll never have.”

“Gio,” Nova panted. “Fuck me. Fuck me right now.”

My towel was instantly tossed on the floor. She didn’t have to ask me twice. I grabbed her knees, spread her legs wide, and slammed deep inside her.

I fucked her hard and rough, then moved her into the bedroom to fuck her again. For hours I used Nova. I filled her pussy up with my come again, and again, until the ache in my chest was replaced with the sound of her moans.