Chapter 33

CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE

DANTE

A month later

W aking up with Alyssa in my arms is the sweetest reward for a game won. Even if it took time for her to come around, I’ve always told her I’d wait and wear her down. My morning wood presses into her ass as she wiggles and stretches.

When she rolls on her back, I lift my arm to allow her the space.

Her beautiful blue eyes flicker open. “Hi.”

“Hi.”

She smiles. “Last night was…”

I pop my invisible collar around my neck, and she rolls her eyes and laughs.

I laugh and nuzzle her face as my hand travels over her stomach, down beneath the covers lying at her waistline.

“Well, good morning,” she breathes, turning her face into me, lips grazing mine.

I watch her face change as I spread her pussy lips wide so I can make my way inside her body. Her mouth opens against mine, and I take the opportunity to skim my tongue inside her bottom lip.

“Dante,” she croons.

“Yes, tesoro?”

“What are you doing to me?”

“Mm, I’m pretty sure it’s self-explanatory, but if you need me to give a play-by-play…”

She giggles, ending with a gasp when I slip two fingers inside her wet heat, crooking them upward.

“Is this how it’s going to be? Is this going to be my life now?” she asks.

“Depends.”

“On?” she’s arching off the bed into my hand, putty for me to mold.

“On whether you want it to be. My goal in life is to keep you happy, tesoro. Your wish is my command.”

“Is it?” A devious look spreads across her face.

“Yes?” I ask, question laced in my tone.

“Well, in that case, I’d love to know what that beard feels like on my pussy.”

I laugh, pulling my fingers out of her and moving in between her legs as I tug the covers over my back.

Her legs fall languidly open for me, and I look up at her in the bright morning sun that tickles her skin and dances on her blonde hair.

“Dante,” she pleads, wiggling as I’ve stalled.

“Sorry. Just getting a good look at my girlfriend,” I tell her, and she pauses, looking down at me with tears brimming.

She reaches for me, and I oblige, crawling up her body.

“What is it, tesoro? Thought you wanted…”

She cuts me off with her lips crashing to mine. Her tongue parts my lips, and I meet it with my own, swallowing her moan of approval.

The head of me slides over her bare clit, and she gasps and grinds against me as the kiss grows frantic.

“I thought you...”

“Shut up and fuck me, Ricci,” she orders, and I’m awestruck.

I heed her command, reaching between us and positioning at her entrance before sliding home.

“You feel like a fucking crime,” I groan, sliding my hands in her hair to anchor myself as I lift my knees against the bed and use them as leverage to fuck her slow and steady.

Something she’s not used to.

Even though she’s mine now, my little Alyssa will still get in her feelings. I know it.

Navigating this relationship together is going to be a long road for her and me. Getting used to one another and growing together will be difficult for us both. She’s not the only one who got used to being alone.

“You would know,” she snaps back, and I lean down and suck her lip into my mouth, popping free as she squeals.

“Dante, faster,” she begs as she wraps her legs around my waist.

I shake my head. “Nope. You got faster last night. This morning, I’m savoring you.”

I kiss her, slow and deep, and I feel when she slides into the sensual space with me when she starts to enjoy the emotions I brought to the table this morning.

When I pull back from her lips and sink inside her even slower, watching her face change with each meaningful thrust, tears break free from her eyes and slide toward her ears. She sniffles and then moans as I roll my hips.

“I love you,” I remind her.

I’ll continue to do so until my dying breath.

“I love you,” she whispers, mouth falling open and eyes rolling back as I give her the barest hint of speed with my thrusts.

My hands find their way back into her hair, tugging tight, giving her a pinch of pain, a speck of the Enforcer she loves.

She growls, kicking her heels into my ass to force the next thrust to go deeper.

It tips me over the edge, and I slam inside her, causing her moan to become something primal. Something dark and unhinged.

It’s the most undone I’ve felt with her yet, and I know she feels the same.

“Fuck, again!” she pleads, and I heed her command.

It’s not long before I’m fucking her hard enough that the bed is slamming into the wall behind it, and with each thrust, we’re both grunting very unbecomingly.

Alyssa comes first, screaming my name and making my eyes cross.

I fuck her even harder, determined to make her come once more before I let myself.

“Dante,” she whimpers.

I shake my head. “You’ll come for me one more time, tesoro. I need it.”

“You need me to come?”

I nod frantically.

It’s sloppy, hard, and fast, but I get her there within minutes, and she comes around me like a deluge of storms converging.

“Fuck, fuck, fuck,” I sputter, trying to hold out until she’s done but losing the battle.

She arches off the bed, letting her legs fall from around me and open on the bed. Giving me the go-ahead as my cock erupts and cum fills her body.

It’s beautiful to see her unafraid and willing to surrender.

“God, Alyssa.” I collapse on top of her, and she wraps her arms around me, kissing my temple as I breathe heavily into her neck.

“I think I like this new life of mine, boyfriend.”

I lift my head and growl. “I don’t think I like being called that.”

She laughs, her rouge-stained cheeks dancing. “Why? That was your entire plan. To get to this point?”

I shrug. “Makes me sound like a teenager. It’s much too…boyish for a man like me to be called a boyfriend .”

She rolls her eyes. “Dante Ricci, what am I going to do with you?”

I shrug, laying my head back down as I plot never to have her call me that shit again.

Once a girl like her finally settles, that’s it. Loyalty runs strong with Alyssa, too. It’s something that drew me to her most in the beginning.

“We have Sunday dinner today,” she says with a yawn.

I nod against her neck, feeling the absence of energy now that I’ve come down from my orgasm. “I think we should stay right here,” I mumble.

She shoves me off her as she slides toward the edge of the bed. “Mm, that sounds great, but I have another man vying for my attention, and you know it. I haven’t seen him all week, either.”

I roll my eyes. “Once that little cretin comes of age, I’m clocking him one for good measure.”

She laughs, turning as she heads for the bathroom. “You’re going to beat Nico’s ass for taking attention off of you? How will you ever have children if you can’t share, babe?”

My chest heats at her calling me babe. I try not to croon when she does it, but I can’t fucking help it. I’m a man who waited a long time for love to come back into his life, alright?

The flippant way she’d mentioned children filled me with something tingly, even if I tried to ignore it.

She’s on birth control and hasn’t stopped it, but there’s always that chance when we’re not careful at all. I hadn’t thought about what would happen if she were ever to tell me she was pregnant.

Would I be able to share?

“I think it would be different if it were our kids,” I say, getting out of bed and following where she’s started the shower in the other room.

“Would it?” She steps inside the shower, holding the door open for me to follow. “The Dante Ricci I fell for wouldn’t share me with a fucking gnat.”

“See, that’s different; Gnats are annoying.”

She laughs as I tug her under the spray of water and glide my lips against hers, cock stiffening all over again.

“I fucking love Sundays,” I groan against her lips as I back her to the wall. She lifts her leg and plants a foot on the shower seat to the right of us.

“So do I. Be quick, though. I have to make salad and dessert for Sunday dinner.”

My dick slides inside her with the help of the water trickling from above, and her moans ripple off the bathroom’s acoustics.

“No.”

I grab her hands in my left hand, pinning them above her head as I bend my knees to stay inside her.

She nods in agreement. “No. Not quick. Take your fucking time.”

I can only nod as she flutters around my length and steals my breath.

“Fuck!” she screams as I quicken my pace, losing the entire plan at the feel of her gripping around me.

At this rate, we’ll never be on time for Sunday dinner. But that’s alright; we never are.

The table is set, and Slate and I are mulling over some plans for the docks when Brynne comes into the room without her apron, which signals that the food is ready and it’s time to eat.

We both stand, the rest of the men coming with us as we descend on the dining room.

This started as a tradition amongst the four of us and quickly grew to all of Brynne’s top men and ours, converging on Sundays for time with family and food with friends.

The food is spread out the length of the table, and the only person sitting at the table is Alyssa. She’s got Nico perched in her arms and looks down at him as she feeds him his bottle.

He’s grown so much since birth, but he is still the smallest thing I’ve ever seen.

I can’t hide my smile as I watch them together, and I only come to when Slate slaps me on the shoulder with a knowing look.

I break out of the trance and sit next to her, tossing my arm around the back of her chair. She snuggles closer to me in hers, eyes never lifting off the only dark-haired man besides me vying for her attention all the time.

“He’s already changing his looks so much,” she says with sadness peppering her tone.

“Oh, knock it off; you missed a week with him, not a year,” I joke, kissing her temple as she turns her face and captures my lips.

“This looks amazing, Brynne,” Antonio says, swiping a chicken cutlet off the table before anyone says a prayer.

Lorenzo slaps him on the back of the head, and Antonio apologizes and sits straight.

Brynne giggles. “Well, it wasn’t all me this week, boys. Alyssa cooked her fair share.”

I squeeze her knee and lean in to kiss her cheek, catching the moment her breathing hitches at my hand on her leg.

“Behave, you little menace; I swear I’ll spend my life trying to satisfy that greedy cunt of yours.”

She gasps, looking down at Nico in her arms. “Dante!”

I flick my eyes at the little brute as his lids flicker open for a split second. “Trust me, Slate’s his father, he’s heard worse. Plus, he’s a Ricci man; you must train them young.”

I wink at the baby and swear a little muscle around his mouth twitches in answer.

As he finishes his bottle, Alyssa moves him to her shoulder and burps him as Lorenzo says a prayer, and then chaos ensues around the table.

I look around, watching all the progress we’ve made between the two families over the last year and change, soaking in the feeling in the room and how this feels right.

My eyes catch on Slate as he sits back in his chair, doing the same.

He smiles at me, and I answer it with my own.

We’re two men who, not so long ago, had nothing but solitude. We thought we wanted that. The mind has a way of justifying that which we can’t change. We were alone, so we convinced ourselves that it was better that way.

All the while, this is the life we have longed for.

The one we will protect at all fucking costs.