The pool area rings with her peal of laughter. “Of course you don’t. How verylikeyou. And I already told you I’d do anything you want. Surely you can come up with a few sordid and deviant things for me?”
I imagine her lips wrapped around my cock, her tongue laving the veined length of it. I imagine her moans of pleasure while I play with her nipples and she sucks me off until I come, hard, wrapping my fingers in her hair while I—
“Hello?”
No. No way. Un-fucking-believable. I feel my whole face contort into a frown.
Marialena’s matching frown tells me she heard Cristiano, too.
“Hey, anyone home?” His oily voice rings across the patio.
“I’m here,” I say on a stifled growl. “Pool area.” I bend and grab a red and white stripped towel from a nearby table and drape it over her shoulders. If he ever saw her like this…
“Hey,” he says, waving to me. “Wasn’t going to come by until later, but your mom needed a ride from the airport.”
Motherfucker. It only gets worse.
“Picked her up, she’s getting settled now. Tonight you’ve got the big shindig? You’ve got—”
Marialena’s wide eyes look at me. “What shindig?”
“Shut it, man,” I tell him, shaking my head at him. “Don’t give her any details. Yeah, that’s tonight. Didn’t know my mother was joining us.”
He grins. “She wouldn’t miss it for the world. Plus, it’s her birthday next Tuesday, so…
Fuck.I forget her birthday every year.
“Right.”
“Preparations are underway, let me go check on things while I’m here, sound good?”
I nod, my teeth clenched. Behind me, the telltale click of my mother’s heels in the foyer warns me she’s coming as well.
“Can we go back to the island?” Marialena whispers.
I turn to Cristiano and give him a few instructions. After his fuck up a few weeks ago, I sentenced him to menial labor in one of our retainment facilities. He wasn’t a fan, but he got it done. Now I want him to finish up there so I can send him and my mother to secure a wine deal in Tuscany.
I smile at her, drag my fingers to the back of her neck, and pull her forehead to my mouth so I can give her a kiss. “Soon, baby. Soon.”
Though she nods, her eyes look a little doubtful. “Can you give me a hint about the surprise?”
“Only because you’re being a good girl.” I play with her hair, the thick, dark brown length like silk in my fingers. I watch as I wrap it around my index finger. She smells like dew drops and misty rain, so clean and fresh. “The hint is, we have a party tonight. A big old party with punch and canapés and music. And I invited some people you may know to join us.”
I don’t expect the way she stares, open-mouthed, the look on her face incredulous but hopeful. “Salvatore…” she whispers. “Did you… do you mean to tell me…”
“Your brothers and sister will join us this evening, yes. That’s exactly what I’m telling you.”
Tears brim in her eyes so quickly, I feel a pang hit my heart. If I’d have known how much this meant to her…
I swipe my thumb under her eye to catch a stray tear.
“Baby,” I whisper. “Are you crying?”
“Happy tears,” she says, her voice cracking. “I can’t believe you did this for me.”
“You’ll pay me back,” I promise.
“With obedience, my undying devotion, or blow jobs?”