*Cat* 𝙧𝙚𝙚𝔀𝒆𝓫𝓷𝙤𝓿𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝙤𝓶

I was so grateful for my mother. It wasn’t every day I thought that way, and when I was younger, I hadn’t always told her how important she was to me. But now, I had no problem telling how invaluable she was to our family. It wasn’t just that she helped all the time, but it was also the little things she did that were thoughtful and caring.

Like tonight–she came back when the party was over and stayed with Emilia so she could watch her throughout the night. I was so grateful for her help. She was always there when I needed her most. Tonight was no different.

Tomorrow night was the night before the wedding. Elio and I would carry on tradition and sleep apart for the first time in a very long time. Tonight, we would be together, and Mom ensured that we wouldn’t have any interruptions.

It was so traditional. Elio and the men in the wedding party would go to a nearby hotel. The ladies and the wedding party would come here to our home and we would have an adult slumber party.

It was going to be nice to be surrounded by women on one of the most important nights of my life. It was my last night being considered a single woman, though I hadn’t thought of myself as single in a very long time.

The men would probably go down to the bar in the hotel and make a ruckus. It would be amazing if they wouldn’t be thrown out of the restaurant to either go back to the rooms or asked to leave the hotel altogether. When our men got drunk, they got loud. But I was sure they would behave themselves so my future husband wouldn’t have to spend his wedding day in jail. I chuckled at my thoughts.

“What are you snickering about?“ Elio asked as he walked in while I was turning down our bed.

I walked over to him and wrapped my arms around him. “You’d better be a good boy tomorrow night,” I said, tiptoeing and taking his lips with mine.

He wrapped his arms around me, rubbing my back and groping my bottom as he kissed me back. It was exactly the reaction I was looking for.

I wanted him all over me, and I wanted to be all over him. I wanted tonight to represent everything that I couldn’t say with my lips. Sometimes words just wouldn’t work when the body could tell a story of thousands of feelings without ever uttering a word.

We kissed and touched. Elio’s fingers slipped under my blouse, feeling my stomach, rubbing over each part of me, lifting my shirt as he went. I lifted my hands over my head, letting him take off the shirt and throw it aside.

As soon as the shirt was out of the way, I pressed my lips against his again, kissing him hungrily–nibbling at his lower lip, licking my tongue across his top lip, sucking at him, teasing him lightly with my tongue. I loved the way he tasted, and I wanted to enjoy every inch of him.

I felt him flicking my bra off and lowered my arms to shrug out of it, but I never stopped kissing him as the bra fell away. He just tasted too good.

He was intent on undressing me, and that was turning me on, so I decided to do the same for him. Each movement we made together was sensuous and languorous–fingers rubbing against skin as buttons came apart, clothes slipped down limbs. His fingers brushed my core as he slipped my underwear from my body, and I had to let out a tiny moan and the sensation of electricity in his touch.

Everything about that moment was wonderful. Our lips teased, our fingers touched, and with each touch kiss and lick, everything within me quivered.

When we were finally undressed, our fingers still touching and caressing, I looked into his eyes and jumped onto him.

He laughed at me as my legs went around his waist and my arms around his neck, and the sudden movement made him fall backward onto the bed.

I smiled at him, waiting for him to align himself to my entrance and push inside me. Thankfully, he wasted little time. I knew this wouldn’t be our first round tonight, but I needed to get that initial twinge of frustration out of the way.

When I felt him enter me, it was as if I took in every ounce of who he was. Everything about him entered me and everything about me surrounded him–our arms and limbs tangled together, our bodies intertwined with passion. We moved together, creating an age-old friction. That had us breathing heavily against one another and sighing out our pleasure.

I clenched around him, and he throbbed within me. Our bodies rubbed against one another. I felt energized and pleasure thrumming through every cell of my body. My toes curled, and my fingers clutched at his shoulders.

We drove each other to the peak of desire and wrapped around one another as I clutched and released around him, and he paused and spilled within me. My head fell against his shoulder, his arms wrapped around me and his hands still clutching at my bottom.

For a long time, we just lay there in each other’s arms, basking in the glow of our lovemaking. Would it always be this way? Would we always combust when we touched? I wondered.

There were moments when we made slow and sweet love, but even then, our passion knew no bounds. He always made me want to scream, and I always wanted to do the same for him. The fact that I could bring this man such pleasure made my heart soar.

He gave me all I needed, and I was so glad to be able to give him what he needed in return. I hoped that for the rest of our lives, we could bring each other such pleasure and always be partners... in and out of bed.

“So, did you know that Mia stays completely out of Al’s mafia work?”

“That surprises you?” he asked with a chuckle.

“Not really,“ I said idly, making circles with my fingers on his chest as our bodies cool down.

“Tonight, when Al mentioned the way he keeps her in the dark, I wasn’t surprised, but I thought to myself that I couldn’t imagine doing it all without you. How could I come home and not share with you what happened that day or night? How would I answer you when you asked how things were going? It would mean lying all the time. I can’t imagine lying to you all the time.”

“You tried,“ I said, playfully smacking his pec.

“Yeah, but this beautiful woman wouldn’t let me,“ he said, nipping the top of one of my ears.

I laughed and playfully bit him back on the side of his other pec. He lifted my chin in response, taking me in for a long, deep kiss. We came out of it and I laid back on his chest again.

“Seriously though, I totally get where you were coming from now,” he said.

“Get what?“ I asked.

He shrugged his shoulders and played with my hair. “I don’t know. I get why you don’t like being lied to. I would hate it if you did it to me. When I heard how their relationship works and how Mia stays completely out of the business, I cringed inside. For some reason, it just sounded so wrong to me. I guess it’s because it’s so much better being partners than it is being the one always in control of everything. I’m still in control, but you take some of the pressure off me because I don’t have to lie about it when I get home, and some times you help me make some of the decisions. It’s not all on me to make the decisions, keep the business going, and come home ot pretend there are no problems in our little world. The truth is, even if we were in another line of work, it would be that way with us. Nothing’s perfect, and every now and then, stress happens in a couple’s life, whether we want it to or not. Working together makes things better all around.”

“I imagine it’s very stressful to keep up the secrets all the time,” I agreed.

“Do you think it’s going to continue to work for them?” Elio asked.

“I certainly hope so. She’s so sweet. Maybe she doesn’t mind being in the dark all the time. Maybe it makes her feel more secure not to know.”

“You could be onto something there.”

“Yeah, I know,” I said, kissing his pec where I bit it before.

“I’m happy for him. He really does love her.“

“How can you say you love someone and not trust them to know everything about your life?” I asked.

“It’s not about not trusting her. It’s about keeping her safe.“

“It is about trusting her. He doesn’t trust her to take care of herself. He doesn’t trust her with his secrets. How is that love?”

“I don’t know how to explain it, but I can see both sides.“ Elio said.

For a minute, I felt like he was just being diplomatic, but I understood where he was coming from.

There were two sides to the story. Elio was trying to explain to me that Al trusted Mia to stay safe within the protection that Al had offered her. Al would trust her not to get herself into trouble, even when she didn’t know exactly what was going on in their lives. He expected her to be a good, obedient wife, which, since they’d been together so long, she probably was.

I was the outlier here, not her. Did that make me wrong? I preferred Elio’s and my way of living and seeing things, but Al and Mia’s way was just as stable.

I just wouldn’t be able to do it.

“I guess as long as the relationship stays the way it is, it will keep working,” I said. “I mean, they’ve certainly been together a long time.”

“I hope so. Al deserves to be happy,” Elio said, running his fingers through my hair and rubbing his hand across my back and bottom.

“So, do we,” I began, wickedness in my tone.

“And exactly what do you think will make us happy, gorgeous?”

I sat up and straddled him again, lifting his erection to my core. “Oh, I don’t know. Let’s see. This fits here,” I said, lifting myself up and settling down onto him.

He groaned and sighed, “And, now that you have me exactly where you want me, what are you going to do with me?” he asked, a wicked gleam in his own eyes.

“Ride you to oblivion,” I answered.

And then I did exactly that.