The cunt runs out of my living room, but I don’t watch her, I don’t give a fucking shit about her. The only person I care about in this house right now is Giovanna, and she looks like she’s about to cry. The last thing she needed after the past few days of hell she endured is some little twit talking about Fallon, and how I doted on her—which was goddamn bullshit anyway.

“Seems I’m in a mood to fire everyone lately,” I grunt. “You want a ring right now?” I ask to break the silence.

Giovanna doesn’t move, her lips don’t even twitch. Pushing off of the jamb that I’ve been leaning against, I make my way toward her. When I’m within arm’s length, I wrap my hand around her waist and roughly pull her against me.

She places her hands on my chest and tips her head back to look up into my eyes. “You believe that bitch, or me?” I ask, keeping my voice low.

Something flashes in her eyes, but she doesn’t say anything right away. She breathes deeply, inhaling, then letting out an exhale. “I don’t need a ring right now, Aidan. I don’t need one, ever,” she whispers.

She completely ignores my question, and I should call her on it, but I don’t. “I’ll get you a ring, A rùnsearc, you deserve it. Besides all that, I’m proud to call you mine, I’m proud to show the world that you belong to me.”

Giovanna slides her hands up my chest and loops them around my neck. I place my own on her round ass and squeeze.

“I don’t need it. I know who I belong to,” she breathes, brushing her lips across my own.

I groan, wishing I could bury my dick inside of her and show her just how much she truly is mine. I pick her up by her ass. Maybe I can’t show her with my cock, but I can show her with my mouth.

“Aidan?” she squeals as I carry her upstairs.

I don’t respond, setting her down on the bed, and sinking to my knees immediately. “You’re mine, A rùnsearc. That is just the way it is. Nobody before you matters, and they’ll be nobody after you, just you,” I explain.

Her eyes water as she reaches for my cheek, cupping me as her thumb rubs my bottom lip. “I know your ex-wife was flashy,” she mumbles. “I know that she’s back, and I know that you don’t want her to know about me.”

My heart starts to pound in my chest at her words. My question must be clear on my face, so she answers it immediately. “I went to your office this afternoon to see you, and I heard voices. I heard one of your brothers talking. I didn’t mean to eavesdrop, I swear it.”

My lips twitch and turn into a full-fledged smile. “I don’t want her to see you because she’s a fucking bitch, Vanna. I didn’t want her to upset you.” Reaching up I press my palm flat against her chest. “You’ve been through enough, A rùnsearc.”

Her hand leaves my face and wraps around my wrist. “If she’s back, tell me, what does that look like?”

I hate how fucking insecure my woman looks. Vanna always puts on this front of being the most self-confident woman on earth. However, I see past that.

I know that she has hopes and desires that she’s shoved away thinking that they would never be fulfilled.

I know that her makeup and sexy clothes, they’re just an act, a mask to hide the true her.

I know because I’ve seen the real her, the woman I’m looking at right now, this is my Vanna.

My hand slides from her chest to around the back of her neck and I give her a gentle squeeze. “It looks like nothing, Vanna. It looks like me sending her back to whatever fucking hole she crawled out of. She isn’t supposed to be here, and by showing up, it means I won’t be supporting her anymore, at all. Not now, and not ever again. It means her fucking money ran out, that she’s overspent her budget, and now she wants back in this house, back in my goddamn wallet.”

I fist my hand in the back of her hair and tug her head back, exposing her neck. I suck on her skin, tasting her from her collarbone to her chin, nipping her before I give her a gentle kiss on the lips.

“You’re mine, Giovanna. Not just because I bought you, but because I want you. That doesn’t change because that cunt walks through the door.”

“Okay, Caro,” she whimpers.

I release her hair, only to unbutton her jeans, then I pull her shoes off, tossing them across the room before I peel her pants and panties down. “Aidan,” she gasps.

“I won’t fuck you, A rùnsearc, not yet. I will show you who owns you though,” I growl.

Placing my hands on either side of her thighs, I spread her wide and without wasting another second, I put my mouth on her cunt.

Aidan’s tongue sweeps through my center, then circles my clit and I melt. He doesn’t eat me fast or rough, he doesn’t use teeth, or suck, he just gently laps at my pussy, then shows the same attention to my clit. It’s slow, it’s deliciously slow.

I thread my fingers through his hair with a moan, holding onto him as he makes love to me. That’s exactly what he’s doing, there is zero urgency to his momentum. He’s taking his time, slowly and carefully to please me. I allow it, happily, closing my eyes as I lie back on the bed.

My body slowly heats, building higher and higher toward my release. I know when it happens it’s going to be long and it’s going to feel amazing. Aidan continues with his ministrations, never speeding up or slowing down, keeping his same rhythm until I finally fall over the edge, crying out as I come.

Shaking, I release my grip on his head. He kisses up my stomach, then my neck until he slips his arms around my back and buries his face in my neck. His breath is hot, and his weight heavy, but I never want him to leave.

“I love you, Giovanna. Remember that,” he rasps against my skin.

I run my fingers up his back, wishing that he’d taken his shirt off. “Love you, too, Aidan,” I exhale.

We stay like this for the next several minutes, then he slowly stands to his feet. “The driver should be back from school soon with the kids. I don’t know what’s in the refrigerator for dinner. What if we go out tonight to celebrate you moving in?” he asks.

My mouth opens slightly in surprise before I smile. “All of us?” I breathe.

He smirks, then gives me a wink. “How about the whole fucking family? I’ll call the brothers.”

“Oh, no, it’s too short of notice,” I gasp.

He chuckles. “We’re a big close family. They’ll be happy to come, especially if I’m footing the bill. I’ll call my sister, too, but I don’t expect her Russian will bring her. Maybe though,” he shrugs.

I watch him walk around the room, picking up my jeans and panties, then handing them to me. “Dress up if you want to, A rùnsearc.”

A smile curves on my lips. “Okay,” I breathe.

“Remember the wedding is coming up. Your dress is hanging up in Elowen’s closet. I’ll try finding a new decorator, too, maybe tomorrow,” he offers. “I sure as fuck am not letting that cunt back into my house.”

I can’t stop the giggle that escapes from his obvious dislike of the blonde bitch. He grins, reaching for my hand, then pulls me up and against his chest. “I know you were jealous,” he whispers, running his nose alongside my own. “It was sexy as fuck, A rùnsearc.”

I gasp, trying to act offended, but I’m not. I was jealous, and it surprised me, and on top of that, I didn’t like how it felt. I wanted to pull her hair and claw her eyes out. Then I wanted to stomp on her with my heel, I felt downright violent.

“Being jealous isn’t a pretty thing,” I admit, downcasting my eyes.

Aidan chuckles. His hand slides up my back and he gently tugs my head back by my hair. “Vanna, if a man were that close to you, touching you and flirting with you, I’d have shot him dead where he sat. It may not be a pretty thing, but it’s a fucking real thing. You were jealous, and I loved it. Now if you were jealous all day every day of every single woman I came into contact with and tried to control me and acted like a fucking nut, then we’d have problems. But today, it was cute,” he smirks.

I shake my head. “It wasn’t, and you’re terrible,” I exhale.

His lips touch mine, his tongue sneaking out to taste me before he releases me. “Let’s go downstairs and wait for the kids. I’ll call the brothers, and then we’ll get ready, have some good food and good company, that sound okay?”

My smile is bigger than anything I’ve ever felt before, it’s so big that my cheeks actually hurt. “Yeah, that sounds amazing,” I breathe.

I press my thighs together, wishing that our evening included something else as well. However, I’m still aching, and I want to be fully healed before Aidan re-claims me completely. I don’t want the marks of another man’s crazy littering my body. I only want his marks, only his touch, and only him—forever.

We walk downstairs, hand-in-hand, and I look down. Maybe I do want his ring on my finger. I never thought that it would mean anything, that I would need something like that, but I can’t deny that it would be nice to have that token of his love to look at any time I wished it. Nothing huge, maybe just a simple thin rose gold band.

Just as I’m thinking about the jewelry, the front door swings open and all four kids come rushing into the house. Every single one of them comes over to me and hugs me before they proceed to simultaneously, tell me about their day. It’s completely deafening, and perfect all at the same time.

It’s everything I have ever wished for, and nothing I dared to imagine all at once.