Chapter Twelve

Damon

“Death is an inherent part of the business. There’s no way around that, doll. I’ve known it my entire life, but I was never concerned about it before. Our love gives me strength, makes me feel invincible at times. Other times, it’s the source of my greatest weakness and my worst fears.”

I placed my hand on her slightly swollen belly, still amazed over the new life growing inside her. We stood there for several minutes, both of us staring at her stomach, but in my mind’s eye, I saw our future. Before I could voice what I knew was coming at us next, I felt movement under her skin.

My eyes flew up to meet hers, my jaw slack and my heart racing. She covered my hand with hers and moved it toward the opposite side, and I felt it again. A beautiful, beaming smile covered her face before she released a giggle, amused over my reaction.

“Yes, that is our babies doing somersaults you feel. They’re very active. Makes me wonder what you and I are in store for after they’re born.”

I dropped to my knees in front of her and pushed up her dress. Then I wrapped my arms around her and pressed my lips to her smooth skin. One taste wasn’t enough. I’d never get enough of her.

“Take your dress off, doll.”

“Damon, you’re still injured, and your nurse is waiting to come in.”

“She can wait longer, and I don’t care about my injuries. I’d have to be dead not to want you. Take. It. Off.”

She pulled her dress over her head and let it fall to the floor behind us. I slid my thumbs under her silky panties and dragged them down her legs. When I reached her ankles, I saw her bra land on top of her dress. I looked up at her perfect body from my kneeling position and couldn’t wait another second to have her.

“Lie down on the bed.”

Jillian sat on the edge and slid backward until she was in the center of the bed. I followed closely behind her, crawling up her legs until I reached the sweet spot. The rise and fall of her chest increased with each passing second, her anticipation building inside her along with her arousal. I planned to satisfy every single one of her carnal needs, even if it took all night. Especially if it took all night.

Slow and tame was never my preference, but thorough and meticulous had an enticing ring to it. I devoured every sound of ecstasy that escaped from Jillian’s throat, her passion further fueling my desire while I greedily consumed her body. She writhed under the flick of my tongue, her back arching and her nails clawing the sheets as she reached the climax. When she first cried out, succumbing to the mounting intensity inside her, I slid my fingers into her warmth. The added sensation drove her further over the edge, leaving her body trembling and shuddering under my touch.

“Fuck, Jillian. I could watch you do that all fucking night long. In fact, that’s the best idea I’ve had in a long time.”

Even with one hand in a cast, I shed my briefs in record time and settled between her legs. I lowered my head to capture her mouth with mine, our tongues sensually gliding and tangling. Then I curled my hips forward, sliding inside her at an intentionally slow pace. The sharp pangs from my injured ribs dissolved into thin air the instant her body wrapped around mine. Pure fucking ecstasy was all I felt at that moment.

“You’re exactly what I’ve needed. Fuck the medicine—you’re the only painkiller I want from now on.” I pulled her head to one side and slid my tongue down the erogenous column of her neck. Her inner walls gripped me tightly, and her heels pushed against me, urging me on.

The friction from my skin gliding across hers heated our bodies, causing beads of sweat to cover us. The moisture only heightened my senses, making my movements easier and faster. The thought crossed my mind that I’d pay for such vigorous exercise the following day, but the pure hedonistic bliss of having my cock buried deep inside her was more than worth any price it cost me.

Every wave brought us both closer to the edge, though I fought against mine to delay the inevitable as long as possible. I felt her climax building with each thrust, with me delving inside her over and over as far as she could take me. Soft moans and wanton sighs filled the room rather than the cries of pleasure she held at bay. Her velvety soft inner walls began to quiver, gripping and stroking me as if her hand was wrapped around me. She was on the verge, ready to crumble to pieces at any moment.

“Open your eyes, doll.”

Her lids fluttered open and her ecstasy-laden eyes peered up at me, so much love in them that I could see and feel it without her saying a word.

“Now keep them on me. I fucking love watching you come.”

She slightly lifted her hips to meet me each time I pushed into her. With my increased tempo and harder thrusts, she lingered on the cusp of her orgasm. Her fingernails digging into my skin only made me work harder. My eyes were locked on to hers, an invisible tether keeping either of us from looking away. Emotions swirled deep in her emerald green eyes, pulling me even more into her with every tick of the clock.

“Let go, doll. Scream as loud as you want. You know how much I love that fucking mouth of yours anyway.”

Her entire body tensed at once for a split second when she reached the summit. The sexiest scream broke free from her lips as her body soaked me with warm gushes. The pure satisfaction in her eyes coupled with the constricting muscles around my cock made it impossible for me to hold out any longer. So I stopped resisting the urge and fell over the edge with her.

Stroking her cheek with my thumb, I kept my gaze fixed on hers. Sharing my deep feelings ran counter to my normal interactions, but there was something important I had to convey to her.

“Jilly, this isn’t easy for me to say. I’ve never been big on explaining my feelings, so you’ll have to cut me some slack. But it’s important that I say this to you. It means a lot to me.”

“Damon, you know you can tell me anything.”

“You’re a part of me now, one I can’t and won’t live without. Without you, any hope of me being a good man would be gone. You’re the single light of my life, doll. I won’t go back into the life of total darkness I lived in before I found you. I love you more than anything.”

Tears welled up in her eyes before sliding out of the corners and down her temples, disappearing into her hairline. Tears of joy. Tears of love. I saw both emotions glistening in her watery eyes.

I gingerly rolled off of her, careful not to put my weight on her and the babies. I lay in bed beside her, stroking her bare skin with my fingertips while we talked.

“I love you too, Damon. More than anything in the world. You won’t lose me—not now, not ever. I’ll never leave you. Being without you those three months showed me there’s no way I can be happy any other way than at your side. Now tell me what you’re worried about. This isn’t like you.”

“It’s not, is it? What was it you called me before? Oh, yeah. A cocky devil. I’m still all that and then some, but the stakes are higher than I’m willing to gamble against now. You were right when you said we needed to join the rest of the world in the current century, but maybe not in the ways you meant. As younger generations gain more leadership positions, they change the rules to fit what they want. The older Bosses expect everyone to follow the original laws, so they’re more easily caught off guard when new rules are created. What Leo and Geno did was unheard of when they were our age.

“A Boss’s wife has been known to run the entire family when her husband was in prison, but he picked right back up when he got out. Some families have had female capos, that’s true. But those women were also the first to be taken out. Your own men are even more likely to turn on you. I love you, but I’ll never agree to making you a capo. Sexist or not, no man in the family business wants a woman over him. When a rival family member uses that to taunt a made man, an all-out war is inevitable.”

She was silent longer than usual. That wasn’t the news she wanted to hear, I understood that. But there was so much she didn’t understand. She was kind, thoughtful, and giving. She genuinely cared about others. Not quite the hallmarks of a cold-blooded killer. But a killer was exactly what she’d have to become to fit into that role.

“It sounds like you don’t think I’m capable of doing whatever needed to be done. Even though Marco is taking the credit—or the blame, depending on how you look at it—for killing your uncle.”

“When you shot Leo, that was different. In the heat of the moment and under extreme circumstances, you snapped. You had an especially personal reason for pulling the trigger. That act wouldn’t come so easily if I ordered you to carry out a hit on a guy for not paying his weekly cut on time. Could you walk into his place of business, see the pictures of his wife and kids on his desk, and still pull the trigger when he didn’t hand over fifty percent of his earnings on the spot?”

She didn’t answer, but she didn’t have to. “The horrified expression on your face tells me all I need to know, doll. You can’t hesitate. You can’t show weakness, because that flaw is the first one weeded out of the family. We’re only as strong as our weakest link. That saying is old but true.”

“Are you suggesting I just stay home and mind the kids? Take care of my man’s every need and forget about my own? No job, no contributions to the family, no goals or aspirations to call my own?”

“Just the opposite, actually. I was thinking you could make all the money and I could stop shaking down the neighborhood businesses. That would go a long way in getting them on our side. We’ve ruled by fear for so long. Maybe it’s time we change things up and get the jump on the other families.”

“You just said I couldn’t be a capo, and there’s no way I can just walk into a building and kill someone who hasn’t done anything to me. So, exactly how am I going to earn all the money?”

“We could create another segment of the family. We have capos, soldiers, associates, goons—all the muscle we need whenever we need to flex it. So, maybe I should pull Carrie’s business into the family and create a new role for the two of you. That way, we could keep it secret and keep you both protected.”

“Will you promise, on your family honor, not to keep secrets from me? Not to keep me in the dark about anything?”

“I will, but you have to do the same. No more approaching my father or anyone else with this kind of an idea before we’ve talked about it. No more setting up covert operations to take down a rival family member in the middle of the night.”

“Hmm. You know, when you put it that way, you make me sound very guilty of doing to you exactly what I’ve accused you of doing to me.”

“Funny how it works out that way, isn’t it?”

“Wait. How do you know about Carrie’s business? I didn’t think she’d told anyone about it.”

“It was best to let her believe I didn’t know what she’d been up to. Made it easier to protect her that way. She does the opposite of what anyone tells her to do. If I’d tried to strong-arm her, she would’ve done something really stupid and gotten herself killed.”

“And you think she’s changed?” Jillian laughed at the absurdity of her question.

“No, she hasn’t exactly changed, but she does have a new perspective now. After everything that’s happened with Lorenzo, Leo, and Geno, she realizes she’s not invincible like she used to think. She wanted to prove she could run part of the family business on her own, and she’s accomplished that. I believe she’ll be ready to join us now.”

“And if she isn’t?” Jillian searched my eyes, already knowing what my answer would be.

“Then I’ll shut her shit down and take it over the old-fashioned way. I won’t be asking for her permission, Jillian. I’ll tell her what her options are and let her choose which one she takes. Option A is she brings her schemes into the family, continues to run the operations, and expands the reach under our protection. Option B is she refuses to join us, and then I take it from her anyway and completely shut her out of all current and future operations. There is no Option C in this equation, though.”

“Damon…you’d do that to your own sister?”

“Absolutely. And don’t you dare think for one second that she wouldn’t do it to me or you if the need arose. This is a dog-eat-dog world, doll, and we are the big dogs. And we’re going to remain the big dogs one way or another, because I won’t allow another family to move in and take mine away from me.”

“Wow. Okay. I have to admit, you’re right. I’m not cut out for this…to carry out the hard decisions you have to make. I have some experience with accounting systems, though. That secret, behind-the-scenes job you mentioned sounds great to me. I can even do that work from home.”

“Perfect. I’d love to come home to eat lunch every day. Maybe we’ll even have time for actual food now and then.”