Bella rings the bell.

She looks fucking stunning. She’s got a tight black dress on, a jade necklace, and just a bit of makeup, enough to highlight the natural beauty of her features.

I grab her hand as we wait for the door to open.

I expect some lackey to open the door, but it swings open, and it’s Big Tony himself. He’s got a big gut, balding black hair, and–ah hell–he looks just like Tony fucking Soprano, but if he ever hears you say that out loud, he’ll make you live to regret it.

“Tony,” I say, nodding. “Thanks for the invite.”

“Yeah, yeah,” he grunts. “Come in.”

He smiles at Bella, and she meets his smile with a barely noticeable twitch at the corner of her lips.

“I’m making the Riela gravy,” he says as we walk in.

The smell hits me as we approach the kitchen. It triggers old memories for me, from when the Rielas and Gallos actually used to sit down and eat together. It’s good gravy.

“Smells good,” I say.

Tony stops and glares at me. He looks down at me holding Bella’s hand, and he lets out a loud snort. “No shit it smells good, Luca,” he says. “You think I can’t smell it?”

I meet his eyes. This is a test. He’s trying to see if I’ll buckle under pressure.

“My Grandma made better gravy,” I say. “But yours smells alright.”

He laughs, his gut jiggling. “Yeah, fuck you too, Gallo. Come on.”

He brings us through the kitchen to the dining room. The whole place is decked out with marble floors and stainless steel appliances, but with a nice dash of old-world charm.

“Nice place,” I say.

“You don’t gotta kiss my ass the whole night,” he says.

“Not as nice as mine,” I say.

“Yeah,” he says. “Just sit down. I’ll get us some wine.”

Bella smiles at me as we sit down. She leans in to whisper to me, but the smell of her hits me, and I suddenly feel an intense and urgent need to be with her again. To make her mine all night long.

“You’re doing good,” she says.

“I’m not laying it on too thick?” I ask.

She shakes her head, looks up to make sure he’s not back, and squeezes my thigh. “Just right.”

Tony brings a bottle of wine, and two of his maids starts bringing out dish after dish, until half of the table is covered in enough food for fifteen people, even though there’s only three of us.

Once we start eating, I realize that Tony can probably down at least half of the food himself. When he finishes one plate, he gasps for air as if he just finished running the Boston marathon, but that doesn’t stop him from loading up his next plate and going to town on it.

“So,” he says, between bites of lasagna, “What’s your plan. You two I mean.”

He’d given us just enough time to let our guard down, but I hadn’t. I knew this was coming.

“The kid comes first,” I say. My back is straight, and my voice oozes confidence.

He stops eating. It’s the first time he’s stopped eating since the food hit the table. “And what the fuck does that mean? Sounds like a thing you say that doesn’t mean shit to me.”

“Daddy,” Bella snaps.

“Oh?” he asks. “I’m your Dad again now, huh?”

“It means,” I say, cutting him off. “That before this, the most important thing in my life was being the head of the Gallo family. It meant I was most worried about expanding our reach and influence, and keeping everything I already had from getting taken from me.”

“And now?” Tony asks.

“Now,” I say. “The kid is the most important. If any of that other stuff gets in the way of this kid having a good life, then it’s got to go.”

Tony narrows his eyes at me. “You telling me you ain’t gonna fight for your shit? You’re just going to roll over and give up? Sounds like I should hit you hard and take it all for myself, huh?”

I lean forward, staring him down without blinking. “I want the kid to have real family. On both sides.”

“So this kid is gonna merge our families?” he asks. “Gonna make peace for everyone. Sunshine and rainbows all around?”

He shoves a whole meatball into his mouth, swallowing it down and barely chewing.

“Do you care about this kid, Tony?” I ask.

I see Bella looking at me nervously.

“Of course I do!” he shouts. “My only grandkid! Of course I fucking care about him!”

I worry he’s going to jump up from his chair. Maybe throw something at me, but he just gasps for air and stares me down, clutching his knife and fork in each hand.

“Alright,” I say. “Then let’s make this truce permanent. Let’s join our families, and bury the hatchet. We both care about the kid, and this is the least we can do for the kid’s future.”

Tony laughs. “You’re so careful not to say ‘he,’ huh?”

Bella lets out a loud, exasperated sigh. “Go take a biology class, Daddy. It’s a 50% chance either way.”

“Come ‘ere, Luca,” Tony says.

At first I’m not sure I heard him, and I don’t move.

“You deaf, son?” he snaps.

I don’t like the idea of jumping up when he orders me to, but given the circumstances, I feel I need to show some willingness to bend.

I stand up, adjust my jacket, and walk toward him.

He stands up and moves in front of me like a wall. I’m a full head taller than him, but it sure as hell doesn’t feel like it. He looks up at me with unblinking eyes, his nostrils flaring loudly. I can see Bella staring at us from the corner of my eye, but I don’t dare look to her now.

“I want to hear you say it,” he says. “Say it while looking me in the eyes like a man.”

“Say what?” I ask, but I already know.

“Tell me it wasn’t you,” he says.

You doesn’t refer to me personally, but the whole Gallo family.

“No one in my family had anything to do with Little Tony’s death,” I say. “I swear it on my unborn child.”

I see his fist clench, and his body shakes, but then he reaches his arms out and pulls me in for a hug. “Alright, son, you got your truce.”

I feel his breath on my ear as he pulls me down to his height, and he whispers heavy into my ear, “If I ever find out you lied to me, I’ll make you hurt so bad you’ll beg me to kill you.”

There’s no need to respond to that, so I just hug him back, and when we finally let go, we shake hands, sealing the truce.

* * *

“Thanks,” Bella says, stumbling out of her heels as she comes into my place. “I just didn’t want to deal with Sara again yet.”

“No problem,” I say, taking her coat.

I’m hoping she just wanted to come back to my place and needed an excuse. Sara is a good enough excuse as any.

“I can’t believe that worked,” she says, laughing and falling onto the couch.

“Neither can I,” I say.

The truce was all my idea, but I never had too much hope of it working out this well. I figured the truce might buy me some time, but having Big Tony actually hug me?

The ruthless part of me, the part of me that made me hard enough to become kingpin in the first place, is still not happy. This could be a way for Big Tony to strike a killing blow. Let me think I’m safe and that the feud is behind us, have my guard totally down, and then strike.

He’d lose Bella again if he did that, but hell if I know where that man’s priorities lie.

“You don’t look too happy,” Bella says, frowning and looking at me.

She jumps off the couch, grabs my chin and squeezes my cheeks. I feel her delicate fingers scrape against my stubble, and she pushes my face up into a smile with both hands.

I grab her wrist, pull her hand away, and look at her with a raised eyebrow. “Why did you really want to come back here with me?”

“I told you,” she says. “Things were awkward with Sara.”

“So you’re going to sleep here?” I ask. “That won’t be awkward?”

She smiles at me. It’s a mischievous smile. “I can sleep on the couch.”

“I have four extra bedrooms,” I say, laughing to myself. I can see right through her. She’s not going to sleep anywhere other than in my bed.

“It’s just an expression,” she says. “It’s what normal people do at each other’s houses, people who aren’t rich enough to have like five bedrooms. The guestroom is fine, I’m sure it’s bigger than my whole apartment.

I grab a bottle of vodka and poor myself a drink.

“That’s rude,” she says.

“Is it?” I ask, taking a sip.

She puts a hand on her belly. “You know I can’t drink.”

“I can though,” I say, grinning. “You want a soda pop?”

She pouts at me. “Make me something fancy, just with no alcohol in it.”

I grab a bottle of Perrier, open it, and pour it into a glass. I pull out a lime, cut it in half, and squeeze some into the water. I throw in some ice cubes. “Fancy enough for you?”

“That’s just water with lime,” she says.

“I don’t have little umbrellas.”

She pouts and crosses her arms.

“I thought you tried to tell me you weren’t a princess.”

She grabs the glass out of my hand and drinks. “I’m not. The drink is fine.”

She smacks her lips. “Mmm. It’s just so delicious!” Her voice is oozing with sarcasm. “You should be a bartender!”

“I lack the creativity,” I say, grinning. “Never saw the point in anything other than drinking a good liquor straight.”

“So you’re really going to be Jiffy Lube, or Starbucks, or whatever?”

I nod. “I thought I wanted to be my father, but I think it was just him that wanted that. He’s been gone for a while now, and I realize more and more that I don’t really want to be him.”

She laughs.

“I’m serious,” I say, feeling ever so slightly offended.

“No, no,” she says. “I wasn’t making fun of you, Luca, I was just thinking about what if I wanted to be my father. Can you imagine that?”

I laugh. “I think even when you’re nine months pregnant, you won’t be able to out-eat your father, and you’ll still be less than half his size.”

She laughs. “What if I have twins, or triplets, or–”

“That’d be something,” I say.

“You don’t sound put off by the idea,” she says.

I shrug. “If I’m just going to run a chain of oil change shops, I might as well have a lot of kids to keep me as busy as I’m used to.”

She purses her lips, puts her glass down on the bar, and walks behind me. I feel her arms wrap around my torso, and her breasts press warm against my back through my shirt. I take a big sip of the vodka to get my adrenaline going even more, and then I put the glass down.

“I enjoyed our night together,” she says in a low, almost embarrassed voice. “I enjoyed it a lot.”

Her hand moves down past my belt, but I flip around, and grab her. I lift her up and plop her down on the bar. Her legs fall across my shoulders, and I grip her bare calves.

“I enjoyed it too,” I say. “Which is why I was surprised that you ghosted me for so long.”

“I didn’t ghost you,” she says.

“I’m used to getting ghosted,” I say. “Usually by people who owe me money though.”

I run my hand up her calf and onto her thigh, pressing her dress up her leg. Her cheeks start to turn a deep red, and this time I know it’s not from the drink.

“Luca,” she says. “I was scared.”

“That’s part of why the sex was so good,” I say in a low growl.

“I’m not so scared now,” she says, not meeting my eyes.

“Then I’ll have to work extra hard to make it better than last time,” I say.

“At least this time we don’t have to worry about me getting pregnant.”

“Like we really worried about that last time?” I ask. I start to kiss up her leg, and the smell of her hits me like a drug. “Yeah,” I say, breathing her in, “This smell is why I didn’t even think about using protection last time.”

She runs her hand through my hair, her nails gently moving across my scalp, sending a tingling sensation all down my body.

I kiss all the way up her leg until I meet her panties, and not wanting to lose any momentum or pull away from her for even a second, I start to lick her through her panties. She’s soaking wet.

My cock goes completely hard. Painfully hard

I lick her through her soaked panties, feeling the swollen nub of her clit press through and against my tongue.

I feel her shudder beneath my hands, and I grip her hips and ass like I own her. She shudders and squirms. I lick her and taste her with ravenous hunger, until she’s screaming and begging me not to stop.

Only when she’s pulling me by the hair, begging me to stop, do I pull away.

“It’s so sensitive,” she whimpers. “God…”

I lift her up off the bar, hoist her over my shoulder, and take her to the bedroom.

She laughs and giggles as I throw her down onto the bed. I start to unbutton my shirt, and when I’m only halfway down, she’s gotten her whole dress off. She flings her panties away as I start on my belt.

She leans forward, propping her hands under her chin. She watches me undress, and my eyes wander back to her perfect ass.

“Mm,” she says, licking her lips as my cock springs free.

I’m on top of her in an instant. Not being inside her has grown to a real physical pain, and the only way to end that pain and get release is naked on the bed, waiting for me: my Princess.

She spreads her legs for me, and I press inside of her. The tightness and warmth overwhelms me.

“Fuck, Bella,” I whisper. “What made you change your mind?”

“What do you mean?” she asks, gasping as I press further in.

“I was worried we’d never do this again,” I whisper.

I sink deep into her, and I feel her inner walls tighten and clench against me. She reaches up and puts her arms around my shoulders, clutching me tight as I start to thrust in and out.

“Mmmm,” she moans. “Luca. Yes, God, yes.”

I guess I won’t get an answer from her. Not now, at least. That’s fine, I’ve got only one thing on my mind now: Making her cum again.

She screams as I move in and out of her, and it really starts to hit home to me that there’s a child growing inside her. Our child. That knowledge makes me pump faster. Bella kisses my neck as I fuck her, until she squeals and throws her head back, moaning and gasping for breath.

I feel her tighten, and she surges with wetness. My muscles clench in sync with my balls, and then a wave of pure feeling and warmth explodes through me, making it feel like my whole consciousness expands out to infinity–if only for a fraction of a second.

The orgasm brings me back to reality. I feel myself releasing into her, and I pump fast, then finally hold myself balls deep inside her as I finish. The biological need to get her pregnant is so strong that even when she’s already pregnant, my body is still subconsciously trying to make 100% fucking sure that my baby is inside her.

She trembles beneath me. I feel her soft breasts against my body, her legs trembling around me. I roll off her, feeling a deep warmth wrap around me. Around us.