Adversary

by S. W. Frank

  The Segrete law forbids her to remarry or sleep with another man. But, the codicil a mother recited gave a lonely woman hope. And it is Nico who could touch her with kisses and bring life back to a dead woman.

  Alberti’s station within the Circle held honor and even in death the widow must show respect. The loneliness is a curse for loving Alberti Luca. But, beyond the grave, he gave the youthful widow his virile and honorable son and through Sabrina, Nico’s mother she received her blessing.

  The sensual mouth of Alberti and heart beating heated blood is Nico. It is his arms she sought solace and protection. She wept. “He is gone. Mio marito è andato per sempre!”

  A rock did not bend by water. “Where are the girls Bianca?” he asked worriedly.

  “They are with my brother in Spain. They will remain there to attend college,” she answered and then whispered. “I miss mio marito. I am not to live beyond today.”

  What test of a man comes through a woman that ensures his disgrace? The stone carved human blocked emotion, uncertain if Bianca’s ploy was seduction or deranged rants of a suicidal woman. “You’ve lived with his death and will continue to live for your daughters. Do not speak foolishness. Silenzio pensieri deboli!”

  “Sí, I confess my sin to you Nicolo Serano. I confess to you descendant Giacanti Protector. Pardon me from death for the sake of my daughters and  your father…I beg…I implore you!” she cried, stretching her graceful neck to kiss the stone lips with salty sweetness to bend his will and make him die a million deaths.

  Bianca’s hands slid in his pants to caress and entice a tortured killer with vows of loyalty. A desperate widow in mourning sought comfort with a corpse. When his lips did not return the kiss and his flesh did not answer she looked into his eyes and saw nothing…emptiness…darkness so black…her heart froze at hope's death. “Oh what have I done that you do not hear my plea for protection?” she gasped in shame.

  A hand took hold of her cheeks and squeezed until her lips puckered like a fish. Nico did not like this game of desperate hearts. What vileness brought her to speak of betrayal and then use protection as a marker? Giacanti, pardons, death and words to slaughter him the traitor used and Nico saw a vicious serpent!

  His anger was at himself for what his heart sheltered in the dark. This lovely woman younger than he dared toy with a killer by using grief. He kissed her imprisoned lips, pushed her to the wall, ripped the sheer curtain of cloth to expose who she was. The temptress had less power than she believed. Her moan as he squeezed her breast was silenced by his tongue blocking sound. Nico released her cheeks and she breathed out with a forceful expulsion. Rough hands spread her thighs wide and to balance, his chest became the brace.

  Break stone with water, impossible he riled in his head with the voices of the dead. Comfort of a slaughterer is what she wanted; he’d give her the killing kind. Bend him, with what, pussy and lies, he wondered?

  “Por favore…por favore,” she pled.

  Pleading is for the weak. Executioners do not beg, their arrogance would never allow such a display. Bent she did. The deceptive snake which hid in the garden had slithered out. On his father’s day of birth she besmirched his name and he promised to mark the selfish woman a lying whore. In anger he suckled her breasts and hardened each one, and then nibbled on their buds to bring wetness to his fingers he’d shoved within her micio to unleash floods of untruths.

  She begged like a pauper to seal their bond. What bond did they possess he wondered? What did they share that she request he hemorrhage?

  Nothing.

  Marriage to a man’s father does not give a widow license to his son!

  Her fingers gripped his shoulders as he marked her wanton flesh with hard kisses mingled with nibbles that drew blood. Wider the widow’s legs parted by the slight pressure of his bent knee. Her body convulsed beneath his manipulations. The roughness of his actions broke her and the weakness she claimed to possess turned to strength. Bianca slapped him but he did not relent. She pushed at his chest, begging not for comfort but release from the hardness of his touch. He was not Alberti, she understood this now. Alberti was tenderness and love. Alberti would have heard the ancient words and not seek to humiliate her. Nico was cold and unfeeling. She’d take death rather than bond to a brute without a soul. She gathered her dignity. “Por favore...I do not want this. I embrace what comes.”

  The stone of a man scoffed and withdrew his hand with the evidence of her feminine desire glistening like coconut oil. He snatched the torn fabric free from her arms and wiped clean her desperation. Without a word he glowered at the naked woman, tossed the rag to the floor and punched the wall beside her with the hand adorned with his wedding ring. The paint cracked and pictures swayed with a ‘swoosh-swoosh’ sound.

  Bianca gasped. Remorse filled words spilled from her lying lips, “Mi dispiace Nico. Death to me for what I have done…la morte per me!”

  Death was not good enough for a deceiver he raged as he slammed out the door. Bianca Luca had unknowingly opened his mind to the past. Once he bowed in worship to a woman, once he gave deference to the powerful force of love, once he bent in order to stand. Despite what others believed, Selange had not broken him, in fact she repaired an inhumane person. The love he felt for The Giver of Souls was indescribable. Only someone imprisoned for a lifetime understands the elation that occurs when gates of a hellish cell clang open and they walk free due to a Governor’s pardon.

  The canvasses lining the walls of his art studio depict family. The precious smile of his daughter was the vision he captured with blissful strokes each day thanks to Selange. Bianca sought to undo his devotional commitment to Ari, temptation and treachery was her art. His sons, nearly men he painted in oils to peer at on days when he missed their faces once they went to college. And oh his Ari…dammit his Ari was the moon throughout the night and the stars. Selange with her purity of heart had shown him the beauty of life!

  In the car his fist pounded the dashboard, denting plastic not meant to withstand a raging man. He hoped Ari slept in order for him to wash Bianca from his skin. Nico growled at the stench of betrayal. The engine roared to life. Why on the night of Alberti’s birth did the door to damnation squeak open? The sorrowful reality which lies ahead is he could lose everything he gained. He exhaled to quiet his mind. A racing heart slowed. In the shadowy courtyard of the stately villa emotions resurfaced and he became doomed.

  Nico glanced up when a light turned on upstairs. A lonely widow’s naked silhouette pranced like the sweetest temptation. Break me…test loyalty and duty…reveal the dark shadows of a soul is what Bianca had done. He fought against the old Nico who might have taken her right there. A sexy woman such as Bianca was food to a man’s dick. He began to drive away and the seed from her touch was implanted. Despite his protests and self-recriminations his dick stiffened. Pricks of excitement occurred and he cursed aloud because sampling Bianca’s flesh activated a deadly poison of want. He wanted her. The vicious truth is he was enthralled by her breasts in his mouth and the way her juices eagerly flowed in his hand like rain. She was danger and like a moth to a flame he was attracted to the fire. But, this was not only why he faltered. Bianca’s request for his protection which at first was incoherent pleas seemed a valediction spoken from an ancient order’s book. Her talk of death is what gave him pause. A lonely, suicidal woman is what Alberti’s young widow had become or perhaps...no…he couldn’t finish the thought because it made no sense. Ah, madness!

  The wheels screeched to a halt.

  Go home Nico.

  Duty.

  Honor.

  Love.

  Go home Nico.

  Loyalty.

  Protection.

  Family.

  He sat there in the middle of the long driveway, a short distance from the gate. He could go through iron and never look back, but he couldn’t, invisible hands were shaking him awake. The dangerous want to protect and save a woman who believed she stood at death’
s door gripped tight hold.

  Go home to Ari and the children. She’s crazy with loneliness are the words that played in his head. Duty pulled him away. Snatched like a thief, Nico answered a woman’s plea and duty surpassed love.

  The wheels reversed and then he climbed from the car. He looked up to see Bianca’s silhouette and then it disappeared. Nico grimaced at what he was about to do. He loved Ari but for some inexplicable reason it was pure hell staying true. He was cursed because he loved the flesh of women and when he sought to remain faithful, a voice said, ‘unh-unh Nicolo Serano, good is not what bad men do!’

  Nico marched toward the doors of the home and they opened. Unashamed and nude Bianca stood. Over the threshold he stepped, without a word he took hold of her waist, lifted the vixen and kicked the door closed. Upstairs to her bedroom is where he carried a seductress while she kissed upon his neck and sent him to Hades because he loved the feel of her lips.

  The large bed in the center of the floor with expensive coverings, smelling of a woman’s fragrance was the loneliness chamber of Bianca’s prison. Unlike earlier, he behaved more gently, kissing her to the mattress, unbuckling his belt, unzipping his slacks, freeing himself from guilt to give comfort to a lonely widow. He’d have remorse in the morning if she were to die when affection is all it cost to preserve her life. She unbuttoned his shirt with loving hands. The gun holster and weapon were placed on the pillow above her head and then the bullet proof vest careened to the floor. Ruby lips the color of wine drank his saliva, licked at his teeth which he admitted sparked a ravenous lust.

  She massaged his shoulders, going down the branching veins of bulging arms and then reached between his thighs to give him a hand-job that froze him in place. What wonders did she work on his flesh? Anger became pleasure. Eyes harsh went tender as he remained motionless above her body, suspended by locked arms. Bianca positioned her legs to guide his throbbing member into the parlor of her pussy.

  “Shit!” Nico cursed when she flexed her knees against his chest and spread wider and her slender fingers massaged his testicles and then released.

  Nico’s torso lowered and his heart accelerated. Tenderly, she caressed his outer thighs. Nico groaned when the penetration became a creamy delight. The blend of flesh was so soft and the tightness clutching at him below, intoxicating. He cursed her ice-cream pussy and the sudden urge to lick her breasts sent him to hell when he succumbed to the pleasure. He delved further, and she arched to take all of him as if she screwed him many times. She sighed satisfactorily which Nico enjoyed but also hated because Bianca wasn’t his wife, yet fit him as if she were.

  A lustful groan escaped his throat at their coupling. Caught in a web, entangled by carnal greed he licked the slender throat delighting in the caresses of her silky fingers. Bianca did things with her hands that made a grown man twitch and holding back was impossible as he feasted on her tits. Hungrily she rolled against his pelvis, stretching in waves of glorious seduction to pull at his dick in worshipful kisses with her soft pussy and he matched her with unrestrained thrusts. A vixen of a lover, expert at the art is what he discovered in the folds of her skin. The long silken strands shone in the moonlit room as did the pink-white skin flushed by his touch. He sucked hard leaving discolorations. The broken capillaries are what young lovers refer to as hickies.  He palmed her scalp to bring her closer. He wanted her to hear the loud pumping of his chest and to taste his tongue’s water as he poured within her mingling their juices in libation. She whimpered at the sexual splendor that branched to every limb as he sucked on her tongue, widened her thighs by simply flexing his knees outward and she quivered when his hands moved too hoist her hips higher. Powerful is the force of Nico that brought a cry from the caverns of a woman being loved by a passionate spirit. She could not battle against his strength when he claimed every crevice of her soul. She completely surrendered in spasms of fluid lust.

  Her eyes flew open at the unexpected confusion from his touch. He’d consumed her fully. She kissed him deep as her body begged with forward thrashes for more. Hands kneaded his buttocks and then fingers massaged the bone at the tip of his ass. She thrashed forward pulled into a vortex of decadence. More, she wanted. More of Nico’s body and he fed her carnal starvation. A craving fiend she became and clutched his neck, bringing her mouth across the taut jaw to suck his throat, to lick his flesh and moan her drunken desires loving the sensation occupying what was once an empty space.

  Nico gripped a fistful of her hair, pulling it back to expose a swan’s neck to the vulturous assault of his mouth. Highly stimulated, he shook her body and the bed with his sexual furor. Like a fountain, streaming over marble, Bianca flowed upon his dick. He grinned in naughtiness at her body’s jubilation wanting to orally please her but she held him so tight and her kisses were so hot, he didn’t want to change position.

  Nico far surpassed Bianca’s expectations. Each motion produced venous bulges along muscle from his neck to his legs. Hard Nico was extremely loving in bed. She no longer feared death.

  Excitable and utterly fucked is what Nico became. The lovely woman smiled with her eyes, the caress to his hard cheekbones was tenderness that burned hot. Each stroke he made within the woman, another shackle loosened and soon the Nico of want gripped the reins. 

  “I am yours,” she whispered to his throat as he moved her with heavy strokes.

  “Ssssssshhhh,” he cautioned not wanting to hear words, but she failed to listen and forced him to hear.

  “When the time comes you must say you are my protector and I am bound to you by flesh. The truth they will see, but the words must be spoken Nico or I will die horribly. Por favore, prometo, save me…for they come tonight.”

  “Bianca Silenzio,” he said sadly wondering if she’d lost her senses from grief.

  “I will not bear you children or interfere with your loving family. My heart belongs to your father but I give you my loyalty.”

  “Por favore…do not speak,” Nico warned and kissed her quiet. But, he slowed. The words she had said suddenly made him halt. Something resonated, who will come tonight? He listened to the silence, slowly withdrawing from her sweet pussy and a petulant sigh when pleasure ceases is the sound which escaped Bianca’s mouth. Then his ears picked up muffled footsteps and he seized the gun above her head. A shadow is where he aimed when he spun around toward the door with the weapon. He shielded Bianca with his frame and a crazy woman’s words rang true.

  Men of shadow surrounded the couple with guns drawn and aimed. Nico counted nine figures with intense stares of trained killers. Bianca’s fear was palpable, like a fog it breathed heavier than air. The bed moved as she left his protection to bow like a peasant before the leader. The coal eyes which descended were emotionless, simply a glance to a nuisance it seemed. A fly to an elephant Bianca appeared that he could squash with a finger. Nico noticed the jeweled hilt of his knife bore the markings of a similar blade in Giuseppe’s possession. These were warrior men from Semira’s homeland sent to slaughter.

  “Mercy…mercy por favore. I did not mean to break my oath. To Nicolo Serano, Giacanti born, and Comandante Protezioni my identity is revealed. In Semira’s name I beg of you…perdóname.”

  Nico rose slowly, placed the gun atop the crumpled sheet and stepped to the floor stark naked. All eyes were upon him. Their squinted eyes beheld the tall figure with naturally tanned skin, hair of midnight oil, whose muscular frame glistened with sweat. They witnessed the markings of union with the fallen woman of their order on the sizable organ that dangled between his thighs. In the steps of a panther, his lower extremities widened into a protective stance in front of Bianca. With the glare of a superior he challenged the possessor of the blade. Piercing eyes of the warrior kind were those of a kindred spirit.

  Nico’s hand reached back to the figure in genuflection. “Stand dignified. Get up and stand at my side and never grovel to any figlio di puttana, ora!” he commanded Bianca.

  Protezioni never bow t
o any motherfuckers. They are death walking.

  Bianca gripped the hand of life to stand in female pride with the towering male figure. A pair of one is what they represented. “Grazie Nico…grazie.”

  Nico’s mouth twisted into a sneer. Bianca’s ramblings he’d thought nothing more than madness caused by a grieving woman. Turning the antecedent pages of time he heard his father’s teachings which he had unknowingly cast aside. He’d forgotten many things in the daily pleasures of his other life, but here in the dark was Nico in truest light. Alberti, teacher, father and strategist set his pawns upon the board using Nico as the knight. A beautiful young bride, trained in death and pleasure is what he also bequeathed other than sweet cigars. Riddles hid wisdom. Sometimes the messages were undecipherable, but today Nico saw the formations of the pieces in which Alberti checkmate his soul. A father reminded a son even after death that he will always be the family guardian standing between their destruction.

  The Protezioni Segreti from their Motherland had come for justice. Bianca brought herself into the light by disclosure and Nico suspected Madeline’s confession was overheard by one of the guards and reported, how else would they know…how else would they enter without resistance?

  From the ancient book used by the Circle of Protectors he was tested. A passage, memorized like a psalm was spoken without hesitation. He pardoned Evangeline and Madeline. Banishment from the secret society was the minors and upon Alfonzo’s authority, given the right by his station, Nico claimed Bianca Luca not only as Protezioni but gave her rank within the Circolo di Protezione as a Tenente. To ensure her life under his protection was honored he said the words and sealed his fate. “We are bound in flesh. To me she belongs. Giacanti-Semira, Protector of Supremo and spiritually bound are our cause.”

  The ancient traditions were practiced. The days of royalty and tribal customs that blended two continents remained upheld. Protection is a responsibility not taken lightly among the society and Bianca Luca violated a fundamental rule. The punishment for the infraction, removal of her tongue and heart. The same for his father’s daughters. A torturous death had he not risen in their defense.