“Oh my God! We have a jumper,” Gina shrieks. “Mikey, baby, please! Gina’s here, we’ll get through it.”
“I’m not jumping off the roof you whack job! I saw you and I fucking slipped,” I call down to her.
“That is the sweetest thing I ever heard,” she says, elbowing Bert in the gut. “How come you never did that?”
“Hang off a roof?” Bert asks confused.
“Nikki,” I shout again. Where the hell is she?
“Jump, boy! Big Red’s got you,” Red yells, dropping her straw bag and tucking her gun into whatever cleavage she has left. She spreads her arms wide as if she is going to catch me before Gina pushes her aside and copies her stance.
“I’ve got him!”
“What the hell is going on?” Nikki questions.
I peek down at her, watching as she freezes in her tracks and takes in the fucking festivities.
“Aunt Gina. Nana. What…what are you doing here?”
“We’re here for the party,” Gina exclaims, looking over her shoulder before bringing her eyes back to me. “Mikey, did your ass get tighter since the last time I saw you?”
“What party?” Nikki asks.
“Hey, Princess, think you can help me get down from the roof before we ask the crazies anymore questions?” I holler, banging my forehead against the gutter in frustration.
“Sorry, babe! I’ll go get the ladder.”
“Boy don’t need a ladder. I’ve got my arms wide open ready to catch him,” Red insists.
The mother and daughter duo continue to bicker over who would be my savior as Nikki comes back, dragging the ladder behind her. She and Bert prop up the ladder along the side of the house and I worked my way over to it.
“Easy, baby,” Nikki calls as she holds the ladder in place and I start my descent. I did contemplate staying up on the roof thinking that a sun burn was safer than the fate that awaited me down below.
Stepping off the ladder, I turn to Nikki.
“What are they doing here?”
“I have no idea,” she hisses, plastering a smile on her face turning back to her relatives. “What a nice surprise.”
Bullshit.
“Even though my heart is broken I had to come,” Gina explains, reaching for Nikki’s left hand and inspecting the ring I put on her finger. “You did good, Mikey,” she approves, turning Nikki’s hand every which way to look at the diamond from every angle. “That’s some rock. Ma, come look at the rock,” she orders.
Wiping my hands over my face as Red scurries over, I blow out a ragged breath and watch the old lady snatch Nikki’s hand.
“Did you get it appraised? I know a guy who can do an insurance job. You give me the ring we’ll say the house was robbed and you can collect.”
I drop my hands from my face and stare at the little old lady.
Now I know where Vic got his ways from.
“Thanks, Nana, but I’m going to hang onto it for a little while,” Nikki says, turning to Bert and eyeing the suitcases. I saw the horror flash in her eyes and I chuckle to myself. At least she wasn’t three stories up on the roof when she realized these clowns were planning on a long visit, one that involved five suitcases.
“Um…so…you guys planning on a long visit?” Nikki croaks.
“Long enough to stay for the wedding,” Gina reveals.
“We haven’t set a date,” I blurt out.
“Better get on that, boy,” Red says, patting my back. “We didn’t drive all the way here just for the engagement party.”
“What engagement party? What are you people talking about?”
“You can’t get engaged and not have a party,” Gina answers. “Bert, bring the bags inside the house.”
“Bert, drop the bags or so help me God, I’ll drop you!” I point to him, giving him a deadly glare to emphasize my words.
Nikki threads her arm through mine and smiles at our unexpected guests.
“Can you guys give us a minute?” she asks, pulling me toward the stoop and dragging me up the stairs.
“They’re not staying here, princess. It’s them or me! I swear,” I growl as she pulls me inside the house.
“Calm down,” she asserts as she laces her fingers around the belt loops of my jeans, tugging me closer to her. “It’s kind of cute they came all this way because we’re getting married, don’t you think?”
“No, nothing they do is cute. They’re fucking bat-shit crazy. Even Bert has started acting like them,” I argue, narrowing my eyes as she moves her hands to the hem of my t-shirt and starts to work it up over my stomach.
“Yes, they’re crazy but they’re family, Mikey,” she says, lifting my arms up and pulling my shirt over my head. She reaches around me and locks the door before she takes a step back and starts to unbutton her shirt.
“What’re you doing?”
“Trying to make you forget that my aunt has the hots for you and my grandma is itching to shoot someone?”
“You forgot Bert.”
“Poor Bert, he’s innocent in all this,” she adds, dropping her shirt to the floor before reaching behind her and unsnapping her bra.
“They can’t stay here, Nikki. I’m not strong enough to go another round with your aunt. I still have nightmares about her teddies.
A giggle escapes her mouth as her bra falls to the floor.
“I’ll call my mother, tell her to come pick them up but, first things first,” she coos, crooking her finger as she mischievously winks at me.
“You want something, Princess?” I grunt, reaching for the zipper on my jeans. I watch her turn around and shimmy out of her shorts, revealing her perfectly round ass, inch by glorious inch. She steps out of the shorts and snaps the elastic of her thong against her hip as she peers over her shoulder at me.
“I think you know what I want, Mikey,” she teases, walking over to the couch. Bending over, she shoves her ass in the air and braces her arms against the back of the cushions.
“Goddamn, Princess,” I ground out, moving behind her, smacking her ass with the back of my hand. My hands travel up her curves and around to squeeze her tits.
“The question is, are you going to give me what I want?” she taunts, wiggling her ass against my crotch. I release her breasts and push my pants down my thighs freeing my cock.
“Say it, Nikki, give me the words and I’ll give you what you want,” I hiss, stroking my cock with one hand and slipping my finger beneath the elastic of her thong with my other hand, pulling the fabric away from her.
“Fuck me, Mikey,” she demands, spreading her legs wide and lifting her ass higher.
My princess didn’t have to ask me twice.
I grab her hips and bury my cock into her pussy, stretching her wide as I slam my dick deep inside of her.
“That’s what I like,” she cries out, pressing her ass against me as I reach around her and grab her tits, rolling her nipples between my fingers. My hips crash against her ass, as my cock works her wet cunt.
The doorbell rings followed by the persistent knocking on the door.
“Ignore it,” she orders, reaching behind her to grab my ass, digging her nails into my cheeks as I continue to fuck her mindlessly. I run my hand down the front of her body stopping at her pussy to circle her clit with my thumb.
“Fuck!” Nikki screams.
“Nikki? Are you okay? Open the door!” Gina demands.
“I’m coming!”
“Well it’s about time! It’s hot as hell out here!” Red hollers.
Chuckling, I bow my head and kiss Nikki’s shoulder. Her pussy clenched around my dick as she went off like a firecracker.
That’s it baby.
Come for me.
Slamming into her one final time, my teeth graze her shoulder and I let go of my release, grunting as I thrust my hips and come inside of her.
“Watch out I’m going to shoot down the door,” I hear Red shout.
Nikki bursts into a fit of laughter as I collapse over her.
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“Laugh it up, Princess,” I mutter against her shoulder.
“I love you, Mikey,” she whispers, glancing at me over her shoulder.
“Love you too,” I murmur, pressing a kiss to her cheek before I slowly pull out of her. “Go let them in and I’ll fire up the grill.”
“Really?”
“Yeah, we’ll feed them and send them to your mother.” I wink, bending down to pick up my pants. “Just make sure your aunt keeps her clothes on until she leaves and we’re all good.”
She grins at me, wrapping her arms around my neck and squeezing me tightly.
“I can’t wait to marry you, Mikey.”
I can’t wait either, Princess.
Chapter Three
My eyes flutter open at the sound of my sweet, baby girl’s cries. Turning over, Adrianna groans beside me, I feel around the nightstand for the baby monitor. Sitting up, I lean over my wife, extending my arm over her shoulder to turn the video monitor to face both of us. Crying at the top of her little lungs, Victoria kicks her legs in the crib. I bend my head and kiss Adrianna’s bare shoulder.
“Go back to bed,” I murmur. “I’ve got her.”
Her head falls back on the pillow with a thump as she closes her eyes.
“Are you sure?” she asks, already half asleep.
“Sleep, Reese’s,” I whisper. Throwing my legs over the side of the bed I pick up my sweatpants from the floor and pull them on.
I pad through our bedroom, across the hall to our daughter’s room, and head straight for my princess.
“Hey, hey, hey, what’s all this noise about?” I chastise, trying my hardest to perfect that gentle, baby voice that everyone seems to use when they talk to babies. I’m sure I sound like a fucking idiot, but I don’t give two fucks.
There isn’t a damn thing I wouldn’t do for my kids.
I used to think the mob was everything, that being a gangster meant I was someone, but I was nobody, just a regular street thug—until my son Luca called me daddy.
Being a dad—that’s everything.
And now there are two little lives I am responsible for.
Leaning over the side of the crib, I lift my crying girl and cradle her against my bare chest, right over my heart where her and her brother’s names are tattooed. I would have added Reese’s to the growing list of names, but she already occupies my back. It seemed only fitting that the girl who has had my back since the day I met her was inked over that part of me and the two blessings she gave me placed right over my heart.
Adrianna loves the tattoo on my back and sometimes when we’re lying in bed, she outlines the entire piece with her finger. She traces the year on top, the year that symbolizes when our life first began. Then she bypasses the A, which takes up most of my back and runs her finger along the year we supposedly ended, the year I went to jail. She finally acknowledges her first initial by pressing a kiss to the center of my back.
We weren’t supposed to get this happy ending we’re living, but we defeated the odds. I tried to stay away from her. I came home from jail after spending three years doing time for a crime I didn’t commit. I Did everything in my power to push her away. I made her doubt everything we were, all the love we had for one another and forced her into the arms of another man.
I can’t say I regret my actions because then we wouldn’t have Luca. I’m only going to say this once so you have a better understanding of who Adrianna and I are. I’m not Luca’s biological father but that doesn’t make him any less my son than Victoria is my daughter. I was there when he came into the world, and the minute I held him in my arms, was the minute he became mine. It amazed me how much I could feel for someone. At first, I rationalized my feelings as Luca being an extension of the woman I loved but it was so much more than that.
It was the way he looked at me.
The way he squeezed my finger with his tiny hand.
The way he ran to me whenever he saw me.
It was the way he said my name and asked me to lift him onto my shoulders.
I love Luca for the little boy he is and not for his DNA.
After the shootout at Temptations, when Adrianna shot and killed Rico—the gunman who was about to whack me—we decided life was too short and we weren’t going to waste any more time not loving one another. Victor released me of my obligations to the mob and encouraged me to give his daughter a good life.
It was Victor who originally tried everything in his power to keep us apart, it made me uneasy at first as I didn’t know what to make of that. He took the rap for killing Rico, gave me his blessing and told me to enjoy the family I deserved. In essence, the man who stole my happiness was the one responsible for giving it back to me.
“Tell daddy what’s bothering you, princess. Are you wet? Let’s change your diaper and then we’ll get you a fresh bottle,” I whisper as her cries begin to ease and walk her over to the changing table. I tickle her belly, and that smile that Adrianna keeps telling me is gas, appears, melting my heart.
A heart I used to think was black.
I change her, reposition her onesie before lifting her back to my chest and carry her down the stairs. I fix her a bottle before heading back upstairs. I settled myself in the rocking chair I bought Adrianna after she told me she was pregnant. Rocking to a steady rhythm I stare at the perfect life I had a hand in creating. Victoria looks just like her mother but she has my blue eyes, something we weren’t sure would stick.
“How about a bedtime story?” I ask, nuzzling her cheek, drinking in that addicting smell of a baby.
I may not know a single fairy tale, but I know a great love story, the one I created with her mother.
“Once upon a time there was this guy who thought he had everything figured out. He thought running on the wrong side of the tracks made him a man. He wanted respect on the streets and didn’t care what he had to do to get it. It wasn’t until a princess came along and turned his whole world upside down. It was then he realized no one respected him. They feared him and that was something completely different. So, this guy, he tried not to fall for the princess, but she made it real hard. She was a spitfire, a girl who knew what she wanted and wasn’t afraid to go after it. I was the lucky bastard. Shit, I mean, I was the lucky guy she wanted.”
I’m still getting used to keeping things PG around the kids but I try to make a conscience effort. Even started setting my alarm a half hour before everyone wakes up so Luca doesn’t realize me and his mother never wear clothes to bed.
“It was hard not to fall in love with everything about her, including the way she ate her popcorn, mixing in Reese’s Pieces into the bucket whenever I took her to the movies.” I smile thinking back to the first date she conned out of me. I was supposed to escort her and Mike Valente to the movies but the two of them set me up. Mike took off to chase a piece of ass and Adrianna reeled me in—hook, line and sinker.
I was a goner.
“We were young, real young, and foolishly we thought we’d be together forever, that nothing could ever stand between us,” I continue, staring down at Victoria. I feel the lump form in my throat thinking about the first time Adrianna told me she was pregnant with the child we lost. Closing my eyes, I recall the words I spoke as I broke Adrianna’s heart, telling her the baby didn’t survive. A part of both of us died that day, and even now, after the healing, there’s still an empty spot in our hearts for the baby we never met.
“Things happen, baby girl, and as hard as you try, sometimes you can’t stop them from taking over. They pull you away from the things you want most and make them so far out of reach you give up, but I know you are going to learn, and you will learn from your mommy that you keep fighting for what you believe in. Let no one stop you from going after what makes you happy.”
If I had one wish for my daughter, it would be that she grows up to be a strong woman like her mother. Someone who won’t back down from a challenge. Someone loyal to both herself and those she loves. A woman who knows her worth, k
nows what she wants, and is the only one in control of her heart.
“I promise you I’ll never be the dad that takes away your smile because I’m too scared to watch you walk away. That doesn’t mean I’m not going to screen your dates and follow you around with a baseball bat, but when the time comes, and you find someone who loves you more than they love the air they breathe, I won’t be the dad that takes that from you.”
I won’t do to her what Victor did to us.
I’ve forgiven him.
We both have.
Our daughter is named after him for crying out loud.
Instead of harboring resentment we took what happened to us as a lesson in parenting. For me, I know now I have eighteen years or so to prepare myself for the day my daughter tells me she’s in love. I look at Victoria and as much as I don’t want to understand why Victor did the things he did, I understand his fear. Looking down at the baby I created, knowing these days and nights are the shortest part of her life, they’ll go by in a flash and she’ll grow up before I know it. That’s fucking scary. She’ll bring home a guy and with my luck, he’ll be like me, and I’ll feel like I’m losing a limb as she walks out the door holding his hand.
I glance down and watch her wrap her hand around my pinky.
I won’t stand in her way though.
I’ll think back to these moments, hang onto them with all I am, and remember that she was once the little girl who wrapped her hand around my pinky but also the girl who wrapped her whole self around my heart.
We give our kids roots and then we give them wings and watch them soar.
That’s the kind of dad I want to be.
“Well aren’t you going to tell her the best part of the story?” my wife asks, pulling me away from my thoughts. I lift my head and watch her lean against the frame of the door, tightly tying the satin belt of her robe around her waist.
The beauty of life is some things are just meant to be, nothing and no one can stop them from happening.
Me and Reese’s.
The Tempted Series: Collectors Edition Page 159
