by Bethany-Kris
Clearly, Ginny disagreed.
What could they do?
The woman was grown.
“She felt good enough to go to classes today,” Les said.
“Well, you’re a far better nurse than I am, so ...”
“Right.”
The scoff that accompanied Les’s statement had Corrado grinning.
“Doesn’t matter,” Alessio added after a moment, “I know exactly how to keep that woman in bed when she needs to be there. Easier now that she’s feeling better.”
Yeah.
Corrado heard the suggestion.
Every single bit of it.
“Don’t tempt me to tell Dare and Cree to fuck off so I can fly home,” Corrado said. “You know good and well what you’re doing saying shit like that to me.”
Alessio laughed. “Of course, I do. Gives you something to get this job done faster for—where’s the problem?”
“Mmm.”
“They called me, too, by the way. Dare and Cree, I mean.”
“A new recruit, yeah?”
“So I was told. That was my agreement. Handle the trainees with Cree ... stay on the continent.”
“I could do that,” Corrado said.
“What happened to retirement?” Les asked.
“Working my way to it.”
“Sure, sure. I gotta go.”
Corrado didn’t want to hang up.
“Call me later,” he said to Les, “and get Ginny on the phone.”
“She is feeling better.”
“Still.”
“Will do. Love you.”
Corrado smirked. “Too much, Les.”
“Absolutely.”
3.
Alessio
“WHAT are you—”
“Shut up.”
That was all Alessio heard Corrado say before the man was in the shower with him. His back hit the wall with a thump. The ache in his spine made him answer Corrado back with the same roughness when his lover’s mouth landed against his, and Alessio dragged his bottom lip between his teeth.
Just enough for Corrado to feel the sting.
“Fuck,” he grunted into Alessio’s kiss. “That’s what I wanted.”
Him, too.
After a month of the two of them running back and forth between New York and Vegas, never once getting more than a day here and there—a week, once, because they were lucky—to enjoy each other’s company ... this was exactly what the two of them needed. Not to mention, Les only had a few more days in New York with Corrado and Ginevra before he had to head back to Vegas.
After all, his trainee was still in training. He got these few days off from The League by the skin of his fucking teeth, and he didn’t want to waste a second of it.
Alessio groaned when Corrado’s hand found his cock wet from the shower and already hard to stroke tightly in his warm palm. “Jesus Christ.”
“Quiet,” Corrado warned, “because someone is sleeping and sick.”
Right.
Like he needed the reminder.
Ginevra woke up feeling nauseous the morning before, and it only stopped long enough for her to sleep. They weren’t quite sure what was wrong, and she didn’t want to go to the doctor. Not a surprise because she never wanted to go to the doctor.
He’d get her there.
Later.
After her nap.
Yeah.
But right then, he was more interested in the way Corrado kissed and bit his way down the corded muscles of Alessio’s throat to his chest before continuing even lower. Anticipation curled hot and heavy in his stomach making every single one of his muscles clench with what he knew was coming next.
His dick.
Corrado’s mouth.
Fast, hard shower sex.
It’d been a while.
Probably too long.
“Fucking hell,” Alessio breathed when Corrado finally lowered enough to catch his cock with his mouth. His hand stayed there too, tight to the base while the heat of his lover’s mouth took him deep enough to take his breath away. “Can’t be quiet like—”
Corrado let him go.
Even his mouth.
Alessio felt that fucking everywhere.
“Try.”
“God. Fuck you, man.”
Corrado’s laughter coated the large shower before he was right back to sucking Alessio’s dick like water was about to come out of the tip. His head fell back to the cool tiles on the wall, so he could avoid the spray of hot water and watch Corrado at the same time.
Alessio’s hands found their way into Corrado’s damp hair. He twisted and tugged while Corrado swallowed him deeper, and his teeth teased the sensitive underside of Alessio’s shaft. He didn’t pretend to have any kind of control when this man was sucking him off because he had none.
Not like this.
Goddamn.
There was always something about the way Corrado watched Alessio when he was on his knees for him that really did it for him. The pleased, knowing glint in Corrado’s dark eyes that told him the man understood it was him beneath the other, but he still had all the fucking power in that moment.
The control to make Les lose it.
To make him blow.
All of it.
For the moment.
It might take nothing more than a blink for the power to shift and change when the two of them were like this, but not right now. He liked this perfectly fine.
Letting go of Corrado’s hair, Les shoved his fingers into his own as the tightness in his balls increased, and he climbed closer. Nearly fucking there. He was pretty sure he even told Corrado that, but he couldn’t hear anything.
Nothing but the shower.
And his own heartbeat.
It all thundered.
“Shit, Corrado, don’t you dare—”
Corrado dragged his teeth from the base of Alessio’s cock all the way to the tip before sucking him in deep again. That was all it took to make him empty his balls.
God love Corrado ...
Because the man took it all.
He looked damn good doing it, too.
“Swear you just do this shit to me to—”
“Hear you say my name like that,” Corrado said, his laughter thick with the need to fuck as he stood straight and kissed Les hard. There was something about the taste of himself on Corrado’s tongue when it swept against his own that had his cock jerking all over again. “Abso-fucking-lutely. Also, looks like someone is feeling better.”
Les looked over Corrado’s shoulder through the glass doors of the large walk-in shower to see a pair of golden-tanned legs spread wide. A tremor worked over Ginevra’s calves. He couldn’t see what that hand of hers was doing between her thighs, but it was something good considering the sounds that crawled out of her throat.
“Still her favorite thing,” Corrado said.
“Watching us, you mean. I fucking know.” That was a groan because God, it fucked him straight up, and he loved it. “She gets off so fast, it’s ... fuck.”
“Mmhmm.” He smirked against Les’s mouth. “Her turn.”
Alessio returned that by biting Corrado’s jaw and muttering, “And yours.”
• • •
“Kitten,” Les murmured, leaning over the bed to let his fingertips drift through the stray strands of Ginevra’s dark hair that had fallen over her cheek. She’d decided to take yet another nap. Moving the hair back over her shoulder, he then pulled the blanket down around her naked shoulder just a bit. Her eyes blinked open slowly, but he could see the tiredness there as she tried to take in her surroundings. Shit, she was in their bed, and she still didn’t know where she was. Something wasn’t right. “Time to wake up, babe. Corrado’s making that—”
“Oh, God ...”
That was all Ginevra said before she kicked the blanket entirely off and darted off the bed. She damn near tripped over the comforter, and then her own two feet on the way to the bathroom. Alessio was too shocked and still tryi
ng to catch up to what just happened when the retching started in the bathroom.
He didn’t move a muscle.
Les could do a lot. He could handle more than most. Something he’d never been very good with, however, was vomit. Someone started puking, and he needed to be anywhere else because if not, he’d be the next one bent over a toilet.
“Ginevra,” Les called, “do you want—”
He didn’t even get his sentence finished because the noise picked up, and he was pretty sure his own gag reflex acted up just because of it.
Jesus Christ.
Five seconds after the retching started, Corrado darkened the bedroom doorway. Two voices filtered in from further down the hall.
“Is Ginny okay?” Giulia asked.
“Ew,” Greta mumbled.
He couldn’t see the girls, but then again ... they learned a while back not to approach the bedroom but especially if the doors were open. It was as much a respect thing as it was about their privacy. He appreciated it.
Ginny probably did too at the moment.
Corrado gave Les a look, and he only shrugged back. He hated feeling helpless, but he could not go into that bathroom unless Corrado wanted to clean Alessio’s vomit, too.
“You good?”
Les made a face. “If I smell—”
“Fuck that Chinese food you brought home, Les. I knew that fish smelled bad.”
Ginevra’s cursing from the bathroom had him cringing. “Sorry.”
Was it the food, though?
Because the rest of them were fine.
Corrado headed for the bathroom.
Alessio waited just long enough to hear Corrado soothing Ginny before the retching started all over again. And that was his cue to get out of there.
Perhaps to call a doctor.
Who knew?
4.
Ginevra
ACROSS the desk, the ob-gyn looked up from the folder with a smile and a nod.
“That’s it?” Ginevra asked.
The doctor turned her attention to Giulia who sat beside Ginevra, waiting. “Yes, I would say that’s it. I understand why she wanted to go with something like an IUD, but frankly, I feel she’s a bit too young for that. The implant will work just as well, and we’ll be able to have more checkups with her throughout the year while she begins her first birth control.”
“So, a needle,” Giulia muttered.
Ginevra did her best not to laugh, but she couldn’t hide the grin when she turned on her sister. “Listen, a needle is far better than having an IUD put in.”
“You’re getting an IUD, Ginny.”
“I’m also in my twenties, sexually active with two partners on a regular basis who are not involved with other people but each other, and I have been through the gamut of different hormonal birth control before we settled on this one. It is a better choice.”
“But—”
“For me,” she interjected quickly so Giulia wouldn’t argue the point further. She wanted it clear. The two of them were not the same. She was happy her sister felt safe and comfortable coming to her to ask for proper birth control at her age because she knew her sister would be able to get it done and wouldn’t make it into a thing. “But for you, the doctor thinks something else is a better option, so that’s what we’re going to go with.”
“Right,” the gyno replied. “And if this ends up being troublesome for whatever reason, we can discuss different options, Giulia.”
The teenager beside Ginevra sighed.
What was new there?
“Condoms should still be used because this might prevent unwanted pregnancy,” the doctor added, “but it does nothing for nasty things like STIs and STDs.”
“Thanks for that.” Guilia made a face. “I’ll keep it in mind.”
“You should. If you think a needle is uncomfortable, imagine a genital herpes outbreak. I have pictures if you’d like to—”
“No, that’s fine,” her sister rushed to say. “Perfectly good, yes. I’m good.”
“Keep the pictures on hand,” Ginevra said to the doctor, “just in case we need to revisit.”
“Literally horrible. You really are.”
“No, I just ... you know what, yeah. I am.”
Guilia made a face. “Les rubs off on you too much.”
Well, Ginevra wasn’t about to deny that. She also wouldn’t say she disliked it, either.
“I will have my assistant get the implant ready,” the gyno said, bringing them back to their other conversation. “And then you ladies can be on your way.” As she reached for the phone on the desk, she asked Ginevra, “How did that infection settle, anyway? The last time you were in here when we agreed on the change from the shot to the IUD, you were still on antibiotics, right?”
“It went from my ear to my throat, and now to my stomach, I think.”
The woman didn’t grab the phone. “Sorry?”
Ginevra didn’t want to worry the doctor. After nearly four weeks of antibiotics—thank God she was done with them now and had been for a bit—she expected her stomach to begin to revolt. She had never been one who could handle long rounds of medication, but especially not the kind that made her feel like if she didn’t sleep eighteen hours a day, she couldn’t even walk.
Besides, she had more than enough people worrying about her between Corrado, Alessio, her sisters, and even Siena. No doubt, when she met up with Greta and Siena later in the day, they would ask her how she was feeling. And when she got home, Corrado would ask her how she was feeling. Then, Les would call later after he was done with The League and ask the same question.
Her stomach would settle soon.
Surely.
“It’s nothing,” Ginevra assured.
The doctor raised her brow. “Is it?”
“My stomach is upset once in a while. It’s not constant, and once it happens, I am usually good for the rest of the day. I’m more concerned about the fact that I’m still sleeping fourteen hours or more a day and feeling like it’s only five hours.”
“Breast tenderness?”
What did that have anything to do with it?
“Not really,” Ginevra said.
“But ...”
“In the evenings, sometimes.”
“Has your period resumed?” the doctor asked. “We were waiting for your cycle to come back after stopping the shot before I put in the IUD. You had that infection, so I hadn’t bothered to ask when I saw you the second time, but has it?”
Ginevra didn’t really have to think about it. “No, it hasn’t.”
The doctor kept staring at her. So did her sister beside her. Ginevra was starting to feel like the two of them might know something she did not, and she didn’t like that a bit.
“What?” she asked.
The woman across the desk smiled faintly. “Is there a chance you might be pregnant?”
“Oh.”
Giulia dragged the word out like she was watching a whole show. Ginevra did her best to ignore the teenager because they were always rude little shits. Even when they weren’t trying to be.
“I ...” It took her a second, and then two. Finally, she managed to tell the doctor, “I’m not sure.”
No, she knew it absolutely was a possibility. She hadn’t used backup methods with Les or Corrado after stopping the shot. Being sick, there had only been a couple of times when she even felt well enough to have sex between all the times when the boys were running back and forth between New York and Vegas, so it really hadn’t been a thought in her mind to begin with.
Not that either of them complained or said a thing about it to her. They’d told her once that they could take care of themselves. They knew how to get what they wanted from each other, and they did exactly that. Usually, she was the lucky bitch that got to watch while they did exactly that, too.
Not the time, Ginny.
“Should we do a pregnancy test before you leave the office while we wait for Giulia to have her implant done?” the doctor asked
. “All it’s going to take is a bit of urine in a cup, and I will have the results in less than seven minutes, Ginevra.”
Beside her, Giulia’s fingers flew over the screen of her phone, typing away a text.
“We probably should,” Ginevra replied.
Her sister let out an excited screech. “Oh, my God, Greta is going to die.”
“Do not text the boys anything, Giulia.”
Her sister glanced up as serious as could be in a blink. “I wouldn’t.”
If she was pregnant—and that made a lot of sense now that she had a moment to think about it all—Ginevra had to tell them. Together. At the same time. As difficult as that might be considering how hectic their lives were at the moment.
None of that mattered.
She would make it work.
She had to.
5.
Corrado
THE keys to Corrado’s newest toy—a candy apple red Maserati—fell from his hand to the glass bowl Ginevra had set on a decorative table just beyond the brownstone’s front door. The cling-clang of the keys settling into the glass had him smiling for a reason he hadn’t expected, but then again, that could also be because of the man on the phone.
“Did you attempt to make friends today?” his father asked.
“If what you mean to ask,” he returned, “is if Andino Marcello was any easier to deal with today during lunch, then the answer is no.”
Gian chuckled. “One might think the two of you would get along considering how alike you are. Bad moods, attitudes, and all.”
“One might think that. One would also be wrong, Papa.”
“I appreciate you trying.”
Corrado sighed as he shrugged off his jacket and kept the cell phone balanced between his shoulder and ear all at the same time. A feat, really. “Water under the bridge, anyway. That’s what the two of us decided, and he’s good with that. We will not, however, be having weekly get-togethers, and I don’t think I’ll join him at his dinner table. Ginevra, however ...”
“Hmm, what about her?”
It took everything for Corrado not to scowl, but after he hung his blazer on a waiting hook and turned, he found he was still doing exactly that when he faced his reflection in a mirror across the entry hallway.
