The Power of a Woman: A Mafia Erotic Romance (35 page)

I sat in the hot water surrounded by bubbles with my back pressed firmly against Stefan’s chest. The euphoria of our first
real
night together settled deep within my body and left me calm—happy. And as much as I enjoyed being with Stefan sexually, nothing compared to the intimacy of this…coming down from the high of sex, and knowing he was right here with me.

Sneaking around behind everyone’s backs had made it hard to be this relaxed with him. I’d grown so accustomed to fucking, and then leaving. I’d been so used to his cold demeanor once our clothes were back in place that I’d forgotten how caring he could be afterward.

“Promise me something, Stefan…”

He ran the washcloth over my shoulder, wiping away the bubbles before pressing a kiss to my warm skin. “Anything, love. There’s nothing I wouldn’t promise you.”

His words brought a smile to my lips and caused my eyes to close. This was the side of him no one ever saw…only me. “Promise me it’ll be like this forever. No matter what happens in life, no matter how busy we get…just tell me that things will always be like this between us.”

“I swear, Tesoro.” He ran his hands up my sides until his fingertips softly grazed the sides of my breasts. “It’s me and you now. Just us. No one will ever get in the way.”

I didn’t respond, too lost in my thoughts to speak.

“Tell me what’s going on in that head of yours. There’s nothing between us anymore, no secrets or sneaking around. We hide nothing from each other from now on.”

I fully relaxed into him and took a deep breath, not sure if this was the time or place to bring up such a heavy topic. “I want to know everything about you, Stefan. The good, the bad…the ugly.” I paused, waiting for some hint from him to continue. When he circled my shoulder with his fingertip, I took that as my cue to keep talking. “You never talk about your brother. Obviously, he was a big part of your life, and I want to know more about him and you.”

“What do you want to know?”

“Everything,” I answered on a breath.

Stefan reclined more in the tub, pulling me closer to him until we were pretty much lying back with the bubbles coming to my chin. “We were really close growing up. He was three years older than me, so I always looked up to him. He was my hero for the longest time.”

“Did you guys stay close after you left for college?”

Silence met me and I worried I’d upset him with my question, but then he cleared his throat, the action vibrating against my back. “We kind of grew apart when I was fifteen. That’s when I stopped seeing him as the superhero I’d built him up to be in my mind.”

My heart ached for him, knowing exactly how that felt. My father had always been my hero, and probably always will, but I, too, came to a point in life where I realized he was only human. And the reality had crushed me. So I could relate to the pain that laced Stefan’s voice.

“Our rooms were down the hall from one another, so I heard him every night. I never saw him with a girl during the day, so I just assumed it was the same one. But one night, I was coming out of the bathroom and saw a blonde leave his room. I’d never seen her before. Two nights later, it was a brunette. The next week, someone else entirely. I remember wanting to be just like him. I thought he was cool because he had so many women.”

“What changed?” I kept my voice low, not wanting to interrupt his memory. I could tell by the soft tone he spoke with that it was emotional for him. A turning point, if you will. And I wanted to let him keep talking.

“One night, I was in the hallway between our rooms. I overheard him telling the girl to leave. He wasn’t angry or yelling, just more or less he was done and it was her time to go. When the handle on his door turned, I quickly hid in the bathroom. I didn’t want them thinking I’d been listening to them having sex, because I wasn’t. And the bathroom was the closest room, so I ducked in the dark room to wait for the girl to leave.”

This was definitely a side of Stefan I’d never seen before. I never knew him as a kid, or even a teenager. We all knew Nico had a younger brother, but that was about it. He’d stayed out of the spotlight and everyone said he was quiet, so he never really had too much recognition growing up. Hearing him talk about his younger days had me picturing someone very different from the man behind me right now, and it made my heart grow impossibly larger with my love for him.

“His door opened and I heard the girl walk out, but instead of leaving, she came into the bathroom. The light was off, but she came in and closed the door behind her. I stood in the middle of the bathroom, not sure what to do. I didn’t want to frighten her, and I worried what she’d think of finding me in there with the lights off. So I just stood there, waiting for her to do something, hoping she’d open the door and walk out. But then I heard her sniffle. I remember wondering if she had a cold or if she’d been crying, but I didn’t have to guess long before a soft hiccup came from her. I didn’t know what to do. I didn’t know why she was crying, but I was too scared to do anything. The lights were still off and the room was pitch black, so if I’d said something, it would’ve frightened her. I hated knowing she’d locked herself in the dark to cry.”

“What did you do?”

“I waited a few minutes, although it felt like forever, and then made a little bit of noise. Soft enough to let her know she wasn’t alone, but not enough to make her scream or scare her. She heard it, though, and became really quiet. I couldn’t even hear her breathe. I knew she must’ve been waiting to see if she could hear it again, probably thinking it was all in her head. I didn’t want her flicking on the light and seeing me there, so I took a chance and whispered to her.”

“What did you say?” I pressed further, wanting him to know he had my full attention.

“I don’t remember exactly what I said, but something along the lines of ‘don’t freak out.’ I was fifteen and probably just as scared as she was, so I’m sure she heard it in my voice. She didn’t say anything back to me, but I heard her move around. I thought she was going to leave or turn on the light, so I said something else. I told her who I was and made up a story about how I was just leaving the bathroom when she came in. I didn’t want her thinking I was some weird kid hiding out in the dark in the middle of the night.” He stopped and a short, rumbling chuckle rolled through his chest. “Yet that’s exactly what I was—a loner who hid in a dark room to keep from being caught by Nico’s flavor of the night.”

“I’m sure you weren’t a loner, Stefan. I have a hard time believing that.”

“Well, believe it, babe. That was actually the first time I’d ever been alone with a girl. Back then, I was too busy with my nose in a book to deal with women. I loved going around the city and looking at the buildings, wondering what it would be like to have one of my own. And at home, I’d look through real estate ads, finding buildings that were reduced in price and plan to own them one day.”

“So you’ve always loved property—real estate?”

“I guess. But I think it was more than that. I think I loved the idea of who owned them, the men sitting behind a desk on the top floor. I wanted the view of the city, to be on top. And to me, real estate is how I’d get it—the power. Owning a building instead of writing a check to someone else each month for a lease. I hated the idea of
borrowing
something. I wanted to
own
it.”

“And that was more important to you than women?” I couldn’t believe that we’d spent months together, that I’d married this man, and yet I never knew these things about him.

Another vibration of laughter ran through my back, and I could only image the smile on his lips that matched it. “Kind of. There was this one girl that had caught my eye, but I never did anything about it. I didn’t think I was her type, so I just sat back and admired her from a distance. She was always surrounded by people, and seemed so in control of everything around her. I had a feeling she would chew me up and spit me out.”

“Did you ever talk to her?”

“No. She didn’t even know I existed. So I came up with a foolproof plan. I would study my ass off, go to college, get my degree in real estate, and come back. I’d show her that I was worthy of her, and make her fall in love with me.”

I didn’t know what to say to that, considering I wasn’t exactly in the mood to discuss with him another woman he’d been in love with, so I threw him another question to keep him open and honest with me. “You can’t possibly expect me to believe that you didn’t have girls chasing after you. I’m sure you were a looker even back in your pubescent days, and you were a Giannotti. That had to mean something to the girls back then.”

“Oh, I had girls chasing me. I just didn’t pay them any attention. They weren’t the one who’d caught my eye, so I didn’t have any interest in them. I had no desire to be alone with any of them, which is why being trapped in that bathroom with Nico’s girl was uncomfortable for me.”

“What happened with her? Why was she crying?”

“When I asked her if she was okay, she started to cry harder and told me if I was anything like my brother then I wouldn’t understand. I had no idea what that meant. I just stood still in the dark and waited for something. I wasn’t even sure what it was…maybe for her to leave, or to start talking again. I don’t know. But I knew I hated the sound of her crying. Without being able to see, all I was left with was my hearing, and her sniffles and quiet sobs ate at me until I did something about it. I felt around for the roll of toilet paper and pulled some off before slowly making my way to her. It was so odd because I didn’t even know what she looked like. I didn’t know if she was tall or short, big or small. So trying to hand her the wad of paper was hard, not knowing where her hands were or even her face. All I had to go on were the noises of her crying.”

I closed my eyes, picturing the scene he painted as if I were there, witnessing it for myself. I felt everything as he explained it, and it left me wanting to hold the younger version of him. I wanted to give him some comfort. But more than that, hearing how big his heart was, even back then, it made me fall in love with him even more.

“Once I made it to her, she fell into my chest and wrapped her arms around me while she cried. I was frozen. I had no idea what to do. So I held her and waited until she’d gotten it all out. By the time she was done crying, we were sitting on the floor with my back against the door. She apologized, and I told her she had nothing to be sorry for. I wanted to ask her again what had happened, but worried that it would only make her crying start all over. And I’d be lying if I didn’t say that by this point, I kind of wondered if she was crazy. I’d heard stories about some women crying after sex, so I just kind of figured that’s what it was. It wasn’t until she started talking when I realized it was more than that. And that my brother wasn’t someone to look up to. It was the night that changed how I saw him.”

“Why? What happened?”

He took in a deep breath before continuing, and I could tell it was hard on him. “I guess Nico only cared about himself. Which I knew to be true in the real world, but I guess it was like that in the bedroom as well. She never went into detail about it, but from what I understood, he didn’t care about the girl’s pleasure. He didn’t care if they enjoyed it or got off. I remember thinking it was a shitty thing to do, but I didn’t understand why it would’ve made her cry like that.”

“And that made you look at him differently?” It didn’t really make sense to me.

“Not really. I mean, I thought it was shitty, but at the point, I’d never been with a girl before, so I couldn’t really understand it. But I felt bad for her, and made up my mind right then and there that whenever I had sex, I would make sure whoever I was with enjoyed it as much as I did.”

“Well, I don’t know about anyone else before me, but I can honestly say you go above and beyond at making sure I enjoy it,” I teased, wiggling against him. “So what was it then that made you stop looking up to him like you were?”

He grew quiet, and that could only mean one thing.

“You had sex with her that night, didn’t you?” I tried to sound nonchalant about it, pretending like it didn’t bother me. And really, it didn’t. We weren’t virgins when we met, so I knew there had to have been women before me. Just like he knew there were men before him. After all, when I’d met him, I’d kind of gone through half the block, and he knew it. But it didn’t matter that we were both aware of previous lovers, it didn’t mean I wanted to hear about his.

He laughed and said, “If that’s what you want to call it. I felt so bad for her that she hadn’t gotten off, and I felt inspired in the dark bathroom. It was a bunch of elbows and knees, definitely worthy of a comedy show. And I was kind of limited on what I could do. It didn’t matter if she used a condom with my brother or not, there was no way in hell I was going to put my face where his dick was. So that was out of the question. I knew I couldn’t fuck her into an orgasm, because let’s face it, it was my first time and even I knew what to expect from that. I’d never fingered anyone before, but Nico had enough magazines and porn in his room that had taught me a thing or two. So I went with that. At least she wasn’t shy about telling me what she wanted, and in the end, she was happy.”

“Did she know you were a virgin?”

“Yeah…she figured it out. She said she wanted to thank me for listening to her, and for making her feel better. Her way of thanking me was taking that embarrassing label away,” he said through his soft laughter.

“Let me guess…you two became fuck buddies. Oh, no. Wait. You started fucking all the girls after they left your brother’s room.”

He grew still and quiet, and I knew I’d struck a nerve. But before I could turn around in the water and face him, he leaned his head against mine and released his exhale in my ear. “No. I never saw her again. And after that night, I made sure not to be anywhere near his room when he had company. I didn’t want to hear him, and I especially didn’t want to see the women leave his room.”

“Why?” Something in his tone told me this was serious.

“When we were done, I flipped on the light so we could find our clothes. It was the first time I got to see her. And it’s something I’ll never get out of my mind.” He paused, and I waited patiently for his next words, knowing I couldn’t push him. “Her neck was purple, like she’d been strangled. And her entire body was riddled in red marks. She looked abused.”