The door opens. I turn and gasp as Nico shuts the door behind him.
“What are you doing? It’s bad luck for the groom to see the bride before the wedding. Get out,” I hiss.
My entire lower half melts and excitement skyrockets my heart rate as he smirks. In his panty-melting suit with his hair styled to messy perfection and his eyes sparkling with menacing mischief, I stand no chance against his sexual appeal. He stalks across the room with his even, predatory grace, no longer limping from the wound on his thigh, and wraps both arms around me for the first time in too fucking long.
I squeal as he lifts me off my feet, parts my knees around his hips, and sits me on the vanity.
“Nico! Doctor Hennessy just cleared you to take off your sling last night. It’s too soon to be picking me up, especially—”
He shushes me with a kiss so full of promise I decide I don’t need oxygen anymore and would gladly live off his dominance if reality would let me. Every nerve in my body lights up in anticipation. He cups my nape, careful to preserve my hairdo, and I wriggle against his hard length.
Too many layers. Need more him.
He pulls back just enough to nip my bottom lip and nuzzle his nose against mine.
“First off, if you’re about to insinuate you’ve gained too much weight in the first four months of pregnancy, I’ll do nothing but feed and fuck you during our honeymoon,” he murmurs against my lips.
I huff a breathy laugh.
“That’s all you’re going to do anyway, isn’t it?”
“Of course, amore mio.”
He licks the corner of my mouth before trailing his nose over my cheek and nipping my earlobe. Pleasure zips down my spine and steals my breath, but two feminine voices in the hall remind me he isn’t supposed to be here.
“And the second?” I ask.
He hums a questioning note.
“You said ‘first off’, so what’s the second thing?”
“Ah, that,” he murmurs as he licks and nips down my throat. “It’s never too soon to throw your knees over my shoulders and bury my face in your delicious pussy.”
I can’t breathe through the liquid fire boiling in my core.
He pushes me back against the mirror, gathers the layers and layers of fabric into my lap, and drops to his knees.
“Nico, no,” I gasp.
He hooks his finger under the seam of my panties and pulls them aside.
“Fuck yes, mia principessa. This pretty little pussy is already so wet for me.” I jerk as he flicks the tip of his tongue over my throbbing clit. “Be a good girl and come all over my face so I don’t feel bad about how hard and fast I’m going to come inside you,” he snarls before sealing his mouth over my entire sex.
My toes curl as pleasure sweeps through me. He drives me into oblivion one devious nip, dip, swirl, and curl at a time, until sweat beads between my breasts and pressure builds between my legs.
He pushes me over the edge with a curl of his fingers and flick of his tongue.
Gasping and shivering, I ruin his hairstyle as waves of pleasure crash over me.
He hums, runs the flat of his tongue over my pussy, and opens his pants as he surges to his feet. I taste myself on his kiss and moan as he fits the head of his cock to my entrance.
“Be quiet, mia principessa, or they’ll hear us,” he whispers against my lips.
My senses heighten, and I focus on the voices in the hallway. He smirks and thrusts deep into my body, catching my scream with his mouth and ravishing me beyond words.
I explode into a million tiny, beautiful pieces as he pulls me close and fills me with his release.
“I love you, Serenity,” he breathes against my lips.
“I love you, too,” I whisper.
His gentle kiss brings tears to my eyes.
“None of that. Bella will kill me if I ruin your makeup,” he chuckles and grabs a few tissues from the box beside my hip.
I roll my eyes and take them from him.
“I can’t cry, but you can demand a quickie thirty minutes before I’m supposed to walk down the aisle?”
He smirks and plants a chaste kiss to my forehead.
“Who says this was a quickie?”
He tilts his hips. I gasp as his thick cock shifts inside me.
“Nico, stop,” I plead as a group of voices grows louder in the hall.
He pierces me with a heavy-lidded stare before lowering his attention between my legs. I bite back a moan as he pulls out, waits for his pearly white seed to drip from my folds, then pushes his tip back into my pussy.
“You’re so fucking sexy, dripping with my cum,” he groans.
“I’m already pregnant,” I say.
He quirks a brow and aims wicked eyes at me.
“There’s nothing wrong with practicing for next time,” he smirks.
I swat his chest before pushing on his sternum, but he doesn’t budge.
“I’m not even halfway through growing our first one and you’re planning baby number two already?”
“Hell yes,” he groans as he pushes deeper into me.
High heels clack against the marble floor in the hallway. I hiss his name and he relents, grabbing more tissues and cleaning me as best he can before tucking himself away and fixing my skirts.
When Natalie knocks on the door and calls out, I groan and hide my face behind my hands.
“We’re never going to hear the end of this,” I say.
Nico chuckles and spans his massive hand over the slight swelling of my lower belly.
“We’ll just tell her—”
We both freeze and slowly drop our gazes down to my stomach. It happens again. A tiny, fluttering sensation beats against his palm from inside my body.
It’s the strangest, coolest, most humbling moment of my life.
“Was that—?” Nico rumbles through a thick throat.
“I… I think so,” I whisper.
He drops his forehead to mine and we take a shuddering breath together.
Natalie knocks again.
Nico Russo, the most dangerous man in New York City, takes my mouth in the gentlest, most reverent kiss imaginable.
A tear slips down my cheek. He pulls back and wipes it away with his thumb.
Natalie shouts something about runaway brides and angry mafia men from the other side of the door in her typical irreverent manner.
I give a watery laugh and peck Nico on the cheek before scooting off the counter.
Knowing she’ll forgive me if I give her second dibs, I fling open the door, catch her wrist, and press her hand to my lower belly.
After a few seconds, she stops trying to tug her arm away and flattens her hand despite the skepticism in her eyes.
“Isn’t it too soon for this?” she asks.
I shrug and press her hand harder against my belly.
Kara Russo, Nico’s sweet stepmother who already feels closer to my heart than my birth mother, steps up behind Natalie and chuckles. The twinkle in her gaze brings fresh tears to my eyes.
“You may not remember, but I was only thirteen weeks along when you felt Bella for the first time. Serenity could be sixteen weeks already, and I dare say she’s thinner than I was,” she says with a happy smile.
Joy blooms on Natalie’s face when the baby flutters against her palm. She squeals and calls the rest of the ladies over.
Nico slips out without a word. His stepmom gives him a knowing side look. Natalie scowls when she sees him but beams a cheerful smile, forgiving him, before he leaves. Bella rolls her eyes when she sees my ruined makeup and gives an exaggerated sigh.
He stiffens as he passes the sitting area where my mother and the women of my extended family wait, but when he swivels his head to look at them, the expression on his profile drops the bottom out of my stomach.
I push Natalie aside and stalk through the group of women I trust to the ones I don’t and stop toe-to-toe with my mother.
“What did you say to him?” I demand.
She has the audacity to square her shoulders and look down her nose at me.
“We didn’t even exchange greetings,” she says.
The accusation in her tone infuriates me, and the need to protect the father of my child overrides all else.
“And why should he greet you when you were probably gossiping about us?”
“It’s not gossip if it’s true,” she quips.
My palm itches to slap her across the face, but I need to flush out what she said to make my husband look so torn.
“Oh?” I push through my clenched teeth.
“We’d all feel a little better if he’d caught the man behind your kidnapping.”
The hairs on my nape stand on end.
She’s right. We would. If Ralf’s body hadn’t disappeared, Nico wouldn’t have tripled our already intense security, but not one person beyond our immediate family should know about his disappearance. Not even my aunts or cousins should know.
I square my shoulders and step closer, forcing her to shuffle backward.
“It wasn’t Nico who lost the bastard, it was me, so if you’d like to badmouth your own daughter, then go ahead, but leave my husband out of this,” I snarl.
She’s too close to a truth we’ve told no one.
Despite his reluctance to include me in the darker aspects of his business—thank god, because I cannot stomach more violence—Nico told me about the recent attacks on the Russo family territory.
Whoever Ralf is, he has deeper connections than I ever imagined. Either a founding family in NYC or a really, really big player in another city is using him to dip their toes into our backyard. If these ladies believe it was a local faction hoping to bring Nico Russo down a few pegs by harming his bride-to-be, we might prevent our enemies from tightening their defenses.
Anger twists my mother’s features, and despite my fury, a part of me quails in fear. A lifetime of abuse doesn’t disappear overnight. She opens her mouth to speak, but clacks her teeth together when she sees something over my shoulder.
Not something. Someone.
Nico slips his arm around my waist and tugs me against his side.
“Excuse me, ladies, but I believe your husband is looking for you, Bianca,” he says.
The cold, hard look in my father’s eyes as he stomps around the corner fills me with dread, but with Nico by my side, I let my fear fade away.
My mother stiffens as my father approaches. She gives a sickly sweet goodbye to our extended family before rushing toward him, no doubt concocting some excuse along the way.
Nico guides me back to his sisters and stepmother before kissing my knuckles and disappearing around the corner.
The next few minutes pass in a flurry of activity as Bella fixes my makeup and the others rush through preparations as the countdown begins.
When the ornate double doors open, I sweep my gaze over the crowd. Camilla stands beside Giorgio. I told her she didn’t need to come—her recovery is more important—but she insisted she needed to be here. When I read her expression, understanding dawns. Pain flashes in her eyes when she studies my belly, but she meets my gaze and offers me a small but heartfelt smile.
All my nervousness fades away. I return her smile, letting my joy shine through my eyes.
She needs closure on her failed arranged marriage and proof Nico and I are happy in our relationship.
Giorgio shifts closer to her, putting his big body between her and my mother. He’s ready to usher our older sister out of the church the second she says she’s ready to go. His icy glance over his shoulder toward our parents both worries me and fills me with a sense of camaraderie.
I can shun my parents with relative ease, but he’s the Vivaldi heir. He can’t escape them. I shouldn’t have accepted his help over the last few weeks, since he could suffer dire consequences if my father finds out, but he was adamant, and I was desperate.
I shift my gaze to the front of the church.
The world fades away, and all I see is Nico. Even standing next to the altar, surrounded by white flowers and religious paraphernalia, he’s the most menacing, terrifying monster in the city, but he hides it well underneath his perfectly cut suit and broad shoulders.
As the organ plays the first notes, I step forward.
There’s no second guessing. No hesitation.
I’m ready to marry Nico Russo. He’s mine. My one and only. The father of all my future children. My protector and beloved.
Whatever this life throws at us, we’ll conquer it.
Together.
Forever.
