“I am,” she admitted hotly and without reservation. “He’s the father of my children.”
Giaimo opened his eyes then. The green orbs were ablaze. “And where does husband fall in his list of roles? Before or after business partner?”
Athena tried to move again. Again, Giaimo prevented her escape.
“You don’t have children. You can’t understand.”
“But I can, bella. Come away with me. Pack the boys and come with me,” he proposed after her gasp had silenced in the room.
“You’re mad!” She laughed hysterically.
“Too right,” he agreed. “But I want you, Athena. I’ve never wanted a woman as much.”
Her amusement gave way to regret and her violet eyes glossed. “Why couldn’t it have been you in the field that day?” She shook her head, having no intentions of explaining the remark when his gaze grew questioning. Again, she tried to leave his embrace.
Giaimo turned the tables then and put her beneath him.
“You have nothing to offer me!” She hissed. “My boys deserve everything.”
“Being with me doesn’t mean they won’t have everything, Thea.”
She smiled coyly. “But I want everything too, lover. Liam deserves a much better wife, but he chose me knowing what he was getting when he took me on. I won’t leave him.”
“And to hell with love? Passion?”
“You love me, Giaimo Tesano?” She queried as if putting little stock in the validity of the answer. Her lashes fluttered when she felt his sex flare against her belly. “I think the L word you’re looking for is ‘lust’. We’ve had our lust, now I must get back to my life.”
Giaimo wouldn’t allow it and put the slightest bit of pressure into his hold. It was enough to stifle any resistance on Athena’s part. That resistance melted into nothing when he used his mouth on one breast while his fingers manipulated the other.
“Maledetto...” she damned him, but arched into his mouth as he chuckled around her flesh.
They kissed ravenously then and tussled momentarily when Athena felt Giaimo guiding his sex to hers. He trapped her wrists above her head and took her in one filling move. Athena bit his tongue, causing him to break the kiss, but not their intimate connection. His hold tightened and the slow, stimulating thrusts, turned savage in a way that threatened to shake the bed to pieces.
Once more, Athena’s cries filled the house.
~16~
“You’re sure?” Liam kept his eyes fixed on the building across the street.
Emilio nodded, fingers tapping the wheel of the truck he and his younger brother had taken to Queens. They had been watching people come and go from the apparel store for the last 20 minutes.
“Gia saw the guy-the redhead- who frightened Athena. He was at a sandwich shop in the city.” Emilio said. “He waited to see if he was meeting anyone. He did. Short blonde fellow. Giaimo followed them here and they parted ways. Red took his truck, the blond left on a city bus. We think there maybe seven or eight of them.”
“Guy must’ve made an impression for Gia to remember him so, after all this time,” Liam mused. “I’m surprised he didn’t break the bum’s back at the sandwich shop.”
Emilio laughed. “Oh! He wanted to! He told me he wanted them all-wanted to know who put the snake to work.”
Liam grinned. “What’d you say to that?”
“Not a damn thing,” Emilio returned the grin. “I like Giaimo this way and he’s seemed changed over the last few months. Steadier, more focused.”
The brothers shared a look across the long seat.
“It’s a woman!” They both blurted in unison. Laughter surged at Giaimo’s expense. Too soon, it seemed, Liam was straightening on the seat and knocking Emilio’s arm. He gestured toward the building.
“What time does that place close?” Liam asked.
“Less than two minutes. New customers are cutting it close.”
The brothers watched the men enter. Soon after, the YES WE’RE OPEN sign switched to SORRY WE’RE CLOSED.
“How many outfits like yours are in the area, Li?”
“Well, they don’t call it the garment district for nothing,” Liam noticed the cool look his brother shifted his way and understood. “You mean if they’re immigrant owned?”
“Si.”
“Only a few on that score, but nothing like mine,” there was no hint of pride only confirmation in Liam’s tone.
“And none trying to do what you’re attempting.”
Liam hiked a brow to Emilio’s words. “Which is?”
“Forgetting your place. Trying to move into the department stores and hospitals to get their attention.”
“Come on Em, that’s still a lot of trouble for them to go to to put me in my place, no?”
“You haven’t been here as long as we have, Li. These Americans will go to war over far less. Other immigrant owned businesses can attest to that.” Emilio waved a hand toward the storefront they observed. “A tailor, baker and piano instructor operated shops not far from here-immigrant owned. The instructor moved back to Bleecker Street just before you and Athena married. It’s what brought us to the area around that time. He moved when they found the baker’s shop in ruins- his family massacred. You may have seen a few sentences about it in those fancy papers you read.
