She did know very well.
Sometimes, August wondered how Cara found any time for herself when she spent so much of it with everyone else. Then again, maybe that was where the woman found most of her happiness and peace. The family was something the Guzzis held in the highest of regards. No excuse, the effort would be made for blood. And even those who had been welcomed into their family through marriage, like August’s parents.
“So, when are you and Beni going to get on this train, anyway?” Ginevra asked, the question coming out of the blue without warning.
“What train?”
Ginevra grinned, showing off white teeth. “Kids. Babies.”
Oh, God.
There it is ...
The panic must have been written clearly on August’s face because her sister-in-law was quick to reach over and grab her knee overtop the denim skinny jeans she had pulled on that morning. Might as well wear them while she still could, right? Well, there were some cute maternity clothes that she could probably pull off.
“I was just kidding!” Ginevra said, her remorse tugging away at her smile. “I’m sorry. I know you guys are really focused on work, and you have so much going on. I didn’t mean—”
“I think I’m pregnant,” August blurted out.
There.
She said it.
It wasn’t the first time, though. She told her mom while sitting in the airport where she had grabbed her first pregnancy test. It wasn’t that she wanted to keep it a secret, but it was one of those things ... how exactly should she bring it up?
August didn’t know.
So, she just said it.
The responding silence from both women sitting on the bench on either side of her had August drawing in a long breath before she said, “So yeah, that’s a real thing right now.”
“You think?” Cara asked quietly, her tone kind and warm.
As it always was.
“I keep saying think,” August returned.
“But?”
That time, it was Ginevra encouraging her to keep going.
August’s cheeks pinked as nervous happiness split her lips with a smile. “Three positive pregnancy tests ... I probably shouldn’t be using think anymore, right?”
Ginevra’s laughter coated her next words. “Definitely not.”
On her other side, Cara reached over to envelop August in a one-armed hug that pulled her close and felt like love. “Is this a new thing? How long have you—”
“So new I haven’t even told Beni.”
Her mother-in-law’s embrace didn’t loosen up even a little bit. “Not even hinted?”
“I started to figure it out right as I was leaving for here. He was rushing, too. It just ... didn’t seem like the right time. And we’re both busy, you know? I never stop with my job, and he’s always going from one thing to the next with the Out—”
“Mmm,” Cara interjected, stopping August before she could blurt out the name of the criminal organization her husband joined. She was still learning how to be the mob wife she needed to be for Beni. Sometimes, it wasn’t easy. “That will keep a man on his feet and running for a long time. It doesn’t get easier, I’m afraid. They simply learn how to manage it better.”
August released a hard sigh. “At first I thought maybe this—a baby—would make things worse. We’re already stretched thin ... sometimes we’re spending weeks away from one another. But I’m so happy, too. Scared to death, but happy.”
Cara hugged her tighter.
August really needed that.
Even Ginevra joined in, their laughter coloring up the park and ripping away all of August’s worries. For the moment, anyway.
“It’ll be great,” Cara assured.
“It will,” Ginevra agreed.
Yeah.
A part of August knew that was true. Of course, she did. How could it not be wonderful and perfect? A child made from love with the man of her dreams?
Now, she just had to tell him.
But how?
And when?
34.
Beni
Two weeks later ...
THE gun run took longer than anyone expected. A common hazard of their business, unfortunately. Beni wasn’t even able to get word to his wife that he would be gone for a week longer than he originally said because once the run started, everyone’s phones were confiscated in place of safe devices that couldn’t be traced back to anyone working with smugglers. By the time he had been able to contact his wife, Beni was almost home.
Not that August seemed to mind.
Reason number one hundred why he adored his wife beyond measure.
Despite her anger, before he left because he hadn’t been able to keep his promise about the New York trip, that had all seemed to go away the second he stepped inside their Melrose home. In fact, he barely remembered anything between the front door and where they found themselves in a sweaty, tangled, breathless mess on the couch.
Shit.
They hadn’t even closed the blinds.
Yet, Beni couldn’t find it in himself to care as he had the best view of his wife on top of him, her brown skin damp with sweat, and those dark eyes of hers locked on his stare while she rode him to heaven. Total fucking bliss. Every swivel of her hips tested his control. Each time she lifted on his cock and slammed right back down had air rushing out of his lungs before he sucked it right back in like it might be his last breath.
“Fuck, you look ... look at you,” he groaned.
August had a way about her when she was fucking him. It was in the way the corner of her lip lifted; a daring smirk that said I know without ever actually saying a word. It was how she would bite her lip, show her teeth, and tease him with nothing more than a look. She loved being on top. Craved control. He swore it was because she liked to make him lose his whenever she had the chance to do so.
She got off on it.
He kind of liked that.
His wife was perfect.
Sexy as fuck.
And he was the lucky asshole to have her.
Beni knew, trust that.
As the telltale tremors started to work their way over his wife’s shoulders and down her spine, Beni knew she was close to coming again. Oh, this wasn’t their first round. Hell, it wasn’t even the second. It sure as fuck wasn’t going to be the last, either. Not if he had any say about it.
Which was why when he knew she was going to come again, and quick, he lifted his back up from the couch, grabbed that tiny waist of hers, and pushed her down to the cushions. Her low whimper—he knew that meant her orgasm had been taken away—had him chuckling.
Pulling his cock from her sopping pussy, he was able to turn her around on the couch so that she was bent over the arm. With his hands tight to her ass, spreading the plump roundness wide, so she could really feel him stretch her wide, he had to hold himself back from pounding into her all over again.
Instead, he was down on all fours.
Face between her thighs.
Eating every inch of her.
He loved the way she whined.
How she moaned.
And shook.
Every flick of his tongue against her most sensitive areas had August backing into him for even more. There wasn’t an ounce of shame in his woman when she was getting what she wanted from him, and he loved that, too.
Pinching her clit lightly while his tongue teased the spot between her slit and her ass, he murmured, “Are you gonna come for me, babe? Give me that honey?”