“I make the rules in this house, honey, especially in this bed.”

A shiver worked its way down her spine. I massaged her ass, enjoying the sight of her arousal.

She gripped my cock and sucked me sharply into her mouth, causing me to twitch up with a groan. As unexpectedly as she’d sucked me, she released me. “Tell me one thing,” she demanded softly before she sucked me deeply into her mouth again.

I squeezed her ass hard in warning. “Suck me. Don’t talk.” I drew her pussy lips into my mouth. Her moan vibrated against my balls before she sucked them into her mouth. “One thing.” She slipped her arm between our bodies. It brushed my chest then her fingers bumped against my chin. I pulled back to watch Giulia slide two fingers into herself. I almost came right then. Her tongue darted out, licking up my pre-cum.

“Quid pro quo.”

I chuckled then exhaled sharply as her teeth grazed the sensitive underside of my cock and her fingers kept pumping into her pussy.

“I used to play pool,” I growled. I was so desperate for her mouth, so desperate for her fingers to keep fucking that sweet pussy, I would have told her everything in that moment.

She threw a triumphant smile over her shoulder. I wouldn’t have it. I pressed my mouth against her pussy, my tongue fighting her fingers for dominance. She moaned loudly, which died when I pushed her mouth back down on my cock, my fingers tangling in her silky hair. I thrust up, deeper than before. She struggled to take me in but didn’t back down. Her fingers pumped into her pussy and my tongue teased them and her folds, her clit, every delicious inch I could reach. She started to spasm on top of me, moaning around my length. I kept thrusting into her mouth. I wanted to prolong this, but with her body coming apart on top of me, her fingers chasing her orgasm, her taste on my tongue, I couldn’t hold back.

I tightened, my fingers on her neck twitching and my thrusts becoming jerky as I came harder than ever before. The feel of her hot mouth around my cock as she tried to swallow was perfection. Giulia slumped down on top of me, her fingers becoming slack, and I, too, lay drained on the mattress, my heart speeding in my chest. After a moment, Giulia pulled away and coughed.

Fuck. I’d held her down when I’d come in her mouth. I hadn’t even asked if she was okay with it. I sat up slightly, but Giulia still only lay there with her cheek against my thigh, breathing hard. I brushed her hair to the side so I could see her face. Her eyes were closed, her cheeks red. “Are you all right?”

Her eyelids peeled open and the corner of her mouth drifted up. “Yeah, you?”

I stared at the girl on top of me, the woman, my wife, marveling at her strangeness. It wasn’t something I’d ever appreciated, and yet here I was, unable to resist her body and charm. I rubbed my thumb across her ruby lips. She nicked my skin with her teeth and gave me a coy look. “You need to teach me how to play pool.”

“I have a pool table in the cigar lounge.”

“Please don’t tell me you smoke cigars. My father and uncles do, and my grandfather did too. It’ll remind me of them if I smell it on you.”

That was the last thing I wanted—reminding my delicious young wife of the old creepy men in her family, and I was fairly sure she knew. It was a good thing I didn’t like cigars anyway. “If you don’t like the scent, I won’t smoke them.”

She narrowed her eyes then smiled. “Why do I get the feeling you never liked them to begin with?”

She pushed up and crawled back up to me, nestling against my chest, her cheek on my shoulder. “Will you teach me?”

“It won’t be the first thing I’m teaching you, so why not?” I said in a low, possessive voice.

She rolled her eyes. I wished I could say it annoyed me. “We could play a round now?”

“It’s late. I have an early day.”

“Come on. It’s not even eleven. Entertain your young wife.”

“All right,” I said to my own surprise. Giulia was playing the right cards, and she knew it, and yet I didn’t feel played by her. She wasn’t doing it to better me or for even less noble reasons, she was just… her quirky self. I knifed up, taking Giulia with me. She pressed a thankful kiss to my mouth and slipped out of bed, so full of energy it was admirable. It was hard to resist her enthusiasm. I swung out of bed and straightened, stifling a smirk at her appraisal. Giulia never tried to hide that she liked my body. I picked up my pajama bottoms from the floor and dragged them over my hips.

Giulia slipped into her nightgown and grabbed the baby monitor then rushed toward the door, holding out her hand. Shaking my head with a chuckle, I took her hand and let her drag me down. I couldn’t remember if I’d ever been this spontaneous. Maybe as a teenager, but that time seemed like a lifetime ago.

Giulia’s eyes widened when we entered the cigar lounge, which rarely functioned as that—only when my father or business acquaintances insisted on cigars. The faded smell of smoke lingered, but it wasn’t very prominent because Sybil always worked her magic with air freshener.

In the beginning, I’d occasionally played pool by myself or with Faro, but even that seemed like forever ago. Work had filled every waking second of my days recently as I tried to stop people from talking about Gaia by creating new incidents to talk about. But my brutality in the job hardly drew the necessary attention to take away from the gossip surrounding my wife’s death—it was old news after all.

Giulia took everything in. Apart from the four armchairs in front of the fireplace, there was a professional pool table. Giulia rushed over to the cues and took one. “Show me?”

Fuck yes. I’d suffered sleepless nights with less entertaining things than teaching Giulia how to play pool.

Giulia was bent over the table, trying to hit the eight ball. Her tongue was wedged between her lips in concentration. My chest was pressed up to her back. I’d sent most of the balls into their respective pockets and again, my hand guided Giulia’s as we sent the eight ball flying into its hole. Giulia grinned, twisted her face, and pressed an enthusiastic kiss to my lips.

Simona’s cry blared from the speakers, reminding me that our life couldn’t only be filled with nights of pool and sex. I straightened, the weight of my responsibilities returning to my shoulders and with it the worry that this wouldn’t last. Giulia snatched up the baby monitor, and we headed up to Simona’s room.

As usual, Simona’s cries escalated with every passing moment, and the longer she cried the harder it would be to calm her down. Giulia turned on the lights and walked into the bedroom, but I waited in the doorway, wanting to see how she fared.

Giulia leaned over the crib and lifted my daughter up, cradling her to her chest. I was always the one who took her out of bed when she cried.

Simona fell silent and was staring up at my young wife. I waited for the inevitable outburst, an even worse crying fit than before, but Simona only let out a small cry. “Shh. You’re the cutest little thing I’ve ever seen.” And then Giulia bent down and kissed my daughter’s left cheek then the right. “With the cutest chubby cheeks that I can imagine.”

My heart thudded in my chest, an uneven staccato I could feel in my ears. I couldn’t move. Simona reached for Giulia’s bangs and tugged, but my wife only laughed and blew out air, sending her hair flying up, causing Simona’s eyes to widen. Then she giggled.